Wednesday, July 05, 2006

About an "Anglophone Tunisian Community"

I think such project is highly interesting. I am republishing here my note that I already published in Cheniti's blog:
I think this is a very interesting initiative. There is a need, however, to have a more broad, and a less pretentious project. I am thinking here of avoiding ideas such as such community is “the only way of driving the country to rapid progess”. I suggest the following:
1-Since most of the potential members would be educated in Anglophone institutions of higher education (we should agree after all if this is a necessary condition) we should lay out a general ground; a small paragraph: clear, sharp, and not too much jargon.
2-Such an outline should reflect, in my view, the following points: a) The Maghreb and Tunisia suffer from a uni-linguistic domination that does not reflect necessarily our country’s interests; b) The French language is, as some say, a “cultural booty”, it served us and still but there is no reason to avoid focusing on other languages according to the high interests of our country; c) Building a Tunisian Anglophone community does not mean an attachment to the interests of the anglo-saxon sphere, it is rather a reflection of an attachment to the interests of our beloved country; d) Emphasizing the English language does not mean any disdain of the official language of Tunisia that is the Arabic language, one of the oldest languages in today’s world; e) An Anglophone community encourages linguistic diversity and that is why it would be fond if Tunisians start building similar communities around other languages such as Spanish and Chinese; f) An Anglophone community should promote the use of the English language by all means, that is why all members should commit to use English as their primary language when interacting among each other; g) Promoting the English language should include the publicity of all activities of Tunisian anglophiles including their news, their websites, and their media.Obviosuly I am suggesting these points for open discussion.
3-Let’s begin by very small steps. The project of the “Tunisian Scientific Society” was probably too ambitious. Let’s not be too much institutional. A mailing list with a modest blog is probably the right start. So let’s start the blog and collect the emails for the mailing list.

2 Comments:

At 4:07 PM, Blogger Tarek طارق said...

Sure

 
At 6:39 AM, Blogger Big Trap Boy said...

I totally agree with your idea, I would be glad to partcipate.
What are the next steps you are planning to realise this project?
I think we need the english language to promote our economy and our culure.
French has been good to us, but I think it's about time to move on if we really want to have access to the opportunities of globalisation.
By the way, thanx fot your visit and comments on my blog.
One.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home