Hello, First of all, I wish a happy new year to all who may be concerned. This year, I spent Christmas and New Year Eve in an unusual way, since I was in the Sahara desert (south of Algeria) for 15 days, as an ecotourist. I had a real great time over there, which I will share with Wikipedia in trying to improve many articles related to the areas I went to, as well as with many pictures. However, I wished to share a couple of additional things/thoughts with you. About languages and education. I spent a little while in Tamanrasset, and discussed with some of it inhabitants, men and women. It is a strange situation, as it cannot be said that people are "poor", in the sense that most have the basics which allow them to live quite happily. The city is growing pretty fast (50 000 unhabitants), but is not sustainable for its water, nor for its food, nor for most of its industrial goods. Most of it is imported from the north of Algeria. The city is essentially living from camels, goats and sheep... and tourism in the surroundings of course. While the city is shared by many ethnies and different nationalities, most people over there are muslims. They speak a mixture of Tuareg language (tamazight or tamahaq) and some local arab which can hardly be recognised by those of us French who learned classical arab in France. One thing surprised me greatly. I thought the majority of Algerians could be said to speak French (since Algeria was previously a french colony). Well, I discovered over there that if all adults have notions of french language, many of them are very very far from fluent. I could speak to no kids under 15, even though I was told that all of them start learning french language at school from the age of 8 (?). So, I went for a little check and discovered that according to statistics, about 62% of Algerian speak decent french (enough for communication), and this number have been increasing in the past years. Now, Tamanrasset is in the most southern part of Algeria, so rather far away from France, though there is still obviously strong French influence. People I met talked with one another in Tamahaq, talk with other Tamanrasset people in a southern arab, speak with us in french, and receive education in classical arab. Guys ! these people manage roughly 4 languages ! When France left Algeria, the whole educational system was in french language; the algerian government tried to switch entirely to classical arab over the years, even though there were at that time not enough teachers knowledgeable in classical arab, even though most Algerians do not manage well classical arab, even though there were no educational books in classical arab to teach children. Over the years, the government has tried to impose more and more classical arab, to the dismay of all those speaking berberes languages (such as the Touareg). From my friends in Algers, I know that university education is still partly in french, in particular in scientific and technical domains. But from what I understood, the algerian educational system is in great part a failure, as it is taught in a language that many Algerian do not manage well, as it results in diplomas of little value on european or american market, and as many students end up secondary school with such a poor knowledge in french that they are unable to come to french universities or even to follow well algerian university classes. Possibly, knowing more of english language might help but it seems currently limited. Two things raised my attention greatly. First, a university is currently being built in Tamanrasset. For now, students usually go to Algers to follow upper studies (about 1500 km away, which evidently implies only quite wealthy people can afford this). Second, as we crossed villages in the mountains, we were surrounded by kids, from 6 to 12. Only the eldest could really communicate a bit with us. We had some pens for them, which we distributed. But it was not really what they were looking for. The youngest wanted paper mostly. But all asked for books. Only books. Not food, nor money, nor sweets, only books. And they wanted books in french language. I told them "but you can't read french". But this is what they wanted nevertheless. When I asked to my favorite guide, he told me "they learn french at school, a little bit, but they have no opportunity to practice. Except for a few tourists, who could they talk french to ? At least, with books, they can learn a bit". I suspect the school probably only has a couple of worn out ones. Possibly only a couple of worn out books in arab as well. I dig a couple of my son books to give them. Not much. If I had guessed, it would have been easy to bring a few more. As I understood, analphabetism is rising over there, especially among girls. If the kids do not speak french, their access to university is limited. And the main economical resource of the area is tourism, most tourists being french speaking. Computers in these villages is out of question. They have electricity but I doubt a computer could survive long in such an environment (I spent two hours in the local gendarmerie, they have desks, paper, pens and sand). However, most of our youngest guides had an email adress and went on the net thanks to cybercafes in Tamanrasset. There might be things to do no ? __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Helps protect you from nasty viruses. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail