Our Mother Tongue

I find this article interesting, because it confirms some information passed along to me by a Lebanese student last semester. I interviewed Lebanese students who attended French and British schools, and one of the students told me that many of his friends applied for "Arabic exempt" status because their Arabic wasn't up to the level of writing and reading at the college level. And it's their native language.

This also gives a good sense of how diverse the Middle East, especially the upper classes are. They speak a mixture of French, English, Arabic, and other languages in the home, to the detriment of their native and cultural heritage language.

"Mother tongue loses in the race of languages." (Constantine, Z. and Al Lawati, A. gulfnews.com. Feb. 20, 2007.)