Have you read the Qu'ran in Arabic?

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I'm already aware of this. I have studied classical Arabic to the point where I can recite the Qu'ran and understand the rules of grammar but I do not yet have the knowledge to be able to comprehend the meaning of the Qu'ran.



I could throw this back at you as what use is French in the modern world unless you want to involve yourself in France or Belgium but most secondary school kids in Britain have to learn it? FYI one member of UKIP told me that there is an unhealthy bias towards French in British schools and he wishes to see a wider variety of non-European languages including Arabic taught.

French is much more widely spoken in countries that most people that actually would want to live in. (i.e. France and DOM-TOM, part of Belgium, part of Switzerland, parts of Canada, Monaco). I can't name any Arabic-speaking country I'd want to live in. Not one. Also, learning French is a lot easier for English-speakers than trying to learn Arabic, for reasons that should be obvious. And French is actually pretty useful in several North and West African countries for example due to their colonial heritage. You mention Iran, for example - the national language there is not Arabic, but Persian. Arabic is a minority language in Iran.

Learning French would be a lot easier and a damned sight more useful from the point of view of an average Briton than Arabic. The Arab culture is alien and faraway, France is not.

If we're talking pure numbers alone, I think learning either French, Spanish or Putonghua would be the best course of action for someone wanting to learn a new language. But, generally, there isn't much point in learning a language (unless you're doing it for pleasure) unless you actually spend time being immersed in a country or its culture.

If I wanted to go live in Hong Kong for instance (being so well-paid by the Zionists and all), I'd want to be able to speak Cantonese even if English is one of the official languages in Hong Kong and I could probably get by - mostly - without knowing Cantonese. To a lesser extent, if I wanted to live in Malta I'd want to know how to speak Maltese, if only to know when someone was talking about me!

could be pretty damn handy if A) your plane is transiting via the middle east or b) your plane is forced to land there by an act of god, technical fault or terrorist interference.

I once ended up in Bahrain but had no intention of going near the middle east.

Though not yet fluent, I can speak and read some Egyptian Standard Arabic (what's taught in schools and in public use). I have read it in this language as well (a great way to get some practice in).

Inshallah it would not happen.

ruveyn

The UKIP member was referring to modern Arabic rather than classical Arabic primarily for business and diplomatic purposes. I don't think he was aware of the differences between modern Arabic and classical Arabic, or at least thought they were so subtle that if anybody knew one of them then they can easily learn the other. The Middle East might not be to everybody's tastes but there are thousands of British expats currently working there and most of them are not Muslims.

Even modern Arabic has its own subsets, depending on which region/country the Arabic-speaking person hails from, and depending on whether or not it's formal Arabic (fous-ha) or standard informal Arabic (daarej)

Also, there isn't much of a significant difference between classical Arabic and modern fous-ha Arabic, only that classical Arabic is harder to understand contextually rather than in terms of its individual words.

There are a lot of ex-pats in the UAE and Qatar, lots of jobs are created by the oil money.

I can't read Arabic, so no.

I have no intention of reading that book, even in English.

Don't take it the wrong way; I'm not "anti-Muslim" or anything. I just don't care.

It's a very boring book anyway. You really don't want to read it all unless you have something like OCD when it comes to reading.

True, but most of them wouldn't necessarily be there if it wasn't for the fact they were making lots of money from it. If I was young and free and not particularly bothered about politics and someone was offering me vastly more than what I could make at home, I'd probably take it. Whilst things are stable there, I can't necessarily see a problem with that. I do think people might change their minds about wanting to stay if there were problems emerging there (just as people might not want to live in Kuwait). I actually thought about going to the UAE for a holiday, but drink seems extremely expensive for what it is and a lot of the cities just seem like massive, sprawling metropolises and gaudy shopping centres. I can understand how the latter would attract a certain type of woman, probably of the permatanned variety.

One can understand places like the secularised parts of Turkey or even, to a point, Egypt pre-Muslim Brotherhood (or Northern Cyprus, even) being quite popular with English tourists. Good weather, nice food, lovely surroundings, and so on.

Last edited by Tequila on 27 Jan 2013, 8:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

You would have been fine with English (although you might have won a few brownie points if you could speak Arabic, it could also bring suspicion?). It's the unofficial second language there and is widely spoken. For instance, many buildings and road-signs are translated into English, and there are newspapers and radio/TV broadcasts in English.

Take a look at these signs, for instance:

Yeah, it says OMEGA PAIN. That's English.

Story of my life.