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L'Arabe pour tous. Pourquoi ma langue est taboue en France
Pourquoi Nabil Wakim était rouge de honte, enfant, quand sa mère lui parlait arabe dans la rue ? Pourquoi l'auteur ne sait-il plus rien dire dans ce qui fut sa langue maternelle ? Est-ce la République qui empêche de parler l'arabe comme elle empêcha autrefois de parler le breton ?
Voici une langue qui fait figure d'épouvantail. Si Jean-Michel Blanquer évoque l'idée de l'apprendre un peu plus en classe : tollé contre les risques de " communautarisme ". Quand Najat Vallaud-Belkacem propose de réformer son enseignement, elle est accusée de vouloir imposer la langue du Coran à tous les petits Français.
Ce livre fait entendre une parole souvent tue sur le malaise intime à parler sa propre langue quand il s'agit de l'arabe ; c'est aussi une enquête sur les raisons de ce désamour. Alors que l'arabe est la deuxième langue la plus parlée du pays, elle n'est enseignée que dans 3 % des collèges et des lycées à environ 14 000 élèves. Soit deux fois moins qu'il y a trente ans ! En parallèle, l'enseignement dans des mosquées ou associations cultuelles se multiplie – une estimation porte à 80 000 le nombre d'élèves y recevant des cours. N'est-il pas temps de se convaincre que l'enseignement de l'arabe pourrait être une chance pour notre pays ?
L'Arabe pour tous est un plaidoyer pour que la langue arabe trouve enfin sa juste place dans l'histoire de France.
Nabil Wakim est né au Liban en 1981. Il est journaliste au Monde ; il a interrogé pour cette enquête de nombreuses personnalités qui évoquent ce sujet publiquement pour la première fois, notamment Myriam El Khomri, Karim Rissouli ou Camélia Jordana.
Voici une langue qui fait figure d'épouvantail. Si Jean-Michel Blanquer évoque l'idée de l'apprendre un peu plus en classe : tollé contre les risques de " communautarisme ". Quand Najat Vallaud-Belkacem propose de réformer son enseignement, elle est accusée de vouloir imposer la langue du Coran à tous les petits Français.
Ce livre fait entendre une parole souvent tue sur le malaise intime à parler sa propre langue quand il s'agit de l'arabe ; c'est aussi une enquête sur les raisons de ce désamour. Alors que l'arabe est la deuxième langue la plus parlée du pays, elle n'est enseignée que dans 3 % des collèges et des lycées à environ 14 000 élèves. Soit deux fois moins qu'il y a trente ans ! En parallèle, l'enseignement dans des mosquées ou associations cultuelles se multiplie – une estimation porte à 80 000 le nombre d'élèves y recevant des cours. N'est-il pas temps de se convaincre que l'enseignement de l'arabe pourrait être une chance pour notre pays ?
L'Arabe pour tous est un plaidoyer pour que la langue arabe trouve enfin sa juste place dans l'histoire de France.
Nabil Wakim est né au Liban en 1981. Il est journaliste au Monde ; il a interrogé pour cette enquête de nombreuses personnalités qui évoquent ce sujet publiquement pour la première fois, notamment Myriam El Khomri, Karim Rissouli ou Camélia Jordana.
208 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2020
3 people are currently reading
98 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 20, 2021
Incredible, I’ve never related to a book so personally in my life
Incroyable, Wakim exprime parfaitement le sentiment d’être arabe et de ne pas parler sa propre langue. Franchement, je n’ai jamais lu un livre où je me sentais tellement compris par l’auteur. Bravo
Incroyable, Wakim exprime parfaitement le sentiment d’être arabe et de ne pas parler sa propre langue. Franchement, je n’ai jamais lu un livre où je me sentais tellement compris par l’auteur. Bravo
May 15, 2025
Lu d'une traite.
Merci Nabil Wakim de révéler au grand jour les
difficultés des arabophones et immigrés des
pays arabes en France. L'arabe est non
seulement une langue riche et belle, mais aussi la
2eme langue de France statistiquement. Elle est
aujourd'hui stigmatisée par les islamophobes et
xénophobes qui se gavent de stéréotypes
racistes. Son apprentissage est freiné et se
retrouve souvent cantonné à des initiatives
religieuses. Pourtant elle dépasse les siècles, les
religions et les frontières.
A lire absolument !
شكرا!
Merci Nabil Wakim de révéler au grand jour les
difficultés des arabophones et immigrés des
pays arabes en France. L'arabe est non
seulement une langue riche et belle, mais aussi la
2eme langue de France statistiquement. Elle est
aujourd'hui stigmatisée par les islamophobes et
xénophobes qui se gavent de stéréotypes
racistes. Son apprentissage est freiné et se
retrouve souvent cantonné à des initiatives
religieuses. Pourtant elle dépasse les siècles, les
religions et les frontières.
A lire absolument !
شكرا!
August 30, 2021
Reading this book has been a particularly difficult experience for me. It's written in a very engaging style, has a natural flow and it took me less than two days to finish despite my full schedule and the nature of the subject.
But it's heart wrenching..
Really, truly, heart wrenching.
I am lebanese myself and my girl has lived in France more than she had in Lebanon. I call it a miracle that she speaks perfectly in both the dialectal lebanese and the literary arabic. Yes, she also "speaks" literary arabic, and she is perfectly capable of going back and forth between literary and dialectal, and Arabic and French.
That doesn't stop me from living in perpetual fear of her losing the language.
The France I live in today is a far cry from the France of the author's parents. We live in a middle class cosmopolitan neighborhood of Paris and my daughter is the only arab in her class. And she's lebanese. It's an unfair advantage. But as the author himself noted, being lebanese gives you more points on the social scale than being a garden-variety arab.
She's still very young and she has yet to acquire that fear of being labeled as "Arab". She even boasted on several occasions in front of her class mates when she used an arabic word. "Vous n'allez pas comprendre en fait. C'est de l'arabe". "You won't understand. That's an arabic word". You know.. Like speaking arabic is a magical skill that only the chosen few can have.
I sometimes wish her tiny bubble won't ever burst.
Recently we had an appointment with the director of her new elementary school. I must have slipped some words in arabic when I was speaking to my daughter because the director asked me near the end of the interview if we spoke Arabic at home. Not sure what she wanted to hear, I reply with a cautious one word answer, "yes". To my utter disbelief and despite her old age (she should be retiring any time now), she's in favor of children learning their native language, yes, even if said language is Arabic. Don't ask me why, she had her own developmental and educational arguments but her positive position was quite shocking to me. No word of "communautarisme" or a "repli" on one's identity.
One would think things have been changing. At least until you read the several chapters where the author details the political state of arabic and its position in the french national education system. Quite depressing really.
Arabic is a marginalized language in France. If it's not treated with distaste, then it's not appreciated either. My daughter's nursery school, a bilingual French-English private school where children come from all across the globe organized an end-of-year musical party. There were two levantine arab kids and zero spanish ones. But folklore song after folklore song came and went, each one with the country's traditional clothes. We heard French, English, Chinese, Spanish, Italian and no word of Arabic. I was indignated after the party. If the organizers did not know any arabic songs, they could have asked. Couldn't they? After all, they went out of their way to represent chinese culture. There was only one chinese kid in the class and TWO arabs. You do the representation math.
The saddest thing in that story is that I did not bring the issue with the school to not be labeled as a trouble-maker. I was paying a hefty tuition fee to which all french people I know either raised their eyebrow or exclamated a shocked "combien ?". But I did not feel entitled to ask for a fair representation in an international school.
Because as the author stated, the "bon arabe" is the arab that keeps his mouth shut and does not leave the place he was - oh so graciously- given.
But it's heart wrenching..
Really, truly, heart wrenching.
I am lebanese myself and my girl has lived in France more than she had in Lebanon. I call it a miracle that she speaks perfectly in both the dialectal lebanese and the literary arabic. Yes, she also "speaks" literary arabic, and she is perfectly capable of going back and forth between literary and dialectal, and Arabic and French.
That doesn't stop me from living in perpetual fear of her losing the language.
The France I live in today is a far cry from the France of the author's parents. We live in a middle class cosmopolitan neighborhood of Paris and my daughter is the only arab in her class. And she's lebanese. It's an unfair advantage. But as the author himself noted, being lebanese gives you more points on the social scale than being a garden-variety arab.
She's still very young and she has yet to acquire that fear of being labeled as "Arab". She even boasted on several occasions in front of her class mates when she used an arabic word. "Vous n'allez pas comprendre en fait. C'est de l'arabe". "You won't understand. That's an arabic word". You know.. Like speaking arabic is a magical skill that only the chosen few can have.
I sometimes wish her tiny bubble won't ever burst.
Recently we had an appointment with the director of her new elementary school. I must have slipped some words in arabic when I was speaking to my daughter because the director asked me near the end of the interview if we spoke Arabic at home. Not sure what she wanted to hear, I reply with a cautious one word answer, "yes". To my utter disbelief and despite her old age (she should be retiring any time now), she's in favor of children learning their native language, yes, even if said language is Arabic. Don't ask me why, she had her own developmental and educational arguments but her positive position was quite shocking to me. No word of "communautarisme" or a "repli" on one's identity.
One would think things have been changing. At least until you read the several chapters where the author details the political state of arabic and its position in the french national education system. Quite depressing really.
Arabic is a marginalized language in France. If it's not treated with distaste, then it's not appreciated either. My daughter's nursery school, a bilingual French-English private school where children come from all across the globe organized an end-of-year musical party. There were two levantine arab kids and zero spanish ones. But folklore song after folklore song came and went, each one with the country's traditional clothes. We heard French, English, Chinese, Spanish, Italian and no word of Arabic. I was indignated after the party. If the organizers did not know any arabic songs, they could have asked. Couldn't they? After all, they went out of their way to represent chinese culture. There was only one chinese kid in the class and TWO arabs. You do the representation math.
The saddest thing in that story is that I did not bring the issue with the school to not be labeled as a trouble-maker. I was paying a hefty tuition fee to which all french people I know either raised their eyebrow or exclamated a shocked "combien ?". But I did not feel entitled to ask for a fair representation in an international school.
Because as the author stated, the "bon arabe" is the arab that keeps his mouth shut and does not leave the place he was - oh so graciously- given.
February 27, 2023
Super bouquin, hyper enrichissant. Très actuel. La question que pose l’enseignement de l’arabe en France est éminemment politique.
Cette lecture avait beaucoup de sens pour moi, qui ne parle pas grand chose de cette langue qui était la langue maternelle de ma grand-mère… je partage de nombreux questionnements amenés par l’auteur au cours de son essai.
Très agréable à lire, accessible avec des touches d’humour agréables !
Cette lecture avait beaucoup de sens pour moi, qui ne parle pas grand chose de cette langue qui était la langue maternelle de ma grand-mère… je partage de nombreux questionnements amenés par l’auteur au cours de son essai.
Très agréable à lire, accessible avec des touches d’humour agréables !
April 8, 2021
Un livre simple, clair et très intéressant sur la place de l'apprentissage de l'arabe en France. Un livre qui complète bien Le génie lesbien d'Alice Coffin pour mettre à jour les problèmes de l'anti-communautarisme à la française.
May 10, 2024
L'auteur parle de son histoire personnelle en tant qu'enfant immigré et puis parent immigré qui ne parle pas ou plus sa langue maternelle. Il décrit de manière exacte cette angoisse et honte que la deuxième génération peut ressentir.
July 6, 2021
+ Interesting statistics
+ Interviews provide insightful inputs
- based on personal account
- Stays at the "obvious" level
- Strives for political correctness
+ Interviews provide insightful inputs
- based on personal account
- Stays at the "obvious" level
- Strives for political correctness
March 26, 2025
À la fois facile d'accès, passionnant et profond.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews