Abu Dhabi: New technology can serve to break down language barriers in the UAE community, allowing better communication between different groups, a business executive said yesterday.
New media tools will open previously closed societies, according to Ali Al Ahmad, chief corporate communication officer of etisalat, who was speaking at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit.
He said currently there is not much interaction between communities due to the language barrier.
"If an English speaker calls me on my mobile I cannot speak to him or her if I don't know English," Ahmad told Gulf News.
"But the new media tools [multimedia messages] enable you to share pictures and videos which anybody can understand without the language barrier."
He said such communication through multimedia messages can only enhance the interaction among the communities.
"Etisalat does not want to claim that we will make such a change," Ahmad said.
He added that new media tools are definitely already changing the behaviour of people.
New generation
"The new generation is developing their own languages for text messages," Ahmad said.
"I cannot understand some of the messages from my daughter, but [youngsters] are interacting more with other communities, breaking the language barrier (by using common language for text or multimedia messages)."