Western Kentucky University / S / Oliver Scharbrodt

Dr. Scharbrodt is a very interesting teacher. He is a German born, english accented, America dwelling professor of Arabic. He is also one of the most enjoyable teachers I have ever taken. His classes are mostly done with lecture and notes on how to say different words in Arabic, with a beginning focus on learning the different letters and their sounds, and including introducing yourself, locations, Arab countries, and common items you might find in a class or around a college campus. It is sometimes a little difficult to distinguish the sounds that Dr. Scharbrodt is saying because of his accent, but this is a slight problem. He has weekly quizzes that consist of things you learned the previous week and is made up of such things as dication (he says a letter or word and you write it down in Arabic), translation into and from Arabic, and filling in the blank. Sorry, no multiple choice. The MidTerm and the Final are just like the quizzes, only longer, and they are very doable if you study. The textbook is very helpful but not absolutely required if you will take good notes. ONE WARNING: This is a VERY difficult language to learn because it is very different from English, but Dr. Scarbrodt is an excellent instructor and if you take his notes and practice what you've learned it's not that bad. Overall, this is an excellent class, with a very good teacher for an elegant and what is becoming and ever-more useful language.

This is an extremely difficult class. All your grades are essays and he grades them very tough. I didn't see one person get an A the entire year. I would not recommend this class unless you are looking for a REALLY big challenge and are okay with the highest grade you get is a B. The class is boring and the notes do not really help you out with the essays. Try to take another teacher or another class if you can!

Dr. Scharbrodt is of German descent who learned English from England, so he has a bit of an accent, and can be a little difficult to understand, but is nonetheless entertaining. The course grade consists of 3 quizzes, a cumulative final, and a research paper. The quizzes consist of 2-3 essay questions each and he was a seemingly hard grader on them, because I failed all of them.

HOWEVER, no need to fret because he provides all the students the opportunity to replace these quiz grades with a one-page summary paper on any of the handouts he gives you in class. I went from an F to an A in no time. I personally think he grades tough on the quizzes to force students to write the one-page reviews in order to learn more.

I like that he doesn't use the book much, because I'm the type who never buys the books for the class just to see if I can skate by, so any teacher who doesn't use the book is my friend. If you are interested in Middle Eastern studies and can figure out his system, I encourage you to take him.

I had him for Rel 362 and my fiance had him for Rel 102 and we both ended up withdrawing. There are 4 "quizzes" which have two essays each on them but you might as well call them tests because those are the only grades in the class besides some paper which I never started since I withdrew.

It's not just the accent that is difficult to understand, but he teaches like everybody already knows what he's talking about! I was lost 80% of the time I was in the class. He's a nice guy and he's really smart but I don't think he knows how to teach the material he knows so well!

Oh yeah, and I bought both books on the syllabus but he never once taught from them so they were completely useless. Instead, I guess he decided it was better to kill a couple of forests and he printed off 10 page packets for us to read every week as reading assignments.