ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—The number of Iraqi Kurds who speak Arabic fluently has declined significantly since the 1990s, even though Arabic is the second official language in Kurdistan and the primary language of Iraq.
The result is a generation where most people under the age of 35 cannot communicate in Arabic. The language gap, largely a result of past Arab-Kurdish tensions, may well end up creating a new sort of tension in the coming years: The inability to communicate with each other.
After the creation of the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in 1991, assertions of nationalism and feelings of animosity toward Saddam Hussein’s oppressive regime led to disinterest and neglect toward learning Arabic among Kurds.
Dashdi Nouri, 28, works for a security company in Erbil and does not speak Arabic.
“I didn’t learn Arabic because I only went to school for four years. My family was very poor and I had to work to help support my family,” Nouri explained.
Nouri said studying and learning other languages was not considered as important then as it is now, but regrets that he cannot speak Arabic because of its importance in so many different aspects of his life.
Ala Ismail, a 24-year-old from Erbil, has similar regrets about never learning Arabic.
“Even though course materials were given to us in Arabic, the teachers would translate everything for us and we were allowed to answer in Kurdish. I didn’t learn because I was always given an easier alternative and was never forced,” Ismail explained.
Ismail’s friend, Khorshid Hawezy, a 24-year-old lawyer fluent in Arabic, is an exception for his age.
“Only five percent of my friends speak Arabic,” Hawezy noted. He initially began learning Arabic at home and said he did not learn much in school.
“My relatives spoke it at home, which motivated me to practice and continue learning at home,” he explained.
Hawezy said it was at university, where he studied law, that he really became proficient in the language.
“Students were told to answer in Arabic if they knew it, but if not, their work would be translated to Kurdish,” he said.
Hawezy thinks that negative sensitivities against Arabic among Iraqi Kurds have faded by now. “I’m proud to speak Arabic and the generation that doesn’t will face problems. People will be forced to learn as otherwise they won’t be able to communicate.”
In recent years, particularly since the fall of Saddam’s regime in 2003, there has been a renewed interest in the language among today’s younger Kurds, largely at the urging of teachers and parents.
Nadham Omar, a teacher at Shahid Kochar Public School in Erbil, has taught Arabic for 20 years. He said students these days do not have negative associations with the language, but do find it difficult to learn.
“It’s important for students to learn Arabic because all of our historical and scientific books are in Arabic,” Omar noted, adding that Arabic is also critically important for both business and religious purposes in Kurdistan.
Studying Arabic has always been compulsory in both public and private Kurdish schools, but the age at which lessons begin and the intensity of instruction differs from school to school.
“Students here are encouraged to learn all languages equally. Arabic plays a huge role in life and is absolutely important to their education,” said Farrah Matty, director of Erbil’s Classical School of the Medes.
These days, most Kurdish speakers of Arabic belong to the older generation who received their education prior to 1991, when the three northern Kurdish provinces were under Iraqi jurisdiction. This generation also had stronger ties with Baghdad through education, work or the formerly mandatory military service in the Iraqi army.
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