Fun park day encourages children to use Arabic language

Children on a day out at a local Abu Dhabi park were encouraged to play using the Arabic language, allowing them to exercise their mother tongue.

Hundreds of local children dangled off jungle bars, swings and see-saws at Delma Park as ventriloquists and workshop mediators engaged with them using the Arabic language.

The event, organised by Abu Dhabi Municipality, falls in line with the government's 'Year of Reading'- to inspire citizens to pick up books with the aim of creating a generation of book lovers.

Samah Alsabaaneh, founder and director of the Beit Arabi project, an initiative focusing on promoting Arabic through fun and engaging methods, said such events were essential to nurturing the language.

"We want children to remove the stress of learning Arabic in the context of school and homework," Ms Alsabaaneh told The National UAE.

"I noticed there was a danger of losing Arabic because schools, media and many events were all in English," she added, referring to life in the multicultural United Arab Emirates.

However, she emphasised the blame was not on the children, but on parents who she believes were just as much part of the event as the kids.

"We want to encourage parents to engage with their children in Arabic and take them to events held predominantly in Arabic."

Farook Alaboud, a parent who took his two daughters to the event said it's important for children to get used to using Arabic at home.

"English encroaches everywhere, in technology, in the media, in the schools, so you always have to be mindful of using only Arabic."