Transcultural and translingual identities in the United Arab Emirates: Engagement with Chinese, Japanese, and Korean

As researchers who have collectively spent over two decades living and working in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), we have observed a growing interest in East Asian languages and culture amongst Emirati university students, especially with regard to Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Such interest stems from popular culture, soft power, and top-down strategic influence. In a nation dominated by Arabic, as the official language, and English as a lingua franca and a medium of instruction, research has tended to focus on the Arabic-English binary. This article addresses recent calls for deeper investigations into third languages, other than Arabic and English, in the Gulf and their use and effects on transcultural and translingual identities. Through the theoretical framework of the social construction of reality, this article presents data from a case study on language learning preferences and engagement with East Asian languages and culture amongst female Emirati students via questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Findings from this study are discussed with implications for ‘third language’ learning, transcultural communication, and language policies in Gulf English-medium universities.