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Experts call for more content in local languages

There is a need to create more data and knowledge in languages other than English for the benefit of communities, experts said during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting of the Global Future Councils in Dubai on Saturday.
They also underlined the need to prepare young students to cope with huge amounts of data being churned out on a daily basis.
"The fourth industrial revolution brings to the fore some intriguing questions about education itself because the pace of change is so quick. It's a challenge on how to educate a student in four years to become a well-prepared citizen of the 21st century and cope with uncertainty in the face of huge amounts of data," said Subra Suresh, president-designate, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Technology is providing opportunities to access and simulate information at an unprecedented pace and volume that is really exciting, he noted.
Abdulsalam Haykal, CEO of the UAE-based Haykal Group, emphasised on developing content in local and regional languages for the benefit of communities.
Citing an example, he pointed out that majority of people in the Arab world speak just one language. Hence, it becomes highly important to create content - especially knowledge-based - in Arabic to convey the right meaning and message to people.
He also noted that governments, entities and people need to coin words in their own language rather than just embrace words in other languages.
"Knowledge has to be available in the language of the country. It's easy here in the UAE because a majority of the people are bilingual, hence, it's easier to consume knowledge. In other countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, etc., the predominant language is Arabic. If I want this region to take a lead, then the information has to available in the country's own language," Haykal said.
"It is important to try and keep pace with technological advancements. It's not just creating content, we also need to think of long-term projects and coin new words for new concepts such as artificial intelligence. We need to teach those words to kids. We need to look at cost and time efficiency to produce good quality content. English is a 21st century skill like basic math but consuming knowledge is different and it has to happen in local languages," he added.
Katherine Maher, executive director, Wikimedia Foundation, USA, said information that is produced is available to the broader world now.
"The more information I consume doesn't mean that less is available for others," she said, adding that only three per cent of web content is in Arabic.
Luiz Ross, special adviser, innovation, American Development Bank, said the bank is now focusing on how to invest in people, with the focus shifting internally towards knowledge rather than operations.
He pointed out that the bank has introduced courses in local languages in other countries where it operates to give more country-specific information to customers there.
- waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com