JEDDAH: An 11-year-old Saudi schoolgirl works hard at improving her English at school.

But Fatima Abdul Wahab, who is in her first intermediate year at a public school in Madinah, is trying to become what she refers to as a “Saudi-American.”

In other words, she wants to speak perfect English that will help her sound like an American.

Fatima, who lives in a poor neighborhood in Madinah, crosses two main streets every morning along with other girls living nearby to reach her school.

Fatima cares less now about her overall grade in the 10 subjects she studies, but feels depressed if she does not get a full mark in English.

She takes four English classes a week at her school but believes they are insufficient.

Despite the fact that her family and friends are not interested in English, Fatima has forced her mother to buy her English guides that teach her how to order food in a restaurant, how to shop and some other basic usages of the language even though the language is not that common in Madinah.

She would also collect money to buy call cards to call English-speaking relatives to practice her pronunciation.

Her grasp of the language is developing slowly through the use of her three word-maps that help her make sense of verbs and nouns.

Fatima also nagged her English teacher to exchange phone numbers so they could converse in what she calls this “impressive language.”

Fatima is just one example of many of her generation who are impressed not only by the English language but also by the American lifestyle, music, food, TV shows and movies.

English is also the common language of popular social networks such as Facebook and Twitter where Saudis are already registered in thousands.

Customers sitting in an American coffee shop will be asked in English what they would like to order.

They will later be served American-style coffee, while Western music plays in the background and groups of young Saudis chat in Arabic interspersed with English phrases, while sending texts in English through their mobile phones.

Sociologist and professor at King Abdulaziz University Suad Afif said that in a situation where two cultures meet, not only do contrasting lifestyles and material objects such as clothes and cars have an influence, but also linguistic quirks and phrases.

There are no specific statistics about the number of Saudi students already registered in international schools throughout the Kingdom.

According to Fahd Al-Tayash, general supervisor of the Department of Educational Information at the Ministry of Education, there are 320 international schools in the Kingdom with 10,000 male and female students.

However, there are also 698 private schools, compared to 220 in the public sector. Private schools claim they offer English or American curriculums and that they prepare their students to TOEFL or IELTS standard.

“The curriculums available (in public schools) do not help children acquire a good grasp of the English language and parents are nowadays more ambitious about their children’s future. Therefore, they register them in international schools,” said Afif.

She added that there are two groups that now use English in public. They are either those who were raised abroad and have difficulty expressing themselves in their mother tongue, or those who use the language to demonstrate a sense of prestige.

English is now used everywhere, not only in the English classroom as in the past, but also in markets, coffee shops, banks and hospitals.

Fatima claims using English is a trick that you can use if you want to be served quickly and with respect.

As Afif says, the Saudi youth now uses American slang and not the more sophisticated form of English used in books because they are more interested in popular American music and culture.

This encourages young people who were not so lucky in enrolling at English schools to register later in language centers to get certificates in English, which can be more useful than an MA in Arabic studies due to globalization, the presence of international companies and the need for bilingual employees, explained Afif.

According to her, the increasing popularity of English is now affecting not only the standard form of Arabic but also local dialects, as different English expressions are sneaking into spoken and written dialogue. “It is the responsibility of parents to preserve the mother tongue of their children. Obtaining a second language must not damage the level of first language competence. It is their responsibility to teach their children to use the right language in the right context.”

Being influenced by what appears on TV pulls youths and teenagers away from reality, and drives Fatima and her peers to show off their poorly pronounced English in front of others including their parents, which might create conflicts.

An example of this is when Fatima tells her mother, “I’ll do that right now mom.” Her mother would then yell at her thinking that her child is refusing her order, as she only hears the word “no” instead of “now.”