The Cervantes Institute, the Spanish Embassy in Egypt and LaLiga present this initiative to get closer to the Spanish language through the royal sport

The first Spanish-Arabic football dictionary has been launched

photo_camera In the centre, the Academic and Cultural Directors, Carmen Pastor (right) and Raquel Caleya (left), respectively, of the Cervantes Institute. Next to them, the Minister of Sport and Youth, Ashraf Soubhi (3 left); and the Spanish Ambassador, Gil Casares (2 left). They are accompanied by the director of the Cervantes in Cairo, Javier Sierra (1 right), and several Latin American ambassadors.

The Cervantes Institute, LaLiga and the Spanish Embassy in Egypt presented in Cairo the first Spanish-Arabic football dictionary, which aims to promote the learning of Spanish in several countries in the Middle East and North Africa through the power of football and Spain's most famous teams and players.

The dictionary contains descriptions and information on clubs, players, stadiums, competitions, football terminology and other useful travel and tourism phrases and expressions. The texts appear in parallel in Spanish and Arabic in an attractive and accessible style and have been translated by the team at the Cervantes Institute in Cairo.

Throughout its 59 pages, it includes illustrations and expressions in both languages that can be easily understood and learned by both Arabic and Spanish speakers. The use of modern standard Arabic makes it understandable to Arabic speakers in different countries in the region.

The dictionary will reach many Spanish language learners, as it will be sent to universities, public institutions and libraries throughout Egypt. It can also be downloaded free of charge at the following link: https://elcairo.cervantes.es/imagenes/File/diccionario_futbol_espanol_arabe_instituto_cervantes_laliga.pdf

Instituto Cervantes and LaLiga have previously collaborated to produce similar football dictionaries in two other languages: Chinese and Indonesian. This initiative is in addition to others, such as the organisation of Spanish and football workshops in countries such as Morocco and Japan.

The Spanish Embassy in Egypt has played an important role in promoting the Spanish-Arabic dictionary. The Ambassador, Ramón Gil-Casares, organised its presentation to the Egyptian Minister of Youth and Sports and other Latin American ambassadors, some senior education officials and several directors in the field of football.

Gil-Casares stated that "languages, culture and sport are important factors that bring nations together. This project is an important step for Spain, not only in Egypt but in the Middle East as a whole, as we are bringing Arabic speakers closer to Spain and vice versa".

The Academic and Cultural Directors of the Cervantes Institute, Carmen Pastor and Raquel Caleya, respectively, also spoke at the presentation. Pastor declared that "the Institute, together with LaLiga, offers this entertaining and agile dictionary to get closer to Spanish, by using our football to attract interest".

For his part, Caleya recalled that both Spain and Egypt are great lovers of the sport-king and that "the words of football are manifestations of a language and a culture that transmit sporting values such as courage, self-improvement or integration". "Football is a great gateway to a deeper knowledge of the culture of Spanish-speaking countries," he said. 

The Spanish-Arabic dictionary is the third to be published from this joint project which, as defined by Juan Fuentes Fernández, LaLiga Global Network delegate in Egypt, "clearly brings together institutions so that Arabic speakers learn more about our language, our culture and our football. It is another great example of collaboration between LaLiga and public organisations such as the Cervantes Institute and the Spanish Embassy".

The event was closed by the Egyptian Minister of Youth and Sport, Ashraf Sobhy, who encouraged people to learn the values of self-improvement through football and culture.

An initiative with a past

In 1982, a project to publish a Spanish-Arabic football dictionary was initiated by the Spanish Cultural Institute (now Cervantes) in Dublin, Ireland, in collaboration with the Centro de Cultura Hispánico (now Cervantes) in Beirut, Lebanon, based on the Spanish Foreign Ministry's OID Spanish World Cup football vocabulary, an initiative of the Dublin Institute, as well as the English-Spanish Football Vocabulary Dictionary published in Ireland by the Spanish Cultural Institute in Dublin itself. 

The project had to be abandoned due, in the words of the Beirut Centre's director, to "the more than chaotic situation that prevails". "The Kuwaiti embassy I was counting on had to close its doors and the ambassador and all the diplomats there, threatened, had to leave," he said at the time. "The one in Lebanon has reached inconceivable limits, every moment is a shock: explosions, threats, shootings (which I am hearing at the time of writing). You will understand that all these inconveniences prevent us from doing anything positive," said the director of the Beirut Centre himself in that difficult situation.

One of the important driving forces behind this proposal, José Antonio Sierra, wanted to congratulate all parties and was delighted that in 2021, after almost 40 years, the Cervantes Institute, the Spanish Embassy in Cairo and The League have made possible what prevented the state of war in Beirut in 1982.

Submitted by José Antonio Sierra, Hispanismo advisor.

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