Mahmoud Ahmad
Ever since I wrote the article titled “Losing our Arabic Language” about a month ago, I have been receiving emails from expat readers blaming us Saudis for not opening specialized institutions to teach them Arabic language. The readers, however, missed the thrust of the article. The main point of my article was how a large segment of Saudis, in general, are beginning to lose their Arabic language by focusing more on English when it comes to conversation. It stressed on how the Arabic language is in danger if this practice continues and people remain negligent. It also sought to motivate people to move quickly to protect Arabic by being fluent in the language.
Of course the emails from readers did not represent the majority, but it was a fair share. And I made it a point to ask my non-Arabic speaking expatriate friends about this and they all agreed that there is neglect when it comes to investing in opening private institutions that teach Arabic language. I was told by a friend of mine, a fact that I couldn’t confirm, that there are only two private institutions that teach Arabic language in Jeddah. If this is the state in Jeddah, I am not sure what the numbers might be in other cities.
Arabic language is the most beautiful language in the world. It is the language of the Holy Qur’an. It is a very rich language with a sea of words, meanings and structures, such that the way some words are pronounced may provide varying meanings. It is one of the six most-spoken languages in the world. And the richness of the language can be gauged by the fact that there is a heavy influence of Arabic on other languages. In addition, English has many Arabic loanwords, some directly but most through the medium of other Mediterranean languages, to which Arabic language exported words. The most influenced of the languages are Persian and Turkish but Indian languages like Bengali, Urdu, Gujarati, Punjabi, Sindhi and Malayalam too have borrowed words from Arabic and they are now everyday terms in those languages.
With millions of expats living in the Kingdom, the overwhelming majority would love to learn, read and write Arabic and take that rich language with them back home. I know a very soft-spoken Indian man, who works in a grocery store in our neighborhood. His Arabic was picked up from people whom he met in his store. He knows how to speak the common street language, which is very broken and unstructured. He, however, manages to understand 70 percent of what a person is saying to him in Arabic but when he answers back, it is broken and words are not even connected. Yet whoever listens to it understands what he wants to say.
This is not how we want to see expats speaking our language. I am sure if they had the chance to learn it properly, they will, but where? He told me that he managed to teach himself by listening to other people speaking and some of his countrymen, who are proficient in the language, taught him some more words.
The fact that there are no Arabic learning institutions was confirmed to me by a British friend of mine working in the Kingdom. To his shock when he came to the Kingdom, he could not find a place where he could learn Arabic. But he made an effort to learn Arabic. It was limited to self-effort to learn the broken street language, or buy books and CDs and taught himself, or hire private teachers for classes at home. He made this effort because he told me that he was always fascinated when he heard people speaking Arabic. I also remember what he told me when he said that this is the country of the two holy mosques, then why is Arabic neglected?
I have met many Westerners who know how to speak fluent Arabic and they either studied it in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Syria, before the civil war. In Saudi Arabia, Arabic language teaching is limited to the universities to students learning at these universities. Expats working as engineers, doctors or in any other profession cannot enroll themselves in Arabic learning courses.
The irony is that in our newspapers we see advertisements to learn English in language institutions in America and they advertise these courses with a travel package. If I want to learn French then in France, there are many French language institutions available at competitive prices. The same if I wanted to learn German in Germany or Italian in Italy. It could be that they are proud of their language and they want to teach it the right way and also because it is a good investment that has good return of profit. I am sure that businessmen here would find it financially attractive to invest in opening Arabic language institutions. With the millions of non-speaking Arabic expats, I am sure the percentage of those who want to learn the language is high.
With the growth of the information superhighway, many online institutions have popped up to teach Arabic in other countries, rather than in the area where the language was born and nurtured. They also use technology to further the advancement of the language by making it easy and accessible. It just takes a sprinkling of such institutions in the region to enable people learn Arabic and, in sequence, allow the language to blossom.
The writer can be reached at mahmad@saudigazette.com.sa
Twitter: @anajeddawi_eng
