There are many things that I cannot do and one of these is to learn Arabic. Yup, after five long years of living in the Middle East I have arrived to the conclusion that Arabic is not for everyone, much less for me.
In fact I think most people struggle to come to grips with Arabic. I have seen so many expat wifes that enrol themselves into Arabic courses as soon as their plane lands and set their stilettos in Egypt, only to give it up after a few weeks of mind-numbing grammar . One can actually hear the distinct sound of heads banging against the desks when walking past one of those Arabic language schools….Yes, Arabic grammar is that complicated.
And don’t get me started with the alphabet…How Arabic people learn to write and read, I do not know, but my hat is off. Apparently (and this is something I have been told), not only the letters are like little drawing characters, but most have four different forms, depending on whether they stand alone or come at the beginning, middle, or end of a word (now I can also hear YOUR head banging against the desk!, Ha!)
And I don’t see the point, actually…there are so many dialects, there is not such thing as an Arabic that is universally spoken, If I had taken the trouble of learning Arabic in Qatar I would have been really disappointed to see that it is not spoken or understood here in Egypt…
Excuses, Excuses….Right, Whatever. But Five different ways of pronouncing a simple ‘H’?. Thank you, NO, thank you…
What is not given is not given, and maybe I’m just not meant to speak Arabic
However, being in Egypt, I realise that most people speak only Arabic, and I’m the one who should be making an effort to communicate and be understood. So, during the course of the next few weeks, I will be working on a list of the common words and expressions that an expat determined not to learn Arabic and survive in Egypt should know.
…to be continued
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