UAE | Heritage and Culture
Keeping culture alive through word of mouth
While the International Mother Language Day may pass many countries by, the multinational residents of the UAE understand the importance of preserving their mother tongue as a symbol of their culture.
- By Marten Youssef and Binsal Abdul Kader, Staff Reporters
- Published: 01:15 February 21, 2008
Abu Dhabi: While the International Mother Language Day may pass many countries by, the multinational residents of the UAE understand the importance of preserving their mother tongue as a symbol of their culture.
Today it's possible for an Indian family to buy Indian textiles from an Indian shopkeeper, dine at an Indian buffet and go to the Gurdwara on weekends - all the while never having to use a word of English.
But at the heart of linguistic diversity is the desire to promote cultural diversity, and this was the motivation eight years ago, when the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation proclaimed February 21 as International Mother Language Day.
The UN has also pronounced 2008 the International Year of Languages.
Few other places in the world are as linguistically dynamic as the UAE. The multiculturalism that exists in the nation has bred a linguistic challenge for some, but in so many ways it has enriched the diversity of the country, says Liza Fabi, a Filipina who works in the retail industry.
"I interact with most people in English, but outside my job I only speak Tagalog," Fabi says.
The abundance of Filipino people in the UAE has made it possible for people like Fabi to speak her mother tongue. "If I wasn't working here, I don't think I would need to speak anything else," she adds.
A mother of two boys, Fabi put both of her children in schools where they could learn English and Arabic. "I speak to them in Tagalog and they know how to speak it, but I they don't have as good of a grasp of Tagalog as they do English."
Fabi worries that in readying her children for the English-speaking world, they could lose their culture. "But you have to embrace it. This is globalisation," she adds.
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