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
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.
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!