There is nothing wrong in being asked to speak a foreign language if you happen to be in the country which uses that language. However, what is not acceptable is when you are forced to use a foreign language in your own country and are prevented from using your own.
At the British Consulate, as a condition for a tourist visa, I was asked to provide a bank statement showing my account for a period of six months. Since I receive all my bank statements in Arabic, I asked the banks I deal with to issue me a copy in English for presentation to the consulate. The banks refused for technical reasons.
I requested the consulate to accept the Arabic copy because it was not possible to get one in English; they refused and insisted that all the required documents, including a letter from my employer, should be in English.
I am a Saudi living in a country where the official language is Arabic. How could the British Consulate ignore this fact? How could they make Arabic an obstacle to those like me who apply for a tourist visa? In any case, I was certainly going to spend money in the country of the consulate staff who were being asked to issue the visa.
I felt subject to strong provocation that someone was trying to tell me that even in my country, my national language is not welcome or respected and that foreign languages dominate, even when it comes to submitting a bank statement. I wish the British Embassy had shown some respect for the language of this country and accepted Arabic. I wish there were some among the embassy staff who speak and understand the language.
I wonder what the position of the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs is regarding these unjustified acts, especially when our embassy in Britain does not oblige the British to submit visa applications and other documents in Arabic. I decided to withdraw my application for a visa to Britain regardless of what might happen. I decided because I refused to see my language being treated so badly and so disrespectfully.
Arab News From the Local Press 2 December 2002
