Amine Bouchentouf (pronounced
ah-meen boo-shen-toof), was born and raised in Casablanca, Morocco. He is a native Arabic, English, and French speaker, and has working knowledge of Spanish and Italian.
At the age of 23 Amine beat out a number of applicants, including university professors and PhD candidates, to become the Author of
Random House’s first ever instructional Arabic language book,
Arabic: A Complete Course. For this project, Random House was looking for someone who not only had a commanding control of the technical aspects of the language, but also for someone who could present the material succinctly and cogently. Amine’s ability to break down, present and communicate extremely complex issues in a coherent and engaging manner was essential in making the book a success.
Amine’s book is currently used by companies, government agencies, NGOs, think-tanks, universities, and other institutions across the United States as an instructional tool. It is used by politicians, diplomats, businessmen, law-enforcement agents, intelligence analysts, foreign policy experts, journalists and other professionals across the country who are learning this crucial language. Due to the gigantic interest in Arabic not only in the US but across the world, the book is sold in over 5 countries, and has contributed to the staggering success of Random House’s
Living Language Series, which has sold over 3 million copies to date! At over 270 pages and with more than 3 hours of recorded conversation, it is one of the most comprehensive books of its kind available today. Amine’s book is also available for sale at the
Forbes Book Club. For more information and to order your copy, please check out the
Book section.
Amine graduated from
Middlebury College with a degree in Economics. Soon after graduating college, Amine joined Everest Asset Management, a private investment group in New York, where he worked on the trading desk, trading structured equity derivatives and a suite of liquid and illiquid financial products. While his trading platform reached across a wide spectrum of sectors and industries, his particular focus was on the energy industry. He is registered and licensed with the
National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) and holds the Series 7 & 63 designations. He is an active trader and his investment strategy is a blend of both technical and fundamental analysis—he generally buys on the fundamentals and sells on the technicals. He attends numerous banking and finance seminars and conferences across New York City, and he is also a candidate for the
Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program.
Amine has recently turned down a number of job offers, including working as an analyst at a major fund and teaching Arabic to senior government officials in Washington D.C., in order to focus on his second book. He is currently writing
Arabic For Dummies for the popular
Dummies series which will be published by
John Wiley & Sons in early 2006. At over 400 pages, Amine’s new book will be even more comprehensive than his first. Remaining within the
Dummies spirit, the material will be extremely accessible to anyone who wants to learn the language, and to anyone who wants to learn more about the Middle East. He is a member of the
Authors Guild and is represented by the literary agency of
Mark Sullivan & Associates. After finishing writing his second book Amine looks forward to getting back to the private sector.
Amine has traveled extensively across the Middle East, Europe, and North and South America. He has visited over 15 countries, including Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Switzerland, England, Ireland, Scotland, the Netherlands, Canada, the US, Mexico, and Brazil. He has met the soccer legend
Pelé and the boxing legend
Muhammad Ali—the latter twice. He has been teaching Arabic and lecturing about relations between America and the Arab world in his spare time for over 4 years, and has offered classes and seminars for students at Middlebury and, recently, at the
Council on Foreign Relations.
Aside from his interest in business, languages, and travel, Amine enjoys a variety of other activities. He is a voracious reader and particularly enjoys reading material that touches on foreign affairs, international business, espionage, history, warfare, the energy industry, and business intelligence. He also plays acoustic and electric guitar, which he has been playing for over 10 years. He plays in professional pool tournaments across New York, and enjoys chess, card games of all sorts, biking, rollerblading, and has recently picked up Golf. He lives in Manhattan.
Contact Amine today!
