I've been Kuwait now
just a little under 5 1/2 months. When I had been in Germany about the same
time I spoke and understood a lot of native-language. Granted, German was my
first language and during the course of my life I've spent 13 years there; so
it would be expected that I would pick it up rather quickly. Not so with
Arabic.
There are a lot of
differences between the two languages that have prevented me from learning more
than a few cursory phrases, but when I thought about it the primary reason why
I have learned so little Arabic is the fact that almost all of the people that
I deal with speak English fluently and given a choice of another language would
probably speak Hindi or Tagalog. Because of my neighborhood strolls with
Falkor, I have learned many phrases in Hindi as well as the gestures that go
along with them -- this owing to the fact that I live in a primarily Indian
neighborhood.
Of the Kuwaitis that
I have met gotten to know, most have spent long periods of time in the United
States and as a result speak English at a very high level – – by this I mean
their conversational skills include colloquialisms and slang which you would
only pick up by actually being there. As a result except for greetings and farewells
our discussions are primarily in English.
One advantage that I
always had when traveling in Europe through France, Italy, Germany, and the
former Eastern Bloc was that the alphabet used was the same as in English. In
other words I could read a word and try to break it down to its base origin and
figure out what was being said -- big note of thanks to Charlotte Naffin my
high school Latin teacher. In Arabic that is not possible.
Arabic letters look
nothing like their English counterparts, although some are close to appearing
the same they have different sounds and work differently. Additionally, Arabic
is written right to left versus my normal mode of reading which is left to
right. So deciphering it is more like figuring out an encrypted piece of text
than reading and therefore it makes figuring words out much more difficult.
Although, in order to be functional I do know all of the numeric symbols used
so that I can read prices and money.
Looking back at the
20+ years of my life that I've spent living outside of the United States, I can
honestly say that I feel more separated here from the native populace than I
have living anywhere else. Part of that is because most of the people I deal
with are the ex-pats who make day-to-day life work in Kuwait. I suppose if I
dealt with a higher level of professional level people or if I worked in the
oil industry or some other international trade that might be very
different. But it is what it is.
Ramadan continues and
every day Saad tries to teach the office a little more of the traditions of the
holy month. It is interesting because in many ways they relate to the holidays
that I've celebrated for my entire life, to include Halloween. There is a night
or two where children put on costumes and go out in search of gifts of candy.
Granted, the costumes are not scary or of superheroes – – but other than that
the activity is very similar. It is one of those things that unless you lived
in a Muslim community you would never hear about.
Earlier this week my
air-conditioning failed. It quit, as near as I can tell, at about 1 AM and it
was about 2 PM the next day before was repaired. It was not pleasant. While
living in Germany, I never had air-conditioning but there the temperature only
exceeded 100° about one week out of the year -- so, it was survivable. On the
day that my AC failed the temperature was over 120° and my apartment promptly
heated up to over 100° and stayed there until the unit was repaired. I have no
idea how people survive year without some form of cooling.
That's my take on
life, until next week.
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