Agencies begin a language course to help displaced persons meld better in Kurdish society.
Displaced Iraqi families living in Kurdistan Region say not speaking the Kurdish language makes their life even more difficult.
The Kurdistan Youth Empowerment Organization (KYEO) with the help of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has begun a Kurdish language course for around 500 Iraqi Arab and Christian displaced persons living in Iraqi Kurdistan Region.
For six months, students go to school five days for a week, and every day they study Kurdish language for two hours. "We have to know how to speak the Kurdish language in order to find jobs, build relations with Kurds and study in universities," said one of the female students. "Here, we are just like blind people," she remarked, noting the difficulty of not speaking the language.
Today, many people in Kurdistan can't speak Arabic, particularly the new generations. The elderly-- since they served in the Iraqi army and worked in other parts of Iraq--speak very good Arabic, but since 1991 after the uprising, Kurdish people preferred learning English over Arabic. It makes it difficult for Iraqi Kurds and Arabs to communicate with each other.
The schools where displaced people study Kurdish are located in Ainkawa, the predominantly Christian area of Erbil city, and the classes are classified according to the students' ages. In one class the participants' ages are 50 and older.
Muhammad Abdullah, 57, said: "I am a doctor, and working here I must speak Kurdish to communicate with my patients." Abdullah, from Baghdad, came to Kurdistan four years ago; he described the course as a great gift.
The idea of the course was suggested by a priest who is also displaced; he suggested to USAID that there are many displaced Christian and Arab families who want to learn Kurdish.
According to Shad Muhammad, head of Kurdistan Youth Empowerment Organization (KYEO), USAID has allocated half a million dollars for the project. "Each student gets $5 every day for transportation, and the teachers get monthly salaries."
The teachers, who are Kurdish, said it is too soon to judge the students, but they expect at the end of the course some of them will speak better Kurdish. The course is a good opportunity for Kurdish people who were born and lived in Baghdad and cannot speak Kurdish.
Sabr Zirak, 23, was born and raised in Baghdad and left Baghdad two years ago. His father and mother are Kurds. "My family decided not to go back to Baghdad, so my future is here; that's why I decided to learn Kurdish," Zirak told the "Globe" in Arabic.
By Qassim Khidhir
© The Kurdish Globe 2009
