Don't kill your language

In this talk, Suzanne Talhouk calls for initiatives to revive the Arabic language, by means of modernizing it and using it as a language for creative expression. Efforts that aim to reclaim the identity of the Arabic speaking world, and get rid of the inferiority complex towards the foreign cultures.

Good morning!

Are you awake?

They took my name tag, as I wanted to ask you,

Did anyone here write his name
on the tag in Arabic?

One! No one?
Alright, no problem.

Once upon a time, not long ago,

I was sitting in a restaurant with my friend,
ordering food.

So I looked at the waiter and said:

"Do you have a menu [in Arabic]"

He looked at me strangely thinking
that he misheard.

He said: "Sorry? [in English]"

I said: "The menu [in Arabic], please.

He replied: "Don't you know what they call it?"

"I do."

He said: "No! it's called Menu [in English],
or Menu [in French],

Is the French pronunciation correct?

"Come, come, take care of this one!"
Said the waiter.

He was disgusted when talking to me,
as if he was saying to himself

If this was the last girl on earth,
I wouldn't look at her!

What's the meaning of saying Menu [in Arabic]!?

Two words made a Lebanese young man
judge a girl as being backward

and ignorant.

How could she speak that way?

At that moment I started thinking

It made me mad.

It definitely hurts!

I'm denied the right to speak my own language,
in my own country?!

Where could this happen?

How did we get here?

Well, while we are here,
there are many people like me,

who would reach a stage in their lives,
where they, involuntarily, give up

everything that has happened to them in the past

just so they'd say that they're modern

and civilized.

Shall I forget all my culture, thoughts,

intellect and all my memories?

The childhood stories might be the best memories
we have of the war!

Shall I forget everything I learnt in Arabic,
just to conform?

To be one of them?

Where's the logic in that?

Despite all that, I tried to understand him

I didn't want to judge him with same cruelty,
he judged me with.

The Arabic language doesn't satisfy today's needs.

It's no a language for science,

research,

a language we're used to in universities,

a language we use in the workplace,

a language we rely on if we were

to perform an advanced research project,

and it definitely isn't a language we use at the airport.

If we did so,
they'd strip us off our clothes.

Where can I use it then?
We could all ask this question!

So, you want us to use Arabic,
where are we to do so?

This is a reality.

But we have another more important reality
that we ought to think about.

Arabic or the mother tongue,

Research says that mastering other languages,
requires mastering the mother tongue.

Mastering the mother tongue is a prerequisite
for creative expression in other languages.

How?

Gibran Khalil Gibran

When he first started writing,
he used Arabic.

All his ideas, imagination, and philosophy,

was inspired by this little boy in the village,

where he grew up smelling a specific smell,

hearing a specific voice,

and thinking a specific thought.

So, when he started writing in English,
he had enough baggage.

Even when he wrote in English,

when you read his writings in English,
you smell the same smell,

Sense the same feeling,

You could imagine that that's him
writing in English,

The same boy who came from a the mountain.
From a village on Mount Lebanon.

So, this is an example no one can argue with.

Second, it's often said that if
you want to kill a nation,

the only way to kill a nation,

is to kill their language.

This is a reality that developed socities know.

Germans, French, Japanese and Chinese,
All these nations know this reality.

That's why they legislate laws to
protect their language.

they make it sacred.

That's why they use it in production,
they pay a lot of money to develop it.

Do we know better than them?

Alright,

if we weren't from the developed world,

this advanced thinking hasn't reached us yet,

and we would like to catch up with the civilized world.

Countries that were once like us,
but decided to strive for development,

do research,

and catch up to those countries,

like Turkey, Malaysia and others.

They carried their language with them
as they were climbing the ladder,

protected it like a diamond.

They kept it close to them.

Because if you get any product
from Turkey or elsewhere

and it's not labeled in Turkey,

then it's not a local product.

You wouldn't believe it's a local product.

They'd get back into being consumers.

clueless consumers, like we are
most of the time.

So, in order for them to innovate and produce,
they had to protect their language.

If I say: "Freedom, sovereignty, independence [in Arabic]",
what does this remind you of?

It doesn't ring a bell does it?

Regardless of the who, how, and why ..

Language isn't just for conversing,
just words coming out of our mouths.

Language represents specific stages in our lives,

and terminology, that is linked to our emotions.

Thus when we say: "Freedom, sovereignty, independence"

each one of you draws a specific image
in their minds,

there're specific and feelings,

of a specific day in a specific historical period.

language isn't one, two, or three words or letters,
put together

it's an idea inside that relates to how we think,
and how we see each other and how they see us.

what is our intellect,

how do you say that this guy understands or not?

So, if I say: "Freedom, sovereignty, independence [in English]"

or if your son came up to you and said:

"Dad, have you lived through the period of
the freedom [in English] slogan?"

How would you feel?

If you don't see a problem,

then I'd better leave, and stop
talking in vain.

The idea is that these expressions
remind us of a specific thing.

I have a francophone friend who's married
to a French man.

I asked her once how things were going.

She said:
"Everything is very well,

but once, I spent a whole night
asking and trying to translate

the meaning of the word (Toqborni) for him"

(Laughs) (Applause)

The poor woman had mistakenly told him Toqborni,

and spent the whole night trying to explain it to him.

He was puzzled by thought:
"How could anyone be this cruel!

Does she won't to commit suicide?

Bury me! .."

This is one of the few examples.

It made us feel that she's unable to tell
that word to her husband, since he won't understand,

and he' right not too,
his way of thinking is different.

She said to me:
"He listens to Fairuz with me,

and in one night,
I tried to translate for him

so he can feel what I feel when
I listen to Fairuz."

The poor woman tried to translate this for him:

"From them I extended my hands and stole you..."

(Laughs)

and here's the pickle:
"... and because you belong to them, I returned my hands and left you."

(laughs)

Translate that for me.

(Applause)

So, what have we done to protect
the Arabic language?

We turned this into a concern of the civil society,

and we launched a campaign to preserve
the Arabic language.

Even though many people told me:
"Why do you bother yourself?

Forget about this headache and go have fun."

No problems!

The campaign to preserve Arabic,
launched a slogan that says:

"I talk to you from the east,
but you reply from the west"

We didn't say:
"No! We do not accept this or that ! ..."

We didn't adapt this style because we wouldn't
understand this way.

And when someone talks to me that way,
I hate the Arabic language.

We say,

-- (Applause) --

we want to change our reality,

and be convinced in a way that mimic
our dreams, aspirations, and day to day life.

In a way that wears the same clothes as us,
and thinks the same way.

So, "I talk to you from the east, but you reply from the west"
has hit the spot.

Something very easy, yet creative and pursuasive.

After that, we launched another campaign

with scenes of letters on the ground,

you've seen an example of it outside,

a scene of a letter surrounded by Black and Yellow Tape
written on it: "Don't kill your language."

Why?
Seriously, don't kill your language.

We really shouldn't kill our language.

If we kill the language, we'll have to find
an identity.

To find an existence.

We'd go back to the beginning.

This is beyond just missing our chance
of being modern and civilized.

After that we released photos of guys and girls
wearing the Arabic letter

Photos of "Cool" guys and girls.

We are very Cool!

And to whoever will say:
"Aha! you used an English word!"

I say:
"No! I adopt the word 'Cool'".

Let them object however they want,
but give me a word that's nicer

and matches the reality better.

I will keep on saying: "Internet"
I wouldn't say: "I'm going to the World Wide Web"

(Laugh)

Because it doesn't fit!
We shouldn't kid ourselves.

But to reach this point,
we all have to be convinced

that we shouldn't let whoever are bigger

or think they have an authority over us
when it comes to language,

to control us and make us think and feel
what they want.

Creativity is the idea.

So, if we can't reach space
or build a rocket and so on.

We can be creative.

At this moment, everyone of you
is a creative project.

Creativity in your mother tongue is the path.

Let's start from this moment.

Let's write a novel or produce a short film.

A single novel could make us global again.

It could bring back the Arabic language
to be number one.

So, it's not true that there's no solution,
there's a solution!

But we have to know that, and be convinced
that a solution exists.

That we have a duty to be part of that solution.

In conclusion, what can you do today?

Now, tweets, who's tweeting?

Please, I beg of you,
-- even though my time has finished --

either Arabic, English, French, or Chinese.

But don't write Arabic with Latin characters
mixed with numbers!

(Applause)

It's a disaster!
That's not a language.

You'd be entering a virtual world
with a virtual language.

It's not easy to rise from such a place.

That's the first thing we can do.

Second, there are other many things
that we can do.

We're not here today to convince
each other.

We're here to bring to attention the necessity
of preserving this language.

Now I will tell you a secret.

The first way by which a baby identifies his father
is through language.

When my daughter is born, I'll tell her:
"This is your father honey [in Arabic]"

I wouldn't say:
"This is your dad, honey [in English]"

And in the market, I promise my daughter Nour,
if she told me: "Thanks [in Arabic]"

I wouldn't say: "Dis merci maman"
and hope no one has heard her!

(Applause)

Let's get rid of this cultural cringe.

(Applause)