????今年3月，我訪問了迪拜美國大學（the American University in Dubai）穆罕默德?本?拉希德傳播學院（the Mohammed bin Rashid School of Communications）（我與該地區一些杰出的商界領袖同屬該院顧問委員會成員）。部分學生用流利的英語向我們作了報告，隨后我驚訝地聽到，其他幾位顧問坦率地指出他們的母語“已陷入危機”。

????事實表明，英語正在迅速成為新一代受過良好教育的阿拉伯人士所掌握的唯一語言。

????這對阿拉伯地區乃至全世界（這一點我稍后再詳述）都不是一件好事。迪拜美國大學的新聞學院是中東唯一一個允許學生用阿拉伯語學習的現代教育項目。盡管如此，許多來到這里的學生阿拉伯語行文書寫和正式表達能力都相當不足，需要重修阿拉伯語課程。

????根據聯合國教科文組織的數據，海灣地區的識字率高達98%，可所識之字越來越多地是指的英語，而非阿拉伯語。

????偏愛英語的傾向很早就開始了，阿聯酋那些私立“模范”學校的學童全部課程都采用英語授課，包括數學和科學，就連公立學校也在推行偏向英語的政策。已在阿聯酋居住16年、在中東地區逗留逾30年的帕特里夏?阿布?瓦德教授惋惜地說，就連阿聯酋政府資助的扎伊德大學（Zayed University）也沒有一門課使用阿拉伯語授課。

????看起來，這種趨勢正在向整個地區蔓延。沙特阿拉伯許多中上等階層的家庭在家里也說英語——而不僅是在職場上，據一位知識淵博的人士分析，這是因為家長們擔心阿拉伯語不夠成熟完善。

????一位阿聯酋首席執行官告訴我，他自己的孩子阿拉伯語都說不流利。他說，為了讓他們將來能夠擁有更好的職業發展前途，他送孩子們就讀英語學校，但現在感到后悔，因為孩子們已不習慣說祖祖輩輩沿用的語言了。

????精英階層為何對此感到焦慮呢？它不僅是個情感問題。該地區其他國家爆發阿拉伯之春運動的關鍵原因之一是貧富分化，而語言分化正是其反映。人們不斷告訴我，我憑生活經驗得出的感受是準確的：家庭越富裕，其成員在家說阿拉伯語的可能性就越低。如果同一個國家的人民卻說這不同的語言，他們怎么可能超越階級界限，解決就連沙特阿拉伯這種石油富國都深受困擾的高失業率問題呢？（SM咨詢集團表示，即使按最保守的估計，沙特失業率也高達20%。）

????對于試圖在當地大展宏圖的企業高管來說，偏愛英語也會帶來挑戰。迪拜美國大學新聞學院院長阿里?阿爾?賈伯對我說：“如果不能與本國人民對話，就不可能成功。”MBC廣播公司首席執行官皮熱?達赫則表示，聘請合格的新聞記者很不容易，因為同時精通英語和阿拉伯語“是一種罕見的素質”。?

????Marhaba and hello. In March, I visited the Mohammed bin Rashid School of Communications at the American University in Dubai, where I sit on the advisory board with prominent regional business leaders. After some students presented reports to us in fluent English, I was surprised to hear my fellow board members say bluntly that their native language is "in crisis."

????It turns out English is fast becoming the only language of a new generation of educated Arabs.

????This isn't a good thing for the region or the rest of the world. (I'll get to that in a moment.) The journalism school at the AUD is the only modern program in the Middle East that allows students to study in Arabic. Still, many students arrive poorly versed in written Arabic and the formal spoken language and require refresher Arabic language courses.

????Literacy in the Gulf States is 98%, according to Unesco. But that literacy is increasingly in English, not Arabic.

????This English bias starts early, with children in private "model" schools in the United Arab Emirates studying their full curriculum, including math and science, in English. But state schools are pushing a pro-English agenda too. Professor Patricia Abu Wardeh, who has lived in the UAE for 16 years and in the region for more than three decades, laments that the UAE's government-sponsored Zayed University offers no major in Arabic.

????The trend appears to be taking hold regionwide. In Saudi Arabia, many upper-middle-class families speak English at home -- not just at work -- because, as one knowledgeable source told me, parents fear Arabic isn't sophisticated.

????One Emirati CEO told me his own children do not speak Arabic fluently. He said he put them in English schools to help ensure they'd have great career prospects. But now he says he regrets that his children don't feel comfortable speaking the language of their forefathers.

????Why the anxiety among these elites? It isn't just sentimental. The bifurcation of wealth, a key part of Arab Spring uprisings elsewhere in the region, is mirrored in the bifurcation of language. I am continually told that what I've experienced anecdotally is true: The wealthier the family, the less likely its members speak Arabic at home. If people in the same country don't speak the same language, how can they work across class lines to solve the problems of high unemployment that plague even oil-rich Saudi Arabia? (SM Advisory Group says 20% is an extremely conservative estimate for Saudi joblessness.)

????For executives trying to build local businesses, the English bias is a challenge. The dean of the AUD's school of journalism, Ali Al Jaber, told me, "If you can't address your own people, then you can't be successful." Pierre el Daher, the CEO of broadcaster MBC, says hiring journalists is a challenge because fluency in both English and Arabic "is a rare quality."