Changes in UAE Culture - Essay Example

The major contributing factor toward the multiculturalism of the UAE is the massive in-pour of foreigners specially Westerners in the UAE. Another contributing factor is government’s flexible policies and frequent efforts to modify the country’s environment so as to match the needs of the foreigners. The main reason the government is doing this is that the government wants to provide the foreigners with a homely environment so that more and more foreigners work in the UAE and contribute to the strength of its economy.

The positive effect of multiculturalism of the UAE is that it has provided the indigenous people with an opportunity to easily integrate into the contemporary lifestyle. For centuries, the Arabs have lived the life of nomadic tribes that were totally unaware of technology or the fundamentals of the modern lifestyle. Living with the foreigners in their own country has enabled the people to live and work in the foreign countries. The negative effect of multiculturalism of the UAE is primarily the concerns of the indigenous population to preserve its original culture as it is readily merging into the whole range of cultures that are dwelling together in the UAE.

Preserving the indigenous culture of the UAE is primarily the government’s responsibility. To achieve this, the government can take initiatives that describe the indigenous culture of the UAE, for example, making films, theatres, and songs that reflect the original values of the UAE culture. The government has taken certain steps to preserve the indigenous culture e.g. “To act as repositories of this heritage and a source of information for both visitors and the younger generation who have not experienced a traditional lifestyle, museums and heritage centres have been developed throughout the UAE” (UAE Interact, n.d.), but objective measures need to be taken to actually sustain this culture in a time where it is threatened by external cultures.

Change 2 Increase in the Number of English-Speaking Indigenous People of the UAE I have chosen this area of change because there is a considerably increase in the number of the indigenous people of the UAE who know and can speak and understand English today than there were 40 years before. Today, there is a very large population of foreigners in the UAE and though many of them are not Americans and have arrived there from such South-East Asian countries as Indian, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, yet they commonly communicate with one another in English.

Owing to the omnipresence of the English-speaking foreigners in the UAE, the indigenous people feel the need to learn to speak English because they have to encounter the English-speaking foreigners on daily basis and everywhere, be it market or workplace. For centuries, the people in all of the Arab countries including the UAE have not felt the need to learn English, but now they have. The main contributing factor behind increase in the number of English-speaking indigenous people in the UAE is the fact that they have to interact, live, and work with the foreigners on daily basis whether or not English is the first language for the foreigners.

Since a vast majority of the foreigners from the South East Asian countries cannot speak Arabic, so English has been established as a standard language for communication with