French speakers in Arab countries?

Question

I'm talking about Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Lebanon in particular.

1) Is everyone in those countries fluent in French?

(speaking, reading and writing)

If not, could you give me a percentage (rough guess) of the population that speaks French vs. Arabic-only?

2) Why is it that when they speak it, they're sooo fluent in it even when they've never been to France?

Are they taught or taught in French from early childhood?

3) When they speak French, can the French detect their Arabic accent or do they sound exactly like the French/Parisians?

4) And last but not least...

How do I go about raising a child bilingual or even trilingual in a country where only one language is spoken?

(I'm not referring to one specific country but rather any country where there is only one official/common language spoken.)

Answer 1

1) No, I wouldn't say everyone is fluent in those countries. Most the ones of the middle and upper class and are able to receive a good quality education. It's hard to give a percentage though, it varies by country.

2) The reason why many of them have no accent and sound like native speakers is because this is the language of education for many. Oftentimes it's the language of education, business and media. Yes, oftentimes children will begin learning French from a young age. I have a penpal from Algeria and he's told me that although French is not his native language it's the language he normally speaks with his son in.

3) As far as the accent well I guess that depends who they learned from: A native French speaker or fellow Arab who learned French as a 2nd language.

4) If you want to raise a child to be bilingual in a country that only speaks one language more than likely the child will learn the national language in school so have them speak the other language while at home and get some children books so they have a chance to practice their reading skills in this language.

Answer 2

you'd probably have to teach your child by speaking to it alternating evenly between all three languages. french in other nations are usually quite different from the french you would hear in france. they speak it fluently because its spoken there all the time and they grew up hearing that.  its hard to give a percentage on who speaks what, it really depends on how people have been raised and what they learned as a child, since its easier to grasp a language at a younger age.

Answer 3

ln Morocco 60% of the population speak French fluently, 63% in Algeria. l don't know but probably the same in Tunisia i.e. in the whole Mahgreb as many people as in France.

Answer 4

IT is true that almost all of people in these countries are fluent in french except Lebanon, they speak arabic.

  Those countries are fluent in french cause they lived long ages colonized by france.

   To raise a child bilingual you can send him to school that teach other languages beside the common language.

Answer 5

mada