Mahmoud Ahmad
Are we losing our Arabic language? It is a difficult question to answer because the answer sadly is hard to accept. There is a unanimous agreement that the new generation is seriously lacking a lot when it comes to the Arabic language — be it grammatical, written or just spoken Arabic. What is more painful is that many people find it easy to express themselves in English rather than their own Arabic language.
Not long ago, my wife and I were in a shopping mall in Jeddah and it was really surprising when I saw a Saudi father wearing the traditional Saudi thobe and headdress talking to his son in English. What I heard was the father telling his son that if he did not behave, then he would take away his IPod and PlayStation.
That the father was communicating this simple fact to his son in English was shocking. I could not stop myself from asking him (father) why he was talking to his son in English and was it due to the fact that the mother was a foreigner from Europe or America. The father looked at me proudly before replying that his son is in private school where the curriculum is taught in English and he was proud that his son is fluent in English.
I asked him, what about his Arabic? He said, and that was disturbing, it is not that important as long as he can verbally communicate in Arabic. He said that English is a universal language and his son needs to master it at a young age so as to have a better future.
This example is one of many that I have witnessed and I do not know how many others the readers have witnessed or heard. For me it is acceptable to communicate with a foreigner in English, since it is the common language between non-English speaking nations. But for two or a group of Saudis or Arabs to communicate in English during a gathering is simply, in my opinion, not acceptable. What can be inferred from this is only one thing that they are not proud of their own language.
There was a clip, many years back, of a German foreign minister where he refused to speak in English at a press conference held in Germany. Although the BBC reporter asked a question and sought an answer in English, the German minister refused to accede to the reporter’s request, saying that he will speak in German since he is in Germany and the reporter is more than welcome to hear the answer that would be translated in English. Some may say that it was arrogance on the part of the minister or disrespect to a journalist, but I am sure that the most would agree that he is a German, who is proud of his own language and has every right to speak it at home.
Recently, I have been noticing this trend, especially among the people who have been educated outside the Kingdom. Whenever I am in a conversation with one of them, the person shows a tendency of switching between Arabic and English during the entire dialogue. Such behavior sometimes gives me a headache as my brain needs to keep switching between Arabic and English and sometimes this mixing of the two languages results in both the languages being used in one sentence. And when I ask them why they keep injecting English words in every sentence, and there is hardly a complete Arabic sentence, their reply is equally unbelievable as they often say, “I can express myself in English more than Arabic, in which I’m not that fluent.”
Arabic language is the language of the Holy Qur’an. Those who cannot express themselves in Arabic believing that there are not enough words, should understand that our language is rich and there is ocean of words they can choose from, with the exception to new words and terminologies. Our youth are exposed to all sorts of media that is mostly in English and it is affecting them. What are we doing about it?
I’ve seen grown up people writing a paragraph in Arabic that is full of mistakes and typos. Some of them cannot distinguish between two Arabic letters. Not only that, there are Saudis and Arab expats who break up their Arabic language to communicate with English speaking expats. This is funny as I listen to the way they break the Arabic language completely just to press home a point.
I understand when an expat who speaks little Arabic, communicates in broken Arabic because it is not his language. But the Saudi or Arabic speaking expat if they spoke normal Arabic, the non-Arabic speaking expats will understand it and there is no need to break it. The same can be said of an English speaking Briton or American, they will speak in proper English to put across the point until the non-English speaking person understands what they want to say, but they will never break their language.
Although I find it funny to say this in English but Arabic language is our identity and we need to protect it. Despite the different dialects and slangs in the Arab world, what unites us all is the classical Arabic. On a family level we should stress the importance of our language and provide help to those who needs to write and understand it. Most of all, we should encourage them to read. A simple method to keep the language on a firm footing.
The writer can be reached at mahmad@saudigazette.com.sa
Twitter: @anajeddawi_eng
