Let us learn in our own language, says Algerian scholar

Thank you for raising the old-new debate on the language of instruction in Arab universities. The article essentially points to the limited success of the national translation policies in the Arab world. It has been pointed out that translation policy makers in Tunis, Cairo and Dubai are representing the elite of society and not serving the best interests of ‘the man in the street” as professor Bioud so correctly and candidly puts it. Over the years most Arab universities moved towards English and French as the de facto language of instruction except in Syria. However, professional results do not show any direct benefits from the current modus operandi. Syrian-educated doctors, for example, are among the most successful in Australia and the United States. As the Arab world is characterised by a youthful population that is fast espousing digital technology there seems to be another revolution in the air; an educational one. There is no denying that translation will always play a decisive role and this points to ‘audiovisual translation studies’ which is yet to take root in Arabic. For many years, televisions in Arab cities have been subtitling foreign language programs into Arabic but without considering screen translation as a discipline to be examined in its own right. Now there are screens everywhere: in the street, the car, school, work, and at home. Information as well as entertainment is being broadcast via a screen and every hand, young and old, seems to have a smart phone with a screen. There is an opportunity to rectify the situation in Algeria as well as in the Gulf States by espousing audiovisual translation which can easily replace the not-too-successful translation programs and campaigns that exist in almost every Arab country from Egypt to Lebanon and the Emirates. There is no doubt that teaching Arabic at primary and secondary schools needs a facelift. However, the solution must be well-orchestrated and must be multimodal at the audio and visual levels. It needs to win the hearts and minds of 60% of the population (the youth who are under 25). It must be remembered that Arabic content online is still very modest at 1% of the total content. Academic institutions, and particularly translation departments, need to shift to digital technology and to content creation which is essentially more efficient to organize, more economical to do and easier to access. Muhammad Y Gamal, PhD University of Canberra Australia