Funny thing is that I live in a country where it only has one official language and that is Arabic. But once you start to hunting for jobs or even want some errands to finish you will be faced by a barrier that ourselves build with our own hands, or specifically our tongues, that limits your communication. What I am talking about is the necessity of English to find your way through life. Now if you go to the large hospitals it will be easier to communicate with English or broken Arabic dialect. If you find yourself buying a mobile device from a big chain retail then sure as hell you will need to have full grasp of the English language to finish your errands. Heck even while I am writing this blog at a car service workshop I am overwhelmed by the sheer amount of English around me:
I know this post coming hypocritical from a guy who is mostly blogging in English but I am the result of this situation.
Still, you will find on the other camps cheering for the people becoming bilingual and to be frank I am with them most of the time. But the problem really arise once becoming a bilingual is the MUST for anyone who is seeking jobs and without English you might be sure your chances in country where the Arabic is the official language is near dead.
To explain my point, my sister in low has graduated with honors in information system last semester and now she is hunting for jobs. And as the jobs trends are moving heavily toward the Tech sector, one will think landing a job for my in law is simple or at worst will take couple of months. Well, the jobs are there and she have been interviewed by couple of companies. And while they admire her knowledge and grades and her way of analyzing and answering she couldn’t land any position at all and the reason is she isn’t fluent in English. Hear me out, she isn’t fluent! Even in her last interview non-Saudi who only speaks English stood with her against his colleagues cause they decided she isn’t fit for the job cause her English is poor. That guy, his name is Romeo went out of his way to make sure she gets the job which eventually she got. Do you see the irony in this? A foreigner standing with a graduate Saudi against his colleagues so she can get the job despite the lack of English as they explain it. All that time he was saying the job doesn’t need high level of English just the bare minimum.
I can also talk about my cousin who seeking jobs for the last year and a half. Or about my friend’s brother who is pas the 12 months seeking a job, and many countless stories of youth who have lost opportunities cause they don’t know a language that wasn’t even a serious part of our education system. This is happening and will remain happening as long as no intervention is done to stop this absurdity.
But hey, at least the Ministry of Labor is building alternatives in the retail market for those highly competent and educated youth.