Diplomatic World nummer 54

“THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I SEE
MY CHILDREN SO HAPPY AFTER
THEIR ARABIC LESSONS…”
(MOROCCAN MOTHER)
“ARABIC LANGUAGE COURSES, A TOOL FOR BETTER INTEGRATION
IN THE BRUSSELS URBAN COMMUNITY”
Jan Cornelis, Cultural Attaché CIDIC, Professor Emeritus at VUB (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
I met Sami Azar for the first time on March 18th 2016.
At that time, I was Vice-Rector, International Policy,
at VUB and Sami, a Syrian refugee, responded to a
vacancy announcement at VUB.
The profile for the vacancy was “administrative
support of the International Relations and
Mobility Office — IRMO”.
During the interview, my interest was immediately raised
when Sami Azar mentioned that — as a non-religious Syrian
— he had founded his own private school which he had
served as the director.
Sami (2017): “I remember the interview for the VUB
vacancy very well. I was talking about refugees and how
I could help them, but Jan started asking me about my
school in Syria. I went back in my memory … to my
school and my students and I linked the answers to all the
interview questions to this nice experience.”
Sami (2017): “I was very honest but I felt myself sinking,
and I could not say any word without mentioning my
school”. Although Sami made every error you can make in
a job interview, it was his passion for his school that saved
him. He got the job and after a short period of supporting
the events organized by IRMO, Jacqueline gave up on her
administrative support, and the team started a marvelous
adventure, coordinated by Sami Azar: “Arabic language
classes for children aged 6 to 15, in neighbourhoods in
Brussels with high concentrations of Arab populations, and
decoupled from mosques and religion”.
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I remember that Jacqueline Couder (Director of IRMO)
brought us back to reality. Jacqueline (2016): “It’s good
that you told us about yourself, your skills and your school,
but you did not tell us how you would manage the job to
meet the vacancy profile”. Sami took the printed version of
the vacancy’s profile and started reading, very slowly: … to
welcome people … to organize events … to support language
round tables and open up VUB to Southern Mediterranean
countries … Sami Azar: “As a school director, I had to
welcome the parents … at my school, I organized parties for
my students … language tables yes, but like in my school in
Modern Standard Arabic .”
Universities are increasingly embedded in societal
innovation, knowledge transfer and community services
and they are ideal places for out-of-the-box thinking. Which
other type of organization would consider Arabic language
courses as a primary tool for better integration in Brussels?
Jacqueline Couder: “Children learn French, English and
Dutch at School, and parents are sending them to the
mosques to learn Arabic. We consider our Arabic language
offer as a tool for cultural identity building, accelerating
integration, counteracting risks of radicalization, fostering
critical thinking, providing employment for refugee teachers,
and serving as part of an urban living lab supporting our