In parallel with my artistic learning and even at the origin of this learning for Arabic, I undertook to develop my language skills. The objective was often at first simply to communicate with my environment, but little by little, another necessity appeared : to go further into calligraphy, I needed to have a linguistic knowledge that goes beyond the deciphering of signs. Understanding words and their entanglement required learning the language, or rather languages...
PARIS
The Arabic language, or rather the Arabic languages, as the crucible of my desire to calligraphy : my studies at Inalco
After a few years of traveling in Arab countries, I wanted to make this language my own, a cultural and human passport to some twenty countries. In 2005, I registered at Langues'O (the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations, INALCO) where I learned the grammar, literature, history and geography of the Arab-Muslim world. I am also working on a dialect and my choice was Egyptian.
ISTANBUL
Anıl Şen
From Arabic to Turkish, the transition is made during an expatriation in a beautiful city. The transition to Ottoman is almost natural.
We leave with our family for Istanbul in 2014, even though I don't speak a word of Turkish. When I arrived there, I quickly became aware that the vast majority of Turks speak only Turkish. The conclusion is obvious : I start to learn the Turkish language, intensely. I work with several teachers from the Dilmer Institute. Among them, Esra particularly marks me by the pedagogical quality of her teaching.
Among my trainers at the Dilmer Institute is a young professor, a doctoral student in modern Turkish literature. He has a very good command of the Ottoman language and I venture to ask him to teach it to me.
PARIS
Back in the city of culture, I go back to the INALCO classrooms, this time with a new objective : to learn the Persian language.
The return from Istanbul is difficult and I feel that I need another project to move forward. Now that I have a fairly good knowledge of Arabic and Turkish, I only need one language to access the main cultural works of the Middle East. So in 2018, I'll enroll in Persian language license and return with great pleasure to Langues'O, to the conquest of Persian. Several teachers teach in Persian, but Mahmoud Sharifi stands out for his enthusiasm and his involvement with the students.