DAMMAM, 23 October 2004 — Less than a week after the Council of Ministers passed the amendment to the Kingdom’s Citizenship and Naturalization Law, there has been a flurry of activity among the expatriates in the Eastern Province to initiate the process of applying for the citizenship.
Arab News Gulf Region Bureau was flooded with telephone calls from expat readers who wanted clarification on the report published in the paper on Wednesday. People posed varied set of questions ranging from maximum age limit to status of wife and children. However, the most common question among the callers was about the Arabic language factor. One of the qualifications stipulated in the amendment says that the applicant must be fluent in speaking, reading and writing Arabic.
The language institutes in Dammam confirmed that since the announcement of the new citizenship law, there has been a spurt in inquiries about their Arabic language program. Ironically, there are more than two dozen English language institutes in Dammam and Alkhobar, in addition to the British Council which also offers English learning program. But there are very few — may be two or three Arabic language institutes in the entire Eastern Province. Saleh Al-Dosarry, manager of an English language institute in Dammam said that during the past 24 hours his institute has received more than 50 calls from expatriates inquiring about Arabic language program. “We don’t offer any course in Arabic language. But the extent of calls we received since Wednesday, has compelled us to think about starting a crash program in Arabic language,” he said.
The Islamic Dawa Center in Dammam offers Arabic language course, but it’s a short-duration course tailored for basic learners. Expatriates in Dammam say that there is an urgent need for Arabic language institute, as the Dawa center cannot accommodate so many learners.
“Al-Dosarry said that the amendment to the law has opened a big business opportunity for language institutes and in just a few weeks there will be Arabic curricula in almost all language institutes. “There is no major investment. The infrastructure is already there. What we will need are bilingual teachers who could teach Arabic in English language,” he said.
Muhammad Al-Marzookh, owner of a software company, said that he was considering preparing a software that could help in self-learning of Arabic language through English. “There are some such programs but they will not help in achieving fluency in Arabic.
But all language institutes had a word of caution to expatriates: You can learn how to read and write Arabic in classroom but fluency in speech could only be achieved by practice. “So just start speaking Arabic now”! Al-Dosarry suggested.
