UAE makes Arabic official tongue

Arabic has been confirmed as the official language of UAE federal authorities, the government announced on Sunday.

The move has been lauded by commentators who have campaigned to combat the growing use of English in government departments.

Ebtisam Al-Kitbi, professor of political science at UAE University told UAE daily Gulf News the decision would “enhance the presence of Arab speaking people in the labour market and restore the national identity”.

“To my knowledge, there is no nation that allows an invasion of foreign languages in government institutions the way we did in the UAE. The move will correct the imbalance,” she said.

“People [in other countries] use foreign languages, but you will never see them in the workplace other than their national languages. English is widely used in the government in the UAE and this is unacceptable,” she added.

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READERS' COMMENTS

Re: Missing the point
Posted by Jamil Alnahari, Al AIN, UAE on Thursday 27 March 2008 at 15:28 UAE time


There is a GCC country, which successfully managed to make its national language used even among its expatriate communities. It is Saudi Arabia.
I have experienced this myself, when dealing in the markets of Saudi Arabia. What I saw that expats had to learn to speak in Arabic, because the Saudi people have little if not none ability to speak English, and they all get along fine, despite the big population of expats.
The problem about us in UAE, that we were so kind that we adapt ourselves to a foreign language. Making it easy for people coming to this land, not the other way around.

Arabic as the language of choice.
Posted by Jim Martin, Dubai, UAE on Friday 21 March 2008 at 15:19 UAE time

In the developing years of the Gulf it was of course convenient to use English as the influx of foreigners increased and communication was necessary. However Arabic has always been the official language, but I am concerned that the reduction in use of English as a business language is somewhat short sighted. Air Traffic Control for example has to use a common language. Will all the pilots now have to learn Arabic to cross UAE air space? I suggest that first encourage the expat community to learn Arabic by providing Government funded learning centres showing a real commitment to the need for Arabic as the first language.

Missing the point
Posted by The Lady, Dubai on Tuesday 18 March 2008 at 17:43 UAE time


Everyone who's commented seems to be missing the point that Mr. Tedesco so rightly made.

The majority of the UAE's population is comprised of expats. It's common sense. You cannot compare the UAE to all the other places mentioned (Ukraine, Sweden, China, Italy, Turkey, Japan, etc) because they do not have an overwhelming expatriate workforce like we do.

Visit any country, and you will be forced to communicate in the language that the "majority of the population" converses in. Show me one other country that has the population dynamics of the UAE, and prove to me that everyone speaks in the national language. Go on, find just one.

Arabs should not feel threated by the invasion of a language. They should instead strive to speak their own more often - this should be a personal decision, and a choice that should be encouraged by the government, not imposed.

Yes, We are in United ARAB Emirates!
Posted by omar, Dubai, UAE on Monday 17 March 2008 at 10:34 UAE time


I highly praise the wise leadership of UAE for taking this strategic decision. Yes, we are in United ARAB Emirates. People who go to Bulgaria, Brasil, Ukraine, Sweden, China, Italy, Turkey, Japan or any other country on earth must learn the local language to live and work. Why should the UAE be an exception. You love English? Very easy!!migrate today to Australia, Canada, NZ or ???. There are plenty of ads in Gulf News and many flights today!!! Just go there. You want the second to none standard of living of the Arab world, you must learn the language or fly back today to your English dream. I am Lebanese and all my parents carry the USA passport but i live in the UAE because i am an Arab. People who want the English world, Emirates can fly them there any moment! Otherwise, they must respect the local culture.
I support the UAE government to be extremely strict in this regard. Of course, tolerance & respect will be preserved with everyone as usual by the UAE government.

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