There are several issues I'd like you to start discussing now that we will pick up in class in regard to these short stories.

First of all, how would you evaluate these short stories in terms of what Hayan said in class about writing fiction/prose and what Lisa Majaj recommended in "New Directions"?

With "Arabic Lessons," what do you make of Uncle Joe and Cousin Nour as foils for each other? What, besides Arabic itself, is the lesson that the narrator Eli and his sister learn from Nour?

How do these two short stories portray adolescence? Since adolescence is a transient state of being, the time of becoming an adult, how do these characters, Eli and Lugman, undergo their transformations? How do their cultures (Arab and American, Maronite and Muslim) play similar or different roles in that transformation?

Think about your own (recent) adolescence. Share an experience like Eli's or Lugman's where becoming aware of those around you helped initiate or assist your transformation into an adult.