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inglizi goes native
by daliah merzaban
english language skills have become vital for business
– and even pleasure – in egypt. is arabic, meanwhile,
under threat?
sayed mostafa is not the typical student you would
expect to find studying for exams and completing assignments in
an intensive summer course. after spending his day hours working
as a sales support manager for norwegian company jotun paints in
alexandria, the 55-year-old father of two grown sons spent three
evenings per week for five weeks this summer taking an english for
business course offered by america-mideast educational & training
services (amideast). mostafa is a strong believer in continuing
to acquire important skills – and knowledge of english, he
says, is one of the most critical and versatile skills of the modern
egyptian job market.
after over 30 years in the egyptian workforce, mostafa isn’t
planning on falling behind. “i’m just warming up my engine.
i’m just keeping myself fit,” mostafa said during one
of his evening class breaks last month. “learning english is
a way to get what i need.”
mostafa is one of thousands of egyptians who have been pursuing
intensive english-language training courses to improve in an area
that is a necessary component of competitiveness in the global market.
knowing the ps and qs of economic theory, having the technical know-how
in engineering, telecommunications, medicine or science, or even
mastering housekeeping and cooking skills for the hospitality industry,
won’t get most young jobseekers far unless they can communicate
at a basic level in the world’s lingua franca. but for some
egyptians, the growing prominence of english in egypt poses a threat
to colloquial egyptian arabic.
fluency, at a price
with unemployment rates in egypt estimated at upwards of 15 percent,
english could well be the skill that determines who makes the cut
in today’s job market. this is not welcome news for the majority
of egyptians who are educated in the public school system, plagued
with inadequate english-language training by under-qualified teachers.
in 1994, the ministry of education (moe) introduced legislation
to begin english-language training in grade 4 at primary schools
across egypt. to meet the demand, thousands of teachers with little
english-language background were assigned to the classes.
many of these teachers have subsequently been tested on their english-language
comprehension and found to be “at the beginners level,”
according to jim mccloud, chief of party for the integrated english
language program ii (ielpii) – a usaid-funded initiative aimed
at improving the quality of teachers, teacher training, and english-language
instruction for the short and long term in egypt. mccloud said that
the sudden demand for english instruction meant that teachers who
did not hold degrees in english or have appropriate training were
giving young students their first english-language lessons.
according to mccloud, the proficiency of english-language teachers
in egypt has improved since the ielpii was initiated in 1997, though
there is still a long way to go. “there are still many primary
school teachers whose skills are very very weak,” he said.
if the dozens of foreign-language private schools across egypt are
any indication, parents who have the money to send their children
to private british, american or french schools will still opt to
do so, despite the hefty fee – which often reaches thousands
of us dollars. lobna, who wished not to have her family name disclosed,
has sent her two teenage children, ahmed and raghda, to an american
school in cairo for years. private schools, she says, provide much
higher quality english-language training than their public counterparts.
when she was young, lobna said, french was the preferred foreign
language of the egyptian elite. while french still clings to this
role, she said her children would benefit even more from mastering
the english language. since english is used throughout egypt on
a daily basis, it is an essential component of a complete education
for lobna. “egyptians in general are very caring about teaching
their kids new subjects. the people who graduate from english schools
find jobs more easily. if you study more languages, it is a perfect
way to have a better chance in life,” she explained.
mccloud said that programs like ielpii are helping to address the
deficiencies within the public school system. since 1997, some 871
moe supervisors, over 10,000 moe teachers and 300 moe managers have
participated in training either in egypt or abroad to strengthen
their english-language teaching or supervisory skills. ielpii has
also worked with 485 professors from the faculties of arts and education
to improve the teaching skills of future teachers. “we have
been working with the ministry at many different levels to develop
systems that work with the ministry, [and to] strengthen those systems
so that they can carry on once the program ends [in 2003],”
said mccloud.
other english-language training options for adults include courses
offered by institutions such as amideast, the british council, the
international language institute and the american university in
cairo (auc). amideast alexandria director virginia carley said the
non-profit organization attracts around 3,500 students a year in
alexandria alone. these students pay from £e 370 to £e
420 for a variety of five-week-long intensive courses, including
general english for adults and advanced-level courses in conversation,
media, translation, reading, business english and legal english.
clear pronouncements
“we deal with international partners. we need to be presentable.”
in a nutshell, that’s why saeed e. hamshary, financial controller
for egyptian software company itsoft, says the company decided to
enrol 15 of its employees in a customized english-language course.
the course, he hopes, will improve the employees’ day-to-day
business communication, including e-mail, professional letter writing,
presentations and proper english pronunciation.
nestled in the free zone of nasr city, itsoft is a mid-sized egyptian
it company with large ambitions. currently employing 100, the company
would like to expand to 300 full-time employees by 2003, in order
to expand into the european market and eventually to the united
states and canada. the company specializes in outsourcing and offshore
software development, and is in direct competition, according to
hamshary, with firms in india and other countries where english
is widely spoken.
in order to excel, insists hamshary, employees must be able to communicate
in english. “egyptian graduates are very good at technical
knowledge, but not so good in the english language,” he said.
because knowledge of english is so important, itsoft is choosing
to do a lot of its recruiting from auc.
hamshary himself was trained at public schools in egypt and says
he picked up english through employment in the gulf arab states
after graduation. english-language training in egypt, according
to him, is “very lousy,” and lags far behind the training
in india, pakistan or the gulf states – itsoft’s biggest
competitors.
and employees agree. mahmoud talat, an engineer with itsoft for
the past five years, says the english level of egyptian engineers
is below that of their competitors in the gulf. talat, whose work
demands frequent travel, says the barrier can put egyptian engineers
at a disadvantage. “i cannot say that i can improve and advance
in my field without english,” said talat. “good english
means i can pronounce my ideas in the right way. to progress in
my career and to have a better position – i can’t see
this without good english.”
tourism’s common tongue
the breadth of demand for english goes well beyond egypt’s
high-tech sector. even landing a job cleaning rooms is much more
difficult nowadays – at least if you’re looking for employment
at the ritzy four seasons first residence hotel in giza. since the
five-star hotel opened in 2000, all 500 employees – from the
executives to bellboys, front-desk clerks, waiters, cooks, stewards
and housekeepers – must have a basic command of english. riham
reda, four seasons first residence public relations manager, said
that all potential employees are interviewed in arabic and english
and are required to complete an intensive english-language course
offered free of charge before beginning employment.
four english teachers hired for the four season’s training
program provide seven day-long sessions in basic english-language
communication, so that all employees can provide information about
the hotel, give directions and address queries in english. such
a skill is essential, says reda, since 95 percent of all hotel correspondence
is conducted in english. she attributes this to the large number
of visitors from the gulf and europe, where english is commonly
spoken, even if it is not most people’s first language. “the
employees come and they have the skill [but] they don’t have
the language,” she said. “we invest a lot in our employees
because four seasons’ philosophy focuses on people. it is based
on human interaction.”
the training has led to positive results, according to four seasons
director of human resources samar eraky. ninety percent of room
attendants, and even all of the hotel’s chefs – who must
keep up to par with the latest gourmet recipes – can communicate
in english. for international business travelers, she added, this
means error-free food orders, ease in asking for extra hotel supplies
like towels, or receiving easy-to-understand directions to the nearest
foreign-exchange booth.
eraky, who has spent 20 years in egypt’s hospitality industry,
says mastering english has always been the industry’s greatest
barrier. the rapid expansion of the tourism industry, she said,
has failed to be accompanied by adequate english-language training.
the four seasons chain provides english-language service to customers
as a matter of policy worldwide. eraky admits that she doubted being
able to find english-speaking egyptians to fill positions as housekeepers
or stewards, since these jobs typically attract less-affluent jobseekers.
but employees, she said, have welcomed the free language training.
“it’s a big motivation,” she said. “tourism
will always be a big source of income for egypt. we’re in a
small village, so we have to be able to talk and communicate in
english.”
in a manner of speaking
but the english language in egypt can hardly be deemed only a “tool”
for international communication in professional and business contexts.
a growing number of egyptians have abandoned their mother tongue,
opting instead to use a convoluted combination of english and arabic
in their daily communications with each other. arabic spoken with
a twist of english (and perhaps a touch of french too) can regularly
be heard at neighborhood shopping malls and restaurants, on college
campuses and in mobile-phone conversations.
eraky says many people are using the new lingo – which she
refers to as “franco-arabic” – daily, in both professional
and personal contexts. many egyptians, she added, are unable to
complete a sentence in arabic. “you will always find people
putting english words in their sentences. it replaces automatically
the [arabic] word in your mind,” she said.
the dilution of arabic may be an inevitable consequence of the reliance
on foreign schools. “this is normal,” eraky said. “if
you’re brought up in language schools and in an environment
that enhances [other] language[s], this is normal.”
in india, where the presence of english dates back to colonial times,
the use of both hindi and english is widespread. but higher education
is largely provided in english, so if you’re college educated
in india, you’re most likely literate in english. yet far from
being bilingual, a growing number of young indians can only speak
a mixture of hindi and english – or hinglish.
hamshary from itsoft offered the perfect illustration of the same
process at work in egypt. answering his cell phone periodically
during the interview, hamshary used “khalas,” “no
problem,” “okay” and “hader” interchangeably
in english-arabic exchanges with his boss. on the other end of the
line, hamshary’s boss apparently speaks the same way, moving
back and forth freely between english and arabic in almost every
sentence. “it’s the best way to communicate,” hamshary
said. “it’s convenient.”
he said he talks this way “especially with arabic speakers,”
although long-term foreign residents, too, are usually well acquainted
with the mixed-language manner of speech.
but not all egyptians are enthusiastic about the trend. nayra ijjeh
has lived in cairo all of her life. educated in private schools
and an auc graduate, ijjeh now works as unit manager for standards
and sustainability at ielpii. she said the tendency of many egyptians,
especially young egyptians, to switch back and forth between english
and arabic often comes at the expense of real fluency in either
language. many university students she has worked with at auc fail
to have a thorough grasp of either language. “their arabic
is horrendous and their english is equally horrendous,” she
said.
in many circles, speaking english has become “a thing of privilege,”
ijjeh said. “it’s cool to speak english with an american
accent and not speak arabic,” at least in upper-class circles.
“i hate to say this, but i think it’s become a status
symbol not to speak arabic very well. i’m not a fanatic or
anything of the kind, but why on earth wouldn’t you want to
speak your native language?”
talat from itsoft agrees that speaking english is increasingly a
“fashion” in egypt – one that may in fact be usurping
the authenticity of the arabic language. “unfortunately, here,
there is a middle language now of arabic and english,” talat
said. “people don’t understand the real arabic. people
don’t know how to use correct grammar. the culture is looking
at the european and the west, and trying to imitate other people.”
even people who are fluent in egyptian colloquial may find modern
standard arabic, or fus’ha – the formal, written variant
of the language and the commonly understood mode of speech across
the arab world – inaccessible. this may be because they have
never learned to read the script, or it may be because of a deficiency
in formal arabic’s rich vocabulary.
but there is nothing new in foreign vocabulary entering the local
patois of the nile. while formal arabic tends to be constricted
by a preference for words based on authentic arabic roots, egyptian
colloquial – as a largely non-written dialect – is far
more amenable to the appropriation of foreign words. one of the
most widely used foreign-derived terms is “rubabikya”
(junk), derived from the italian “roba vecchia,” or old
clothes. but from “ascenseur” (elevator, from french)
to “kalabshaat” (handcuffs, derived from turkish) to “bakaburt”
(from “boccaporto,” the italian for manhole) to the new
info-tech term “yalawwid” (from the english “to load”),
the local slang has been digesting foreign vocabulary for centuries.
native pride
ielpii organizers have worked directly with moe officials to “egyptianize”
course materials and help address worries that the advancement of
english would threaten egypt’s linguistic diversity and identity.
helena simas, a trainer at ielpii, cited the program’s english-language
song and game books for younger students, which aim to capture elements
of egyptian culture, and an eight-part video series on best practices
in english-language training, filmed in egyptian classrooms with
egyptian teachers.
the advancement of english in egypt, meanwhile, is not a source
of apprehension for everyone. lobna, whose teenage son and daughter
are both fluent in english, is not worried, even though her 17-year-old
son speaks english with an american accent and has been mistaken
for a foreigner.
according to lobna, only parents can ensure that their children
sustain a love and appreciation for egyptian arabic. her son ahmed,
despite speaking egyptian arabic most of the time at home, is weak
in arabic reading and writing. lobna herself was weak in formal
arabic until taking quranic courses later in life.
while the reasons for speaking english over arabic may vary from
person to person – from achieving power and influence to gaining
acceptance among peers at school – lobna asserted that the
desire of young egyptians to speak english and be more “western”
was just a temporary fad. “me myself, even my generation, we
used to be like that. i think that the teenage years are like that.
it is a critical period of time,” she said. “at this age
you want to be different from others. when they get older, most
will discover that it is very shallow to be that way, and they prefer
to be themselves.”
besides, she continued, arabic is a language rich in character and
attractiveness that cannot easily be replaced – even by a language
that progressively dominates daily communications. “arabic
has its own way and its own tastes,” she said. “it is
our mother tongue. it is in our blood. we feel it... we breathe
it... i don’t believe that english can be a threat.”
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