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Iraqi Kurds Hunger for English
3.11.2007
By Barham Omar in Sulaimaniyah (ICR No. 236, 2-Nov-07)
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Private language schools flourishing as youngsters
see English as key to better career opportunities.
November 3, 2007
SULAIMANIYAH, Kurdistan Region 'Iraq', -- For
the last two years, Hunar Kamal has tried to learn
English in the hope that his language skills will
bring him a brighter future.
Kamal, 17, said he wants good enough English to
enrol at the American University of Iraq - only the
third such US higher education institution in the
Middle East - which is expected to open this year in
the northeastern city of Sulaimaniyah.
Kamal takes English courses at one of the growing
number of private English-language learning centres
in Iraqi Kurdistan, and always carries New Headway,
an Oxford University Press curriculum that helps him
build his vocabulary. His family has spent about 800
US dollars so far on English-language courses, books
and CDs.
"My whole life revolves around watching and
listening to English movies and music," he said. "I
haven't listened to any Kurdish music in almost a
year."
After decades of isolation, young Kurds are yearning
to learn the most widely-used international language
to improve their employment prospects.
Private English-language centres have boomed in
Sulaimaniyah since the 2003 overthrow of former
Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who had persecuted and
isolated Kurds for decades.
English has been promoted by the Kurdistan Regional
Government, KRG, which last year instructed schools
to begin teaching the language to first grade
students - four academic years earlier than in the
past.
The demand for English tuition is also being fuelled
by students’ frustration with teaching methods in
Kurdish schools.
There are now seven private language schools in
Sulaimaniyah, compared to just one in 1999, with
their curricula and teachers considered superior to
government schools and community non-profits that
also teach English.
"The quality of [English teaching] is the reason why
our students do not learn English, even if they
study the language for 20 years," said Hussein
Mustafa, who heads Sulaimaniyah's education
directorate.
In English classes in Kurdish schools, reading
skills are taught but speaking and writing are not
encouraged. The private centres, which are far
better resourced than state schools, primarily focus
on aural comprehension and speaking. Moreover,
English courses in the public education system are
often taught in Kurdish, while the private centres
teach in English.
"I have studied English for eight years [at school]
but I haven't learned as much as I did during this
two-month course," said Daban Mohammad, an
18-year-old student at the Nobel Institute, one of
the new private language centres, who completed a
basic course in English this summer.
Such institutions are non-existent in the south of
the country, but here they are blossoming because
Iraqi Kurds increasingly recognise the importance
the language plays in international trade and
commerce. "English has become a daily necessity,"
noted Bahroz Mahmood, who manages the licensing of
the private centres for the KRG’s education
ministry.
Courses at the new institutions are not cheap - they
can cost up to 1,000 dollars - but demand is high,
nonetheless. The Institute for Developing the
English Language, the largest language centre in the
city, enrolled 800 students this summer - 80 per
cent of whom were under 18. But although the centres
are popular, they have quite a high dropout rate,
with students often quitting when they come to the
English grammar modules of the courses.
Arabic and Kurdish are the official languages of
Iraq, but Kurdish students only begin learning
Arabic in the fourth grade.
Many Kurds - and most Kurdish youth - can understand
Arabic because of Iraqi and Middle East media, but
cannot speak or write well and have little desire to
learn. Road signs and many government buildings are
marked in Kurdish and English, but not in Arabic.
"We've left it up to people to learn Arabic
themselves through their social and economic
relations with Arabs," said Mustafa.
Mustafa also acknowledged that Arabic is generally
more difficult to learn than English. Students often
complain about the complexity of Arabic grammar and
the uselessness of studying Arabic texts that are
hundreds of years old. They consider English much
more practical, and as Iraqi Kurdistan increasingly
functions to all intents and purposes as an
independent state, Arabic appears to declining in
importance.
"We haven't neglected Arabic, but we're paying more
attention to English," said Mustafa.
Barham Omar is an IWPR trainee in Sulaimaniyah.
iwpr net
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