I remember getting mildly annoyed when I found
it difficult trying to understand or make myself understood in certain areas such as Miami. I
thought that anyone who lived in my country should at least have a rudimentary command
of English, the official language of the U.S.
Well, now the shoe is on the other foot. In Abu Dhabi where English is definitely not the
official language and after over two years of residence here, I am embarrassed to admit that I can count the number of Arabic words I know on one hand. My intentions were good, I wanted to learn how to read and speak the language of my new home, but there were complications.
Arabic is widely known as one of the most difficult languages to master. It takes years of study for one to become fluent. Not only are the characters different to the western eye- they are read from right to left, and the individual letters change shape depending on their position in the word. Then there are all those dots.
If this is not daunting enough, each region of the Middle East has its own dialect, many which are mutually unintelligible. That means if you learn your local Arabic style, you may not be understood in another part of the Middle East. There are Gulf, Levant, and Egyptian dialects among others, each one so different they might as well be a different language.
Then there is the written word. The Qur’an is printed in Classical Arabic and most other print, video and educational media is in Modern Standard Arabic. They are quite different. So it does not seem simple to learn a single type of Arabic that would be “one size
fits all”.
In the U.A.E., I would guess that Arabic speakers are in the minority. Eighty percent of the residents are expats and most of them are from the Philippines and the Subcontinent countries of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Twenty percent of
expats are of western origin, and since English is almost a second language, here we do just fine.
I apologize for being an inconsiderate resident by not learning my host country is official
language but I don’t see the effort/ benefit ratio in my favor. I wouldn’t even know where to start! I get by because English is everywhere, and that has made me lazy. I don’t need to learn Arabic to get by on a day-to-day basis. Hindi, Urdu or Filipino might prove to be more useful to master given the demographics of the U.A.E. So yes, I am guilty of not making the effort but I will never be annoyed with the Hispanics in Miami ever again, I understand. I am a hypocrite!
