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Gulf News
  • 10 months ago
Residents in the UAE share the advantages of learning Arabic language.
Transcript
00:00Living in the UAE, I would say for everyday life, I don't need to use Arabic because everyone
00:11speaks English, but I would say there would definitely be an advantage within business.
00:16I work in the private aviation sector and a lot of my clients are high net worth individuals
00:21who are Arabic and speak Arabic, so it would certainly advantage me in that way, but I
00:26don't speak Arabic.
00:27I've been living in Dubai for the past 10 years and we moved here from London and initially
00:32we did not feel the need to learn Arabic because everybody spoke English, but having lived
00:37here over the years, I actually feel proud of living in this country and would love to
00:41learn the language and that's why my children are learning the language.
00:45I have a son who's 10 years old who goes to Horizon School and he learns Arabic in school,
00:49but along with that he also goes to another institute called Dar Al-Im where he learns
00:52Arabic three hours a week, every week and now he can speak the language, not very fluently
00:58but still and can read and write Arabic as well.
01:01I don't think there is a need to, a real need to learn Arabic because everybody speaks English
01:09and even in the government sector, all the offices, all the firms are in English.
01:16Maybe one day I will start taking classes.
01:19My husband is from Lebanon, so I think it's a lot easier for him, but I can speak English
01:27so that's why it makes me quite lazy and I don't have this interaction with the Arabic
01:35people except for my husband or his relatives.
01:38Yes, for me there is a need to learn Arabic because we are working here so it's important
01:45to know their language, I mean you can interact with each other easily.
01:49Learning Arabic is nice to have but not necessarily essential when you live in the UAE because
01:55it's such a multicultural country.
01:58Yes, I think it's not a necessity or a requirement but it's like an additional point if you know
02:06at least the mother tongue of Dubai or of UAE, at least you can relate to people like
02:12just greeting good morning in Arabic, I think it's a sign of respect also to be like curious
02:19about their language and I find it very rich actually.
02:23There is definitely an advantage for people who can speak Arabic because there are few
02:29jobs openings where they need Arabic people, Arabic speaking people and also sometimes
02:37it gets easier to communicate with the locals.
02:40The advantages are that we will be able to understand probably the local language and
02:45the culture even more and as we are so well integrated into the society I feel it's a
02:51good thing to learn the language in the country that you live in.
02:54It is a must, it's kind of sad to learn languages from wherever you are and living in this country
03:00even though I think it's a shame we don't have so much interaction with the locals,
03:07I wish I could speak Arabic.
03:09Arabic people need to learn some languages like English or French, that's why here probably
03:15you're living in their country so for me it's a necessity.
03:19I think it's such a transient place, I'm not sure if it really needs to be mandatory because
03:25it would be nice to learn other languages as well and at the moment in the primary school
03:29they only learn Arabic, it's the same in my country in Wales, we only learn Welsh which
03:34I think is a disadvantage in the future until the age of 11 and they learn a different language.
03:41I think it's great for school children to learn different languages other than their
03:44own so whether it's Arabic, French, any language I think it would be beneficial for them but
03:50yes Arabic would be great for them to learn at school.
03:53As I feel that the population is very transient and people keep coming and going, lots of
03:58people feel that it's difficult for them to just learn a language when they'll not be
04:01able to keep up with the language but if people do have a long term they should be
04:05given the option in schools and in other places outside to learn the language easily.
04:11Yeah I know some words like just to start the conversation because I have friends at
04:16work who are from here in the UAE so it's just like a show of gratitude for them that
04:25I'm curious to learn their language.
04:27Like I know how to tell them in the morning sabaal care, then when they tell me good morning
04:32I say sabaal more so it's nice, maybe they'll feel that I value them as friends.
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