Quarter of students at Arabic language school are Emiratis

Emiratis account for 25 per cent of all students at the Al Ramsa Institute, which specialises in teaching the local Arabic dialect.

DUBAI // A year after it opened its doors to teach the Emirati dialect of Arabic language, now, 25 per cent of students at the Al Ramsa Institute are Emirati.

“When I got my first Emirati student, I thought it was an exception,” said Hanan Al Fardan, the school’s Emirati co-founder. “Then, when the second Emirati called, I thought that also had to be an exception. But, now 25 per cent of our students are Emiratis. There is clearly a demand for this.”

The institute is the only facility that teaches the Emirati dialect of Arabic, said Ms Al Fardan. Most language schools teach modern standard Arabic, also known as classical Arabic.

Standard Arabic is used in newspaper and academic writing and in highly formal communications.

“But it’s not how people talk to each other,” said Ms Al Fardan.

More students – mostly young professionals – are turning to the institute to learn colloquial Emirati dialect to help them advance in their workplace as the country moves toward Emiratisation. Other students have enrolled to improve communications with their relatives and establish stronger ties with their roots.

“I had a student who was getting married and needed to learn how to speak to her mother-in-law who didn’t speak English,” said Ms Al Fardan.

Samah Al Obaidli, 29, an Emirati from Dubai, speaks perfect English but said the institute has helped boost her confidence speaking in Arabic.

“I don’t speak fluently and my Arabic is really, really poor. So I was looking for a class that would teach Emirati dialect,” said Ms Al Obaidli, whose father is Emirati and mother is from Azerbaijan. “I’m from here and I think it’s important that I can speak the language where I live.”