Daadض An Initiative To An Arabic-Speaking Tomorrow
A language with more than 400 million speakers, the official tongue of 22 countries, and one of the six official languages of the United Nations, Arabic has been a treasure for millions ever since the fourth century. With a rich history that has developed through an era dominated by poetic tradition and entrenched in art through beautiful calligraphy, Arabic has, and still influences many languages around the globe and is the fifth most spoken language in the world. Believing in preserving such a well-kept treasure, His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II launched the “Daad” initiative to further preserve the place of the Arabic language in an era of increased globalization and digitization.
In reference to the distinctive sound made when pronouncing the letter “Daad”, the crown prince has launched such an initiative with a goal of stressing on the importance of conserving and developing the Arabic language and its content in today’s world. Through the Crown Prince Foundation, the initiative hopes to serve as a unique model for the youth who seek to highlight such an identity and are keen on making a positive impact along the way. In order to achieve such an aspiration, the model seeks to blend its youthful component with the language through the use of modern-day communication technology and the Internet.
In its essence, and according to a Royal Court statement, the initiative also aims to train Arabic youth ambassadors who would promote the language in disciplines ranging from scientific, technological and communications. Working on making such an initiative a successful one, the youth taking part in the latter will work on achieving its main goals that include:
- Developing techniques that digitally enable the Arabic language online.
- Establishing and strengthening the various platforms for communicating in Arabic
- Enhancing the skills of the Arabic ambassadors in order to unlock their full potential.
Parallel to its goals, the initiative is keen on implementing a plethora of activities to reach the latter in accordance with its set policies. In the month of June for example, the ambassadors will be sitting for a world-renowned Neuro-Linguistic programming workshop and will be launching an on-ground take-over of one of the capital’s streets, where they will ask the visitors to solely speak Arabic in the ultimate aim of promoting the initiative.
As Arabic plays an essential part in this region and as it is a language spoken by almost half a billion speakers around the world, such initiatives stand as a guardian for such a treasure and as a gateway to a world where the language is valued as much as it should be. Yet, an initiative alone does not have the power to unlock the potential of Arabic in its Jordanian home; the Jordanians in themselves have the most prominent role to play in realizing such potential and in spreading the mission of the initiative.
