Hi combjelly; Re: "Greece annually translates five times more books from English than the entire Arab world. ... currently, 65 million Arab adults are illiterate";
There are something like 300 million Arabs, so the literacy rate they're talking about is around 80% or so. But "literacy" depends on what you define. Here's some info on the US literacy rate; our number drops to 15% if you only count people who are "fully literate", that is, who actually understand what they read. This thread is probably pretty good evidence of the bad US numbers, LOL:
Literacy in the United States
Thus, if this bottom quantile of the study is equated with the functionally illiterate, and these are then removed from those classified as literate, then the resultant literacy rate for the United States would be at most 65-85% depending on where in the basic, minimal competence quantile one sets the cutoff. The 15% figure for full literacy, equivalent to a university undergraduate level, is consistent with the notion that the "average" American reads at a 7th or 8th grade level which is also consistent with recommendations, guidelines, and norms of readability for medication directions, product information, and popular fiction.
en.wikipedia.org
Regarding literacy, parts of the Arab world (in particular, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Libya as well as various non Arabic Moslem states) have higher literacy than India. Now just how backwards is India? And they build nuclear powered submarines that shoot ballistic missiles tipped with hydrogen bombs, LOL. Here's the literacy map:
Of course I have no idea how many books are translated into Arabic or Greek, but I have doubts that the above is significant. Looking around the web, I find some pretty good sources that seem to show that it's true, but the reason seems to be that very very few books are published in Arabic at all. And you might wonder why that is. The natural implication is that Arabs don't read, LOL. But of course this is not true.
What's going on is that very few books are published in Arabic at all. Books are read by educated people and the educated people in Arab countries are not generally educated in Arabic. They're educated in foreign languages.
The most common language used in teaching in Arab universities is English followed by French and Italian, but they seem to be moving towards English. And foreign languages are taught to students who intend on going to college. This has two effects. First they don't need to translate textbooks into Arabic. Second, the educated part of the public doesn't need to have books translated into Arabic for them. They can read foreign languages. Here are some examples of teaching in English in the Arab world:
King Saud University (Oldest university in Saudi Arabia, founded 1957)
The university offers courses in the natural sciences, the humanities, and professional studies, for which it charges no tuition. The medium of instruction in undergraduate programs is English except for Arabic and Islamic subjects.
en.wikipedia.org
Education in Egypt (i.e. grade school through high school)
Schools in Egypt can be categorized into two main categories
* Governmental schools
1- Arabic schools: This type of schools is almost free.
2- Expermental language schools: in these schools Science and mathematics are tought in English and second forign language is tought starting from Preparatory school (instead of secondary school compared to Arabic schools). Also they teach advanced english subject. This type of schools required higher fees and usually students in this type of schools are one year older than their colleagues in Arabic schools.
*Private schools
1- Ordinary schools: same as Arabic governmental school but managed by private management. This type of schools required fees and usually provide better educations standards and less number of students in one class compared to Arabic governmental schools. Also private school administration can choose to teach advanced English subject
2- Language schools: This schools teach science and mathematics in English
3- Religious schools: are religiously oriented schools as Azhar Islamic schools and Catholic schools
4- International schools: Usually teach another country's curriculum, like British, American, German or French system.
www-db.in.tum.de
Even the German University in Cairo teaches in English, LOL:
English is the Teaching Language
Teaching language is English, while German is taught to allow the exchange of GUC students with other German universities and to facilitate their training in German companies.
guc.edu.eg
The first private university in (north) Egypt is Pharos University. Teaching is in English. Here's their brochure (also in English):
pua.edu.eg
Al Akhawayn University (Morocco), advertisement for a position teaching Management:
...
Requirements are a PhD in Management, demonstrated teaching excellence, the ability to teach in English and the proven ability to initiate and implement research of international standards. Applicants for an associate professor position should already have a strong record of published research in international respected journals.
aui.ma
Now classes in Islam and culture are typically going to be taught in Arabic, but most students learn English.
On the other hand, in Greece, stuff is taught in Greek.
In short, I think that talking about literacy and book translation rates is not a fair indication of how scientific a population is. I know engineers who have never read a book since they got their degree. The percentage of the US population that reads is quite small.
-- Carl
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