Our Story
Meet Our Founder
Mrs. Basmah K. Abrahem
Mrs. Abrahem is the founder and CEO of TAA-A. From a young age, she travelled around a lot with her family, and learned to speak and understand different dialects of Arabic. She always had the dream to travel around the world and to speak different languages. While living in Baghdad, she learned English, French, and her native language, Arabic. As a mother of three kids who were born in the US, she has the passion to see her kids and others speak multiple languages and connect with others’ cultures. Learning a language connects people and bridges the gap between cultures and communities. Mrs. Abrahem searched the Internet and contacted multiple language schools and centers, but she didn't find the right Arabic program for her kids and that’s why she wanted to start TAA-A as a language school and to promote the importance of learning another language. Our method is a natural, integrated communicative approach. It’s a student-centered approach. We focus on all the skills of Speaking, Reading, Writing, Listening, and Culture.
Throughout their careers as linguists and educators, she and her husband, Dr. Al-Sarrai worked for humanitarian and government agencies around the United States as well as overseas. She has Master’s of Business Administration and Bachelor’s in English and Arabic Language Translation. Her husband, Dr. Al-Sarrai has an education in Linguistics, Communication, English and Arabic Language Education, and Business Administration. He had the honor to meet with President George W. Bush in The Oval Office in 2005. He is a linguist and a Fulbright Scholar Award recipient. The Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The program brings educators from around the world to U.S. institutions to study and to teach their native languages, to assist in language instruction, and to serve as cultural ambassadors on campus.
Both of Mrs. Abrahem and Dr. Al-Sarrai taught Arabic in several schools and universities across the country. Their goal is to support diversity through language learning and linguistics services. TAA-A’s services are delivered either on-ground or through an online education platform to best suit the learner’s learning requirements. The vision of TAA-A is “Knowledge is Language!”. The acronym for our company, TAA-A, was a deliberate choice. TAA-A is the third letter of the Arabic alphabet and it was chosen to not only stand for The American Arabic Academy, but also for our company’s values. T stands for “Takallam”/Speak, A for “Aqra”/I Read, A for “Aktub”/I Write, and the final A for “Afham”/I Understand.
“Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things.” - Flora Lewis