English instruction gains popularity in Qatar

By Nasser El-Ghanem in Doha
For Al-Shorfa.com
2010-01-07

[KARIM JAAFAR/AFP/Getty Images] The Qatari stock exchange. Learning English has become a necessity for many private sector jobs in the Gulf region.

Doha is one of the Arab capitals where the English has spread so extensively that it has become the first language in many businesses.

The increasing demand to learn English means that language institutes have spread rapidly and are lucrative businesses for their owners. There are more than 40 such institutes officially registered in Doha, the capital of Qatar.

Mai Habib, director of the Trio Centre for Teaching English, told Al-Shorfa that "there is a high number of people enrolling in centres that teach English". She said English is indispensable for landing a private sector job in Qatar and the Gulf states.

"Any person looking for a job here will be surprised that the companies and institutions require command of the English language as one of the important reasons to get the job," Habib said.

"The prices of courses at private centres range between $600 and $900 per month. In general they are private centres, except for the British Cultural Council, which is considered a semi-governmental institution, and gives extensive courses in English which last three months."

Abdallah Rasim, an Iraqi studying in Qatar and one of those who have enrolled in an English Language centre, told Al-Shorfa that he signed up because he felt that his job was threatened as all his company's transactions are in English.

"The clients cannot speak any other language," says Rasim. "Even the Arabs, there are some who prefer to speak with you in English. My English is poor. Therefore, I have decided to join this centre with the purpose of improving my English skills."

Some experts warned that the emphasis on English language teaching could come at the expense of the mother tongue, Arabic.

Dr. Khalifah Nasir, a Qatari researcher, said that the reason English is in demand in the Gulf "is the economic rise in those countries and the dependence of their governments on a non-Arab workforce. They recruited millions of Asian and European workers, and this made English more common at the expense of the Arabic."

In some institutes English is already the official language for multiple subjects.

"Unfortunately, most of the schools no longer pay attention to Arabic and teaching in English is not restricted to the language," says Amjad Muhammad Al-Nasir, an Arabic teacher at Al Mouthanna School. "It has expanded to include many other materials. Science, mathematics, and biology and other materials are taught in English and this represents an enormous threat to the mother language."

Manal Abd-al-Hameed, an English teacher at Rabaa', said that Arabic is declining because there is no interest in it.

"I teach English in one of the schools and there is great interest in English at the expense of other materials," says al-Hameed. "English teachers face tremendous pressure, but nobody cares about the other materials, especially Arabic. Moreover, the parents feel strongly that their children should learn English."

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