Writing in Arab News, Iman Kurdi is encouraged by a project being undertaken in the UAE to translate books into Arabic. Not only do Arabs not translate much (the UN noted in 2003 that Spain translates more books in a year than the entire Arab word has translated in 1,000 years), but they don’t read, either.
The decline of reading as entertainment is apparent in the West as well, but the fact is that other than newspapers, Arabs just don’t read very much. Kurdi tells us some of the excuses she hears, but thinks a lot of work has to be done to get Arabs to appreciate the value of books.
Translating More Books Into Arabic
Iman Kurdi, ik511@hotmail.comEvery time I come across the words “a pioneering projectâ€, particularly when the said project is to be paid for by a government “authorityâ€, I think: “Oh no, what a colossal waste of time and money!†And generally I am right. Over the last few years we have seen rather a lot of money thrown at well-intentioned projects doomed to fail. But for once, I have to eat my words, because today I read about a pioneering project that strikes me as an excellent idea well executed.
It’s about reading. Have you been in an Arabic bookshop lately? Pretty depressing landscape, isn’t it? Whether it is books written in Arabic or books translated into Arabic, there’s just not much of it about, and what there is — with some highly notable exceptions — is generally published in very poor quality, be it the quality of the language or the quality of the print and paper.
Back in 2003 we all gasped in shame when a UN report pointed out that more books are translated into Spanish a year than have been translated into Arabic in a millennium. We gasped but we were not surprised, not really. Those with an elite view of the world shrugged their shoulders and said, “Well, that’s because we read in Englishâ€. Some took a predictable political stance: “Well yes, why should we translate works from the West when our own culture is so rich?†And my personal favorite was: “Who needs books when you have the Internet?†But all of it masked an important truth: We don’t read enough. Books have almost lost their rightful place as a critical building block of contemporary Arab culture.
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07:05,
A very interesting article, which raises many points worth thinking about.
Arabs will never translate enough current books and articles to cover the needs of the people in terms of education and development in all fields of knowledge. So, though of course one should encourage translation, it is even more important to teach the people foreign languages. I think every Arab teenager should have a grasp of English as good as his grasp of Arabic. That would help resolve most of the problems of learning.
Using the internet is also something that’s changing everybody’s life. There has never been anything like it, and no one today can complain that he has problems getting up-to-date information on any subject, cheaply, easily, any time, any place.
In contrast, books cost so much (even Arabic books of bad quality paper) that one should literally forget about them as an alternative to the internet. Personally, I think it would do more good to scan thousand of Arabic books and to put them on the internet, for everybody to use. This is not to discount the Abu Dhabi Culture and Heritage Authority project. But how cheap can it sell these books : one US dollar a volume? That’s about the maximum it can ask for, if it wants this project to reach the masses.
I read Arabic, French, English and Spanish fluently. On the internet, I feel free, as far as information of any type is concerned. But if I look up anything in Arabic, it’s quite often rather poor, in terms of quality and of quantity of information, compared to what one can obtain in English first, then in French. For those who want to test this proposition, let them look up the word of their choice in Wikipedia in English and in Arabic.
08:35,
Clearly, I value the Internet as a source of information. But I also spend several thousand a year on books, both hardback and paper. I’m also at my public library every other week. On average, I read around five books every week.
Perhaps it’s just a factor of my age, perhaps it’s just me. But as soon as I could learn to read, at around age four, I was constantly reading.
The Internet is great for non-fiction, but I simply don’t want to read fiction on a computer monitor. I think fiction has nearly as much utility as non-fiction, perhaps more when it comes to human relations. There’s nothing quite like seeing the world through the eyes of others, be they authors or characters.
12:03,
I agree with al-waleed, every Arabic child should learn a second language to have access to more books. However, this is not a practical solution, as love of reading should be developed early and most kids will not master a second language until later in life. There is a discrepancy in reading that is a result of many factors and governments should play a role in trying to fix these issues:
- Translation quality and quantity: This has been discussed in the article. The result of the poor translation is that the books lose the ease of reading and the pleasure that results from that. This is especially true of scientific books, where they are almost unreadable when translated in Arabic.
- Emphasis on Islam: A high percentage of books in Arabic focus on religion. This is not to say there is no reason for these books, but we need a balance. There are a few other categories like Politics and Poetry, that occupy most of the remaining space. This is also true of the Arabic Internet as you will find more sites dedicated to religious and sports topics than all other categories combined. Small countries like the Netherlands have created 13 times as many Dutch articles in Wikipedia than is available in the Arabic version.
- Books Written in Arabic as a first language: Other than the categories mentioned above, there isn’t many books written by Arabic writers. The demand is not there to provide the economic incentives for these books to be written. I am not a fan of subsidies, but in this case I support the idea of wealthy Arabic countries providing subsidies to start improving the Arabic collection of books.
- Libraries: In my early years in Makkah, I went to the city library and what I found out is that my grand father had a better book collection than what was available. This is critical as it is important to get books in the hands of children to develop the love of reading. The situation still persists as you will find high schools in the US with better libraries than most cities in Saudi Arabia.
- Child development: Grade schools should have libraries and should assign readings outside of the curriculum books to start kids used to the idea of reading books early.
- Awareness: I was one of the minority in Saudi that had parents who encouraged reading and provided me the books to develop my passion for it. This issue will not improve without parents guidance.
Sorry for the long reply, but I view this as one of the corner stones for our nation’s progress.
13:00,
I agree completely, and not just for Saudi Arabia. There were always books around my home as a child and reading was considered a natural activity. I do note that my son reads far less than I or his mother, but he still reads, both for pleasure and for information. That’s sadly not the case in more and more of the world as visuals and quick bits of information come to substitute for the thinking required to read.
I agree, too about second languages. I don’t know that this should be restricted to older children, though. Again taking a personal example, my wife’s first language was Italian, though she’s ‘pure American’. She lost the Italian as she grew up and learned other languages, but was easily able to regain it when she wanted to do so. She’s fluent in three languages and gets by in another three.
My father’s parents were most comfortable in Canadian French–his mother spoke it almost exclusively. My older brother, who spent more time with them than I, had the elements of the language that allowed him to learn it formally much more easily than his peers growing up in English alone. I had to study harder to pick it up, but was accustomed to the fact of other languages. I can definitely say that learning a new language–particularly one from outside one’s native language family–is harder as one gets older.
23:59,
Whilst the internet is a useful way to disseminate information cheaply and widely, studies have shown that readers don’t engage with the written word on a computer screen the same way that they immerse themselves in a book. The act of holding a book, scanning your eyes back and forth, and physically turning the pages leads to a deeper and more focused reading experience, resulting in better absorption of the material. With a computer, the tendency is to scan ahead, particularly if you are using a scrolling mouse, most people can’t help themselves but to move ahead. Also, the information moves in front of you and the reduced amount of physical movement required results in lower levels of engagement and poorer rates of absorption and recall of computer generated material.
For what its worth, in my opinion nothing beats sitting in a comfortable chair with a cup of coffee and a good book. I’ll take that over the computer desk any day. I’m no expert but would it be true to say that reading has never been a big part of people’s lives in this part of the world. The West, over many centuries, has built up a culture of reading. Maybe that’s just not true here in the Middle East.
00:29,
Kathryn, I have a Tablet PC which converts to a laptop. I do most of my reading on the device now. It took a little getting used to as holding a hard plastic tablet is not as comfortable as a book, but it has it’s advantages like having access to research resources as you read, can read in bed without bothering the wife with a bright reading light, I have all my ebooks with me when I travel for work, etc.
I think these tablets are fantastic for readers. Just require a little change in habits.
00:33,
Oh forgot one more advantage and it is a big one for me. I am in my 40’s and I require reading glasses for average book font, I can increase text size easily on the tablet and get rid of the annoying glasses
11:40,
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