DECATUR - To eyes accustomed to American writing, Arabic looks like an impossible-to-break secret code.

In the Arabic class at Richland Community College, Dr. Ahmad Ahmad is teaching students how to understand that code.

"By the end of this course," Ahmad told his students, "you should be able to read signs in Arabic and a menu in an Arabic restaurant."

Arabic is being offered for the first time at Richland this semester. Lily Siu, dean of humanities at Richland, said she looked for someone to teach the class for two years before she found Ahmad.

"I even sat in the back room of an ethnic grocery store in Champaign, sipping tea, spouting 'salamu alaykum'.;(peace be with you) and recruiting faculty," she said.

Philip Finn is taking the class as part of a general studies course and because languages fascinate him.

"I needed a change of pace from what I'd already been doing in the classes here," Finn said. "I've already studied several languages and done some traveling, and I'm always game for one more."

A nation's language is one of the keys to understanding and connecting with the people who speak it, Finn said, even if he never becomes fluent, because he believes language is history and culture, as well as communication.

"When you talk to them, you're also talking to their grandfather," he said. "It's more than making change or reading a menu."

Ahmad, an internist born in Jordan, said communicating in someone's native tongue, even imperfectly, is a way to bridge the cultural gap.

"When I know that you speak my language, I feel closer, and I think we have a warmer relationship with each other," he said.

If someone can say only a few phrases, but is willing to try, it makes a big difference in forming relationships, he said. Arabic is one of the hardest languages to learn, and he's teaching his students conversational Arabic, without undue emphasis on grammar. Arabic grammar rules confound even native speakers, and he'd rather give his students a working knowledge of speaking and writing skills.

Student Erica Braden said she's fascinated by Arabic culture and music and learning something of the language was a logical next step, as well as a way to bridge the misunderstandings between American and Arab cultures.

"If I can communicate, I have a better chance of explaining myself," she said, "and I can be an instrument of peace between the two (cultures). I respect the culture, I love it and I think it's beautiful and it's very misunderstood."

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