Brief of Mr. Kamal’s Career
A question I’ve been asked by the “thetutor.me” through a long interview that is lasted for almost an hour, where here I summarize parts of the interview in by the end of the article I will share the link for the whole interview:
Mr. Kamal, would you please tell us a bit about your professional journey and how you decided to become an Arabic tutor.
My major was Arabic and Islamic studies in English. From there, I started teaching Arabic & Islamic classes in 2018. I started teaching students back home, in Egypt. But, afterward, I found out that there is a way – online tutoring - where I could reach international students from all over the world, teaching and having more opportunities with Arabs and non-Arabic speakers, Muslims and non-Muslims, who are second and third-generation students living in non-speaking countries, such as the States or European countries, who are from Arabic families but don’t speak Arabic.
After I started contacting parents, I found out there is a lot of demand from their end for teaching their children how to speak or at least read Arabic, to write simple sentences, to write their names, things that are part of their identity. There are always differed needs for each student and their families. Some families are more interested to get their children to learn how to only speak Arabic, while others want to focus on both speaking and writing. Some families ask for the inclusion of Arabic grammar and literature in lessons, too. And, some would love to have a teacher as a family friend, someone to be always an Arabic reference for their original identity.
I joined some online teaching companies for a year to obtain more experience in how to run online classes, such as time management, selecting suitable material, how disciplining the students, how entertaining them, etc. Then I formed an online institute myself with the aid of some other teachers / former professors. I created a profile, added all my experience to it, and started sharing it with my network, asking them if they can recommend ideas for improvement. Since that moment, different families from different countries, especially from the UAE, started contacting me.
The majority of my students are actually not Arabs. They could be Muslims from non-Muslim countries, Arab Christian students who are interested in learning Arabic as they are living abroad in a non-Arabic speaking country, or students who are neither Muslim nor Arab but just want to learn Arabic and are curious to know about the culture.
