By Mokhles Khoshnaw
IRBIL, July 24 (KUNA) -- Any Arab visitor to the Iraq's Kurdistan province will immediately notice Kurdish youths do not speak Arabic like their ancestors, despite their serious desire to learn the language.
Policies of the defunct Baathist regime have largely contributed to isolating the Kurds from their Arab-speaking surroundings.
This isolation was further boosted after Kurds' 1991 revolt against the former regime in Baghdad, forcing the regime to terminate its administration in Kurdistan and impose a siege on the province including the Arabic language.
Before 1991, the Kurds were free to move to other provinces in Iraq and many young Kurds were studying in Iraqi universities and serving in the army, thus acquire the Arab language.
Bekhtiar Saeed, a journalist, blamed the former Iraqi regime for the isolation of the Kurds since 1991, which broke the links between Kurdistan and other parts of Iraq.
Speaking to KUNA, Saeed said the launch of many satellite channels which only telecast in Kurdish language have blocked access to the Arabic language.
Abdullah Abdullah, Arabic language curricula expert at the Kurdistan regional government's Ministry of Education, blamed the former regime of Saddam Hussein for forcibly blending the Kurdish nationalism within the Arab nationalism with the objective of eliminating the Kurdish identity.
He told KUNA the former regime-introduced curricula were serving this objective. The Arabic language subject, he added, was not customized for the Kurds who were learning Arabic as a second language, in addition to oppressive policies which negatively affected desire to learn Arabic.
Abdullah said the Ministry of Education has sought since 2009 to develop the teaching methods of Arabic as a second language in the province. Indeed, he added, there has been noticeable progress in the Arabic language education and the results would be even better in coming few years.
The removal of the former Iraqi regime, openness of the province toward rest of Iraq and influx of visitors from the central and south of Iraq encouraged the young Kurds to learn Arabic to be able to communicate with visitors.
"Many youths have big desire now to learn Arabic language," said Abdullah.
Zana Mohammad, a Kurd in his 20s who does not speak Arabic, said he has been learning the language for the past six months so he could communicate with the Arabs living in the province.
Many Iraqis were forced to move to Kurdistan after the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL) stormed Mosul, Anbar and Salahuddine. "They speak only Arabic which encouraged Kurdish youths to learn the Arabic language," he told KUNA.
There are many education centers offering Arabic language courses in the province.
"There is a good desire by the youths to learn Arabic," Delshad Anwar, who runs one of the education center, said.
Salam Babeir, meanwhile, launched a Facebook account to learn Arabic. The account has many followers.
"We have opened the account so Kurdish youths can learn Arabic in as easy ways as possible, and to learn how to deal with Arab speakers who moved to Kurdistan due to security circumstances in Iraq," Babeir said in a statement to KUNA.
The new generation of Kurds are determined to overcome past hardships and to learn the Arabic language to be able to communicate with their Iraqi brethrens and other Arabs. (end) sbr.bs