Al Minbar Institute

About the Al Minbar
I was the only student in the class. My teacher, Zakariyae el Mellouki, is an experienced teacher. He taught me in an effective and measured way. He would repeat the difficult points. He is very considerate of my understanding and my background. He is keen to the comparison between Arabic and the language I know. To some points he is not familiar with, he did the research and gave me supplementary materials the following day. He also gave me detailed information and useful suggestions regarding my activity for each afternoon and my two weekends. I have visited, according to his suggestions, many cultural institutions, such as museum of history, Villa des Arts, museum of modern art, the museum of telecommunication, the money museum, the national library, the university in Rabat, and other cities like Fez and Marakech. All these activities have contributed to my understanding of the unique culture of the Moroccan people. He has the professional passion as a teacher.
The school and the family stay, both have very good location. I can walk or take TRAM directly to the school. The family is very friendly and helpful. I asked the lady if I could use the wash machine, she simply asked me to put my clothes in a basket. When I came back from the school, my clothes were already on my bed, cleaned and dried. Her son used his own time to be my tutor of the language. He speaks perfect French.
The school arranged a pickup for me from the Railway Station Agdal to the family. The pickup person came on time, the staff member Imane who arranged the pickup, called me to make sure the success. That was on Sunday.
I did not attend the events organized by the school such as organized group travel, cooking and painting. But the staff member Khawila did help me to arrange my own trips for my first and my second weekend. She did good research and booked excellent hotel in Fez and Riad in Marakech, in terms of price, location and service. She also gave me travel information regarding how to get there from Railway station.
When leaving Al Minbar, I told my teacher and staff members there: at my age this must be one of the last schools I would visit in my life, but this is definitely one of the best schools I have ever visited in my life and my teacher Zakariyae is definitely one of the best teachers I have ever met in my life. He has the passion. He has tried his best to give me a solid foundation of the language learning. He has also suggested to me to give me further support via online. His support and encouragement will be a perpetual motivation for me to continue my study of the Arabic language, so difficult, yet so beautiful.

The school is very well organised although at times there are not enough schoolrooms. It is located in the city center. The teachers are competent and motivated.

I did a one-week intensive course at Al Minbar with very little knowledge of MSA. The classes were organized to meet my schedule restrictions after a last-minute booking. I stayed with a very nice host family in a beautiful home in the old Medina, and the homestay was deliciously complete with breakfast and dinner every day. The course was taught by Wassima, a super friendly and competent teacher who helped me esse into the language and the culture even in this limited time frame. Classes were fun and interactive, yet very informative and intense. The school itself is a 15-minute walk from the family home, smack in the center of Rabat. The weather was perfect so we could be outside on the terrace, drinking tea while learning. A cooking class with a tajine dinner was also included in the package, it was an immersive and entertaining experience. I would highly recommend taking a course with Al Minbar, you will definitely enjoy and grow from it!