How to become a journalist: Aisha’s story

Note: Unfortunately, the Arabic transcription below won't display correctly. It should be showing from right to left. Many apologies for the inconvenience.

Aisha:

انا اسمي عائشة و انا صحفية

My name is Aisha and I'm a journalist.

My name is Aisha and I'm a journalist.

الحمدلله كويس، قولي لي كيف الجو عندكم, شو صاير؟

I’m well. How’s the weather there? How are things?

I'm a journalist at The New Arab. It's a news and current affairs outlet that focuses on the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. My specific areas of focus are Syria, the Arab diaspora and Muslims in the west.

مشعوله كثير و انتي كمان ؟

I’m really busy, are you too?

Diana:

كثير

Very!

Aisha:

بس معليش هلئ رح نشرب شاي، بدك شاي؟

Yeah, but it’s all good. Would you like some tea?

In the morning, we find stories and pitch them to our editors. I use Arabic on a daily basis, when speaking to Arabic sources. Usually, I will either call or send voice notes to my sources, depending on whatever they prefer. I translate what they've said and then use my notes to write a story.

Karim:

Aisha speaks Arabic which is very useful for our newsroom. We want to cover the whole world, not just countries that speak English, and Arabic is a very important language. On top of that, she's also a very lovely person and really good at her job. Aisha, I think we need to do a new series. I would love to hear your ideas.

Aisha:

How about we do a series focusing on the mental wellbeing of Arabs in the diaspora? I love being able to speak with people out there to learn more about them and their experiences, before telling their stories. As someone who is Irish and Syrian, it's very important for me to have both of those elements of my life and be connected to them. This job allows me to do that, which is very fulfilling.

الياس ممكن تعطيني الجريدة ؟

Elias, can you pass me the newspaper?

Elias:

تفضلي.

Here you go.

Aisha:

When it comes to journalism, you have to constantly stay up to date with changing situations and current affairs, so that can be a challenge, but as long as you stay on top of it, you'll be fine.

Being half Irish half Syrian, my dad only ever spoke in Arabic to me, because it was really important for both of my parents to know that we had secured both languages. I went to Arabic school outside of my English school and I never really wanted to go to my Arabic school, and I did give my parents a bit of a hard time, but like I say, now I'm so thankful that they both encouraged me to keep it up because it's everything that I use in my job and it's such a positive thing.

انا اليوم شغالة من المكتبة و بدي اسألك كزا سؤال

I’m working from the office today and wanted to ask you a few questions.

I was always interested in journalism, but after my A-levels, I actually applied for Midwifery at university, but eventually I told my tutor that I was dropping Midwifery. I went on to do Communications and Media Studies, because that's where my heart really was. When I graduated, I got lots of work experience in different media outlets, radio stations and TV too, so that gave me a good portfolio. I then went on to do a master's degree in Broadcast Journalism, which taught me about TV, radio and digital journalism.

So when this opportunity came along, I jumped at it.

بتحبي من هدول ما؟

You like these, right?

Diana:

اي عادي بس بدون اي سكر

Yeah, but without sugar.

Aisha:

اه لا تخافي و انا كمان ما بحب السكر كتي

Yeah, don’t worry, I don’t like sugar either.

I wish that I could have practised Arabic even more when I was younger. If I had done that earlier, I feel like I would have had an even stronger foundation than I do now. Because of that, I would say practise as soon as possible and practise using topics and hobbies that you're interested in. I was always really interested in music, so I would always listen to Arabic songs and then translate them and learn more about what they meant.

When it comes to journalism, I would say look at the kinds of outlets that you might be interested in. Do your research and look to see where your values align. That really helps my motivation and I think it could really help yours.