2 replies to this topic

[StSilver]

I recently read this article (it's in French, unfortunately, if you can't read it.)

http://www.lactualit...rd-son-francais

It displayed a few interesting points. Basically, it talks about how many young Tunisians in Tunisia nowadays have not picked up the ability to speak one of their national languages (French) and instead are reverting back to the Arabic language that was in place before the French colonized them.
It seems that only those with rich parents, those with access to a private school have to learn French. Otherwise, it's not really considered important in school anymore.

So my question is this. Is French now so ingrained in the culture that it should be kept as an important part of the school syllabuses? Or is it right that the Tunisians should revert back to Arabic? Do you think they should stay bilingual? Or does it just not matter?

What do you think?

Edited by StSilver, Nov 28, 2011 - 18:59.

[Mahuta ♥]

Well, I can give you an exact opinion given that I am a young Tunisian studying in Tunisia. First of all, the article doesn't really give the correct image on this issue.

StSilver, on Nov 28, 2011 - 06:36, said:

I recently read this article (it's in French, unfortunately, if you can't read it.)

http://www.lactualit...rd-son-francais

It displayed a few interesting points. Basically, it talks about how many young Tunisians in Tunisia nowadays have not picked up the ability to speak one of their national languages (French) and instead are reverting back to the Arabic language that was in place before the French colonized them.

I lived outside Tunisia for 18 years, and only came back in 2009, I have been speaking English since I was 9 years old, yet I speak French fluently and I am capable of studying in French. With all that, I still feel intimidated when I speak French in uni because they're all much better than I am. They all speak French as good as I speak English and I am in Med School, so they're all a bunch science freaks that didn't really take the languages seriously. The article states that the students they were talking about are the elites of Tunis, which is not true, Elites of Tunisia study in Special Advanced High Schools. I believe the whole "Please repeat in Arabic" thing is not as common as it sounds for many reasons, one being that we don't have pure Tunisian Arabic. Our dialect is mixed with French that I can safely say most of the people I am around have a French word every 3-5 Arabic words.  So that was correcting some things mentioned in the article.

As for my opinion, we are not diverting back to Arabic, at least not any time soon which isn't a very good thing to be honest. French is way embedded into our dialect that there is almost no one that can speak pure Arabic Tunisian.

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It seems that only those with rich parents, those with access to a private school have to learn French. Otherwise, it's not really considered important in school anymore.

This is not true as well. Every single school in Tunisia teaches French from the 3rd grade to 12th grade. It is given the same weight as Arabic in the final grade with a harder exam and more lessons per week.

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So my question is this. Is French now so ingrained in the culture that it should be kept as an important part of the school syllabuses? Or is it right that the Tunisians should revert back to Arabic? Do you think they should stay bilingual? Or does it just not matter?

What do you think?

First question, yes. I believe French should be kept as an important part of school syllabuses. Why? Well for the reason you said and that all..and I mean all universities in Tunisia teach everything in French (Except literature, history, geography, law..etc). So reverting back to Arabic isn't going to be a good idea. We should try to make Arabic a bit more important than it is right now because well..it's our first language, but completely reverting to Arabic..no. Staying bilingual? Definitely. In fact making the students trilingual is something the gov has been trying to do for so long. Started out by introducing English from year 6 onwards i.e all the way through university (Yes I have English classes right now). Lastly, it matters big time because a lot of students carry on their uni studies in France or Belgium, so it is imperative that High School students graduate with at least a moderate fluency in French.

[King Glau]

StSilver, on Nov 28, 2011 - 06:36, said:

I recently read this article (it's in French, unfortunately, if you can't read it.)

http://www.lactualit...rd-son-francais

It displayed a few interesting points. Basically, it talks about how many young Tunisians in Tunisia nowadays have not picked up the ability to speak one of their national languages (French) and instead are reverting back to the Arabic language that was in place before the French colonized them.
It seems that only those with rich parents, those with access to a private school have to learn French. Otherwise, it's not really considered important in school anymore.

So my question is this. Is French now so ingrained in the culture that it should be kept as an important part of the school syllabuses? Or is it right that the Tunisians should revert back to Arabic? Do you think they should stay bilingual? Or does it just not matter?

What do you think?

First of all, you used the word national which is really out of place. If your country was colonized and you was affected by the colony language then it isn'y national. Tunisia national language is Arabic, and i don't know if i may add barbarian also.

I am really happy to hear that, because i believe the first step in building any country is to respect the country  culture.  Maybe as Mahuta said tunisians need time and they aren't reverting, but maybe they will. Btw tunisians, algerians and Moroccan can speak excellent pure arabic, despite of the dialects.  I think that tunisians realized now that they need to be back to their own language, and i am with them in doing that, but also i think that frensh is a tool that they should keep.  Saying that it is a tool means that they should have it but arabic should be the main language.

When tunisians succeed on their revolution, i saw many tunisians in the T.V who are happy. They were talking and shouting and i was really proud that they spoke arabic with no frensh word. They spoke in arabic and for arabic. The man in the video spoke maybe 200 words in arabic and i didn't listen a frensh word. I was really ver proud.



Tunisians, algerians and morrocan were a pillar in building the new arabic and i really want them to keep their role, but without losing the tools that they already acquired.