BehindBlueI's
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The box flips up and there's a seat underneath.
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Be sure to read this post! Beware of scammers. https://www.indianagunowners.com/threads/classifieds-new-online-payment-guidelines-rules-paypal-venmo-zelle-etc.511734/
Stories and photos from my time living in the Middle East
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The box flips up and there's a seat underneath.
shootersix
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- Mar 10, 2009
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gotcha!
BehindBlueI's
Grandmaster
- Oct 3, 2012
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Shortly after arriving in Qatar, I was trying to learn the language. I was using some computer software and also talking with the guards at the joint gate. The information often conflicted, and I hadn't yet learned that Arabic has several dialects that are very different from each other. The word for "cat" in one dialect is the word for "ball" in another, a letter that is pronounced like a hard "G" in one is pronounced like the "zhaa" in Zsa Zsa Gabor. The Yemeni guards spoke one, the computer software taught another, and the Qataris spoke a 3rd. Plus the language is all in cursive and of course none of them look like any of our letters.
I had the "bright" idea to buy the local newspaper in both Arabic and English and work my way through each article to try and teach myself. Then I learned something else. They don't write the vowels in everyday writing. Vowel marks are only used in children's books for when they are first learning to read and in very formal writing. This sounds like it's ridiculously hard, but you could do it in English pretty easily.
Chckns ly ggs, nd ggs htch nt chckns.
You probably read that without much effort. If you knew the context was barnyard animals, you'd have had even less trouble. Plus, Arabic is simpler in that word "families" are easy to discern. Desk and Office don't look anything alike in English, but are the same word in Arabic (Mak-tab) and context tells you which is meant, if it matters. Often it doesn't. If you ask me where I am and I say "at my desk" or "at my office", it's functionally the same in most instances.
Anyway, the newspaper experiment was a horrible idea. Sentence structure isn't the same, tenses don't matter as much, it's difficult to look up words when you don't know what vowels are implied...it was a really bad idea.
I did learn one thing. Carrying an Arabic newspaper under your arm causes people to assume you speak Arabic. This seems obvious once it's pointed out to you, but if you never gave it any thought and approached it as a way to learn, it is someone novel the first time a Qatari approaches you and starts in a full conversation in Arabic while you are barely able to get past "hello" and "I'd like to buy that, how much, you're a thief, ok I'll take it." (Side note: In traditional Arabic souqs, bargaining is expected. I'll touch on that again in a minute.)
So, I was sitting at the coffee shop trying my really stupid way to improve my Arabic when a Qatari sits down uninvited (not unusual in coffee shops, if you didn't want to socialize you wouldn't be there) and asks if I speak Arabic (in Arabic). I reply with "shwyet" (literally: a little little, what we'd say for tiny) and we quickly exhaust my small talk ability in Arabic so he switches to near perfect British English and asks what I'm doing with the Arabic paper. I explain. He looks at me like the dullard I was and told me that this was a horrible idea. Television is how you learn a foreign language! You see the actions and the faces and you learn from context, he tells me. I actually did know a guy in the Army who taught himself Japanese like that, first using subtitles and then weaning himself off of them to just context. My wife did the same thing, watching Friends with the subtitles on to improve to the point she didn't ned them any longer. I thanked him for his advise and tried it. Arab TV shows suck. So bad. It's like the worst parts of Telenovellas and Bollywood, only more annoying and less interesting. I tried to watch this horror movie about a teacher who got mad at his students and was possessed by an evil spirit for some reason and began to kill the students because...I'm not sure why, really, but it was truly awful.
THEN I learn that Egypt is the "Hollywood" of the Middle East, and speaks a different effing dialect. I became pretty frustrated with the TV because besides sucking it was teaching me a dialect that everyone understood because they also watched TV but that no one actually used. It's sort of like Shakespeare, only more accessible, unless you are in northern Africa. Once I met my wife I started learning the Levant dialect, but never got much past "The 3 Bears" level. I don't even remember the alphabet now.
Ok, shopping at a traditional souq requires negotiation. This is like "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service." If you aren't willing to haggle, you can't shop there. They'll haggle for you if they have to. You'd think they would just take the offered price and go with the extra profit, but it's like you are stealing from them if you don't haggle. I know this sounds ridiculous, and everyone here reading this is thinking "Screw that, I'd just take the offered price" but in the traditional souqs it's not just a business transaction, it's a social interaction. Sort of like you have to drink tea and eat sweets at the embassy before asking to get your paper stamped. If it was just business, just get your paper stamped and leave, but they are seriously trying to build relationships, even if you're never going to come back, and some of that is via the give and take of haggling.
I was forewarned of this and I like to haggle, so it was no big deal for me. If I was in a hurry, which I never was because WTF else is there to do, I'd just go to a modern store. But say you want to buy some gold jewelry. Gold is sold by weight, not by design. It's not like here where a given weight of gold may sell for a remarkably different price if its a simple rope necklace vs an intricate ring vs bulk gold not in jewelry form. There you put it on a scale and you pay the agreed upon weight, and there's a metric butt ton of gold dealers in the gold souq so competition is a few steps away from each merchant/artisan. As such, the quality is outstanding and if you're shrewd you can get some really good deals. Pearls, too. Gem stones like diamonds ran about what they'd run stateside, but gold and pearls...stock up while you are there. Once you bought from one guy a few times the negotiations got real short and fast as you'd basically have your price agreed upon from last time plus/minus market fluctuations...but you still negotiated a bit.
I saw one of our new guys try to buy a necklace to send home to his wife, he asked how much, the merchant told him, and he tried to pay. The merchant bickered HIMSELF down twice before realizing the customer wasn't going to play, gave up, and sold it to him at that price. And didn't look happy about it.
I'm sure in the poorer countries they'd just take your money and go on, but with the relative wealth there the money isn't such a big deal and the interaction has a value in and of itself. I tried to pay full price for a street vendor to repair a sandle for me because he looked destitute and he did the same exact thing as the gold merchant, bickered himself down a few Riyals. It made me a bit uncomfortable because he looked like he could use the money, but I knew enough to not argue. Tipping isn't really a thing there, either, although foreigners have brought it in. 10% was the suggested "normal" tip when I was there for restaurants and hotel bars (the only types of bars there). In contrast, Jordan was all about tipping, and no distinction was apparently made between tipping and bribing as far as I could tell. "Bak-sheesh" meant both, at least functionally.
I had the "bright" idea to buy the local newspaper in both Arabic and English and work my way through each article to try and teach myself. Then I learned something else. They don't write the vowels in everyday writing. Vowel marks are only used in children's books for when they are first learning to read and in very formal writing. This sounds like it's ridiculously hard, but you could do it in English pretty easily.
Chckns ly ggs, nd ggs htch nt chckns.
You probably read that without much effort. If you knew the context was barnyard animals, you'd have had even less trouble. Plus, Arabic is simpler in that word "families" are easy to discern. Desk and Office don't look anything alike in English, but are the same word in Arabic (Mak-tab) and context tells you which is meant, if it matters. Often it doesn't. If you ask me where I am and I say "at my desk" or "at my office", it's functionally the same in most instances.
Anyway, the newspaper experiment was a horrible idea. Sentence structure isn't the same, tenses don't matter as much, it's difficult to look up words when you don't know what vowels are implied...it was a really bad idea.
I did learn one thing. Carrying an Arabic newspaper under your arm causes people to assume you speak Arabic. This seems obvious once it's pointed out to you, but if you never gave it any thought and approached it as a way to learn, it is someone novel the first time a Qatari approaches you and starts in a full conversation in Arabic while you are barely able to get past "hello" and "I'd like to buy that, how much, you're a thief, ok I'll take it." (Side note: In traditional Arabic souqs, bargaining is expected. I'll touch on that again in a minute.)
So, I was sitting at the coffee shop trying my really stupid way to improve my Arabic when a Qatari sits down uninvited (not unusual in coffee shops, if you didn't want to socialize you wouldn't be there) and asks if I speak Arabic (in Arabic). I reply with "shwyet" (literally: a little little, what we'd say for tiny) and we quickly exhaust my small talk ability in Arabic so he switches to near perfect British English and asks what I'm doing with the Arabic paper. I explain. He looks at me like the dullard I was and told me that this was a horrible idea. Television is how you learn a foreign language! You see the actions and the faces and you learn from context, he tells me. I actually did know a guy in the Army who taught himself Japanese like that, first using subtitles and then weaning himself off of them to just context. My wife did the same thing, watching Friends with the subtitles on to improve to the point she didn't ned them any longer. I thanked him for his advise and tried it. Arab TV shows suck. So bad. It's like the worst parts of Telenovellas and Bollywood, only more annoying and less interesting. I tried to watch this horror movie about a teacher who got mad at his students and was possessed by an evil spirit for some reason and began to kill the students because...I'm not sure why, really, but it was truly awful.
THEN I learn that Egypt is the "Hollywood" of the Middle East, and speaks a different effing dialect. I became pretty frustrated with the TV because besides sucking it was teaching me a dialect that everyone understood because they also watched TV but that no one actually used. It's sort of like Shakespeare, only more accessible, unless you are in northern Africa. Once I met my wife I started learning the Levant dialect, but never got much past "The 3 Bears" level. I don't even remember the alphabet now.
Ok, shopping at a traditional souq requires negotiation. This is like "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service." If you aren't willing to haggle, you can't shop there. They'll haggle for you if they have to. You'd think they would just take the offered price and go with the extra profit, but it's like you are stealing from them if you don't haggle. I know this sounds ridiculous, and everyone here reading this is thinking "Screw that, I'd just take the offered price" but in the traditional souqs it's not just a business transaction, it's a social interaction. Sort of like you have to drink tea and eat sweets at the embassy before asking to get your paper stamped. If it was just business, just get your paper stamped and leave, but they are seriously trying to build relationships, even if you're never going to come back, and some of that is via the give and take of haggling.
I was forewarned of this and I like to haggle, so it was no big deal for me. If I was in a hurry, which I never was because WTF else is there to do, I'd just go to a modern store. But say you want to buy some gold jewelry. Gold is sold by weight, not by design. It's not like here where a given weight of gold may sell for a remarkably different price if its a simple rope necklace vs an intricate ring vs bulk gold not in jewelry form. There you put it on a scale and you pay the agreed upon weight, and there's a metric butt ton of gold dealers in the gold souq so competition is a few steps away from each merchant/artisan. As such, the quality is outstanding and if you're shrewd you can get some really good deals. Pearls, too. Gem stones like diamonds ran about what they'd run stateside, but gold and pearls...stock up while you are there. Once you bought from one guy a few times the negotiations got real short and fast as you'd basically have your price agreed upon from last time plus/minus market fluctuations...but you still negotiated a bit.
I saw one of our new guys try to buy a necklace to send home to his wife, he asked how much, the merchant told him, and he tried to pay. The merchant bickered HIMSELF down twice before realizing the customer wasn't going to play, gave up, and sold it to him at that price. And didn't look happy about it.
I'm sure in the poorer countries they'd just take your money and go on, but with the relative wealth there the money isn't such a big deal and the interaction has a value in and of itself. I tried to pay full price for a street vendor to repair a sandle for me because he looked destitute and he did the same exact thing as the gold merchant, bickered himself down a few Riyals. It made me a bit uncomfortable because he looked like he could use the money, but I knew enough to not argue. Tipping isn't really a thing there, either, although foreigners have brought it in. 10% was the suggested "normal" tip when I was there for restaurants and hotel bars (the only types of bars there). In contrast, Jordan was all about tipping, and no distinction was apparently made between tipping and bribing as far as I could tell. "Bak-sheesh" meant both, at least functionally.
Ever been to Bahrain? I was there a few times back in the '90's and early 00's. Only asking as I just accepted a DOD job over
there and will be heading that way in the next 45 to 60 days for a minimum 2 yr tour with family.
there and will be heading that way in the next 45 to 60 days for a minimum 2 yr tour with family.
BehindBlueI's
Grandmaster
- Oct 3, 2012
- 26,608
- 113
BehindBlueI's
Grandmaster
- Oct 3, 2012
- 26,608
- 113
I'm going through the travel journal I kept while overseas, and man did I whine about the weather a lot. I remember how horrendously hot it was, but I don't remember being such a whiner about it. Boo-hoo, it's 130 degrees and the humidity is nearly 100%. Suck it up, wuss. (past me would probably punch current me in the nuts at this point).
Some things I had completely forgotten about:
I completely forgot about taking my new bride to look at dinosaur bones in a hotel. Not a euphemism.
After a PT test for DynCorp:
I sure miss "occasionally."
Some things I had completely forgotten about:
I completely forgot about taking my new bride to look at dinosaur bones in a hotel. Not a euphemism.
After a PT test for DynCorp:
I sure miss "occasionally."
BehindBlueI's
Grandmaster
- Oct 3, 2012
- 26,608
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Back in Amman. Drivers still terrible, but now with more pedestrians in dark clothing playing Frogger.
Pro tip: don't act a fool in Royal Jordanian flights. Doing so may result in complimentary duct tape and the next 7 hours riding hog tied in the back of the plane. Full story when on a computer, not phone.
Pro tip: don't act a fool in Royal Jordanian flights. Doing so may result in complimentary duct tape and the next 7 hours riding hog tied in the back of the plane. Full story when on a computer, not phone.
BehindBlueI's
Grandmaster
- Oct 3, 2012
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It's night time. Dude driving truck with PA shouting. Turns out he's selling vegetables.
BehindBlueI's
Grandmaster
- Oct 3, 2012
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Veggie dude rolls through again in the morning. Next dude yelling through his PA I didn't know any of the words. Wife says he's selling cleaning supplies.
Police cars have changed. Ford Explorer in black and white. Looks sharp.
Security is increased since last time. Armored cars around embassies. Jordan media has soldiers with SMGs around perimeter. Mall has security check and metal detecter. Check bags and pat for suicide vest but no grope.
Dudes are BIG into skinny jeans. Looks like a pride parade with the ridiculous super skinny euro jeans and tight pastel shirts. Woman are more western dressed, yoga pants have made it here.
Police cars have changed. Ford Explorer in black and white. Looks sharp.
Security is increased since last time. Armored cars around embassies. Jordan media has soldiers with SMGs around perimeter. Mall has security check and metal detecter. Check bags and pat for suicide vest but no grope.
Dudes are BIG into skinny jeans. Looks like a pride parade with the ridiculous super skinny euro jeans and tight pastel shirts. Woman are more western dressed, yoga pants have made it here.
BehindBlueI's
Grandmaster
- Oct 3, 2012
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Ice cream guy! 10 Jordanian cents a cone.
Is it reasonably safe? when I was in Saudi, I had no problem with street-vendor shawarmas, I could see they were cooked really well right on the spot (and they tasted awesome), but I was leery of milk products. (Which reminds me... guess where the biggest dairy farm in the world is (at least in 1998)? No not Texas.)
BehindBlueI's
Grandmaster
- Oct 3, 2012
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It's actually sherbet. I figure it's safe. My wife's families kids have been eating it for years.
BehindBlueI's
Grandmaster
- Oct 3, 2012
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- 113
Traffic cop wearing a revolver cavalry draw. Not sure what the theory is.
BehindBlueI's
Grandmaster
- Oct 3, 2012
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Jordan traffic is more stressful then I remember, and I remember it being stressful. Saw two pedestrian strikes today, neither the pedestrians fault. One 3 car crash that pushed into our lane and last car paint transfer hit on our front fender. Veggie guy backed up and hit my wife with the side of his truck and didn't stop. I found out he doesn't speak English or he really agrees he's all the things I called him. I am not sure how much trouble I'd be in for whipping his as, but wife said too much and she wasn't hurt.
BehindBlueI's
Grandmaster
- Oct 3, 2012
- 26,608
- 113
Ah, sorry. When on a real keyboard.
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