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worldtraveller · Joined: 02 Dec 2004 Posts: 26 Location: world

Just wanted to know what people have faced upon entry into the Arab/Muslim world.

Any stories of CULTURE SHOCK? Anything that really was different or unusual that you faced? (A friend told me his apartment was directly beside a loud speaker that gave the morning prayer each day at 5 am.)

Or stories, good or "bad" that you would like to share?

What did you find yourself doing when you became desperately "very bored"? (Once overseas I actually found myself thrilled to watch the cartoon "The Little Mermaid." How desperate is that for American television?? LOL

ALPH · Joined: 18 Jan 2006 Posts: 87

the DOORS have a line in one of their songs - '' Lost in a roman wilderness of pain '' ... I think from a song called The End ? (one of my colleagues on these threads is actually 'lost' and suffering' out there in the roman wilderness as we speak .. Pray for her, please). Anyhow this is arabia for me. You get off the plane and you continue down into Hades; the 7th Chamber. Make yourself at home.

There will be nothing you can relate to apart from glass in windows, roofs on houses and a sun that will put manners on you. Get something straight right from the start - the Natives here are Right and youre Wrong. It aint up for discussion. If you dont get along with that Rule, youre gonna have lots and lots of culture-shock right enough he he . Sad part is even trying to answer your question on this forum - and be perfectly honest - it will either get pulled (watch this space) or will attract the wrath of those who dare you to actually have an opinion in the first place. Having an opinion is all very well; expressing it is the crime. so, i'll quit while i'm ahead. Might be worth considering another venue to conduct your research . Great to get that off me chest all the same though. Thanks

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

After a while you get used to it. Then the problem is when you go back to Milton Keynes or wherever in Ukania - you feel REAL culture shock. You see all these weird people with body piercings and bones in their noses. Wow !

Van Norden · Joined: 23 Oct 2004 Posts: 409

We avoid culture shock here by avoiding the culture altogether. We suffer from more subtle and insidious maladies. Nothing as fancy as culture shock, if that even exists. I've never felt it. Everywhere is basically the same once you've got your accommodation sorted out, and found places to eat drink and get merry.

I don't suffer from any kind of shock when I escape on holidays. I'm like a kid at Disneyland, running from ride to ride.

JAMES JOYCE · Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 3:29 pm Post subject:

In many ways the Kingdom is ideal.Tobin and Yeats would have loved it.
Brendan Behan may have been a bit bemused at first.
He would have made short work of the Greasy Pole at Jubail Industrial College- literally by removing an informer's knee caps.

Cleopatra · Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 4:22 pm Post subject:

Van Norden makes a good point: most expats in KSA have very little contact with "Arab culture", even if they want to. Most teachers live in an expat bubble, rarely getting to know any Saudis other than their students. It's entirely possible to spend many years here without having once been inside a Saudi home or without having learnt more than a handful of words in Arabic. So it's probably inaccurate to say that people here suffer from 'culture shock' in the true sense of the phrase. Certainly there are many, many things about life here that infuriate, frustrate and enrage, but as often as not - indeed, I would say, more often than not - the people who cause you most problems in your professional and personal life are your fellow expats, not the locals.

Queen of Sheba · Joined: 07 May 2006 Posts: 397

How true this is, Cleo, how true. Van, I see your attempts at a good old fashioned brawl got zapped, but it was fun while it lasted, we all enjoy a good beating every now then, and so long as its in good humour, I dont see any problems with that.

007

Queen of Sheba · Joined: 07 May 2006 Posts: 397

I have to agree, if he is not Muslim he could seek to live somewhere where he cant hear the call to prayer. However, outside of compounds, that is nearly impossible to find, this is after all Saudi Arabia. Why do people come here expecting anything else.

Having said that, I think everyone faces culture shock of some form, its just a matter of how you deal with that. Culture shock is another form of stress is all, this its just a fancy term of a period of stress, its how you deal with stress that makes or break it for you. Everyone works it out differently, and some merely leave if they find its unbearable.