AT in KW: To the Beat of His Own Oil Drummer

When I returned from Kuwait to Dubai, my colleague asked me to sum up my Kuwaiti experience in one sentence.  I told him, "Kuwait runs on its own system."

Here's more than one sentence to sum up my one sentence.

Everything is western.
I ate at Potbelly and Dean & Deluca, and there were moments when T.G.I.Friday's seemed like the best choice of fine, casual dining. I think I saw Arabic bread once while in Kuwait.

It's also interesting that there's such a western influence that many locals sound American when they speak. My British colleague described it as a "fake American accent."  I was so relieved when he said this because I could finally let my hair down and pronounce my r's like l's the way I'm supposed to.

YOLO - You're in Kuwait.
There seems to be a general sense of entitlement which leads to recklessness. For example, if it rains and the streets flood, this probably means that you're supposed to go tubing in the streets. Safety isn't an issue; money can buy that.

The Radisson is the only hotel worth knowing.
I planned to take a taxi from the airport to my hotel, a seemingly easy task. I was kindly escorted by a nice lady to the taxi line where she told the scheduler, "The Radisson."

I said, "No, The Palms."

She said, "Right, The Palms."

The taxi driver approaches. "Radisson?"

"No, The Palms."

"The Palms?"

"Yes. Palms."

"Radisson?"

"Palms. Do you know it?"

At this point, 3 taxis gather to discuss the location of this elusive Palms Hotel. Unconcerned, I get in the taxi and just wait for them to figure it out.  He gets in the taxi too.  He says he knows it now.

We drive off and listen to his favorite American top 40 radio station, Triple 8 Marina.

After a long stretch of nothing, we reach some civilization.

"This is the Regency," he says to me.

"Yes, it is."

He points to a few more things. "Radisson. Starbucks. Movenpick."

After a couple times of confirming that he is in fact pointing to these things, I realize that he's actually asking me if I'm going to any of these places.  He slows down at the T.G.I.Friday's.  "Here?"

"No, that's a T.G.I.Friday's."

"Here?"

"No, that's a beauty salon."

"Radisson?"

"No, The Palms."

Maybe he didn't know where The Palms was. But he did let me wear his hat, so I still consider his ride a win.

AT in UAE: Lexicon Meets Vernacular

Everyone speaks English in the UAE. But similar to Singapore, I'm not sure everyone speaks the same language.

On top of that, I am less familiar with local names for things, so my context clues are off. So far I have learned that souk means market, and that the first letter of the Arabic alphabet looks like an exclamation point. That's how they get kids excited to learn.

Most of the time, this is fine. If it's a personal story, I just smile and say, "That's funny," or whatever star word adjective comes to mind first. If it's for work, then I listen until I can find a phrase to repeat back for comprehension. Or I pretend my hearing is really bad.

What's tricky is when there's a question that requires an actual answer. My colleague asked me, "Do you like gold souk?" 

I immediately responded with a heartfelt "Yes!" because I heard, "Do you like goat soup?" and I do love soup.

But after he talked for a little longer, I realized what he meant and there was no way to politely turn down his offer to take me to the souk because I thought he actually meant a pot of boiled things.

We saw the souk.  Coincidentally, we also had soup.

Gold Souk Goat Soup

AT in JP: Nihongo sukoshi by sukoshi

I wish we could remember learning how to speak our first languages.  Life must have been terribly exciting then.  I made some noises and they understood me!

Today was a day of noise-making triumphs.

Triumph #1: Takushi ride
This was basically a 2 line conversation.  But he understood me the first time.

Triumph #2: Birdie birdie
I needed to get inside the outlet, but they have the entrance blocked before opening.  In my head, I thoughtfully explained to her that I was a manager and I needed to get inside. (I can't actually say most of that).  She made some bird noises back at me. So I repeated the exact same thing to her again.  Oddly enough, she repeated the same bird noises to me again.  I bet she's really into yakitori.

Triumph #3: Walk the line
I mustered up some courage to ask a lady how long she waited in the line.  She prattled off more information than I could process.  At the end, I excitedly chanted at her, "2 hours! Half? Half! 2 hours half! Thank you!"

She was nice.

Triumph #4: Meet in the middle
A nice colleague gave me a ride home.  His English is not so bad, and my Japanese is not so good.  We managed to have a pretty good conversation with a lot of inquisitive noises.  This picture summarizes our conversation.  It's a scary eel from Narita who is wearing a cast.