気張らずとも

There are students at Kuwait University from most of the Arab countries, but actually half of them were born in Kuwait and all of them have lived here in Kuwait for years with their parents, who have been working here, either. So their accents are truly Kuwaiti’s accent, and the way of behavior, fashion, etc, are also definitely Kuwaiti’s ones. However, they seem to be proud of their identities strongly based on their parents’ country, even though they have been there once or twice a year. It’s quite natural and common for them to have complex identities and I never deny the fact, but sometimes their excessive patriotism seems to be “pitiful” to me.

For example, I met a girl in a cultural exhibition at university, who is from a small town near to Damascus and has also lived here for nearly 10 years with her family. She speaks English and French fluently, and she said to me that most of the Syrian people can speak both English and French fluently at the same time. I have been to Syria twice, but I couldn’t meet any person like that (a few were able to speak a little); of course I know it was too short to meet all the Syrian people, though! So I asked to her why it is, and she answered it is because that they are proud of their original language, Arabic, so they don’t “want” to speak even if they have a great command of both languages. For me, as one of the Japanese, I think ordinary Japanese people can and do never speak any foreign language, even if it is almost true that 99% of them were taught in schools, but this is not because they are so proud of their language but because they don’t need to use any foreign language (there is no chance and necessity to use) and as a result they can’t. If they don’t need to speak, they don’t have to, so the foreign language ability of the ordinary people (not scholars or students) doesn’t make any difference for me, and thus for me, taking into consideration her background, she seemed pitiful, eager to emphasize (exaggerate? I don’t know the fact, so I can’t decide) the great ability of foreign languages of Syrian people.

Patriotism makes human being human being. I never deny it, but I can also never deny the negative aspects of it at the same time. All the people on the earth are already great enough not to have any necessity to proud of them. She also didn’t have to proud of her original nationalities, because she is there and will be there without endorsing her identity.