Project Specific Research: Problems
• Lost of identity: the main thing that we should really worry about is that we are losing our identities by losing the Arabic language. Arabic is the foundation of our identities, after all. Take countries like Germany, France and Japan for example. People there use foreign languages, but you will never see them in the work place using anything other than their national languages. English is widely used in the government in the UAE and this is unacceptable.” Dr Ebtisam Al Kitbi, Professor of Political Science at the UAE University in Al Ain, told Gulf News.
• Mother language being ignored: UAE nationals don’t use Arabic in their transactions, they always use English words to deal with each other, even when greeting. “To my knowledge, there is no nation that allows an invasion of foreign languages in government institutions the way we did in the UAE.” Dr Ebtisam said . If the Arabic language is not widely used in the country as it was before, it is only because of the growing number of expatriates in the UAE. So we should encourage the foreigners to use our language in our country and we should provide Arabic lessons for them. “Anywhere you go, the language is a must. But how come this country is not insisting on the foreigners to know Arabic? They should undergo a training program for it. [Arabic] is a beautiful language. It is the binding force in the Arab world,” said Tanveer Arshad, Principal of Al Ain Juniors .
• Wrong signage on the street: many sings are translated wrongly in UAE’s streets. This is because the person who is charged to write on those signs is foreigner and has no background about Arabic language.
• Less respect towards the Arabic language: as locals, if we don’t use our language and be proud of it nobody will care about it, leading to less respect towards the Arabic language. With competing languages, no nation on earth enjoys peace within itself .”
• Lack of social awareness about mistranslation: Arabic translation receives neither the same attention nor encouragement as it does in Europe and America, nor does it enjoy the prestige bestowed upon its medieval ancestor. The reason appears to be that translation is viewed as having no independent identity . Rather it is assigned a secondary status within language departments and seen as auxiliary to allied curricula. Today there is a lack of social awareness about the importance of translation, while trained and competent translators are few and far between. In addition there appears to be little political will to promote translation across the Arab world .
Case Study Projects: (Solutions)
Many campaigns have been launched to protect and save our beautiful language from being lost. Of course, if the subject is about Arabic language, the campaigns will be in Arabic. I searched the Internet for them and I was interested by two of them:
1) “Together to save our Arabic Language” campaign. An Egyptian guy managed this campaign which was launched in February 2009. The main goal was to limit the use of English words in our lives. Since we are using some of English words to designate some of the things in our daily life. Although the campaign was Internet-based, many people interacted and participated with the campaign .
2) “My Language is my Identity” campaign. This was a huge campaign launched in July 2008. An Egyptian guy also managed this campaign. It aimed to revive our language and protect it. Many writers and intellectuals participated in this campaign .
3) “Khede Kasra” Arabic typography campaign. This was a campaign to promote women. The idea was simple and creative it was all about the typographic positioning of the accent (vocalization mark) in a word! We use the accent in the Arabic to address them to a man or a woman. So if the accent line was above the word it’s become addressed to the males. And if the accent was placed below the word its become addressed to the females. The accent that placed below the word called kasra .
