The Community School is breaking new ground in the teaching of foreign languages in Idaho.
Veronique Forgeat, French and Spanish instructor of 10 years, plans to offer the first Arabic course available to juniors and seniors in the Gem State, the Sun Valley private school announced this week.
“I decided to offer Arabic at TCS because I thought the students would be interested in learning a radically different language,” she said. “Moreover, there is so much misunderstanding when it comes to the Arab world that I wanted to offer my students the opportunity to know more about Arab language and culture.”
Forgeat began studying Arabic three years ago. She first attended the Institute of International Studies in California in 2005. She then went to Morocco in the summer of 2006. This past summer, she went to Cairo, Egypt, for more intensive language training.
This fall, Arabic is offered as a core course. Community School students must take either Spanish or French to meet their graduation requirements, but once the requirements have been met, they can choose to learn Arabic. The class is open for 11th- and 12th-graders only.
This year’s students are Charlotte Anderson, Paul Davis, Sean Dumke, Sam Farnham, Bronwen Raff, Torin Tucker, Lucas Vorsteveld and Hailey Zanes.
