Language Institute Overview

AMEI Language Institute’s Mission:

AMEI commits itself to ensuring that students gain personal contact with the people of the Middle East, so as to gain first-hand knowledge of the insights, cultural patrimony and ethnic richness that each nation has to offer to the world family. To accomplish these goals, AMEI offers the following:

1) A “Buddy System”: From the first day our American students will live and study with Omani native speakers of Arabic.  Sharing a living space and traveling together to exciting new places and activites opens to a level of cultural contact not possible otherwise professionals their age so as to see and explore the country through the eyes and heart of those who live there.

2) Arabic Immersion: Intensive language courses drill into the students the working essential of speaking Arabic in a way that makes sense to native English speakers.  This rapid progress requires ambition, but yields impressive results year after year.  The students’ role play in scripted and impromptu scenarios.  Once they have mastered the basics in the classroom, they will then have to apply it in the best language labs: the streets and coffee shops.

3) Cultural Education: Absorb culture through outings to all the major religious and cultural sites in Moscat, Salalah, and al-Sharqiyya where students will camp in the deserts with Bedouins and experience traditional Islamic folk music, henna painting, camel rides, and master the dunes in SUV’s and snowboards.  In addition, AMEI offers a concise and comprehensive cultural studies course, which includes outlines of Islamic religion and history, a guide to modern political developments.

4) Service: In order to gain greater awareness of the personal impact of global issues, AMEI participates in programs designed to reach out to orphans, refugees, and those working to build awareness about the impact of global conflicts, economic and environmental issues.

Is AMEI for ME?

This is a unique experience. Most programs keep to homogenous groups, and consequently the students primarily socialize with other foreigners. Instead, AMEI has designed a program for Americans,to experience the ordinary life of each country with those raised in it – many of whom do not even speak English! It is possible thanks to respectful codes of dress, conduct and movement in order to ensure the students’ safety and successful interaction with their new cultural setting. Once the students understand the new system and language, they will be expected to explore and plan outings on their own. This approach requires students who are highly motivated to learn, disciplined, capable of following rules as well as daring enough to break new ground when the opportunity presents itself. In line with the service element of the program, students who show greater self-motivation in contributing to society here in the United States will feel more at home with the projects they will discover in a new country.