Native Speaker Experienced Tutor of Arabic (MSA & Colloquial) with MA offering classes in London and SE England

Basel's CV

Basel HAFEZ


PERSONAL DETAILS
Address Flat Date and Place of birth: Damascus 11 August 1976

E-mail: basel
Telephone: 074

EDUCATION
2018 TAFL (Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language) intensive course at Sharek Centre,
London WC1

2002-2004 SOAS (School of Oriental & African Studies), University of London
Granted in Nov 04 MA Arabic/English Applied Linguistics & Translation
Subjects covered:
Arabic/English practical translation English general linguistics
Arabic/English comparative linguistics Theory of translation

2001-2002 Faculty of Letters, University of Damascus
Diploma in Arabic/English Translation

1995-2001 Faculty of Letters, University of Damascus
2001 BA in English Language and Literature
Subjects covered: Arabic/English translation, English linguistics, German
as a second European language, and different literary subjects.

1994-1995 National High School of Damascus
1995 General Secondary Study Diploma ‘Literary Stream’
English (A), Arabic (A), Social Sciences (A)


WORK EXPERIENCE

Legal Interpreter of Arabic working for HMCTS and Thames Valley Police November 2015 – to date

Part Time Tutor of Arabic at (RIM) Research in Motion, Slough September 2014 – July 2017
Teaching Egyptian Colloquial to staff

Full time Linguist of Arabic at the UK Defence Academy, Shrivenham March 2014 – August 2014
Teaching MSA as well as Colloquial Arabic to army personnel

Freelance Tutor of Arabic (MSA & Colloquial Arabic) at FCO, MoD, Londo February 2006 – March 2014

Freelance Linguist of Arabic at (MSA & Levantine) at GCHQ, Cheltenham December 2005 – November 2010

Freelance Linguist of Arabic at SOCA, London (Serious Organised Crime Agency) February 2004- March 2006
Freelance Linguist of Arabic at the Indian and Belgian embassies in Damascus June 1998 – May 2002

Translator and Interpreter working for the Syrian National Council for Disability Affairs
June 1997 – August 2002

Voluntary tutor of Linguistics for English Dept. BA students, University of Damascus Jan 1997 - Jan 2001
Delivering unpaid supporting tutorials to classmates on different courses, especially linguistics, over intervals preceding exams.

ACADEMIC AWARDS AND GRANTS

- July 2002, Winner of the MBI Programme Grant awarded to Top Graduates from the Arab World. The grant I won included full coverage of MA studies at SOAS, University of London.

-April 2002, Winner of Martyr Basel Hafez Al-Assad Award for the Superior Graduate, granted by the Syrian Government to top university graduates. The grant included a financial prize of one thousand US dollars. I received the award for being the top graduate of the English Department, University of Damascus 2001-2002, a significant achievement in a highly competitive environment. The University of Damascus was, at the time, the sole university in Damascus city, in which English Department receives over 4000 new entrants annually.

-August 1995, Winner of Top Student Award granted by my high school for being the student with the highest average in the General Secondary Study Diploma exams, and one of the top ten students on the level of Damascus governorate where hundreds of thousands of students sit the exams every year.

























Dear Sir/ Madam

I believe that having me as a member of the teaching pool at any academic institution will constitute an added asset to that institution. This is primarily due to my year-long experience of working as an Arabic linguist who had the opportunity to work at quite prestigious places including top UK government agencies. To be precise, I would say that my two most distinctive points of excellence are the following.

My work as a legal interpreter within the UK courts and tribunals service gave me the chance to be exposed to a wide range of Arabic dialects which enhanced skills I already possessed namely: my ability to efficiently teach a variety of dialects to non-native learners of Arabic – I can confidently teach Egyptian, Iraqi and Gulf dialects in addition to my native Levantine dialect. I have put these expertise in practice in my career especially when I taught British army personnel and FCO staff who are normally require to use colloquial Arabic in the course of their work. If the Arabic teacher position at King’s College requires teaching colloquial Arabic – or perhaps this might be an option you may consider including in your curriculum in the future – then I can perfectly fulfil this role.

My choice of studying linguistics and subsequently working as a linguist stemmed from an aptitude for learning grammar, syntax and semantics in particular. This aptitude, or passion if I may refer to it as such, has to do with certain psychological and behavioural qualities I have such as being precise, meticulous and pedantic. Thus, I consider myself to be very successful at delivering Arabic syntax to learners. I am a competent teacher who can explain Arabic grammar to my students with ease and smoothness mainly through providing examples from English syntax no matter how basic their knowledge of English grammar can be.