On one of the rare occasions when the higher ups remembered that they hired me I was given a project to create an orientation guide for new employees coming to the UAE for the first time. HR are basically targeting expats from US, UK, Canada etc ( don't even get me started on that!! )
Anyways. In this guide I included points that I think might be useful for people coming to the region such as cost of living, social customs, food, recreation blah blah blah. To help me with this project, I was advised (by an expat) to go through some guidebooks that are specifically designed for travelers to the area. Well as it is no surprise those guides are written by expats for expats. Those guidebooks are ridiculous!!!!
Flipping through this particular guidebook was amusing yet surprising! Some of the information were news flash to me!
For example the attached excerpt! As a twenty something Emirati who lived here all her life I never felt the need to learn Persian of all languages!! Urdu/Hindi yeah we might need that sometimes! But Persian? Seriously? In situations when Arabic or English are not helpful I believe sign languages and hand gestures come to the rescue!
One of the other amusing things I read was " In the UAE the term 'sheikh' applies only to members of the ruling family. The rulers themselves carry the formal title of 'emir' (literally, 'prince'), but are usually referred to as 'sheikhs' "
HUH? Since when? Please someone correct me if I am wrong !!
The above two are examples I got from reading only about 14 pages or so, I wonder what else is there in the rest of the guidebook! And yeah this one is supposed to be the best one out there!
Well one more thing I have to say, no matter how much they read they are definitely in for a surprise!!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment