I have bad news for you. Although I told you last week that I was very sick, you will be sorry to know that I am still alive… and writing! On the brighter side of things, I'm still quite sick. I was recovering fast but then suddenly I was attacked again by that flu. Before I change the subject I would like to thank all those who wished me a speedy recovery and that would be myself – in the mirror – and all those who expect me to pay them. That's what I call "wishful thinking!" I will just let them dream on. Just because I owe them money doesn't mean I am going to pay them back. Now let us move on to our French class. Bonjour mes amis. C'est le même homme, Amr Hussien, mais aujourd'hui je parle Français… Oh man, I am having a hard time doing this so I'll switch back to English. Anyway, the two languages are quite similar – all you have to do is to ignore pronouncing the last letter of each English word and then it will sound like a French… thing. I didn't say a French word, because most probably it will not! This reminds me so much of Joey from "Friends" when he pretended he could speak French to pass an audition. But why did I speak French in the first place? Certainly I was not showing off, because as you might have noticed my French is horrible. The thing is, I received a very kind invitation from the Embassy of Switzerland's Press Attaché Mr Adib Soliman, to attend a press conference anagurating "Fête de la francophonie" at the Swiss Embassy. In other words, French speaking countries are promoting their language. The conference was attended by many ambassadors and headed by Ambassador Naela Gabr, Chairman of the National Committee of the Francophonie and Permanent Representative of the President of the Republic to the Council's Sustainable International Organisation of la Francophonie. So everyone was celebrating the 40th Francophonie Day and the numerous cultural events that will take place to promote it throughout the month of March. Although my first foreign language is English, I decided to attend, especially after knowing that the conference was going to be followed by a reception at the garden and usually "reception" means free food. That was very tempting… I wish I could go there three times a day. Seriously, I was curious to attend because first of all I wanted to meet people I've never met before, which I did, make new friends, which I also did and last but not least to know what kind of music performances they were planning to have in the near future. The thing that struck me like a bolt of lightning was how devoted some of the attendees were to the French language. When I say "attendees" I also mean numerous Egyptian individuals, who took pride in the French culture in general. I don't only like that, but I also admire it. One question kept popping up in my head since that day – what about our own language?Despite the constant sarcasm, which is kind of my trademark, I do like the French language and naturally I love English. Still I couldn't help but notice that millions of Arabs are neglecting their own language. Doesn't a language reflect the identity of people and the nation they belong to? Frankly I felt very jealous. I wish we could do the same. How many people speak Arabic as their first language all over the world? I don't have an exact figure but I know that hundreds of millions do. Isn't Arabic the language of the holly Qur'an? So we can add a substantial figure to the first one and then… raise our eyebrows and do nothing, or we can promote our Arabic language just like English and French speaking people do. Recently I started doing something that might seem naïve or even silly, but I am very happy doing it – for the first time in my life I started writing in Arabic on my computer. It takes me a long time to write one page but that's only because I'm not used to it. I think pretty soon I'll be much faster and more accurate. I want to use my language in communicating with those who speak it. I've had enough of writing Latin letters to form Arabic words. Now, since this is still the music section, I want to talk a little about music. One internationally successful artist, who spoke Arabic and French, was late singer Dalida. She was born in Shobra, Egypt, where she lived till the age of 21, then moved to France and became a superstar. Ironically, she was neither Egyptian nor French – Dalida was of Italian origin! I have a similar story to tell you about the Greek Demis Roussos who was born in Alexandria, Egypt and moved to Greece when he was 15. Then he had numerous hits in France and many European countries with his band Aphrodite's Child, which also included legendary piano/keyboard player and Academy Award winner Vangelis. Demis had many solo hits and some of them were in French. He is still a legend in Egypt. Claude Francois is another example. I don't know if this late French artist spoke Arabic or not, but he was born in Ismailia, Egypt and stayed there till he was 17. In France he turned into a superstar. I can go on and mention similar stories of other artists but I am too ill to write anymore. On the timeless "Hotel California" Don Henley of the Eagles sang "my head grew heavy and my sight grew dim" and these are the same bars I would have loved to sing for you… but I lost my voice. Sorry. Send me antibiotics to:[email protected]
