Is there a need to learn Arabic when living in the UAE?

Gulf News

Residents in the UAE share the advantages of learning Arabic language.

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00:00Living in the UAE, I would say for everyday life, I don't need to use Arabic because everyone

00:11speaks English, but I would say there would definitely be an advantage within business.

00:16I work in the private aviation sector and a lot of my clients are high net worth individuals

00:21who are Arabic and speak Arabic, so it would certainly advantage me in that way, but I

00:26don't speak Arabic.

00:27I've been living in Dubai for the past 10 years and we moved here from London and initially

00:32we did not feel the need to learn Arabic because everybody spoke English, but having lived

00:37here over the years, I actually feel proud of living in this country and would love to

00:41learn the language and that's why my children are learning the language.

00:45I have a son who's 10 years old who goes to Horizon School and he learns Arabic in school,

00:49but along with that he also goes to another institute called Dar Al-Im where he learns

00:52Arabic three hours a week, every week and now he can speak the language, not very fluently

00:58but still and can read and write Arabic as well.

01:01I don't think there is a need to, a real need to learn Arabic because everybody speaks English

01:09and even in the government sector, all the offices, all the firms are in English.

01:16Maybe one day I will start taking classes.

01:19My husband is from Lebanon, so I think it's a lot easier for him, but I can speak English

01:27so that's why it makes me quite lazy and I don't have this interaction with the Arabic

01:35people except for my husband or his relatives.

01:38Yes, for me there is a need to learn Arabic because we are working here so it's important

01:45to know their language, I mean you can interact with each other easily.

01:49Learning Arabic is nice to have but not necessarily essential when you live in the UAE because

01:55it's such a multicultural country.

01:58Yes, I think it's not a necessity or a requirement but it's like an additional point if you know

02:06at least the mother tongue of Dubai or of UAE, at least you can relate to people like

02:12just greeting good morning in Arabic, I think it's a sign of respect also to be like curious

02:19about their language and I find it very rich actually.

02:23There is definitely an advantage for people who can speak Arabic because there are few

02:29jobs openings where they need Arabic people, Arabic speaking people and also sometimes

02:37it gets easier to communicate with the locals.

02:40The advantages are that we will be able to understand probably the local language and

02:45the culture even more and as we are so well integrated into the society I feel it's a

02:51good thing to learn the language in the country that you live in.

02:54It is a must, it's kind of sad to learn languages from wherever you are and living in this country

03:00even though I think it's a shame we don't have so much interaction with the locals,

03:07I wish I could speak Arabic.

03:09Arabic people need to learn some languages like English or French, that's why here probably

03:15you're living in their country so for me it's a necessity.

03:19I think it's such a transient place, I'm not sure if it really needs to be mandatory because

03:25it would be nice to learn other languages as well and at the moment in the primary school

03:29they only learn Arabic, it's the same in my country in Wales, we only learn Welsh which

03:34I think is a disadvantage in the future until the age of 11 and they learn a different language.

03:41I think it's great for school children to learn different languages other than their

03:44own so whether it's Arabic, French, any language I think it would be beneficial for them but

03:50yes Arabic would be great for them to learn at school.

03:53As I feel that the population is very transient and people keep coming and going, lots of

03:58people feel that it's difficult for them to just learn a language when they'll not be

04:01able to keep up with the language but if people do have a long term they should be

04:05given the option in schools and in other places outside to learn the language easily.

04:11Yeah I know some words like just to start the conversation because I have friends at

04:16work who are from here in the UAE so it's just like a show of gratitude for them that

04:25I'm curious to learn their language.

04:27Like I know how to tell them in the morning sabaal care, then when they tell me good morning

04:32I say sabaal more so it's nice, maybe they'll feel that I value them as friends.

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