I am studying Iraqi dialect in school. I would very much like to be able to practice it with some dialect speakers in Qatar (Qataris, Iraqis, or any Gulf dialect speaker)if at all possible. I am an intermediate student, and hope to strengthen my skills in the language during my visit to Qatar for 2 weeks in December (19th-Jan 1st). Can anyone point me in a direction? Are there an social type groups that gather to practice speaking in Arabic? Maybe some people at the schools in University City? UQ?
I'm excited about my trip, and look forward to meeting some friendly people in Doha! Thank you!
the language in qatar is not urdu or hindi its a mixture of english arabic hindi & urdu, but maximum words belong to Urdu. but hindi & urdu are 100% different in writing, urdu writing is 90%like Arabic, & urdu, persian, punjabi,saraiki,pashto,hindco & 2,3 african languages are same in writing, actualy hindi is language of india (HIND) (hindustan) & its dofferent in writing Urdu is National language of pakistan.END
Now that would be generalizing all of us. I do not claim that I am from anywhere else but Nepal. May be you met some of those who do,...... but not the same for all.
And by the way discussion was about language spoken,... not nationality!
First of all, let me make it very clear that, grocery shop salesman or fast-food counter boys will not speak english like you. Don't generalize people as a whole. I don't know which place you are from, I don't think that all those people back there speaking english only. Just check for a while, how many spelling mistakes, bad grammar and prepositions used improperly in your answers. Try to learn first and then start questioning others. Sarcastic comments made for others like Keralites and Tamils, don't make comments from your small personal experiences. Futile guy!!!
if you dont trust me u ask any nepali " which country u belong to" his answer will be INDIA. O my nepali brothers be proud for bieng nepali dont try to be indian i think Nepal is Great. & i am not saying that hindi is the language of nepal i know it that Nepali is the national language of nepal. Methli & more languges also in nepal.....
Just to correct you, hindi is not spoken in Nepal. We mainly speak Nepali with many regional languages of ours. Its just that all of us understand Hindi because of the influence of their films which is very popular in Nepal.
i love to hear our translator when he speak english he use to ask our office asst. like "blease oben door" and buy me 1 "bebsi", sorry guys just wanna make your day
Johnpur i am pakistani & may b u know that pakistan & china are good friend but i think chinese is the worlds dificult language. but i have one more solution.ENGLISH any where u can talk in english.
& pakistani languages are so easy urdu, punjabi, pashto,sindhi,baloachi,kashmiri, persian & more. i think there are 42 languages in pakistan try to learn at least 1 of them.
Qtel also trying to support hindi & remove urdu from the universe so sad realy so sad. but you all readers remember that urdu is the national language of pakistan, afghanies also can speak urdu its 2nd language of afghanistan, iranian also can speak urdu , bangladeshies also can speak urdu, kaergezisstan,tajkistan, & more & more. HINDI is only in india & nepal,
thats oll
Now u people can decied easily that qtel customers service 111 need urdu or hindi,
i think this is 100% wrong decision of Qtel & qtel said in text message that our customers vote for hindi thats why we are going to change it. can any 1 tell me where i can give my vote to Qtel?????????????
I am Arab I speak arabic more fluently than Osama bin Laden :D But Qatari Arabic is cool, it would be great to learn it . I can understand most of the time but sometimes this is a bit hard.
It was only as I was typing that last post that I remembered it was Qatari ladies who were going to be doing the tutoring, so guess it must have been ladies only.
If you do a search in ql you will find several threads about internet sites where you can learn Arabic.
Actually I went to a function this morning and was handed a flyer where a Labanese lady wanted to learn English in exchange for teaching Arabic! Maybe you should get out more hee hee ;D
someone mentioned they were doing a loose survey and was asking how many ladies would be interested in learning Qatar spoken Arabic, being taught by Qatari ladies. Conversational, local dialect. Several of us, you included Oryx, said we would be VERY interested.
The person was asking which areas of town suited people as to where to attend the lessons. Gave suggested times of day or evenings etc.
To be honest I think it is a gift, and also how you up grow and of course your interest and time, but myself I learned them only because I hated not understanding what people wer saying. One of my sisters also speaks 4 one of them is Hebrew.
We had two Indian girls in our school and they fascinated me they wore such lovely colourful dresses and had a lot of gold on their arms so I decided with my 12 years I would go abroad and see the stars shining in India. Would you believe until today I have never yet been to India lol.
In University, I lived with the guy that became my best man....he is a half-Lebanese and Half-Czech Canadian....the guy spoke 5 languages: English, French, Arabic, Spanish & Czech. His Mom spoke 6 (all those plus Russian), and his Dad spoke 7 (all of those plus German).
Talk about gifted for Languages! I always felt like the slow cousin with my measly 4 LOL
Stay safe all.
Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?
However, as I stated it was a necessity of life if I had stayed in Scotland I would probably never have learned anything more than French -which by the way have never used or practiacally never used. Theother I used because I didn't like people decing over my head lol.
I can speak Arabic well enough...it's the reading and writing that I need to brush up on. Don't even ask me about e3rab! And btw, it has improved a LOT since I got to Qatar =)
Yes, French is one of the 4 Languages...I lived in Montreal for 17 years =)...the funny thing is my wife who lived with me for 6 of the 17 in Montreal learned more Arabic than French (she is Western Canadian and doesn't speak French)....go figure.
Esperanto was proposed as in ternational languge mainly because as a hybrid language, it was thought to be the easiest to learn. It is mostly used by the scientific community, but does not see wide usage outside that demographic unfortunately.
Stay safe all.
Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?
Surely language is essential for a peaceful easy life.
My Arabic is like an elastic band... I stretch it to go a long way...
The problem with Arabic is that the learning materials available are rubbish.
sorry I have yet to see one excellent book for learning Arabic.
The thing with English - French - Spanish etc you can get some great learning materials....
Now doesn't some wealthy Arab foundation/uni - sponsor the development of dynamic course materials... the format can be modelled on other course books.
RR...no mercy for you my friend ;) you forgot your Arabic...you're in the perfect place to pick it up again! Vous etes canadien..est ce que vous parlez francais aussi?
P.S. Sorry, but who on earth uses Esperanto???______________________________________________________
My Dad was great at languages, so I think it runs in the family he had better notes in Iriish Gaelic, Old Greek and Latin than he did in English I found his report cards for all of the above he had 100% only for English he had 98%. To bad eh! even his English was not good lol.
Did you ever hear about Esperanto at one time this was in discussion to make this the langauge for the EG somehow or ever it never came through.
About my languages, I am a generally inquisitive kind of person, but having lived in many countries now and knowing the difficulties of being treated like a doorpost I decided I would rather be able to speak and join in converstions it was merely a necessity of life and of course liking to talk. LOL
It used to be such an advantage to know so many languages, but alas the world is so different today imho. I myself only know 4, but find 3 of them completely obsolete except as party tricks or to impress a native of a foreign land I may visit when I speak their native tongue. But today English is THE language.
In fact, for my baby daughter, if given the choice between her MASTERING English and speaking no other language....or learning passable English but knowing 4 others....I would pick the first option....you may disagree, but that is the world we live in today.
As for for this discussion not being about China, I know that. I was merely illustrating how THAT fact (more Mandarin speakers than English) is about as relevant to falsly advertising Qatar as having English as an official language, as your fact that more Arabs speak Englich than English speakers know Arabic.
I can see how one might say that English is the unnoficial second business language in Qatar (especially with Big Multi-National Companies like QP et all)...but I just had to point out that all OFFICIAL business documents with the Qatari goverment (for our company at least) were refused unless provided in Arabic....hence one can only conclude that Arabic is the only Official Business Language of Qatar.
Stay safe all.
Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?
Though government offices/agencies' main spoken and written language is Arabic, they do have assistants who speak English. I am even impressed that some officials and staff (all Qataris) speak English or try to speak english so they could help you.
In public and other commercial stablishments wherein you encounter a different kind of english. I do have to use the simplest english I know and do some hand/sign language just to get the message across. I don't mean to offend anyone but after two and a half years here in Doha, I got used to it.
It's like you switch/change language mode depending on who you speak with. :-)
What you are is what you have been, and what you will be is what you do now. - Buddha
Actually you would be surprised just how many Indins speak excellent English, don't talk about the Scottish as I am Scottish myself and I have yet to meet a foreigner who doesn't understand me having lived abroad most of my life and speaking Pigeon English to many.
It is not a question of speaking perfect English this is not what this is about, but to speak English in a manner that one can understand.
One other thing is you would be generally surprised how many foreigners do speak perfect English, and just while we are at it, take Diamondgirl she is Qatari, I know many Germans who do speak and write perfect English, and would like to remark that some people have a gift for learning foreign languages.
Ragnarock Raider
This was about Qatar and not China, in fact most of the Gulf states use English including Qatar although it is still a young country and improving day by day, but, as Diamondgirl says we are in an Arabic country filled with Arab speaking nationalities so we should at least put an effort into learning Arabic. Following that statement I myself speak 5 languages and learned them as a necessity to commincate with others, and on the other hand although I have learned basic Arabic and continue to learn, no one ever speaks to me in Arabic should I ever trust myself to speak an Arabic sentence I get the answer in English lol.
I learned French in school because in the old days that is what they offered, but after leaving Scotland I very quickly learned that even French did not bring me very far, and I spent most of my freetime learning foreign languges, of which I am proud today.
Many people are not blessed with this talent, however, I come from a family (my Dad) he spoke and knew the grammer of seven languages so I am lagging far behind.
I understand the frustration of not being able to understand or read a language and also having to have documents translated for me, being the independant person that I am.
Arabic is a very nice language I just wish I was better at it.
You also give me too much credit...I am expected to know Arabic, since I am a Canadian of Arabic origins....though my fluency is not what it should be unfortunately (no practice for 25 years).
And of course the official language of ANY Arabic country is expected to be Arabic, but if you advertise it as both Arabic and English, then companies will be shocked when all their English documentation is refused until you supply it in Arabic (maybe its just us....but that is what the govermenty ministry told our company).
But Qatar is making strides in the right direction, and THAT is encouraging.
Stay safe all.
Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?
Let me begin by apologizing if I gave you the impression that I was being overly harsh or critical of ANY group for not being fluent in a language that is not their native tongue. I was merely repsonding to the suggestion that English is an official language of Qatar.
Still, like it or not, it has become the international language and wether it's our mother tongue or not, we live in an age where it has become THE prevalent language. No one HAS to learn it....but they would miss out alot if they didn't. That is all.
Stay safe all.
Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?
RR...I could never hate you!!! For government departments the main spoken and written language is Arabic. However to help people who do not speak Arabic there are some English speakers to assist usually. Their English may not be fluent but it usually is enough to help get the job done. There are also scribe translators to type in Arabic any necesssaary forms.
The main languages of business are English and Arabic. Here I am talking about many private companies and larger government ones like Rasgas, QP et al. In some of these companies communication MUST be in English and MAY also be in Arabic.
My employees have to go to regular Arabic courses for spoken and written Arabic. It is an Arabic country after all!!! They must make the effort.
I always respect and admire expats living here who have taken the time to learn Arabic. I know many who are fluent. Thanks for making the effort!
Whilst going thru ur comments and accepting a few of them regd English from the majority of the Indians from back home...pls dont forget that English isnt the Mother Tongue unlike for ppl of other countries...pls tell me whcih German, French, Italian, Chzech...etc...native Europeans can speak fluent English...none of them can...they add their touch...for ex...take a Scottish, or an Irish or a native Brit...none of them speak the English which the others can understand...u wud have to pay Xtra Attention to what they r saying to pick them up...
Even the Aussies...for ex...they add their twist to the language...which is again diff from widely spoken English...in the States...do they speak the most commonly spoken English...nope...they have their own twist...dont forget these twists are referred to as Accents...while i understand that atleast all of them construct English Sentences Correctly...they dont speak in a way the other understands...it is only the Lower Section of the Economy of the Indians here working as sales, shops etc...dont construct English in the proper way only for a fact that they arent educated in English largely...it is only nowadays in this era that English Medium Schools are getting popular...
That same rule or fact applies to Arabic and the locals here as well...u have come to their country buddies...leanr their language, dont expect them to learn ur style...o pls...cut the crap...
So what do u think ppl...does this make sense...
Again i add...there are exceptions...everywhere...in every walks of life...
Its my experience also about educated engineers and professionals from India speak rubbish english. But there is just one similarity among these guys and that is they all from kerala / tamil nadu. these are the two southersn most states on India.
I know I am gonna get a huge huge hate mail and abuses from them but this is my experience too.
I do not think "hinglish" is spoken by someone who is not from these two states. Well, for you Indians are Indians and you can't differenciate.
The contents of your posts seems to attest to a very high level of fluency in the english language...but again my experience is that you are the exception to the rule.
I don't know where in India they are from, but even the educetd people we deal with on a daily basis do not demonstrate enough undertanding to be communicated to directly. We have ONE guy in the office who speaks english well enough to be able to translate what I am saying to others.
This btw also applies to our Arabic Engineers....you have to give them instructions in Arabic or they will not understand you....and they are all University graduates!
Stay safe all.
Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?
You are absolutely right about the english that you hear from an Indian shopkeeper here. Even in India we call this english "Hinglish". Do understand these guys are from Kerala, which constitutes not even 10% land mass of the country and have less than 10% of population of India.
I being from India still have a problem in understanding them.
Do not generalise Indian english with someone who is illitrate and you spoke with him/her.
Arabic and english are mostly the official business language here (with or without grammer).
It may just be my bad luck....but almost all the gvt officials, and company engineers (all university educated) do not speak english. So I don't see how it can be the official business language. Furthermore anytime we have tried to submit ANY documentation in English, we are told to provide it in Arabic. So I would say the official language of Qatar is Arabic only. There may be other languages spoken, but none of them are the official languages (that includes English).
There are exceptions obviously, but i'm wonerding if the ones you are referring to are the exceptions, or if i'm just so unlucky that I keep meeting the exceptions. Who knows?
As for your last comment, I think it is absolutely 100% true, but that's only because English is the international language of almost everything and not Arabic. So i'm not sure why you would make the comparisons? There are more Mandarin speakers in the world than English, but so what? Mandarin is not the international language...English is.
Stay safe all.
Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?
Unfortunately, this is a melting pot for different languages Tagalog, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic and English please forgive any languages I forgot.
Now not wishing to offend anyone but Arabic and English are the main business languages, however, Indians have derived their onw english after the British left and even I have difficulty understanding many of them. Wen I go to a shope and there is and Indian salesman I have to aske at least three times what he is saying ans this is meant seriously, there are other whose English is wonderful.
Most people in Government positions are well versed in English although I have to admit we there are a nuber of employees who speak very little English.
You seem to have encountered the very few that don't speak english.
May I add this comment here, many more Arabs speak English than English speaking races speak Arabic.
some companies here prefer marketing executives speaking malayalam and english only. qtel, qpost, trafic dept etc having their advertisements in arabic, malayalam, english and urdhu. I think hindi and urdu almost same but how many people here can read urdu?
In Qatar if you know Malliyali and phillipino. No need to know anything else.
On a serious note - english (with absolute ZILTCH grammer), hindi (not what we speak in India), Urdu, malliyali and Arabic to a great extent is common language here
Don't hate me diamondgirl....this certainly does not apply to everyone....but my personal experience here in doha is that MOST do not speak english. Even people who are not local and come from the subcontinent and claim to speak english do not understand you or prove able to articulate their thoughts in english. I'm not trying to upset anyone, but i'm calling it like I see it.
This is a true story:
I called the information number provided on the Qatar Foundation website to get some information on the American universities you hear so much hype about, and was shunted through 4 different people who could not speak english! This isn't an obscure gvt office in the ministry of islamic studies or whatever....this was QATAR Foundation!!
SO: No! English is not a main language in Qatar...and is mostly spoken by the European and North American Expat communities only.
Stay safe all.
Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?
some Qataries understand malayalam also. 2 days back my friend met his company sponsor first time. he is a sheikh and start talking in broken malayalam. my friend replied in english and the sheikh shouted at him and said talk in 'your language'.
Thanks for your opinion. I can speak Hindi, English and Telugu and can understand Malayalam as well. Please let me know any good website where I can learn Arabic language.
I guess the spoken word here in Doha is Arabic. However, not unless you speak the languages of people of different nationalities (Indian, Asian, Westerners), english is your best option.
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I am studying Iraqi dialect in school. I would very much like to be able to practice it with some dialect speakers in Qatar (Qataris, Iraqis, or any Gulf dialect speaker)if at all possible. I am an intermediate student, and hope to strengthen my skills in the language during my visit to Qatar for 2 weeks in December (19th-Jan 1st). Can anyone point me in a direction? Are there an social type groups that gather to practice speaking in Arabic? Maybe some people at the schools in University City? UQ?
I'm excited about my trip, and look forward to meeting some friendly people in Doha! Thank you!
I can't wait to learn Arabic. It sounds so cool. I can read Qur'anic Arabic but understanding and speaking the language is whole different ball game.
When/if I do eventually go to Qatar, you lot better teach me!!
did you borrow this suit now from just to learn new languages.. i thought you only take free hair cut and beard trimming....lolzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Then............
Rizks n KSA :)
lol ya Murali .. another 2 hyderabadis active verymuch :P
So many days it has been I think the time has come for me to socialize a bit more :-)
Murali ? how u doin buddy ? :)
The thread was started by me in Oct 2007 and its already 2 years since I am in Qatar :-)
No offence meant buddy thanks for you valuable inputs.
I think UK never ruled Pakistan and Bangladesh as they were part of India at that time. ahaahahhaha
I am not able to leave you a private message you can leave ur mobile no in the private message I will call u.
From some of the recent postings, most expats speak "the language of love"
Hai Murali You are wich part of Andhra pradhes?
since how long you are in Qatar?
the language in qatar is not urdu or hindi its a mixture of english arabic hindi & urdu, but maximum words belong to Urdu. but hindi & urdu are 100% different in writing, urdu writing is 90%like Arabic, & urdu, persian, punjabi,saraiki,pashto,hindco & 2,3 african languages are same in writing, actualy hindi is language of india (HIND) (hindustan) & its dofferent in writing Urdu is National language of pakistan.END
Now that would be generalizing all of us. I do not claim that I am from anywhere else but Nepal. May be you met some of those who do,...... but not the same for all.
And by the way discussion was about language spoken,... not nationality!
blah blah blah
First of all, let me make it very clear that, grocery shop salesman or fast-food counter boys will not speak english like you. Don't generalize people as a whole. I don't know which place you are from, I don't think that all those people back there speaking english only. Just check for a while, how many spelling mistakes, bad grammar and prepositions used improperly in your answers. Try to learn first and then start questioning others. Sarcastic comments made for others like Keralites and Tamils, don't make comments from your small personal experiences. Futile guy!!!
England( UK ) ruled on india pakistan Bangladesh & afghanistan never ruled on qatar
if you dont trust me u ask any nepali " which country u belong to" his answer will be INDIA. O my nepali brothers be proud for bieng nepali dont try to be indian i think Nepal is Great. & i am not saying that hindi is the language of nepal i know it that Nepali is the national language of nepal. Methli & more languges also in nepal.....
well the above comment was for navidzafar.
Also, i would like to know whether written arabic and urdu are same???? They appear similar :-)
Lolomama, wrong again. Qatar was not "ruled" by England. English is the language of commerce, aviation and science the world over.
Mandi
Just to correct you, hindi is not spoken in Nepal. We mainly speak Nepali with many regional languages of ours. Its just that all of us understand Hindi because of the influence of their films which is very popular in Nepal.
The language in Doha is "Money", especially at the Ramada. Ask britexpat!
Source:
- A study Conducted by FriedUnicorn - Vol I (September,1999)
that would be you qatariboy
If Arabic is the mother,who is the father then?
Arabic is the main languag.
English is used because it was ruled by England.
Aurdo is used because Qatar import many cheap labor.
i love to hear our translator when he speak english he use to ask our office asst. like "blease oben door" and buy me 1 "bebsi", sorry guys just wanna make your day
have a good day to all !
no thanks, I prefer to learn spanish and chinese
Johnpur i am pakistani & may b u know that pakistan & china are good friend but i think chinese is the worlds dificult language. but i have one more solution.ENGLISH any where u can talk in english.
& pakistani languages are so easy urdu, punjabi, pashto,sindhi,baloachi,kashmiri, persian & more. i think there are 42 languages in pakistan try to learn at least 1 of them.
Source:
- A study Conducted by FriedUnicorn - Vol I (September,1999)
try learning chinese also, you'll need it in ramada parking
Qtel also trying to support hindi & remove urdu from the universe so sad realy so sad. but you all readers remember that urdu is the national language of pakistan, afghanies also can speak urdu its 2nd language of afghanistan, iranian also can speak urdu , bangladeshies also can speak urdu, kaergezisstan,tajkistan, & more & more. HINDI is only in india & nepal,
thats oll
Now u people can decied easily that qtel customers service 111 need urdu or hindi,
i think this is 100% wrong decision of Qtel & qtel said in text message that our customers vote for hindi thats why we are going to change it. can any 1 tell me where i can give my vote to Qtel?????????????
what r the common languages there?...french?
Ramadan kareem.
Dutch Indonesia
French Congo
English (whispers) Empire
Spanish in South America
etc
in countries OTHER than England, France or Spain is probably a lot to do with various historical conquests over those other countries.
So wat is spokem mostly in europe
Ramadan kareem.
I agree with alexa.. previous experiences when I live in Peru south america ,a little English spoken there..
I am Arab I speak arabic more fluently than Osama bin Laden :D But Qatari Arabic is cool, it would be great to learn it . I can understand most of the time but sometimes this is a bit hard.
[img_assist|nid=38314|title=Crazy Frog|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=180|height=179]
Some are Wise ... Some are ...Otherwise
I know nothing about men, I'm far too young :P
It was only as I was typing that last post that I remembered it was Qatari ladies who were going to be doing the tutoring, so guess it must have been ladies only.
If you do a search in ql you will find several threads about internet sites where you can learn Arabic.
Actually I went to a function this morning and was handed a flyer where a Labanese lady wanted to learn English in exchange for teaching Arabic! Maybe you should get out more hee hee ;D
Jauntie ? What about men ???
[img_assist|nid=38314|title=Crazy Frog|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=180|height=179]
Some are Wise ... Some are ...Otherwise
someone mentioned they were doing a loose survey and was asking how many ladies would be interested in learning Qatar spoken Arabic, being taught by Qatari ladies. Conversational, local dialect. Several of us, you included Oryx, said we would be VERY interested.
The person was asking which areas of town suited people as to where to attend the lessons. Gave suggested times of day or evenings etc.
Nothing seems to have come of it ....
I would like to know on which website can I learn Arabic. I really like to learn languages. But I have learnt around 3-4 regional languages in India.
Thats what Iam doing...but I dont have so many natives as my friend..I hope I learn lovely arabic! anyways, Thank You
Ramadan kareem.
If that would always be so easy then we would all learn Qatari Arabic much easier lol.
Muhammad12...you have to befriend the natives to learn how to speak Qatari Arabic ;)
_______________________________________________________
Love is the answer...
Ragnarock Raider
To be honest I think it is a gift, and also how you up grow and of course your interest and time, but myself I learned them only because I hated not understanding what people wer saying. One of my sisters also speaks 4 one of them is Hebrew.
We had two Indian girls in our school and they fascinated me they wore such lovely colourful dresses and had a lot of gold on their arms so I decided with my 12 years I would go abroad and see the stars shining in India. Would you believe until today I have never yet been to India lol.
In University, I lived with the guy that became my best man....he is a half-Lebanese and Half-Czech Canadian....the guy spoke 5 languages: English, French, Arabic, Spanish & Czech. His Mom spoke 6 (all those plus Russian), and his Dad spoke 7 (all of those plus German).
Talk about gifted for Languages! I always felt like the slow cousin with my measly 4 LOL
Stay safe all.
Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?
However, as I stated it was a necessity of life if I had stayed in Scotland I would probably never have learned anything more than French -which by the way have never used or practiacally never used. Theother I used because I didn't like people decing over my head lol.
I can speak Arabic well enough...it's the reading and writing that I need to brush up on. Don't even ask me about e3rab! And btw, it has improved a LOT since I got to Qatar =)
Yes, French is one of the 4 Languages...I lived in Montreal for 17 years =)...the funny thing is my wife who lived with me for 6 of the 17 in Montreal learned more Arabic than French (she is Western Canadian and doesn't speak French)....go figure.
Esperanto was proposed as in ternational languge mainly because as a hybrid language, it was thought to be the easiest to learn. It is mostly used by the scientific community, but does not see wide usage outside that demographic unfortunately.
Stay safe all.
Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?
Surely language is essential for a peaceful easy life.
My Arabic is like an elastic band... I stretch it to go a long way...
The problem with Arabic is that the learning materials available are rubbish.
sorry I have yet to see one excellent book for learning Arabic.
The thing with English - French - Spanish etc you can get some great learning materials....
Now doesn't some wealthy Arab foundation/uni - sponsor the development of dynamic course materials... the format can be modelled on other course books.
In fact someone call me to start a project!
Yes, ur rite, this is the rite place but how?
The arabic which I have learned is totally different from what is spoken. Any suggestion on how to learn spoken arabic?
Ramadan kareem.
Wahoo Canarybird!!! I like what you wrote. Mashallah you speak five languages.
_______________________________________________________
Love is the answer...
RR...no mercy for you my friend ;) you forgot your Arabic...you're in the perfect place to pick it up again! Vous etes canadien..est ce que vous parlez francais aussi?
P.S. Sorry, but who on earth uses Esperanto???______________________________________________________
Love is the answer...
My Dad was great at languages, so I think it runs in the family he had better notes in Iriish Gaelic, Old Greek and Latin than he did in English I found his report cards for all of the above he had 100% only for English he had 98%. To bad eh! even his English was not good lol.
But you must also posess at least SOME aptitude for languages to have picked up 5 ;)
And yes its priceless understanding what people are saying about you when they don't think you understand lol.
I have not only heard of Esperanto, but briefly considered learning it....I just never could find the time...sigh....perhaps one day =)
Stay safe all.
Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?
Did you ever hear about Esperanto at one time this was in discussion to make this the langauge for the EG somehow or ever it never came through.
About my languages, I am a generally inquisitive kind of person, but having lived in many countries now and knowing the difficulties of being treated like a doorpost I decided I would rather be able to speak and join in converstions it was merely a necessity of life and of course liking to talk. LOL
5 Languages is pretty impressive, good on ya =)
It used to be such an advantage to know so many languages, but alas the world is so different today imho. I myself only know 4, but find 3 of them completely obsolete except as party tricks or to impress a native of a foreign land I may visit when I speak their native tongue. But today English is THE language.
In fact, for my baby daughter, if given the choice between her MASTERING English and speaking no other language....or learning passable English but knowing 4 others....I would pick the first option....you may disagree, but that is the world we live in today.
As for for this discussion not being about China, I know that. I was merely illustrating how THAT fact (more Mandarin speakers than English) is about as relevant to falsly advertising Qatar as having English as an official language, as your fact that more Arabs speak Englich than English speakers know Arabic.
I can see how one might say that English is the unnoficial second business language in Qatar (especially with Big Multi-National Companies like QP et all)...but I just had to point out that all OFFICIAL business documents with the Qatari goverment (for our company at least) were refused unless provided in Arabic....hence one can only conclude that Arabic is the only Official Business Language of Qatar.
Stay safe all.
Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?
Though government offices/agencies' main spoken and written language is Arabic, they do have assistants who speak English. I am even impressed that some officials and staff (all Qataris) speak English or try to speak english so they could help you.
In public and other commercial stablishments wherein you encounter a different kind of english. I do have to use the simplest english I know and do some hand/sign language just to get the message across. I don't mean to offend anyone but after two and a half years here in Doha, I got used to it.
It's like you switch/change language mode depending on who you speak with. :-)
What you are is what you have been, and what you will be is what you do now. - Buddha
Actually you would be surprised just how many Indins speak excellent English, don't talk about the Scottish as I am Scottish myself and I have yet to meet a foreigner who doesn't understand me having lived abroad most of my life and speaking Pigeon English to many.
It is not a question of speaking perfect English this is not what this is about, but to speak English in a manner that one can understand.
One other thing is you would be generally surprised how many foreigners do speak perfect English, and just while we are at it, take Diamondgirl she is Qatari, I know many Germans who do speak and write perfect English, and would like to remark that some people have a gift for learning foreign languages.
Ragnarock Raider
This was about Qatar and not China, in fact most of the Gulf states use English including Qatar although it is still a young country and improving day by day, but, as Diamondgirl says we are in an Arabic country filled with Arab speaking nationalities so we should at least put an effort into learning Arabic. Following that statement I myself speak 5 languages and learned them as a necessity to commincate with others, and on the other hand although I have learned basic Arabic and continue to learn, no one ever speaks to me in Arabic should I ever trust myself to speak an Arabic sentence I get the answer in English lol.
I learned French in school because in the old days that is what they offered, but after leaving Scotland I very quickly learned that even French did not bring me very far, and I spent most of my freetime learning foreign languges, of which I am proud today.
Many people are not blessed with this talent, however, I come from a family (my Dad) he spoke and knew the grammer of seven languages so I am lagging far behind.
I understand the frustration of not being able to understand or read a language and also having to have documents translated for me, being the independant person that I am.
Arabic is a very nice language I just wish I was better at it.
You also give me too much credit...I am expected to know Arabic, since I am a Canadian of Arabic origins....though my fluency is not what it should be unfortunately (no practice for 25 years).
And of course the official language of ANY Arabic country is expected to be Arabic, but if you advertise it as both Arabic and English, then companies will be shocked when all their English documentation is refused until you supply it in Arabic (maybe its just us....but that is what the govermenty ministry told our company).
But Qatar is making strides in the right direction, and THAT is encouraging.
Stay safe all.
Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?
Let me begin by apologizing if I gave you the impression that I was being overly harsh or critical of ANY group for not being fluent in a language that is not their native tongue. I was merely repsonding to the suggestion that English is an official language of Qatar.
Still, like it or not, it has become the international language and wether it's our mother tongue or not, we live in an age where it has become THE prevalent language. No one HAS to learn it....but they would miss out alot if they didn't. That is all.
Stay safe all.
Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?
RR...I could never hate you!!! For government departments the main spoken and written language is Arabic. However to help people who do not speak Arabic there are some English speakers to assist usually. Their English may not be fluent but it usually is enough to help get the job done. There are also scribe translators to type in Arabic any necesssaary forms.
The main languages of business are English and Arabic. Here I am talking about many private companies and larger government ones like Rasgas, QP et al. In some of these companies communication MUST be in English and MAY also be in Arabic.
My employees have to go to regular Arabic courses for spoken and written Arabic. It is an Arabic country after all!!! They must make the effort.
I always respect and admire expats living here who have taken the time to learn Arabic. I know many who are fluent. Thanks for making the effort!
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Love is the answer...
Morning buddies,,,
Whilst going thru ur comments and accepting a few of them regd English from the majority of the Indians from back home...pls dont forget that English isnt the Mother Tongue unlike for ppl of other countries...pls tell me whcih German, French, Italian, Chzech...etc...native Europeans can speak fluent English...none of them can...they add their touch...for ex...take a Scottish, or an Irish or a native Brit...none of them speak the English which the others can understand...u wud have to pay Xtra Attention to what they r saying to pick them up...
Even the Aussies...for ex...they add their twist to the language...which is again diff from widely spoken English...in the States...do they speak the most commonly spoken English...nope...they have their own twist...dont forget these twists are referred to as Accents...while i understand that atleast all of them construct English Sentences Correctly...they dont speak in a way the other understands...it is only the Lower Section of the Economy of the Indians here working as sales, shops etc...dont construct English in the proper way only for a fact that they arent educated in English largely...it is only nowadays in this era that English Medium Schools are getting popular...
That same rule or fact applies to Arabic and the locals here as well...u have come to their country buddies...leanr their language, dont expect them to learn ur style...o pls...cut the crap...
So what do u think ppl...does this make sense...
Again i add...there are exceptions...everywhere...in every walks of life...
Cheers...
So hows yu all doing today>>?
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" Live Life To The Fullest ! Enjoy Yourself "
Its my experience also about educated engineers and professionals from India speak rubbish english. But there is just one similarity among these guys and that is they all from kerala / tamil nadu. these are the two southersn most states on India.
I know I am gonna get a huge huge hate mail and abuses from them but this is my experience too.
I do not think "hinglish" is spoken by someone who is not from these two states. Well, for you Indians are Indians and you can't differenciate.
The contents of your posts seems to attest to a very high level of fluency in the english language...but again my experience is that you are the exception to the rule.
I don't know where in India they are from, but even the educetd people we deal with on a daily basis do not demonstrate enough undertanding to be communicated to directly. We have ONE guy in the office who speaks english well enough to be able to translate what I am saying to others.
This btw also applies to our Arabic Engineers....you have to give them instructions in Arabic or they will not understand you....and they are all University graduates!
Stay safe all.
Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?
You are absolutely right about the english that you hear from an Indian shopkeeper here. Even in India we call this english "Hinglish". Do understand these guys are from Kerala, which constitutes not even 10% land mass of the country and have less than 10% of population of India.
I being from India still have a problem in understanding them.
Do not generalise Indian english with someone who is illitrate and you spoke with him/her.
Arabic and english are mostly the official business language here (with or without grammer).
It may just be my bad luck....but almost all the gvt officials, and company engineers (all university educated) do not speak english. So I don't see how it can be the official business language. Furthermore anytime we have tried to submit ANY documentation in English, we are told to provide it in Arabic. So I would say the official language of Qatar is Arabic only. There may be other languages spoken, but none of them are the official languages (that includes English).
There are exceptions obviously, but i'm wonerding if the ones you are referring to are the exceptions, or if i'm just so unlucky that I keep meeting the exceptions. Who knows?
As for your last comment, I think it is absolutely 100% true, but that's only because English is the international language of almost everything and not Arabic. So i'm not sure why you would make the comparisons? There are more Mandarin speakers in the world than English, but so what? Mandarin is not the international language...English is.
Stay safe all.
Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?
Good Morning,
Unfortunately, this is a melting pot for different languages Tagalog, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic and English please forgive any languages I forgot.
Now not wishing to offend anyone but Arabic and English are the main business languages, however, Indians have derived their onw english after the British left and even I have difficulty understanding many of them. Wen I go to a shope and there is and Indian salesman I have to aske at least three times what he is saying ans this is meant seriously, there are other whose English is wonderful.
Most people in Government positions are well versed in English although I have to admit we there are a nuber of employees who speak very little English.
You seem to have encountered the very few that don't speak english.
May I add this comment here, many more Arabs speak English than English speaking races speak Arabic.
some companies here prefer marketing executives speaking malayalam and english only. qtel, qpost, trafic dept etc having their advertisements in arabic, malayalam, english and urdhu. I think hindi and urdu almost same but how many people here can read urdu?
Hey Guys,
Why do you forget phillipino.
In Qatar if you know Malliyali and phillipino. No need to know anything else.
On a serious note - english (with absolute ZILTCH grammer), hindi (not what we speak in India), Urdu, malliyali and Arabic to a great extent is common language here
Don't hate me diamondgirl....this certainly does not apply to everyone....but my personal experience here in doha is that MOST do not speak english. Even people who are not local and come from the subcontinent and claim to speak english do not understand you or prove able to articulate their thoughts in english. I'm not trying to upset anyone, but i'm calling it like I see it.
This is a true story:
I called the information number provided on the Qatar Foundation website to get some information on the American universities you hear so much hype about, and was shunted through 4 different people who could not speak english! This isn't an obscure gvt office in the ministry of islamic studies or whatever....this was QATAR Foundation!!
SO: No! English is not a main language in Qatar...and is mostly spoken by the European and North American Expat communities only.
Stay safe all.
Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?
some Qataries understand malayalam also. 2 days back my friend met his company sponsor first time. he is a sheikh and start talking in broken malayalam. my friend replied in english and the sheikh shouted at him and said talk in 'your language'.
You would not have much problems here if you could speak English & Hindi. Some Qataris could undestand English as well as Hindi.
Thanks for your opinion. I can speak Hindi, English and Telugu and can understand Malayalam as well. Please let me know any good website where I can learn Arabic language.
I guess the spoken word here in Doha is Arabic. However, not unless you speak the languages of people of different nationalities (Indian, Asian, Westerners), english is your best option.
My two dirhams worth of opinion :-)
Doha is a cosmopolitan city all the languages are spoken here but the main is Arabic, English, Malayalam, and Hindi in this order.
If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.
We spreak Arabic in Qatar but English is also widely spoken. Plenty of Urdu speakers too.
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Love is the answer...