Eitan Haber
Photo: Shalom Bar Tal
Learn to speak English
Op-ed: To do well in modern world, Israel needs top-notch English speakers
Many years have passed, but many people still recall with horror the final moments in a business seminar held in Jordan’s embassy in Israel. Five Jordanian ministers took part in the seminar, and at its festive conclusion one of the Israeli participants lauded our commercial ties with Jordan, remarking that “they even speak English.” A Jordanian minister sitting right next to me leaned over and whispered: “And we even came down from the trees by now.”
The Jordanian ministers who took part in that seminar were all graduates of top schools – Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, and Harvard. Their command of English was superb and they spoke with barely a hint of an accent. Yet throughout the day, and while speaking to each other, the arrogant Israelis kept on praising the Jordanians’ English.
The overwhelming majority of the older generation among us holds great respect for English, among other reasons because most of us stutter our way through this language while making numerous mistakes. And the accent, oh, that accent, is killing us. Over the years, we developed a theory whereby the Americans love our mistakes and mostly our accent. A foreign accent does the trick for them.
Yet that’s nonsense. We have learned in the past (and we keep on learning these days) that the Americans can’t stand mistakes in English, and that there is no charm in our terrible accent. They suffer terribly while facing our English speakers, yet their hypocritical manners prevent them from informing us of their real view on the disaster known as “Israeli English.” Among themselves, they despise Israeli English-speakers, and in many cases this may be the real reason for rejection.
The sooner the better
The realization that this is the case, and possibly other reasons, created among Israelis an affinity (not to mention admiration) for those who speak English perfectly. The most prominent English speakers in our history include Abba Eban, whose appearances were a celebration of perfect English, and of course Benjamin Netanyahu. We should also make note of Danny Gillerman, Dore Gold, Alon Pinkas, and current Ambassador in Washington Michael Oren.
And so, the first question being asked immediately after proposing candidates for any kind of appointment is “How’s their English?” This is being asked much before we ask about the person’s intelligence, political wisdom, and views. Hence, people such as the abovementioned figures will always hold an advantage over others because of their command of English – and it makes no difference that most of them were born or educated and lived in an English-speaking country and English is their mother tongue. They speak Hebrew as a second language.
What have we learned and what should we learn here? That the world today is increasingly crueler and that it demands more professionalism. If the State of Israel needs a cadre of figures who must speak English well, it is worthwhile (and possibly a must) to send them for several years of training abroad, until they possess perfect command of English and no less. We were forgiven in earlier years – you know, being a young country and facing security troubles – but we won’t be forgiven in the future. And as our journalists would say: The sooner the better.
