While I very much enjoy my work as a software developer and postgraduate research student at a university, the working conditions I have to endure are starting to get to me: an attic room that is always hot and full of fellow students who speak only Arabic, giving it the nickname of the Middle East. I have the greatest of respect for other cultures and this university is a particularly multicultural place, but I'm sure I can't be the only one who finds it rude to come to another country and carry on speaking your native language in the presence of those who don't understand it.
My department is an unusual one as over 90% of the postgraduate students are Middle Eastern, primarily because the former head of the department (who recently stepped down) is very well known and respected in the Middle East and they consider it a great honour to study in his department. As these students share Arabic as a common language, they default to using this and there is little incentive to learn and use English, especially as many of the teaching staff are themselves native Arabic speakers (although they do speak good English as well).
That's all very well when the room contains only Arabic speakers, but shows a lack of respect to those such as myself who share the facilities and don't understand the language so are excluded from the conversation. There are a couple of part-time psychology research students who speak English, but as they are studying a very different subject area our work has little in common and we don't understand each other's technical terms so conversation there is limited. My partner in this software project is an Indian who speaks perfect English, but for the past two weeks he has been on holiday so I don't even have him to talk to and the constant drone of Arabic is really starting to annoy me. Most days Arabic is the only language I hear and I find myself making excuses to leave the room in a desperate search for some English speakers. All in all, the surroundings are really not at all conducive to efficient work.
These students are very talkative and often have large and lengthy discussions involving the whole group of up to half a dozen, which can become quite loud and occasionally argumentative. I'm sure what they're talking about is important and may even be of great interest to me if I could understand it, but it's just noise that is extremely distracting when working on complex programming problems, whereas conversation in a language that can be understood is far less of a distraction as background noise. Several times I have had to ask them to keep the noise down as they were affecting my concentration, so their relationship with me is becoming strained. I'm not being selfish in my belief they should speak English: if they did so the non-Arab members in the group would not feel left out and we could all discuss our research and share ideas for mutual benefit, in addition to them improving their English by using it in conversation with native speakers. They're really nice people but their English is very limited and their culture is so different that we really don't have much to talk about, and I do wonder how they cope with writing a highly detailed thesis in the English language.
If the situation was reversed and I was studying at a Middle Eastern university I certainly would not expect to go through my entire programme speaking only my native language, even if the majority of my fellow students were English; I would make the effort to learn and use Arabic, not only to be more inclusive in my work conversations but to enhance my life outside of the university. It seems very rude, disrespectful and even arrogant to move to another country and continue speaking your own language in front of those who don't understand and makes me wonder what the point is. In my view, when in a foreign country one of the first things you should do is learn the language, and if they want to speak only Arabic during their studies they could have stayed at home and gone to a Middle Eastern university.
I can't help comparing these students' attitude unfavourably with that of other groups, particularly the Japanese in my experience: they are so keen to learn the language they will speak to everyone in English, even fellow Japanese, and these conversations are beneficial for both parties and often lead to great friendships. To summarise the point I'm trying to make: when living and working in Britain alongside English speakers you too should speak English. I hope I haven't come across as racist as that certainly isn't my intention: I respect all people regardless of nationality, religion or culture, but sometimes just don't feel that respect is reciprocated. Who agrees with me?
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