Are Arabs Saying "Yalla, Bye" to Arabic?

by Aisha Gawad
3/3/10

By Aisha Gawad
March 3, 2010

There is nothing that irks me more than a self-denying Arab - the kind of person who thinks that “Arab” is a dirty word, a label they don’t care to stoop beneath. I’ve met Egyptians who claim to be a race of their own - the same pure “Egyptian” race that Cleopatra and King Tut belong to. I once even met a girl from Lebanon who bristled with offense when I mentioned something about the two of us being Arab. ”I am not Arab,” she proclaimed. “I am Phoenician.” Yeah right, and I’m the granddaughter of Nefertiti.

This phenomenon of denying one’s “Arabness” is even starting to degrade the Arabic language. Many Arab countries are starting to see their young people speak more comfortably in English and French than in Arabic, as if Western languages are “cooler” than their native one. According to an article in Maktoob News, the Lebanese government allows students with dual nationality to skip required Arabic classes and exams. French and English are stressed more in schools, and oftentimes young Lebanese can’t even read or write properly in Arabic. And when they speak, they use a hybrid Arabic/English/French mix.

There is even a campaign called “Fael Ummer” in Lebanon to preserve the Arabic language and to try and make it popular among young people again. Lebanon was of course under French colonialism from 1920 until its independence in 1943, yet the language of the colonist has never been cast off. Frantz Fanon would probably chalk this up to a nasty side effect of colonialism and the continuing domination of the West in the Arab world where the culture of the imperialist is seen as more “civilized” than the culture of the native.

Why is it that Lebanon is seen as the “coolest” Arab country just because it is the most Western? Does this trouble anyone else? I am not saying that Arabs who speak a second language are traitorous to their heritage, but learning that second language should never degrade or weaken the mother tongue. In a time when presidents, prime ministers, journalists, and movie-makers are all spreading the message that the Arabs need saving from their own culture and traditions, we must do all that we can to resist them. We must be able to say to them, “Our culture is just fine, thank you very much.” And we must be able to say it in Arabic.

Source: Elan.
Link: http://www.elanthemag.com/index.php/site/blog_detail/are_arabs_saying_yalla_bye_to_arabic-nid487931896/.