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[johnslat]

Coca-Cola Salesman in Saudi Arabia

A disappointed salesman of Coca-Cola returned from his assignment to Saudi Arabia.

A friend asked, "Why weren't you successful with the Saudis?"
The salesman explained, "When I got posted, I was very confident that I would make a good sales pitch.

But I had a problem. I didn't know how to speak Arabic. So I planned to convey the message through three posters, arranged in a row.

First poster : A man lying in the hot desert sand totally exhausted and fainting.
Second poster : The man is drinking Coca-Cola.
Third poster : Our man is now totally refreshed.
And then these posters were pasted all over the place.

"Terrific! That should have worked!" said the friend.

"The hell it should have!" said the salesman.
"No one told me they read from right to left!"

OK - it's a joke (and admittedly not a great one). But does anyone have any personal experiences of situations when being ignorant of local customs/taboos proved embarrassing - or worse?

I recall in 1980, when I first got there, I was doing an exercise on changing the names of countries to adjectives/nouns (e.g. France/French).
I'd copied a page from a textbook, but didn't pre-read it. Of course, one country on there was Israel.

Regards,
John

[Steinmann]

[johnslat]

Dear Stenmann,

In 1980, mentioning the word "Israel" was taboo. It was always called "Occupied Palestine."

I had some very religious types in the class, and they complained to the Director of the Jeddah IPA. Fortunately, he was not so "dogmatic". and I got off with only a warning to be more careful in the future.

Before that, though, to "compound my error", I asked the students to fill in the blank: "There is NO such country as ____________". I asked them,

"Should I put "Occupied Palestine" in the blank?'

I even made copies of the "Arab News" where "Israel" was mentioned, and suggested a class assignment: Write a letter to the editor of the Arab News (Khaled Al Maeena, a Saudi) and tell him about his terrible mistake.

Of course, using logic was useless; it only made matters worse.

Regards,
John

[HystericalHoosier]

My friends at King Saud University were recently asked to �edit stories for cultural sensitivity. In the tradition of Pol Pot�s reeducation camps, here�s the list.

a) No mention of religion or words to do with it (such as God, Christmas, angels, Satan, Islam, any holy book)(strange since administration can�t speak for ten seconds without saying Insha�Alla or [i]blessed be the name of the prophet[/i]).
b) No mention of suicide.
c) No mention of the supernatural (including ghosts, curses, magic or witches, etc.)
d) No mention of 'luck.'
e) No mention of Isreal ([i]not my misspelling[/i]) or the Jews ([i]Now even geography is haram[/i]).
f) No kissing, flirting or even courtship without a parent being present.
g) No meetings between members of the opposite sex unless a husband or father is present in the room ([i]because we know what cousins do in KSA when they get together[/i]).
h) No alcohol or pork.
i) Avoid descriptions and vocabulary to do with subjects they need not delve into: baseball, cricket, names of fishing equipment and fish, etc. ([i]etc.-logic, evolution or science of any kind[/i]).

[Steinmann]