I just arrived in Amman, Jordan and I thought I would polish up my Arabic with some one to one tutoring. I asked the concierge of my hotel for a recommendation. At first he said he didn’t know of anyone but mentioned there were some nearby schools. Then like an after thought he smiled and said “Ah yes, I have a friend who teaches English and Arabic”. He arranged the whole thing and by the evening I had an Arabic teacher waiting for me in the lobby.
Mr. Asim was most peculiar . . .
He spoke very slowly and loudly in an extremely animated manner raising his eyebrows and moving his hands around. He said to me as he pulled on his ears “A good student must listen” ….“A good student must be a good imitator”. Then he stuck out his tongue and said “A good student must pronounce like I do”
Wow what a piece of work this guy! I couldn’t stop giggling, but he just carried on. Out of the blue he said “ I bet I’m the oldest teacher you’ve ever had” to which I replied politely “oh no…” but he insisted and said “I’m 67 years old!” to which I replied “Oh, well you look great!” and then he said the unexpected “Oh its because I like my wife” “if you decide to take lessons with me I will give you advice about how to be a good wife, all in Arabic off course!”
Well he was funny and seemed harmless enough so I decided I would give him the chance. So I asked him how much he charged for the lessons. He replied, “ oh, I don’t like this question! You can pay me as much as you can!!” We talked some more and then he randomly said in Arabic “I love milk”, I repeated “I love milk” and he repeated, “I love milk” and then asked me “do you know what I mean?” I just had a blank look because honestly I had no idea where he was going with this. He finally blurted out “I love milk, every time we meet for the lesson, please bring me a glass of milk”
ask him what type of milk , soja , skim milk , lactose free , in arabic of course !
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