After graduating in 2014, Gedo began teaching scientific subjects at the preparatory stage in a private school in Nouakchott temporarily, but not obtaining an official job made him continue teaching until 2021.
At the end of 2022, Gedo decided to return to school again, by learning the English language, in the hope that it would open new horizons for him.
“I obtained a bachelor’s degree in biology in 2014, and at that time I was fluent in Molière (French), and yet I did not have any job opportunities, or even training,” Gedo told Sky News Arabia.
He added, “During the year 2020, I got one of the opportunities, but taking advantage of it depended on speaking English, and the same thing was repeated in 2021 (…) 3 months ago, I decided to retire from teaching, to learn the English language, so that I would be qualified for some jobs.”
Most of the generations of the twentieth century in Mauritania did not learn the English language until they were over or close to thirty, according to some language teaching centers, because Mauritania relies in teaching its curricula on the Arabic and French languages up to the higher education stage, as a result of its colonization from France, which gained independence from it in 1960.
Fiti, a Syrian girl, 29, recently started learning English, even though she is an employee who is fluent in French, in order to develop and be promoted at work, according to her interview with Sky News Arabia.
Fiti says: “I have been working as an accountant for years, but my ignorance of the English language deprived me of many opportunities, and when some foreign missions visit us, I am unable to communicate with them (…) Now I go to work from eight in the morning until five in the evening, and I go directly from work to the center I teach languages, and I only come home at night, I know it’s very tiring, but I have no choice.”
business language
Most of the young people that Sky News Arabia spoke to explained that they are learning English in order to enter the labor market, or to obtain some international scholarships, which require a certain level of it.
Salj Angieh, 20, is studying Spanish at the University of Nouakchott. He started learning English 4 months ago, explaining to Sky News Arabia that he does not want to make the mistake of previous generations.
Saleh says, “I know many young people who graduated before me, and they are still unemployed because they do not speak English, so I decided to learn it at an early age, so that I could enter the labor market immediately after my graduation.”
One of the main reasons that made me start learning it was when I missed the opportunity to benefit from a Japanese scholarship, which required at least an intermediate level of it,” Saleh explains.
With the overwhelming desire of Mauritanian youth to learn English, many centers of its education have spread in Nouakchott, where they have been met with great demand.
Umam Mohamed El Hadi, director of one of the branches of a special center for teaching English, which opened in 2009 in the capital, Nouakchott, confirms the extent to which the turnout doubles after every year, and indicates in his interview with Sky News Arabia, that some of his center’s graduates have opened their own centers to teach it, pointing out that his center provides Currently, about 100 job opportunities.
Ummam says, “We register every two months (the duration of the course) 600 students, and the most attended groups range from 17 to 25 years old.”
Speaking more than one language, or two languages, has become the main goal for young people. As a result, some private centers teach several languages, but the most popular is usually English.
In the economic capital, Nouadhibou, one of the centers that teach French and English together is witnessing a greater demand for learning French during the study period, especially for students who are still in the middle and high school stages, according to the head of the center, Hussein Othman.
Al-Hussein explains, in his interview with Sky News Arabia, that English is more popular during the summer holidays, and with the beginning of the school year.
Al-Hussein Othman says, “We registered 2,500 students this year, and women represent the largest percentage.”
With the remarkable trend towards learning English, the school curricula in Mauritania are still based on their old method, as they depend in the primary stage on the French and Arabic languages, and in the preparatory stage, English is taught as a secondary subject, amid demands that it be adopted as a primary language in all stages of education.
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