British Arabic teaching before 1960 ignored spoken language entirely

Evidence

James Craig, who was a lecturer in Durham in the 1940s and 1950s before going on eventually to become Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, remarked that, ‘In those days Arabic in England was taught exactly like Latin and Greek and at the end of my studies, though I had read a great deal of pre-Islamic poetry and knew all about the jussive mood, I was quite unable to say “good morning” in Arabic.’ — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 427

Categorization

• CANDY: A witty anecdote: a future ambassador to Saudi Arabia couldn’t say ‘good morning’ in Arabic after years of philological study.
• SHARE: Good for anyone who teaches or studies living languages vs. classical.

Related

• Eighteenth-century French Arabic instruction read classics but ignored spoken language (similarity 0.82)
• Orientalist scholars often spoke Arabic too classically for ordinary Arabs (similarity 0.80)
• Classical Arabic alone is nearly useless for everyday conversation in the Arab world. (similarity 0.78)