Recommendations About Heba W. Mussad
Embassy of France in the United Kingdom
I strongly recommend Arabic Tutor Online. Heba Mussad tailored a unique programme to help me sit the Arabic exam for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, matching skills required with objectives and adapting the programme along the way, both in terms of my progress and my work constraints. Lessons were based on a combination of books, institute material, media and conversation. Heba is kind, understanding, rigorous, challenging and attentive, which are precisely what one needs when embarking on a journey to learn a fascinating but difficult language.
I am a fourth-year undergraduate, studying Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. As part of my degree course, there is a mandatory year abroad, which I elected to spend in Cairo, Egypt. During my time there, I attended ILI for a period of four months to work on both Modern Standard Arabic and Colloquial Egyptian. I was lucky enough to have Heba as my language teacher. Thanks to her, I was able to gain confidence in my ability, improve my understanding of fundamental grammatical structures, and attain a much higher level of Arabic than I thought possible. Heba is a rigorous and ambitious teacher, who does not let you lose faith in yourself. As many Arabic students might agree, Arabic is not an easy language to learn – it is tough. Heba’s focus, attention to detail, and passion for her students were invaluable in helping me with my studies. In fact, as a class, we called Heba ‘al-Malika’ (the Queen), because she was just that fantastic. She has a comprehensive understanding of the most nuanced grammatical questions; meaning she will never leave you confused. I have returned to Cambridge this year with the confidence I lacked before going to Cairo, and much of that is because of Heba. I would thoroughly recommend her teaching to any student of Arabic at any level.
Heba has been my teacher since October 2021. She was also one of my Arabic teachers back in 2016 when I was in Egypt as part of my study abroad programme. Heba is a very patient teacher who accommodates everybody’s learning needs. Heba responded positively when I told her that I am autistic. My information processing tends to be slow, but Heba gives me all the time I need. Heba is a fantastic teacher who has given back my confidence. Her way of teaching has led to improvement in my Arabic writing, speaking and reading skills. Thanks to Heba I feel more confident reading an Arabic newspaper and discussing more complex issues. I can really recommend Heba as she brings out the best in every student. She will always be there to help you when you are struggling and will motivate you to keep going. Despite being autistic it is still possible to learn a difficult language like Arabic. I am truly thankful for Heba’s support, time and understanding. She is definitely open-minded and understanding towards people with a disability. Communication with Heba through WhatsApp and email is always good. She responds very quickly to my emails and WhatsApp messages. The communication with the administration team is also very good. They are quick with emailing the invoice and sending a confirmation once the invoice has been paid. The administration team is always very helpful if there is an issue.
Bram van der Zwan, Holand
Teacher of Arabic at the University of Groningen and arabix.nl, The Netherlands
With Heba Mussad’s online lessons I managed to improve my Egyptian Arabic even when I was not in Egypt. She used a great variety of online and audiovisual activities and gave me very helpful feedback on my spoken Arabic. Thus she helped me reach a level at which I could talk with native speakers about almost every subject in Arabic.
Alicia Lie
Hong Kong
Heba is a very attentive teacher and my Arabic improved with her lessons. I also enjoyed our discussions on different aspects of Egypt because she is knowledgeable and insightful about many issues.