By Cody David
Screenshot of the class’s virtual discussion with Brother Tony Homsy, S.J.
Language and culture are inseparably connected. We will never fully understand a language without knowledge of the cultural realities that form it and are formed by it. And fully immersing oneself into a culture is difficult, if not impossible, without at least a rudimentary knowledge of the language it uses. Arabic 408 takes this simple yet profound principle as its starting point: in order to really know a language, we have to understand its culture.
This course, a continuation of Arabic 407 (a class in which we read the entirety of a 350-page novel in Arabic), offers us several unique opportunities that we seldom have otherwise. First, as the highest-level Arabic course at both Duke and UNC, we get the chance to collaborate with and learn from colleagues from our neighboring institution on a weekly basis. Second, by exposing us to cultural institutions and trends in the Arab World (i.e. alternative music, free verse poetry and conceptions of civil society), as well as local dialects (including Tunisian, Egyptian and Palestinian), we are able to, at least on a small scale, become immersed in Arab culture and experience the real-world current of the language we have all been studying for many years.
One unique experience recently presented itself in the form of a guest lecture by Brother Tony Homsy, S.J., a Jesuit Scholastic. Brother Homsy, originally from Syria, has spent time living in various countries in the Arab World, such as Lebanon, Algeria and Egypt, and currently resides in Paris. It was during his time in Lebanon working at a rehabilitation center for drug addicts that he met our wonderful professor, Maha Houssami.
Brother Homsy’s talk came in the middle of our unit on the supposed crisis of reading in the Arab World. In this unit we explored the conceptions of reading and literacy and focused specifically on the “Myth of Six Minutes.” This myth, which numerous publications have publicized throughout the world, claims that the average person in the Arab region reads for only six minutes a day, in contrast to thirty-six minutes for the average person in the West. Based on unknown sources and of dubious origin, this statistic has led to conceptions of Arab peoples as illiterate and uneducated. Brother Homsy’s talk responded to these negative stereotypes, at least in an indirect way, and sought to reclaim a vision of reading and literacy in the Arab World that was both optimistic and practical.
After a multi-faceted introduction to the language (covering the historical development of Arabic and Arabic as a living language), Brother Homsy turned his attention to the question of reading and literacy proper. In his mind, although the culture around reading in the region can be improved, claims about a supposed crisis of reading are overblown, and statistics such as the “Myth of Six Minutes” are misleading.
While it is true that certain standards, like the number of books published per person in the Arab World, paint a misleading picture, if we look at other factors, we realize that the so-called crisis is not as bad as many make it out to be. Many Arabs can read and/or speak at least two languages, an exceptional skill that indicates a high level of intellectual ability. Moreover, significant material written in Arabic is actually online, not in books, so data tracking the number of published books may not provide an accurate representation of how much the average person living in the region actually reads. Brother Homsy thus encouraged those enthusiastic about reading to take advantage of alternative sources, such as audio books and electronic media, that may fit the culture a little bit better than pricy and onerous physical books.
As a lover of languages, I enjoyed many of the linguistic tidbits in his talk, like his discussion of how the Algerian dialect “arabizes” some French verbs and uses them in place of native Arabic ones. More than this, however, I thought that his overall argument framed the issue in a charitable yet practical way: claims about the illiteracy of the Arab World are exaggerated. We must critically examine certain standards that we use to measure literacy in the West, such as the number of books published per year, which might not work in societies that view reading differently. Might we look at the rate of auditory consumption of books? Many cultures access religious texts in this way. What about memorization and recitation of texts? Could we not look at the depth of engagement with important texts, rather than pure numerical output? Questions similar to these might provide us with a more accurate and culturally sensitive window into the realities of “reading” in the Arab World.
Brother Homsy painted a realistic yet optimistic picture of reading in Arab nations, one that sought to both correct misconceptions and offer countermeasures and advice. Returning to the class’s main goal, talks like these help us understand the cultural elements of reading and the ways in which this can function differently in the Arab societies.
About the Author
Cody is a fourth-year Ph.D. student at Duke, studying Religion and Semitic Languages and Linguistics. Cody is married with two (soon to be three!) children, and, when not running after/cleaning up after his son and daughter, he enjoys watching sports, learning languages, playing the Ukulele and working out.