How many Gazians speak English as a fist language? Why do you have a problem with a word?
Most people here speak English as a first language and you're making the choice to switch to the foreign word here for a reason.
Lots of foreign words in the English language. No reason to be afraid of them.
I think you are doing it to make it sound more like the Taliban for whom the word "madrasa" (and not "madaris", but somehow you wanted the plural form) specifically means religious schools that indoctrinate children into political Islam. No one else tends to use the word to mean otherwise. Hamas doesn't do that kind of stuff. Basically, education in Gaza is on par with the rest of the world. They have had excellent universities, they have had excellent medical centers that had to specialize in very specific types of injuries (thanks Israel!). The UNRWA school offer a normal education like any other in the Middle East (Arabic, English, Math, Science, and so on). There is nothing "madrasa" about it. And yet you chose to use that word.
Now, I don't want to go around accusing, I just can't help but think, why did this person choose to use a Arabic variety of the word "school" to describe Gazan schools and education? Is it just, *"omg look at me I speak Arabic, yalla bro!" or is it something else?
You are very much not off target with your suspicions about this account's motivations. And it's not to show off their familiarity with Arabic.
This both isn't one and I don't for a moment believe you're using it in the name of multiculturalism. You're a reliable apologist for Israel and want to make "schools" sound like something scary.
Really? The word madrasa is scary to you? Whatever
You are very disingenuous.
As their first language? You just need to speak it. I think English education is compulsory in schools in Gaza so I'd safely bet almost everyone speaks a medium to advanced level of English.
Wait really? Unrelated to the wider topic, I'm finding it hard to believe the majority of any Arab nation's people speak a medium, let alone advanced, level of English.
It's all thanks to the English for colonizing us.
Usually, the second language spoken is either English or French, depending on who this country celebrates its independence from.
I even was an English teacher in the Middle East at some point lol
Yes, English is taught in most Arab countries starting in Grade 1 all the way up to highschool. Almost every upper educational organization will offer students English 101 if they fail a placement test or need extra help.
I know about English education in the Middle East since I'm from there; what I meant is: Does it actually stick in Gaza? At least where I'm from it goes like this: You just memorize the words and grammar, somehow pass the exam and then forget all of it, after high school you go from kinda sorta having intermediate level English back to only knowing the basics unless you study a field where you learn in English. I doubt the average person in the street from my country would be able to have a functional conversation with a, say, foreign tourist, so I'm wondering if it's different in Gaza.
There are certainly problems with teaching it as a second language, but it's still taught by UNRWA teachers (to at least one third of the kids there) from an early age.
I grew up in Jordan and the average young person will in most cases speak good English. It fades with older generations given how much their education sucked, but a large portion of people speak it. I've even been told that it was taught better in the 80's than now.
Don't think I've ever met anyone who doesn't speak enough English to communicate with someone on the street except for my Grandma and she was basically illiterate.
What country are you from?
Ps: to answer the question specifically about Gaza, I don't have any stats for that, but I know the UNRWA schools teach English
Egypt.
Curious: how would you describe your educational system with how they teach Arabic vs English?
Both are bad but for different reasons.
English education has one core problem: It focuses too much on vocabulary and grammar, and not enough on production. Your average Egyptian student should know a decent amount of vocabulary (until they forget it after their exams end anyway), but they have next to no idea how to create a natural sentence or actually write a passage or essay because while we do have essay writing on the exams (I think it was removed in favor of MCQ questions a few years ago, though) it's taught as a second thought or not at all. There's also a (heavily abridged) novel taught with every school year, but rather than treating it as a vehicle of language learning teachers (and exams) focus on the actual contents, so you end up with questions like "What was character X wearing in situation Y" that make just reading Q&A summaries a much more efficient way of tackling the exam than actually reading the novel. Also almost nobody does listening or speaking unless you're lucky or rich.
As for Arabic, it's a different situation but the outcome is similar. The Arabic curriculum in Egypt is massive. There are about 5 sections, each with a ton of content that you need to memorize because the exam focuses more on content than the skills you're supposed to learn. For example in reading you have 5 or so passages whose contents (including metaphors the author used, for example) you have to memorize and regurgitate in the exam. Grammar is a little better, but it also has some issues. There's also a story but like in English the focus is on the contents and for some reason it's abridged. Writing is, like in English, an afterthought that is barely given any care in the classroom. The end result is that the curriculum does little to give students the ability or desire to read or write Arabic literature. I'm pretty sure you could get Al-Mutanabbi to take the Egyptian Arabic exam and he'd fail unless he studies about the same amount as a normal Egyptian student because of the amount of fact memorization that's unrelated to actual mastery of Arabic. Edit: If it sounds like I'm salty that's because I am.
Seems like you have every right to be salty. All of this totally sucks!
Why do you have a problem with a word?
^^^ look guys, a prime case of definitely not bait or trolling ^^^
How many Gazians speak English as a fist language? Why do you have a problem with a word?
Most people here speak English as a first language and you're making the choice to switch to the foreign word here for a reason.
Lots of foreign words in the English language. No reason to be afraid of them.
I think you are doing it to make it sound more like the Taliban for whom the word "madrasa" (and not "madaris", but somehow you wanted the plural form) specifically means religious schools that indoctrinate children into political Islam. No one else tends to use the word to mean otherwise. Hamas doesn't do that kind of stuff. Basically, education in Gaza is on par with the rest of the world. They
havehad excellent universities, theyhavehad excellent medical centers that had to specialize in very specific types of injuries (thanks Israel!). The UNRWA school offer a normal education like any other in the Middle East (Arabic, English, Math, Science, and so on). There is nothing "madrasa" about it. And yet you chose to use that word.Now, I don't want to go around accusing, I just can't help but think, why did this person choose to use a Arabic variety of the word "school" to describe Gazan schools and education? Is it just, *"omg look at me I speak Arabic, yalla bro!" or is it something else?
You are very much not off target with your suspicions about this account's motivations. And it's not to show off their familiarity with Arabic.
This both isn't one and I don't for a moment believe you're using it in the name of multiculturalism. You're a reliable apologist for Israel and want to make "schools" sound like something scary.
Really? The word madrasa is scary to you? Whatever
You are very disingenuous.
As their first language? You just need to speak it. I think English education is compulsory in schools in Gaza so I'd safely bet almost everyone speaks a medium to advanced level of English.
Wait really? Unrelated to the wider topic, I'm finding it hard to believe the majority of any Arab nation's people speak a medium, let alone advanced, level of English.
It's all thanks to the English for colonizing us. Usually, the second language spoken is either English or French, depending on who this country celebrates its independence from.
I even was an English teacher in the Middle East at some point lol
Yes, English is taught in most Arab countries starting in Grade 1 all the way up to highschool. Almost every upper educational organization will offer students English 101 if they fail a placement test or need extra help.
I know about English education in the Middle East since I'm from there; what I meant is: Does it actually stick in Gaza? At least where I'm from it goes like this: You just memorize the words and grammar, somehow pass the exam and then forget all of it, after high school you go from kinda sorta having intermediate level English back to only knowing the basics unless you study a field where you learn in English. I doubt the average person in the street from my country would be able to have a functional conversation with a, say, foreign tourist, so I'm wondering if it's different in Gaza.
There are certainly problems with teaching it as a second language, but it's still taught by UNRWA teachers (to at least one third of the kids there) from an early age.
I grew up in Jordan and the average young person will in most cases speak good English. It fades with older generations given how much their education sucked, but a large portion of people speak it. I've even been told that it was taught better in the 80's than now.
Don't think I've ever met anyone who doesn't speak enough English to communicate with someone on the street except for my Grandma and she was basically illiterate.
What country are you from?
Ps: to answer the question specifically about Gaza, I don't have any stats for that, but I know the UNRWA schools teach English
Egypt.
Curious: how would you describe your educational system with how they teach Arabic vs English?
Both are bad but for different reasons.
English education has one core problem: It focuses too much on vocabulary and grammar, and not enough on production. Your average Egyptian student should know a decent amount of vocabulary (until they forget it after their exams end anyway), but they have next to no idea how to create a natural sentence or actually write a passage or essay because while we do have essay writing on the exams (I think it was removed in favor of MCQ questions a few years ago, though) it's taught as a second thought or not at all. There's also a (heavily abridged) novel taught with every school year, but rather than treating it as a vehicle of language learning teachers (and exams) focus on the actual contents, so you end up with questions like "What was character X wearing in situation Y" that make just reading Q&A summaries a much more efficient way of tackling the exam than actually reading the novel. Also almost nobody does listening or speaking unless you're lucky or rich.
As for Arabic, it's a different situation but the outcome is similar. The Arabic curriculum in Egypt is massive. There are about 5 sections, each with a ton of content that you need to memorize because the exam focuses more on content than the skills you're supposed to learn. For example in reading you have 5 or so passages whose contents (including metaphors the author used, for example) you have to memorize and regurgitate in the exam. Grammar is a little better, but it also has some issues. There's also a story but like in English the focus is on the contents and for some reason it's abridged. Writing is, like in English, an afterthought that is barely given any care in the classroom. The end result is that the curriculum does little to give students the ability or desire to read or write Arabic literature. I'm pretty sure you could get Al-Mutanabbi to take the Egyptian Arabic exam and he'd fail unless he studies about the same amount as a normal Egyptian student because of the amount of fact memorization that's unrelated to actual mastery of Arabic. Edit: If it sounds like I'm salty that's because I am.
Seems like you have every right to be salty. All of this totally sucks!
^^^ look guys, a prime case of definitely not bait or trolling ^^^