It seems that the summer has arrived in Tokyo. Last time I introduced the energy saving project in Oman, but this time I’d like to get away from engineering and look at culture and education in Oman.
Firstly, the state religion in Oman is Islam, so there are mosques throughout the city. When you mention the Arab world the mosque is a popular image, and in Oman many people pray 5 times a day (before sunrise, noon, afternoon, right after sunset and before retiring). For this reason, offices, shopping centres and hotels generally have a prayer room. Even though it tends to make meetings and presentations a little long, they are often stopped for prayers.
Islam is seen as a rather strict religion by most Japanese. Drinking alcohol is not allowed under Islam and women generally cover their figures in a long black dress called the “abaya”. Oman is girded by the Arabian bay, the Straits of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman with many beautiful beaches but you will not see Arab women relaxing in their swimsuits there. There aren’t so many men on the beaches either do they are very quiet.
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| Sohar beach |
However, there are differences in the severity of restrictions depending on area. Oman is considerably more liberal than neighbouring Saudi-Arabia, with many working women and it is accepted that women drive.
Next I’ll talk about language and education. Arabic is the official language of Oman but English is widely spoken. Traffic signs, notices and signboards are basically displayed in Arabic and English so there are no difficulties getting around. Then over half of Omanis can speak English fluently. This is mainly due to the fact that there are a lot of foreign workers in Oman, so it’s necessary as a means of communication. The population is made up of about 2,000,000 Omanis and 700,000 foreign workers.
Another reason why English is fluent is education.
The course of study in Oman is similar to that of Japan, however, the policy at universities is very different. Classes and all teaching materials are in English with none of the textbooks translated into Arabic. It is said that English is hardly studied until an Omani enters a university. I heard that Omanis hardly study English until an entering university but work on it intensively in the first year. Basic subjects and majors are learned from the second, but as these are studied completely in English, it is acquired out of necessity.
On hearing this I suspect that many Japanese, like myself would think “what an effective education system! We should do likewise.” However, if you ask Omanis their opinion, the think that technical subjects should be studied in your mother tongue and that we are lucky to be able to do so. They have to use English to learn technical subjects and this is more difficult than you might imagine. It is only studied superficially as a second language, It is very hard to master subjects in depth and as a result, the level of technical expertise in engineering seems to be underdeveloped. I’m not saying that this opinion is 100% right, but it is thanks to this project that I was led to weigh these ideas.
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| A mosque in the city of Muscat |
Akira Katayanagi,
International Projects Group
http://www.ptmtokyo.co.jp/
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