How does it feel to be an Arab and speak fluently in English, but not be able to pronounce two words in Arabic without stuttering? It's shameful, to say the least. What a disappointing Arab I am; I can't spell simple words, but here I am typing this article in English, spelling each word in less than a second. To spell out an Arabic word would take me a century, and I would spell it incorrectly, too.
It was never my intention to be this bad at Arabic, nor am I proud of it. As a student at a private school, Arabic teachers didn’t think they should advance our Arabic skills. All I need is to pass, right? Who cares if I can’t spell a simple Arabic word or read a sentence smoothly; all our material is in English anyway. I refuse to be like that. Arabic is a beautiful language, from the way you pronounce the words to the type of calligraphy. Arabic isn’t as easy as many other languages – that’s why we should have been taught it at an earlier age.
In second grade, I was equally bad in Arabic and English, but only my English teacher made an effort to help me. She made me stay after school and kept telling me: “I know you can read this.” I would cry and say: “I can’t. I don’t understand this.” Eventually, it was easier to read a small paragraph, without crying.
On the other hand, I was failing Arabic. My teacher’s only words were: “I want to speak to your mother.” That didn’t help at all. My mother got me books to read. I tried, failed and eventually gave up. In my mind, I grew up thinking that if I was good at English, that’s all that mattered. I foolishly thought that there would not be any Arabic in my workplace and university. Little did I know.
I’m partly at fault for giving up, but who is mainly at fault here? I don’t blame the teachers or the parents. I blame the idea that all we need is English.
I started reading Arabic novels to gain a better understanding of the language. Although every time I try, I give up eventually and start to feel sad and stupid. I had an assignment for an Arabic course this term, but as I was trying to read and make sense of it all, I got depressed and spent my whole weekend dwelling on my failure. My Arabic professor asked me to sit with him every now and then and practise for an hour. I did what he told me, and Googled and read newspapers, gradually trying to progress my Arabic.
I’m still trying to advance little by little. Not because I have to or because I can simply pass with a D, but because I want to – and that’s how you start to change and develop. It starts with determination and an idea. Our future generations should be more aware, and want and love their language.
Nada Abduallah Al Menhali, 18, is a strategic-communication student at Zayed University.
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