Importance of Language Use in Algeria

Video Transcript

If you can show some linguistic skills, people are, 'Really? You can speak Arabic?' There are different reactions to that. First, when you speak MSA, people, first reaction, they laugh. Because they laugh not at you, but they laugh at themselves. Knowing that an American can speak MSA, and they can't, or they don't know. This is one reaction. The second one is they are pleased. Because, 'Wow, Americans are making that effort to [learn] our language, although we don't speak MSA, but they're making that effort and [it's] great.' So, yes, language is something very, very important. It's very appreciated. And as I said because they appreciate your knowledge, your skills, when they see that you show some interest [in] their culture, [in] their language, they say, 'OK, if they took time to do this, it means we mean something to them.' And I think this is how most of them, this is how they take it.

In this video, an Algerian national discusses the importance of knowing basic Arabic.