Muhammad Abu Raihan :
About forty five hundred languages are being used in the world by different people for communication. But most of them are not familiar to all globally. The importance of a language does not depend only on its population, but it depends on some valuable criteria’s like language speaking population, GDP of the country, international communication, diplomacy, tourism, education, culture, literature, heritage and international relation and so on. However, a few languages have become popular and gained their strong position upon other languages in the world due to their significance and enrichment. Arabic language is one of them that occupies its strong position in the world considering the above aspects.
The study of Arabic language started in Bangladesh in early stage to communicate with the Arab traders and merchandisers who came to this belt for business through seafaring. The Arab merchandisers found this land very suitable for business. They decided to continue their business here. The people here welcomed them and started learning Arabic to communicate with Arab traders to exchange their views for running business. But, after the inception of Islam in this territory, Arabic is considered as the language of Holy Quran and people started to learn it as the language of religion. As a result, many religious institutions were established in different parts of the country to learn this language only for how to read religious books and texts for performing Islamic rituals in personal, family and social life. Though numerous Quwmi and Aliya madrashas and Arabic departments in some universities in Bangladesh were set up across the country, but they have mostly failed to focus Arabic as a potential language of business, trade and diplomacy in line with religion. This language is still treated in our country only as the language of Quran, Hadith and Islamic affairs. So, we were not able to get economic benefit of this language for not putting due focus on it as a language of culture and communication. This language, very unusually, has been applied here only for sacred religious usage which was once the language Arab traders in ancient Bangladesh.
Arabic language is one of the most significant and powerful language in the world. It is used as the first language in twenty two countries of Afro-Asia and more than sixty countries over the world wherein it is used as the second language. It is also one of the most official languages of United Nations. So it is regarded as a language of resource, civilization and culture. Arabic language has gained prominence around the world due to a large number of native speakers, zealous economic output of Arab countries and enriched literature and culture. The present world economy is indeed oil centric of whose absolute ownership belongs to Arab world. The Arab world has a combined GDP of 2.5 trillion dollar which plays a vital role in the field of trade, business, diplomacy, education and culture. Besides these, the entire world’s biggest labor market is the Middle East (ME) countries. So, with a rapidly emerging consumer base, potential trade prospects, profitable business partners, countries in the Arab peninsula represent a great opportunity for businesses looking to expand globally. United Arab Emirates (UAE) is deeply involved in global businesses and one of the largest exporters and importers in the world. This is why many countries from Europe, America and Asia come forward to learning this language to run business with Arab countries for economic benefit.
According to the survey of foreign students in the United States in 2013, Arabic- speaking students are third majority after Japanese and Chinese students. In many European countries Arabic is taught to communicate and run trade with Arab world. In this regard, our neighboring country India is consuming the transactional benefit of this language by sending sound language skilled manpower in different sectors in Middle East countries. Arabic is taught in several educational institutions in India as one of the foreign languages to have getting foreign currency especially from Arab countries. At present, there are more than 40 universities in India where Arabic language is being taught in addition to a number of colleges in some states like Kerala, west Bengal Assam, and Jammu- Kashmir.
The main object of language is communication and exchanging cultural issues among several nations. Unfortunately, we are far behind to get the transitional benefit from Arabic language not to treat it a communication tool due to lack of necessary steps and initiatives in our curriculum. This language is not being focused duly for its functional application in the field of trade, business and culture. Besides, Arabic departments in various universities in the country should communicate with the embassies of Arab countries here to open Arabic Language Test (ALT) course to get higher excellence in reading, writing, speaking and listening for those who want work Middle East in the field of treatment, nursing, pharmacy and architecture. Private sectors especially manpower agencies may also arrange short courses on applied Arabic for workers who want to go Arab countries to earn. Though, some initiatives have been taken recently by the government to get economic advantage of this language but not enough to reach the destination. Government should give more emphasize on establishing Middle East Study institutes under foreign ministry to look after the affairs of Arab countries and to analysis Arab markets.
(Muhammad Abu Raihan is Assistant Professor, Dept of Language, Communication and Culture, Gono Bishwabidylay).
