ABOUT ME
I am Alexis Oyebade, the founder of Ijaada Institute. At Ijaada Institute we don’t just concentrate on learning some basics of Arabic using outdated traditional methods but rather we focus on mastering Arabic using modern teaching methodologies. Our goal is to enable others to understand Arabic in its language using techniques that we KNOW are highly effective.
Because many courses out there are producing minimal results we had to do things differently. We had to produce a course that is not only enjoyable and easy to follow but also produces the results that our students desire. How did we do that? We incorporated modern teaching methodologies taken from the world of linguistics and applied them to the Arabic teaching classroom. We have taken almost a decade's worth of teaching experience and applied it to this course.
We are here to help remove ignorance once and for all!
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step
After becoming Muslim I knew that I had to learn Arabic if I really wanted to have a strong connection to the Quran. I locked myself away in my flat in the UK and began working at achieving my goals. Allah blessed me with the ability to learn this language and my whole life has changed due to it. This is why I want to give back and help others to fulfill their dreams.
GET TO KNOW THE FOUNDER OF IJAADA INSTITUTE
After living a life of heedlessness, Alexis Oyebade (Abdur-Rahman) embraced Islam in 2007 at the age of 19. Shortly after leaving off a promising music career and perfoming on shows such a BBC 1xtra, he began (at the age of 21) to adhere to Islam. At this point, he knew that he would not be able to fully practice the religion unless he built a strong connection with the Quran. The only obstacle that was preventing him from achieving this was the language barrier. This is due to the fact that the Quran is written in Arabic and that translations of the Quran have many limitations.
Start of his Arabic Journey
He then made it his mission to master the Arabic language. He decided to lock himself away from distractions in his UK flat and within one year he had finished all 3 of the Madinah books which are taught in the Islamic University in AlMadinah, Saudi Arabia. He then went on to spend countless hours in research, practice and language exchange being mesmerized by the unique language system of Arabic. By this time, he had unknowingly built his own curriculum to help him master the Arabic language.
Studying in two universities at the same time
Thereafter, he went on to study a masters degree in English Language Teaching (ELT). Just before he reached the dissertation stage of the Masters he, by surprise, was accepted into Umm al-Qura university. Alexis, without any hesitation, seized the opportunity and flew over to Saudi Arabia to start his studies there in 2013. At that point he was studying at two universities at the same time! All praise to Allah, in the summer of 2013, he passed the first semester at Umm alQura in flying colours and shortly after he handed in his dissertation to later receive his Masters certificate.
Post Masters
Alexis continued pursuing Islamic and Arabic studies and has now spent almost a decade in Saudi Arabia studying. Likewise, he has valuable teaching experience as he has taught English simultaneously in various contexts, having extensive knowledge in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theories, teaching methodologies, the role of language learning strategies in second/additional languages, applied linguistics and more. Furthermore, he has obtained other teaching qualifications such as TEFL and CELTA.
The Uniqueness of Alexis as an Arabic teacher
What differentiates Alexis from other Arabic teachers is that he has utilised all his teaching knowledge and experience to create a holistic Arabic course. He commonly says “there is a difference between knowing a language and knowing how to teach it!”, stating that “many teachers do not actually know how to teach Arabic due to them never learning the correct teaching strategies and methodologies; I plan to put an end to this!”
What motivates Alexis to teach Arabic
Alexis expresses that "I really want to overturn some rocks for others to look under. I feel that I am obliged to give back to my community. Allah blessed me with this knowledge and it is upon me to transmit it to others. It saddens me when I come back to the UK and the majority of the muslims stand in prayer and can’t understand a single word being recited. I have to play my role to make a change to this. InshaaAllah we can remove this ignorance together!"