Intercultural encounters,
in the eye of
the beholder
Said M. Faiq, FRSA
American University of Sharjah (UAE)
& Exeter University (UK)
IAFOR 2015
IICLL 2015
Integrated Practices
in/of language learning
 Assessment
 Cross-cultural communication
 literacy
 Phonetics
 Teacher training
 Translation and interpreting
 --- etc---
IICE 2015
Education
 Transnational or international? Developing new
spaces of learning
 Education, power and globalisation
 Challenges of literacy and communication in
transnational spaces
 Education and transnational spaces: power and
Disempowerment
TOGETHER …
IICLL2015 and IICE2015
Information
Communication
Culture
Language
Information
Information
=
knowledge
=
power
Communication
Intra
Inter
Production
Reception
Message
Medium
Context
Culture
Macro (mental)
Micro (material)
Macro Culture
Religion
History
Social
Structure
Values
Language
???
Macro Culture
 … includes
the knowledge that people need to have to
function effectively in their social environment.
 … is shared and learned behaviour that is transmitted
from one generation to another for purposes of
promoting individual and social (group) survival,
adaptation
Micro Culture
Food
Clothes
Sleeping habits
Marriages / divorces
Fish
Rice
Cars
…
Language
Where is it?
What is it?
… altogether # 1…
Culture
Language
…culguage
, any one!
… altogether #2…
Representation
Transmission
Transculturation –
hopefully  or 
… Spaces …
of
(Inter)
cultural Communication
are
based on a master discourse
… master discourse …
[Receivers of intercultural mediation or
communication] have at their disposal
established systems of representation, with
norms and conventions for the production and
consumption of meanings vis-à-vis people,
objects and events. These systems ultimately
yield a master discourse through which
identity and difference are marked and within
which [representation]is carried out. (Faiq, 2006).
IICE2015 … Education
Where is it? What is it? Why?
Reading
Literacy
Numeracy
Global citizens? Complaints from/by all
Education …
Arab World - AW
State and status of Arabic in AW
(when Arabic ruled   )
 English language ‘seducing’ UAE pupils
 Solid bilingual system would bolster Arabic in the UAE
 Law planned to preserve Arabic language in the UAE
 UAE schools must improve Arabic lessons
 UAE students being not fluent in Arabic ‘a worry’
 Creativity needed when teaching Arabic
…Arabic in AW …
“We have a generation of students from an
Arab background who are not fluent in their
mother tongue,” said Mazen Al Sheikh,
director of Arabic at the American School of
Dubai.
“Actually it’s English that’s their mother
tongue. Arabic is becoming a second or third
language.”
Higher Education …
Dubai, for example …
‫‪Higher Education in AW‬‬
‫دعا المشاركون في المنتدى اإلقليمي لقيادة التعليم العالي إلى ضمان الجودة‬
‫واالعتماد األكاديمي‪ ،‬والتدويل والعولمة‪ ،‬وإدماج التكنولوجيا ‪ ،‬والتعلم‬
‫و استقطب المنتدى الذي نظمه ‪.‬والتعليم والبحث العلمي في التعليم العالي‬
‫مركز االبتكارات التعليميّة وحلول المعرفة المتخصصة ‪ ،‬بالتعاون مع اتحاد‬
‫الجامعات العربية والمجلس الدولي للتعليم المفتوح والتعلم عن بعد‪ ،‬ومبادرة‬
‫يوتي العالمية بجامعة تكساس في أوستن والذي اختتمت فعالياته أمس ‪ ،‬أكثر‬
‫من قادة التعليم العالي وصناع القرار والخبراء المتمرسين ‪180‬من‬
‫القادمين من داخل المنطقة وخارجها لمناقشة مواضيع تتعلق بتطوير‬
‫القيادات وضمان الجودة واالعتماد األكاديمي‪ ،‬والتدويل والعولمة‪ ،‬وإدماج‬
‫التكنولوجيا في التعليم العالي‪ ،‬والتعلم والتعليم والبحث العلمي في التعليم‬
‫‪.‬العالي‬
‫… ‪…more‬‬
‫‪... ‬كما اوصى بالعمل على إبعاد مؤسسات التعليم العالي عن‬
‫الصراعات السياسية التي تؤثر على رسالتها التعليمية وعلى‬
‫مستقبل الطلبة من أجل االرتقاء بالتعليم العالي والبحث العلمي‪،‬‬
‫ودعوة المنظمة العربية للتربية والثقافة والعلوم (أليكسو )إلى وضع‬
‫برنامج حوكمة مؤسسات التعليم العالي والبحث العلمي في الوطن‬
‫العربي وذلك بالتعاون مع المنظمات اإلقليمية والدولية و مؤسسات‬
‫التمويل‪ ،‬ووضع آلية للتنسيق بين المؤسسات و الهيئات الوطنية‬
‫المسؤولة عن البحث العلمي في الوطن العربي‬
‫‪‬‬
… E & HE in AW …
Mastery vs. mystery (!)
Triad of ----
education
translation
arabicization
E & HE in AW
So, answers
please …
IICLL2015
… translation …
Where is it?
What is it?
… translation …
…translation does not happen in a vacuum,
but in a continuum; it is not an isolated act, it is
part of an ongoing process of intercultural
transfer. Moreover, translation is a highly
manipulative activity that involves all kinds of
stages in the process of transfer across
linguistic and cultural boundaries. Translation
is not an innocent, transparent activity but is
highly charged with signification at every
stage; it rarely, if ever, involves a relationship
of
equality between texts, authors or systems.
Bassnett & Trivedi (1999: 2)
[Translation] wields enormous power in constructing
representations of foreign cultures. The selection of
foreign texts and the development translation
strategies can establish peculiarly domestic cannons
for foreign literatures, cannons that conform to
domestic aesthetic values and therefore reveal
exclusions and admissions, centres and peripheries
that deviate from those current in the foreign
language. Venuti, 1998)
…1…
Appeals to the past are among the commonest
of strategies in interpretations of the present.
What animates such appeals is not only
disagreement about what happened in the past
and what the past was, but uncertainty about
whether the past really is past, over and
concluded, or whether it continues, albeit in
different forms, perhaps.
This problem
animates all sorts of discussions - about
influence, about blame and judgement, about
present actualities and future priorities.
(Edward Said, 1993)
... 2 …
I wanted ... to translate a volume of contemporary Syrian
literature. I ... thought the work of ‘Abd al-Salam al-‘Ujaili was
very good and well worth putting into English. ‘Ujaili is a doctor
in his seventies who has written poetry, criticism, novels and short
stories. In particular his short stories are outstanding. Many are
located in the Euphrates valley and depict the tensions of
individuals coping with politicisation and the omnipotent state.
.... I proposed to my British publisher a volume of ‘Ujaili’s short
stories. The editor said, “There are three things wrong with the
idea. He’s male. He’s old and he writes short stories. Can you find
a young female novelist?” Well, I looked into women’s literature
and did translate a novel by a woman writer even though she was
and is in her eighties. (Peter Clark, 1997)
…3…
That Women of Sand and Myrrh was written specifically
for English-speaking audiences is clear in the opening
chapter. References specific to Western culture which
would be unfamiliar to Arabs go unexplained, whereas
references to customs or practices specific to Arab
contexts
are
consistently
accompanied
by
explanations. … “Barbie dolls and Snoopies and
Woodstocks” would not be recognized by most in the
Arab world, and yet are left without explanation.
(Dallal, 1998)
…4…
Büchler & Guthrie (2011) -for UK and Ireland.
Spaces
X
Y
betwixt & between
animated/controlled/guided … by
Master Discourses
… SO #1…
 Calls for cultural plurality may create uniformitarian
biases.
 The “holy” mating of self and other (to be global)
often seems to touch on fantasy.
 Cultures come to terms with their “others” through
master discourses that are primarily “monocultural”
within which “others” need to fit to belong …
… SO #2…
An understanding of the issues of
identity (self and other),
representation enterprise (patronage,
agencies, mediation), and
the master discourse.
… SO #3…
Local -----vs----- global
Soft
knowledge economy
Knowledge society
Civic society
HOW? … Perhaps ...
glocal – wishful thinking
… not really sure, are you?
… why …
... Difficult …
it is
a matter of
…