Chris Saul's Blog

Sunday January 15, 2006

Time to learn some Arabic? I was slightly ashamed last week when our visiting friend from home, James, suddenly started reading various signs in Arabic as we drove through Dubai. He then revealed he'd been learning Arabic for fun whilst on the train to work and back each day. A tribute to the educational value of a daily commute with public transport. Although I've lived here for three and a half years now, I've never got around to learning Arabic. There are various reasionably valid excuses for this, the main one being that it's not in the slightest bit necessary to learn Arabic to be able to do business in the Middle East. It's an advantage, without a doubt, but by no means essential. Many of Sun's staff don't speak a word of Arabic, for example, beyond the obligatory 'how are you' and 'Salaam U Aleikum'. There is of course, everyone's favourite Arabic word, used by anyone who's lived here for any amount of time, interjected into daily speech in any language - 'Khallas!'. Khallas mean 'finished' or 'sorted'. It's a nice way of ending a request or demand. 'That's my last discount - khallas!'. 'For the last time, I'm not paying you until you do what we agreed you'd do, khallas!'. As a French and German speaker I've gone through the groundwork for learning a language. Granted, Arabic is not in any way similar to English, French or German, but once you've learnt one language, the way is paved for learning another. Once I'd finally decided to stop being lazy and finally start learning I rejoined Sun and had even less reason to make the effort, as work finds me spending more time out of Arabic speaking countries than it does in them. I'd planned to sign up for a course, but travelling meant I'd miss most of the scheduled lessons. An Egyptian taxi driver in Dubai once asked me if I could speak Arabic. When I told him I couldn't but would like to learn, he started a long diatribe, the essence of which was that I shouldn't speak Arabic as no Arabic speakers would trust me any more when doing business - 'once you open mouth and Arabia come out, no Arab he will trust you no more!'. I can't comment on how true his statement is. Even if I had learnt Arabic, it would only have been for non-work related situations. That said, it might be useful to be able to sit quietly in a meeting whilst people discuss things in Arabic and quietly listen in to what's being said... I've seen a lot of positive things written about a language learning product called the 'Rosetta Stone'. It's not cheap at $195, but does offer a 6 month money back guarantee. It installs on a Windows PC, so I could use it on my laptop whilst on the plane, even though sitting on a plane generally seems to render me incapable of doing anything but read detective stories or watch TV. Time to make an effort to be more part of the region I'm in, I think. At least if it turns out that I don't like sitting in economy class with a laptop inches from my nose and the heat of the processor burning my trousers whilst I whisper Arabic phrases I can get my money back. ( Jan 15 2006, 10:42:23 PM GST ) Permalink

Rather odd excuse for dangerous driving I was rather disappointed to come across this opinion piece from a UAE National working for the UAE's Emirates Today newspaper. You have to click on 'newspaper view' to get the whole article. Bad driving here is a problem and I know the police are working hard to improve the situation. If the writer's viewpoint is widely held, they have a hard job ahead of them. ( Jan 15 2006, 06:33:38 PM GST ) Permalink

Get your dog off the line Whilst catching up on work and writing up the odd blog entry I've been listening to a couple of recordings off recent conference calls I've missed. I'm pretty sure that someone's dog was barking in the background of one, whilst another section had various people having a heated discussion in Spanish in the background. Guys! It's called a mute button. Pressing it means that you can have your pets be as noisy as they want and that your colleagues can pop in for a quick chat without everyone else on the line listening to your exciting exchanges. We recently had a company wide email with the subject 'Conference call etiquette'. I thought it was going to contain some tips on how to behave and how best to manage a conf call, but it was actually a request to make sure that the correct people listened in on calls. Time for an official set of recommendations I think, the most important being to have a chairperson manage larger calls to make sure things run smoothly. As an opinionated person, the appropriate group is welcome to solicit my thoughts on this subject! ( Jan 15 2006, 05:56:07 PM GST ) Permalink

Athens again In Athens again, for three nights this time, meeting with partners to discuss SGD and do some internal training. Athens airport, which I presume was upgraded or rebuilt to handle traffic for the Olympics, is fantastic - large, clean and completely empty. I'm staying at the Sofitel, which is right opposite the exit, meaning it took me only 10 minutes from plane to reception, which is pretty impressive. That said, it's a 45 minute drive to the Sun office, but it's still a nice setup for work visits. The Sofitel is a pleasant, newly built, business hotel. Minor quibbles are the tiny swimming pool and the oddly shaped desk in the room, but everything else is fine. I can't comment on the price as it was booked through our travel agent, so I have no bill to pay. The last time I was here I went for a quick swim, but had to leave shortly after getting in the water, due to a fellow guest deciding to swim clockwise around the pool instead of doing lengths. This meant he kept cutting me and the other guest up as we tried to do our lengths. Bizarre and rude hotel behaviour, in my opinion, right up there with jumping the queue at checkout time. Unfortunately I left my jumper and hat back in Dubai, so I won't be using any spare time to walk around in the city as it's pretty chilly at the moment. Usually I pack appropriately for the European countries I'm visiting, but it's interesting how Greece's 'brand' of sunshince and relaxed holidaying has so imprinted itself so strongly on my mind that I didn't think that the weather in January might not be suitable for a jacket and shirt! What a twit I am. I've forgotton my camera as well so I can't post the obligatory thrilling picture of my hotel room view, but reast assured it's very pleasant. What appears to be a runway and taxi carpark isn't so exciting, but the peaks of the hills around Athens are shrouded in clouds. Very dramatic. ( Jan 15 2006, 05:46:52 PM GST ) Permalink