Morocco # English board

Hello All,

Many of the sciences and economies around the world are performed in English. It is without a doubt the world most spoken language.
Do you think there will come a day when it’ll replace French as second language in Morocco?
And which do you think will benefit and be good for Morocco future, a French or English education system?

Cheers,




Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2005 01:06 by almotanabi.

Assalamo 3alikom,

I think that the best language for an Arabic country is of course Arabic:
It is the language of the quoran and the language that al mankind will speak on the day of judjment (Yaum al qiyama).

I have studied in Morocco and I have noticed that several of my friends who had exceptional abilities in Science or literature were handicaped through lack of knowledge of french.

Arabic has proven to be a excelent language for all disciplines of science for many centuries, it's a shame that the Moroccan educational system has stopped using Arabic after high school.

Education and knowledge should be freely available, anyone should be able to pick up a book and read so as to educate themselves on whatever topic they chose. Unfortunately due to illiteracy and the use of french for academic topics, knowledge sources are kept in the hands of a small segment of the population.

As far as other languages I think that no language should be imposed as a "defacto second language" but all languages should be available for students who CHOOSE to study them the choice should include: Berber, English, French, German, Chinese ...

Morocco should cut the links with its colonial history and look forward to the future, sometimes looking at my country I start to wonder whether we are still being colonised but in a more subtle manner? The educational system trains workers for the french system of work, and in particular, for export to france. Popular culture and in particular european and american television gives people the belief that they would have a better life somewhere else. This means that Morocco keeps losing educated people to other economic systems, which it has spent large amounts of money educating. In this way France, and also other european economic systems and Canada profit economically from the export of Moroccon people. And Morocco loses out. One way of changing this might be to educate people in Arabic, and of course to improve economic prospects within the country, and change the popular myth that 'life would be so much easier somewhere else'. (Life is easier in some places but for SOME people only - mainly the upper class or those with a good education, and those born in the country of course have an advantage!)

Arabic!

Salam

You need to have leaders with vision.
Decisions makers should have the good will to educate, motivate
and to mobilize enough money for education.
In which language ?
In any language or a mixture of languages.
Arabic and french
arabic and english
etc....
But do it right to start a chain reaction for the ceation of a society of knowledge..........and not a society of tea and bread...ha

Krim

I do agree with you. However there's a realty we can't ignore; that English has supplanted many languages in the world including French and now it's spreading in large of domains.

And of course, Morocco can make a big decision in choosing between French or English despite this choice isn't easy and natural for it, when see the history high weight that it share with France.

I think the economic reality and the new relationship with America may be able to push morocco to adopt English. It's exactly what happened to Lebanon

Why shall we choose?? It is very easy to have both and the best solution I think

Of course you are write English has supplanted French in many areas but French is still the "Noble" language. All diplomats and intellectuals around he world speak French. And I think it is compulsory for diplomats .... but am not sure.

Moroccans should keep all languages, i.e. Arabic, French, English and Spanish ... but they should add Chinese to that if they really want to enter the competition.

Cheers

Of course French is a noble language and you can't imagine how I'm very happy to hear that from your mouth. But, the reality and my experience keep me very pragmatic and I resign to admit face you that French was beaten. My eyes filled with tears when I saw my French down on the ground.

But you can know the game is not over

The reason why I asked that question is the fact that the world economies are almost all adopting English as the language of the new world, if I may say, and so will it be in Morocco benefit to start getting the next generation ready to face this fact? I believe the answer is yes, if not we may find ourselves left behind. The least we can do is offer it in our schools; I also agree with tachelhit that Chinese is becoming very important, too.

Agreed ... English should be taught in schools as a second language. Students could choose between french and english. From primary school would be good.

But if you add that to the Berber dialects and french and spanish etc... They're gonna have a hard time. The best thing is to let them choose what they want to learn.

Cheers,

I agree with you tachelhit, but that has to be done in a frame and a plan that will support the future of Moroccan economy and insure positions for the graduates. I just think that if Morocco does not act now, it may be too late when it finds out that it has to.
cheers,

HI all;

Morocco is a cross rods countrythat's in a crossroad! I explain: There's no clear cut answer to the question at hand! THe situation as it is in Morocco is one of plurality and contrasts! plurality of Languages and contrasts in social classes and with that comes the Choice of which language to chooose! French is still the language of Bourjoisie, nobe, if you will! English has its practical sense in its use in business...this doesn't answer the question since French and English are fragmented and used along with Moroccan arabic ( in its many varieties) to give birth to a totaly distinct mixture of languages! No really confusing if you look at this very foum! we use French, arabic, darija of the North, south and middle if we want to use a more comprehensive or generative terms because to me The arabic " Spoken" in Morocco has many levels that make it unique; yet difficult in allowing a simple chice between French and English to be that easy! I will stop here and read your reactions and see if we can push this any further! Thanks.
Yani

Why french ?
In the majority people don't speak this dialect in morocco.
Is there a statistiv about that.
The french is everywhere in press and television with the arabic moroccan.
But how many people in this country speak french ?
The majority is Berber and MOrocco is a rural country .
Homa many people speak the latin dialect of french ?
thank to tell me.
About english.Certainly in the next decade it will have a great place but i don't think it replace by french.
For my opinion i prefer that the arabic moroccan and the Amazigh come to official language and to supprime the french in all administration and to reduce the press in french and to supprime the french in television.
Why there is in Rtm and 2m a programm in french and after in arabic. What rural people in morocco understand ??
Perhap's i make mistake in my opinion but someone can help me in this point of view
Bye for today

Belaid I agree with you ... there should be a lot more Dialects spoken on national TV. And why not tv channels created for each dialect spoken in Morocco.

But let's not forget that we HAVE TO play it global ... so let's not forget about French and English. People who have money and send their kids to private schools in Morocco seem to manage to learn the whole lot. The administration should leverage the experience acquired in private schools to try and apply in public schools. That would be everyone's benefit.

Cheers

tachelhit Wrote:
> Of course you are write English has supplanted
> French in many areas but French is still the
> "Noble" language. All diplomats and intellectuals
> around he world speak French. And I think it is
> compulsory for diplomats .... but am not sure.

You are right tachelhit, diplomats spoke french, but FYI that was in the 16th century and now we are in 21st century.

French is a dead language and has no futur, we have to admit this reality, arabic is much more important since there is more people speaking arabic than french.

If I was in the gouvernemont, I would change immediately the french to english at least at school then at high school and later at the university.

doukkali,

When you talk about Arabic, do you mean pure Arabic (as in my experience very few Moroccans speak or read pure Arabic) Virtually everyone we come across speaks either the Moroccan dialect or French, and can hardly understand anything on the TV. There's no wonder everyone installs satellite TV.

I believe that eventually English will replace French in Morocco and in other countries, this is just a fact, English is more spoken around the world and if countries want to be included in the world economy, then sooner or later they’ll have to assimilate. I actually hope that it’ll take place sooner rather then later, because it will be in Morocco’s best interest.
Yeah, French is beautiful, French is poetic, but if English will help morocco get couple hundred thousand jobs like the ones going to India, that would be enough reason for me to switch. I love French, but if another language will help my family have a better life then the one they’re having now, well, Moliere and his bodies are just going to have to live with it.




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/2005 01:50 by almotanabi.

I hope English will replace French in Morocco so our people could study and have much more opportunities to get jobs and to live in different countries around the world...with French you‘ve got only few countries that are not interesting any more.....English is not only a communication language it’s become a skill that everyone, who wants to take part of the globalisation, should have .....

It's surprising how many English words are creeping into the French language - much as Blair and Chirac are at loggerheads with each other! If you watch the French TV advertisements now - all the accompanying music is vintage English pop. LoL. They must think it makes people buy more (?)

Guys, I really don't see the point in doing any of this.....do not forget guys that we are still following France in many ways...the vast majority of Moroccan students finish their college degrees or 3rd cycle in Frnace...not to mention belgium.....
Why are we so scared and feel the need to relapace French with englis...Maybe Moroccans don't speack english but I can tell you that their level of english is better than French people....
One more thing to add, it's more complicated that you thing, you can't just go ahead and get a rid of a language or replace it...the bigest investing country in Morocco is France with it's multinationals and even small entreprises, also most Moroccan studying abroad go to France, not to forget that politicly we are very close (The Moroccan Sahara affair will be closed now if we didn't have the French help), it is very complicatedl, we have got many Moroccan poets and writers using this language..so it's too much to scrap in favour of a language (english) that is controlled by economy.....what will happen in a decade when China rule the economy we will then again swap english with Chineese...what about our identity? take care guys...

Salaam romuse,

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>what about our identity?

Well, our identity is truly not french. So really the best thing would be to go to our sources. Only then we can advance... The best example is Spain. This country did not advance because it has been using french or english. It advanced because it used spanish, its own language.

When a country or a people uses a language that does not belong to it, they are truly traumatized in their psychie. They all the time feel inferior and can never take initiatives. This is truly the heart of the problem in Morocco.

It is truly a mess for a student to study all his high school in one language and end up in college with a totally different language...

hi mdlazreg, I agree with you only don't forget that the forum topic was about replacing French with English and not our sources..and my reply was about this.
As for comingback to our sources (what do U mean exactly ? Arabic? Berber?...)
again I will say that solving the problem isn';t easy at all.....it's not just a matter of translating or creating books and generalising the language, how can you make Arabic the language used if their is no material available for all levels (books, research, people who speack the language in the fisrt place!!!) I know many speak arabic, but how many maths scientist or physician or or or...speack Arabic? you can't just chnage the system and hope it will work...their will be a lot's of mess and many generations will loose any hope of been something.....
Don't misunderstand me friend, I'm all for it...but I don't see how it can be done......now everything is advancing fast very fast and Morocco can't affpord time for trials....we can always restrucute, but a radical chnage will be destructive. thanks

Salaam romuse,

I defenitly agree with you and I am totaly against radical changes. I believe however that Spain is a very good example to be inspired from.

The PNB of Spain was very much less than Morocco in 1970s. If they did it why not us...

Spain also has multiple sources and the problem was solved by having the famous "autonomias".

Hi,

brother mdlazreg;

spain progressed not because spanish people used their own language but because spain has got a lot of help from europeen union..it's completely different...other thing... spanish people speak pretty good english now... english is well integrated in their education...

brother romuse,

I don't think we have the choice...if we want to catch the western world and to be part of the globalisation we have to speak the world language wich is english..

you said '...do not forget guys that we are still following France in many ways...'..well it's time to get our independance...isn't ?...of course it's not easy..but nothing is easy at the beginn anyway....

Salaam Ilhem2,

>>>>>>>>>>>but because spain has got a lot of help from europeen union..

Thats very much true, but you know what, Morocco has something which is far more better then the European union help. Its the Millions of Moroccans living in Europe and all over the World. The help of this diaspora to Morocco is much greater then the European help to Spain. Not to mention that Morocco is much richer than Spain in natural resources.

>>>>>>>>>>>>spanish people speak pretty good english now... english is well integrated in their education...

And we really need to do the same thing in Morocco. The British tourists have completely changed the south of Spain... They are actually some neighborhoods in Spain where the only language spoken is only English because it is full of Britishs. If Morocco wants to grap a piece of the pie we need to focus on the English speaking tourists.

Right now the south of Spain which is the main tourist destination for many Ensligh speaking countries is getting saturated. I can see that from 10 years from now, you will see massif waves of British and others in north Morocco. To benefit to the full of this opertunity, we need Moroccans who can speak English.

It does not mean we have to get rid of French but at least, English should be also the second language for whoever chooses to. Right now French is imposed as a second language God knows for what reason. We need to open ourselves to the world. I would even suggest having chinesse as a second language for any student who is interested in this language of the future.

Salam alaykoum.
Hello.(Salut)
I m new here, I found the forums of yabilady very intersting and enriching.
I agree with those that say that english should gradually replace french in our professional life for the reasons which everyone knows.
And for to answer those stick blindy to arabic and who say that Morocco is an Arabic contry. I would like to say that Morocco never had been an Arabic country but a Super mixture of people which formed during the history ( Berberes + europeens + blacks and finaly Arabics)...
Thanks (bonne journée)

Assalamo 3alaykom,

I think that English will never replace French in Morocco.Morocco as a country which was colonoized by France still use the French system in all its administrations and its not easy to change everything.

Yes Englich is the universal language. When you postulate for a job, they tell you that english is an advantage but French remains the first foreign language.

How strange that in an Arbic country no one asks you if you master Arabic...!!!!

salam.
I don't agree with you Kimlong, more and more companies look for persons who master english espicially in the services and New thechnologies on which our country bets.
Please Mister (or miss) Kimlong, don't forget the berber identity of Morocco....
Thanks

salam mdlazreg,

I agree with you that the moroccan migrants may help the country a lot..I 'm not sure if this help is greater than that of the uropeen union to spain because I havn't got any statistics about this issue...however our country haven't manage this help well until now like spain ..and this is the key...it's not about the language it's all about beeing honnest to serve the country with justice and fair...this what makes the difference...it doesn't matter wich language you speak but this is an other story....english is only a tool and a way to open other doors to get more oppurtunities for our people.......


salam mustapha_Caen,

you said ''...more and more companies look for persons who master english espicially in the services and New thechnologies on which our country bets.''

I totaly agree with you and this only the beginn....I'm sure in 10-20 years when other countries than france, canada and belgium will invest in morocco frensh will not be usefull at all.... and the winner will be who will master the english language......

Salam Mustapha_Caen,

Am Miss Kimlong and i dont forget Berber (am berber) i regret not neing able to speak it as fluently as Arabic, French and English

well u said that companies are looking for persons who master English "espicially in the services and New thechnologies". I agree but am not a scientist and "ignorant in new thechnoligies" and , I think,the same thing for a large number of university graduate from the English departement. but we can talk about poetry and literature.

I like to read and communicate in english and i don't deny that am employed here because i speak english, but the problem is that all my work is in Arabic and very very rarely that I use English.

Nice day to everybody

Salam everybody.
Salam Kimlong and Ilhem2.

now when I write these words a great battle of lobby is held in Singapour, especially between Paris and Londre, I hope of course that Paris carries it, because it's nearer to Caen. Then to answer Kimlong, when a sector knows a strong growth it stimulates all the other sectors. It is enough to know that the world cup 1998 helped the French economy during 4 years (tourism, services, trade...). To say to you that if the services and the news technoloqies develop in our country, the other sectors (communication, art, spectacles, gastronomy, agroalimentary, ...) them also will develop.
Slam N Rabi Flawn

Hello everyone,

I think Moroccans have lost a bit of identity when adopting French as an official language for business and administration. I think that for the time being Arabic should be the offcial language for everything and when Berber is mature enough then we could have Arabic-Berber as official languages...this means that we conduct transations in OUR languages. Why all rich countries adopt their own national languages and they are proud of them? why can't moroccans do the same?
English and French can be thaught as foreign languages and there is nothing wrong with that!

How many times you go to a bank and the language used is French...it really annoys me! even in supermarket! why? I call this elitisme oure and simple!
If I want to speak French all the time then maybe I go and live in a French-speaking country!

I am Doukkali but I believe that Morocco needs the revival of Berber so that it takes its place where it belongs HIGH!

Be Proud!