Imagine being a Moroccan parent who has spent thousands of dirhams teaching your child French, convinced that it is the key that will open the doors to higher education and employment.
In the next room, that same child is learning English for free on YouTube, listening to American podcasts, and speaking online with people from countries you have never visited. When you suggest improving their French, they look at you as if you had asked them to learn how to use a fax machine.
You believe French is the language of work.
They believe it is the language of the past.
A few years from now, both of you may discover that you were wrong.
The parent may have prepared the child for the job market as it exists today without asking what it will look like tomorrow. The child may have prepared for the whole world before learning how to open the first door at home.
This is not a simple battle between French and English. Nor can it be settled with slogans such as “English is the language of the future” or “You cannot work in Morocco without French.”
The real question is more practical:
If your time is limited, which language deserves your investment?
Young Moroccans Buried French Before It Died
Listen to the conversation among young Moroccans, and you might assume that French is already dead and that all we need now is someone willing to issue the death certificate.
Some see it as a colonial inheritance that Morocco should have abandoned long ago. Others consider learning it a waste of time when English provides broader access to technology, knowledge, international education, and global employment.
Whenever the subject appears on social media, the discussion quickly turns into a battle over identity instead of a serious conversation about education and work.
This shift is more than an online impression.
A British Council survey of more than 1,200 Moroccans between the ages of 15 and 25 found that over two-thirds expected English to replace French as Morocco’s main foreign language within five years. When asked which language was most important to learn, 40% chose English, compared with only 10% who chose French.
Those numbers reveal the aspirations of an entire generation.
But aspiration and reality are not the same thing.
Almost five years after that survey, French has not disappeared. It remains present across private companies, public administration, higher education, and many recruitment processes.
A study examining the mismatch between education and employment in Morocco’s urban labour market found that insufficient command of French remained an obstacle for some graduates entering the workplace.
To put it more directly:
Young Moroccans have voted for English, but much of the Moroccan job market has not opened the ballot boxes yet.
The Numbers That Ruin the Argument for Both Sides
According to Morocco’s 2024 General Population and Housing Census, 57.7% of literate people aged ten and above could read and write in French. The figure for English was 20.5%.
In urban areas, the difference was even clearer: 64.3% for French and 25.2% for English.
These numbers do not prove that French is better. Nor do they suggest that English is unimportant.
They show that French already has an established infrastructure in Morocco: employees, managers, documents, institutions, educational programmes, and commercial relationships that have relied on it for decades.
You cannot delete all of that with an angry hashtag.
But the figures also reveal something else. Because English is still less widespread, mastering it can make you more distinctive, particularly when pursuing opportunities beyond the local market.
French currently offers easier access to many parts of Morocco’s existing job market. English expands the size of the market you can potentially enter.
French may help you secure an interview with a Moroccan or Francophone company. English may give you access to broader educational resources, international clients, remote roles, and companies operating beyond the French-speaking world.
Mastering both is the least dramatic answer, but probably the smartest one.
The Education System Has Started Moving Too
The movement towards English is no longer confined to YouTube, TikTok, and conversations among young Moroccans.
For the 2025–2026 academic year, the Moroccan government announced the expansion of English teaching across all three levels of lower secondary education.
During the previous academic year, English instruction had reached 75.9% of lower secondary students, up from 55.7% a year earlier.
This means that the next generation will enter university and the job market with a different relationship to English.
But teaching a language in school does not automatically produce fluency.
Many of us studied French for years, only to arrive at a job interview desperately searching our memory for the difference between depuis and pendant.
The education system can open the door. It cannot walk through it for you.
English Is Not a Magic Wand
Supporters of English sometimes make the same mistake they accuse French supporters of making.
They present English as if learning it will automatically bring you a remote job, a salary in dollars, a visa, and perhaps a seat next to Elon Musk.
It will not.
Language cannot compensate for the absence of a useful skill.
You can speak perfect English and still have nothing valuable to offer. Someone with average English who understands programming, design, sales, marketing, or data analysis may have far better opportunities.
A language does not build your career from nothing. It expands the career you have already started building.
Ila ma ʿendek ma tgoul, ḥtta ila geltih b-English dyal London, ghibqa ma ʿendek ma tgoul.
If you have nothing valuable to say, saying it in perfect London English will not make it valuable.
Some young Moroccans are simply moving from worshipping French to worshipping English, as if we cannot use a language without placing it above our heads.
English is not proof of intelligence. French is not proof of sophistication. Arabic is not evidence of isolation. Darija is not the language of ignorance.
They are tools.
Their value depends on whom you need to reach and what you can do once you reach them.
Not All Careers Require the Same Language
Giving the same advice to everyone makes no sense.
A student who wants to work in public administration does not have the same needs as a developer pursuing remote employment. A nurse planning to move abroad does not face the same language requirements as an entrepreneur selling services to Moroccan businesses.
Your choice should begin with the market you want to enter, not with the language receiving the most applause on social media.
If your career is connected to Moroccan institutions or companies working with Francophone clients, abandoning French completely could close real doors today.
If you work in software development, research, content, remote services, or artificial intelligence, weak English may delay your access to knowledge and international opportunities.
If you run a business serving Moroccans, your ability to communicate clearly in Arabic and Darija may matter more than the foreign terminology you use to impress people.
Morocco does not live in one language, and its economy does not operate in one language.
The question “French or English?” is therefore incomplete.
A more useful question is:
Which language do I need today, and which language will prevent my career from reaching a ceiling tomorrow?
Which Language Should You Learn First?
If a young Moroccan asked me to choose one language for them, I would not answer before knowing where they wanted to work.
If they did not yet have a clear plan, however, I would suggest a practical compromise.
Maintain a functional level of French: enough to understand a professional email, write a reply, complete an interview, and participate in a meeting without losing every word at the first unexpected question.
Then invest most of your new learning effort in English because it expands your access to knowledge, tools, markets, and international opportunities.
Do not wait until you have “mastered” a language before using it.
Learn it through the profession you want to practise. If you are a designer, watch design tutorials. If you are a developer, read technical documentation. If you work in marketing, study campaigns and case studies.
Do not spend months memorising vocabulary about airports and hotels if the furthest place you regularly travel to is the office.
Learn the language you will need on Monday morning, not the one that makes you sound sophisticated on Sunday evening.
French Is Not Dead, but Its Monopoly on the Future Is
Writing an angry article demanding the removal of French would be easy. Responding with another article warning young people that they will never find work without it would be equally easy.
The truth is less comfortable for both sides.
French remains useful in Morocco, and ignoring it may harm your immediate opportunities. But relying on French alone is an increasingly limited bet in a world where technology, knowledge, and international business move largely through English.
Do not bury French before it dies.
But do not allow it to bury your opportunities beyond the borders it has created around you.
Learn what you need to enter the market that exists today. Then learn what you need so that you do not remain trapped inside it tomorrow.
The worst linguistic decision you can make is not choosing French instead of English, or English instead of French.
It is spending years arguing about which language deserves your time while other people learn both and move ahead of you.
As we would say in Darija: نتا ما محتاجش تختار بين جوج بيبان. تعلم كيفاش تحلّهم بجوج.
You do not need to choose between two doors. Learn how to open both.