The Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre (ALC), His Excellency Dr. Ali bin Tamim, took part in a special discussion panel at the 17th edition of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina International Book Fair in Egypt this week, where he debated the global challenges facing the Arabic language.

The ALC, part of the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), is taking part in the event, which is running until 28 July at the historic library, in collaboration with the General Egyptian Book Organisation and the Egyptian and Arab Publishers Association. The book fair is this year being presented under an ‘Awareness and Building Humans’ theme and includes 75 cultural events, bringing together more than 300 speakers and lecturers

In a special session tackling ‘Problems and Challenges of the Arabic Language’ alongside the Director of the Manuscript Center at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Dr. Medhat Issa, and moderated by Egyptian poet and journalist Mahmoud Sharaf, Dr. bin Tamim categorised the challenges into five main blocs, the first of which is the ‘problem of the language among its natives’.

The second challenge presented by Dr. bin Tamim is that of ‘Arabic teaching through its various stages’, as language should be the link between the present and the past. Furthermore, it is the link between the people of all nations who speak Arabic, as it is a language of science, knowledge, culture and civilisation.

The third challenge involves ‘translation and terminology chaos’. Dr. bin Tamim emphasised that the importing of Western terms into the Arabic lexicon has created a crisis, with inaccuracies in many terms translated for various fields of knowledge.

In the ‘digital challenge’, Dr. bin Tamim stressed that many obstacles prevent a strong Arabic digital presence, especially due to the low levels of computer literacy across Arab societies, weak Internet infrastructure, and the lack of effort by universities and centres in digitisation of research, studies, manuscripts and publications.

The fifth challenge is the ‘creative challenge’. Dr. bin Tamim said that elevated creativity, especially artistic, contributes greatly to the Arabic language. Creativity and encouragement of literary and artistic production is of great benefit for the language, he added.

During the session, Dr. bin Tamim presented the most prominent programmes, projects and partnerships managed by the ALC in its work to support and promote the Arabic language in Abu Dhabi, the UAE, and the world.

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