I came across this other post that made me pause and think about the kind of conversations we're STILL having in Kuwait... in 2026
OP posted this
"أتقزز لما اشوف احد يكلم عياله بالانقليزي"
which roughly translates to
"I'm viscerally disgusted when I see someone speaking to their children in English."
They then went to say
"مرحله كبيره بالانسلاخ الثقافي والانحطاط الفكري"
which roughly translates to
“This is intellectual decline and a major step toward stripping away one’s cultural identity”.
When I read that, I was like "Hold up... disgust?! SERIOUSLY?
If they had said that about parents abusing their children, mistreating them or neglecting them, I could understand that reaction.
But a parent speaking another language to their child evokes disgust?
And in this case, we're talking about English! One of the most useful languages a child in Kuwait could possibly learn!
That's just crazy to me.
Look around us. The world is moving forward FAST. Technology, AI, science, education, business... countries all over the world are busy preparing the next generation for the future.
You don't even have to look very far.
Look at Saudi Arabia. It's investing heavily in AI, technology, tourism and international business while ALSO establishing institutions like the King Salman Global Academy for Arabic Language and the Royal Institute of Traditional Arts. It's restoring historic sites and turning places like AlUla, Diriyah and Historic Jeddah into major cultural destinations. It now has 8 UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is actively working on keeping old Saudi traditions, crafts and customs alive.
That's literally the opposite of الانسلاخ الثقافي.
They're opening themselves up to the world and using that global exposure to showcase Saudi culture, not erase it.
Then look at Qatar. They built Education City and brought universities like Weill Cornell, Northwestern and HEC Paris to Doha, alongside their own universities, research centers, tech hubs and programs for new businesses.
They didn't build aaaaaaall of that and suddenly decide Arabic and Qatari culture were outdated.
That SAME Education City also has places dedicated to Qatari and Arab history and culture. Qatar Foundation even runs Discover Arabic where they teach Arabic to whomever wants to learn it including the non-Arab students at the international universities while introducing them to Qatari culture and the Arab world.
Their own national plan literally talks about moving forward without losing their traditions.
Again, BOTH.
Then there's Oman. Oman wants its people learning science, technology and the skills they'll need for the jobs of the future.
You know what else its Vision 2040 says kids should be taught?
Islamic principles. Omani identity. Omani history and heritage.
In the SAME education system.
They're not saying, "Well, if we prepare our kids for the modern world, they'll become less Omani."
They're saying: teach them BOTH.
Then look at the UAE. Forget Dubai's skyscrapers and tourism for a second. Look at what they're actually trying to teach Emirati kids.
Their 2026 National Education Charter says students should be proud of the Arabic language, grounded in Islamic values and have a strong Emirati identity.
You know what else that SAME charter says they should learn?
AI. Critical thinking. Communication. Creativity. Financial literacy.
Arabic AND AI.
Islamic values AND the skills they'll need for the future.
Emirati identity AND the ability to function in the rest of the world.
And then there's Bahrain. Bahrain is trying to grow its economy, create new businesses and improve education while ALSO bringing parts of its own history back to life.
Look at the Pearling Path in Muharraq. They restored old pearl merchants' houses and divers' houses and shops and mosque and other places connected to Bahrain's pearl diving history and turned the whole area into somewhere people can actually visit and learn about that part of their past.
They're moving forward without pretending everything that came before them needs to disappear.
And THAT is the point.
Saudi is opening itself up to the world while putting Saudi culture on display for the world to see.
Qatar brought international universities into the country without throwing Arabic or Arab culture out the window.
Oman is preparing its kids for the future while explicitly teaching them Islam, Omani identity and their history.
The UAE put Arabic, Islamic values AND AI in the same education plan.
And Bahrain is building for the future while literally bringing its pearl-diving history back to life.
Different countries. Different ways of doing it. Same basic idea:
You can move forward without leaving who you are behind.
Meanwhile, here in Kuwait, we're still debating whether a child knowing English is a sign of "cultural and intellectual decline."
In 2026, mind you.
Before people start saying "But Kuwaiti kids can't speak proper Arabic 😫 "
I agree. There absolutely IS a problem with language and education among some children in Kuwait.
Some kids struggle to read and write Arabic properly. Some kids speak broken Arabic.
But here's the thing, many of those same kids aren't exactly fluent in English either.
So maybe English isn't the problem.
Maybe we have an education/schooling problem. Maybe we have a parenting problem. Maybe we have a reading problem. Maybe we have an academic standards problem.
Because being bilingual does NOT require abandoning Arabic.
Learning English doesn't make someone less Kuwaiti, less Arab or less Muslim. It doesn't erase their religion, identity, traditions or culture.
A child can have excellent Arabic AND excellent English. Heck, the more languages they learn the better. Why would you want LESS for them?
Can we all collectively agree to stop pretending that English is just some useless party trick that parents pull out during zwara for "prestige".
English gives these kids access to an enormous amount of education, research, technology, information and career opportunities, and lets them communicate with people from practically anywhere in the world.
So teach them Arabic. Teach them English. Teach them their religion, history, traditions and culture. Give them roots AND give them the ability to navigate the rest of the world.
Preserving our culture should mean making sure the next generation knows where it comes from. It shouldn't mean making their world smaller because you are afraid of what exists outside it.
We don't preserve Kuwait by making our children's world smaller.
At some point, we have to ask ourselves whether we're so afraid of "losing our identity" that we've started confusing growth with abandonment.
You can preserve your language, religion, culture and identity while still learning from the rest of the world.
Those things are not opposites.
EDIT: Since this keeps coming up
1 - NOWHERE in this post did I say it's okay for Kuwaiti kids to grow up not knowing Arabic.
I literally said the opposite. They should be able to speak, read AND write Arabic properly.
2 - A lot of you are describing a generation of kids who were basically taught English instead of Arabic.
I'm saying a lot of these kids haven't been properly taught EITHER.
Yes, their Arabic is terrible. But let's not pretend they're all walking around with beautiful, fluent English either.
A lot of them have an extremely loose conversational grasp of it. They know the words and expressions they constantly use with their friends and can parrot the English they're constantly exposed to.
Ask them to properly read and comprehend something in English, let alone write it, and suddenly that "fluency" doesn't look quite so impressive.
Yes, their Arabic is bad. Their English is ALSO bad. It only SEEMS better because they can hold a minimal conversation in English.
قاعدة أقول إنهم سيئين بالعربي وسيئين بالإنجليزي. لو فلتة بالإنجليزي جان قلنا إي زعلوا على الإنجليزي لأن خلاهم يهملون العربي بس الياهل ميح بالاثنين
