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Brits should start learning some Arabic

op, I am trying to learn arabic, I speak persian as my native language and did a degree in spanish which I can speak/write to good fluency. there are a hell of a lot of resources to learn msa and it's a nice, useful language.

Original post by JC.

Why bother? Those who want to trade with us can learn English.
:biggrin:

so there's no point learning any language other than english?

great logic bro

Reply 41

Mad Vlad

19

Original post by darius12345

You see this is just bigotry, just say you don't want to learn Arabic, you don't have to bash the entirety of Arab culture jeez.

I'm not bashing the entirety of Arab culture - far from it... simply the fanatical devotion to social conservatism. See, I can't visit these countries because their culture has caused them to create laws that would imprison me or have me stoned to death simply because of who I am. All I'm doing is voicing my criticism of their attitudes towards women, homosexuals, transgendered people, Jews and other minority groups that these countries outlaw or oppress.

There are some amazing things in these countries that I'd love to visit, but I can't.

Reply 42

JC.

19

Original post by darius12345

so there's no point learning any language other than english?

Learn welsh if you like.
You can go and chat to folk in um... wales and a small settlement in America.

What possible use is Arabic going to be to the average brit? Just like German and French that you're forced to learning in school; Pointless.

I think I'll pass.

I don't think Arabic would be remotely useful for most British people. In comparative terms, it's probably about as useful as learning how to windsurf. And a great deal less fun.

Reply 45

Iqbal007

19

Original post by Greenlaner

No thanks. I have absolutely zero intention of ever going anywhere near Saudi Arabia.

What does that have to do with anything :confused:

Arabic has loads of dialects and is the main language in loads of countries, not just Saudi Arabia.........places like the UAE. Jordan right all the way to Morocco, Tunisia, even Sudan, etc

Reply 46

donutaud15

22

not interested. also the article says Mandarin is just as important, so why not learn Mandarin?

Posted from TSR Mobile

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 47

Pastaferian

17

Original post by Al-Mudaari

Get learning :smile:

Mmmm... mumkin bokra :wink:

Reply 48

darius12345

5

Original post by Mad Vlad

I'm not bashing the entirety of Arab culture - far from it... simply the fanatical devotion to social conservatism. See, I can't visit these countries because their culture has caused them to create laws that would imprison me or have me stoned to death simply because of who I am. All I'm doing is voicing my criticism of their attitudes towards women, homosexuals, transgendered people, Jews and other minority groups that these countries outlaw or oppress.

There are some amazing things in these countries that I'd love to visit, but I can't.

I really cannot even comprehend why you think there is one view towards all women, gays etcetera across the entirety of Arabia - somewhere like Tunisia and Saudi are almost as different as the UK and Saudi - the Arab world is not one big monolith and within one country you are going to find a huge divergence in views. In somewhere like Lebanon there have been gay pride events and gay clubs (lik Acid in Beirut for example) and bars that operate freely whereas in Saudi this stuff obviously doesn't exist (although Saudi is weird with gays - the Royal Family has loads of gays and the gay culture is actually really big - because of the sexual repression loads of guys have gay sex when if they were brought up in a sexually liberated country they wouldn't even consider it - I know people who have got propositioned for gay sex in shops and stuff in Saudi - it's a weird country. Stuff like LGBT rights and so on are obviously not very advanced - but it is the same in most of Africa, Russia etcetera. Also there is no country on earth that would dream of stoning a British citizen to death for being gay - the only Arab country that practices stoning is Saudi and that is an awful country that you should have no desire to visit anyway - but they would never dream of stoning a UK citizen in Saudi lol.

It IS bigotry to claim that all Arabs hold the same views like you have done - it is textbook orientalism. I wouldn't openly advertise being gay in an Arab country but I wouldn't advise that in an awful lot of countries in the world - including a lot of European ones like Russia, Serbia etc - doesn't mean you couldn't travel there.

Just a note on Jews - anti-semetic attitudes have only really existed since in Arabia since 1945 and Israel's creation. Arabs (and Persians, Turks) treated Jews a hundred times better than Europeans ever did.

Original post by JC.

What possible use is Arabic going to be to the average brit? Just like German and French that you're forced to learning in school; Pointless.

You didn't say to the average Brit - obviously nothing really if you don't plan on ever travelling or working in the Arab world.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 49

Mad Vlad

19

Original post by Al-Mudaari

1. Never say never, there may be a time when you'll regret not having learned it.

Are you prophesying that the Middle East will become the global superpower and that everyone will have to bow down to them within the century? Our reliance on the black stuff should have been solved well before then, and then what will Saudi Arabia do, when nobody wants its petroleum exports?

2. "Socially backwards" is quite a subjective observance given the same can be applied to many westernised practices.

Such as?

3. Funnily enough, you say you wouldn't go to these countries, but those countries potentially may never even let you in.

Oh yeah, I forgot about the mandatory gay tests at customs... :rolleyes:

Reply 50

Dhaal_Chawal

11

I should probably learn my own mother tongue before I learn another language.

Reply 51

darius12345

5

Original post by Mad Vlad

Are you prophesying that the Middle East will become the global superpower and that everyone will have to bow down to them within the century? Our reliance on the black stuff should have been solved well before then, and then what will Saudi Arabia do, when nobody wants its petroleum exports?

Such as? :confused:

Oh yeah, I forgot about the mandatory gay tests at customs... :rolleyes:

1. Saudi Arabia is an awful state for sure, but nobody travels to Saudi Arabia - they don't even want tourists who aren't on Hajj anyway. Going to Saudi Arabia would be a crap tourist destination. Also, nobody expects Saudi to amount to much - the historic centers of Arabia have been Cairo, Damascus and Baghdad (as well as Maghreb cities) - basically the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia. It isn't ridiculous to imagine the historic Arab regions becoming wealthy in the mid to late future - historically they have been in a much wealthier and powerful state than Europe - today is a historical anomaly.

2. Gay tests are in Kuwait or one of the Gulf states -just don't travel to the Arabian Peninsula - there is nothing to see there anyway.

3. Just as a side note, Western crimes against the Arab people are immense and the death toll runs into millions dead and countries destroyed - I'd have a little bit of humility when you accuse people have being socially backwards when the West (and it's ally Saudi) have done everything in their power to destroy the development of most Arab states. The fact that you would be warmly received as guests in most Arab states is a testament to the Arab character (and I say this as a persian who have historically had tensions with arabs to say the least)

(edited 10 years ago)

No thanks.

We need to start teaching kids something when they are six years old. French or Arabic who cares, all I know is it's embarrassing when I meet someone from mainland Europe and they can speak 3, 4 languages.

Reply 54

Kutta

19

Original post by Asklepios

Why should we learn about terrorist culture?

Original post by Greenlaner

No thanks. I have absolutely zero intention of ever going anywhere near Saudi Arabia.

Original post by rickfloss

to speak arabac learn one word

Allah, ALLLAAHH, and ALLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH

that will comprimise about 75% of all words spoken in arabic

lol at Ignorance on this thread......

Reply 55

bloomblaze

17

Original post by ChaosisaLadder

We need to start teaching kids something when they are six years old. French or Arabic who cares, all I know is it's embarrassing when I meet someone from mainland Europe and they can speak 3, 4 languages.

why are you 'embarrassed'?

I would be 'impressed' but certainly not embarrassed.

A reason why people in the UK don't take languages as seriously as other countries is because we don't need to speak other languages ie we can live comfortably with just our own language. Also, English is the ''international business language''.

Reply 56

ChaosisaLadder

Original post by bloomblaze

why are you 'embarrassed'?

I would be 'impressed' but certainly not embarrassed.

A reason why people in the UK don't take languages as seriously as other countries is because we don't need to speak other languages ie we can live comfortably with just our own language. Also, English is the ''international business language''.

I should clarify I was in mainland Europe at the time studying so being surrounded by people who could is not impressive as many people spoke a few languages it just made me seem deficient.

Language imperialism isn't a good thing it's short changing us because we now have less skills than other people our age from Europe.

Reply 57

CEKTOP

13

There are no useful languages apart from English. End of story,

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Reply 58

username948920

13

English, Mandarin, Spanish and Arabic make you pretty employable. It doesn't surprise me at all must people on this forum denounce Arabic as a pointless language to learn - probably a mixture of undiagnosed "Islamophobia" and ignorance (21st century "enlightenment").

Reply 59

CEKTOP

13

Original post by Savvy Sage

English, Mandarin, Spanish and Arabic make you pretty employable. It doesn't surprise me at all must people on this forum denounce Arabic as a pointless language to learn - probably a mixture of undiagnosed "Islamophobia" and ignorance (21st century "enlightenment").

Every Arab Sheikh and every Chinese industry leader speak English these days. Most expats in China don't speak Chinese, why would they learn it if everyone around them speaks English?

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Brits should start learning some Arabic

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