Bonjour, Dr. Oukada

Department of Modern Foreign Languages welcomes new chair

Georgia College welcomed a new member to its staff this Fall. Larbi Oukada has come to Georgia College to serve the Department of Modern Languages as the department chair.
Oukada is from Casablanca, Morocco, and years ago came to the United States on a college track scholarship.
Not only is Oukada an Olympic athlete, running on Morocco’s track team in 1960, but also he is fluent in English, French and Arabic and even co-wrote one of the most used French textbooks, “Entre Amis,” that is utilized in schools like Harvard and Princeton.
Dani Arciniegas, undecided major,  says she is glad to have Oukada as a part of this university. “He is really nice guy, he’s hard working, and I am glad he is a part of this department and university now,” Arciniegas said.
Oukada has found that the biggest cultural difference to adjust to is “that America is a wonderful place for professional growth if somebody wants to study,” but he wishes there were more time to visit with one another leisurely like he did in Morocco or France.
Oukada has led an exceptional life, excelling in many things, his professional life included. Before coming to GC, he taught at Indiana University, but he really wanted to travel and see different places in the United States.
Oukada is very happy with his decision to join the university.
“It really is a big family and everything operates in a very friendly and collaborative spirit. There’s really a sense of humanity that highly competitive schools are losing, and it was incredibly charming for me, not to mention the quality of the students,” Oukada said.
Furthering Oukada’s professional history, he was given the opportunity of being taught by the father of modern linguistics, Noam Chomsky.
One summer there was an opportunity for him to take a special course with very well known scholars, and he was lucky enough to be a part of one of Chomsky’s  courses. He said that Chomsky was, “incredibly fascinating and the experience was very inspirational.”
Today, Oukada works as the department chair for modern languages and cultures, and has so far enjoyed his time here.
“My job is to chart a vision for the department to plan for a better future and I am grateful for a wonderful group of colleagues that have welcomed me, and together we look forward to furthering excellence in teaching languages and cultures here,” Oukada said.
Oukada is not restricted to just one language or teaching just one language. He said it is all about “teaching languages efficiently, it is the pedagogy and methodology of teaching languages.”

Posted by Marilyn Ferrell on Sep 15 2011. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.