No I won’t be running for parliament before you ask! (not yet anyway) But I visited the Parliament this morning on business. So naturally I took the opportunity to take a couple of pictures there. Unfortunately it was through my cameraphone, but it’ll do for now!
Comments
Re: In the Parliament this morning
Totally Agreed and the title ‘In Office’ suits the pic a lot, plz do tell which camera phone it is
Cheers
Adnan Naseer
In the Parliament this morning
Hey.. did you then have to wash yourself with Dettol?
Silly Me π
In the Parliament this morning
You’ll certainly have my vote if you ever run for parliament! – At least I’ll be able to write to you directly in English and not have to pay for a translation into Arabic! π
Re: In the Parliament this morning
Silly Her takes the Bahraini Cynic Award of the year!
Man, that was barbed.
Re: In the Parliament this morning
Oh thanks!
After I finished my English BBC interview, the “stringer” decided that the subject we’re talking about was too juicy and decided on the spot to interview me in Arabic and make a report that he could submit for the Arabic section. I can comfortably tell you that I was sweating bullets trying to construct Arabic sentances!
I got through in the end though.
In the Parliament this morning
That picture just looks so right.
Though I’d rather you were presiding over our parliament in Westminster instead of Tony Blair, as you know π
Ash
In the Parliament this morning
I dont know Mahmood, you kind of look like you belong in the place. Even though we disagree on some issues I think you would be a great man for the job. That is just want the Middle East needs, disagreement, opposition, someone not willing to keep quiet or to be bought off.
In the Parliament this morning
You deserve to be inside that place even though my testimony is considered futile !
In the Parliament this morning
Isn’t it amazing how good the picture is from even a phone? I’m just constantly amazed at how good the quality is of photos from the new cameras, even the very cheapest digital ones. This photo is better than the color photos I took as a kid with my Dad’s awkward 35 mm camera 35 years ago.
I wonder if all this photo documentation of our lives will survive.
Steve
In the Parliament this morning
i would pay to watch you and other MB talk about press law
Re: In the Parliament this morning
I did! The ONLY one I have a measure of respect for in this regard is Ibrahim Bashmi or the Shura Council who’s proposal is with the Parliament’s Services Committee for review. As if they can review anything beyond the end of their noses or what’s within them!
You will be there one day ΓΖΓΒ’ΓΒ’Γ’β¬Ε‘ΓΒ¬ΓΒ’Γ’βˆ βtrust me
You will be there soon because you are representing modern way of thinking which can change the country many steps forward the first group elected they have nothing new they just come from the past thousands year back trying to adapt with this new world let them go back to there social role and leave politics and economy to the right people like you Mahmood .
It will be very interesting and joy able to watch the parliament when you join
Good luck
Hamad
Re(1): In the Parliament this morning
Hello Mahmoud:
I’ve been reading your blog for over a year (even posted a couple of times under Anonymous), but finally registered myself today.
Now here’s my silly question: I have just assumed all this time that you are Arabic, and Bahraini, by birth, and probably educated in Scotland since I believe I read your wife was Scottish. So isn’t your native language Arabic? And English is a second (or third, fourth, fifth…) language?
Alinna
P.S. I enjoy very much reading this blog: it gives me an insight into that side of the world, without being hysterically pro-something or other. I also enjoy reading the responses to your articles, even when THEY are hysterical. The part of the USA I am from, there just isn’t that much diversity (Native American and Hispanic, some Ukranians, that’s about it), and the local colleges don’t carry any courses pertaining to the Middle East. So you are my classroom π ! Thank you!
Re(2): In the Parliament this morning
Hello Alinna, thanks for “coming out”! π
Your assumptions are correct:
1. I am a Bahraini, a small part of the indigenous population
2. I am an Arab
3. I was educated first in Bahrain through a couple of private schools, and then on to uni in Scotland
My knowledge of English is due to the private education, the first was through the Sacred Heart School whose curriculum is English first and Arabic second, and because at the age of 10 or so my father decided that my Arabic WAS crap, I had to be put into an Arabic curriculumed school, the best option at that time was the American Mission School, what they now call Al-Raja School. That stopped at intermediate level so I went then to a normal government high school then on to Scotland.
As my chosen vocation was engineering, and English being the international technical language, my day to day (even minute by minute) interaction with documents, manuals, service forms, etc was exclusively in English. Add to that the fact that it was Aviation Electronics Engineering, and in the Airline business the first language was always English, it strengthened the user of that language.
On I went into business, choosing information technology which again depends on English more than any other language.
So you see, by default, English has become my mother tongue. There are countless others like me in the Arab world.
Arabic has always been a second language, even though that our governments insist on using it for almost all communication with its departments and institutions.
A few years ago I decided that enough was enough and that I have to start speaking in Arabic, that’s when I started reading Arabic papers, but a paragraph in Arabic takes about 3 times the time it would take reading the same lengthed paragraph in an English language paper.
The situation has improved tremendously since those days, but because I continue to use English in my professional capacity, Arabic continues to be relegated to the back seat.
Unfortunate but true.
I have consciously tried to increase my understanding of the Arabic language and its vocabulary, but that process is long an arduous.
Don’t get me wrong though, I am fluent in both languages thankfully, however I catch myself most of the time thinking in English, so when I speak in Arabic, I have to instantly translate those thoughts into Arabic sentences before I speak them. That sounds very bad. I know. However, I can now say that I can switch my thinking at will!
Re(2): In the Parliament this morning
Arabic is a very hard language to speak properly and most Arabs are only really fluent in their own dialect. It is very hard to speak, to coin a western term “high” Arabic. I am sure Mahmood can explain it better. Most Arabs I know would feel a bit uncomfortable if placed in a situation where they had to speak Arabic to a wider Arabic audience. The expectation is that they would speak “proper Arabic” for lack of a better word, which they are not too familiar with.
It is the same reason why many Arabs have trouble writting in Arabic. Written Arabic is not usually done in dialect, rather “fusah”(transliteration)? I met another Muslim American convert to Islam last night. Turns out he has taken 4 years of university Arabic but has had almost no contact or interaction with Arabs on a personal level. I have taken several years, but I was hard pressed to understand much of what he said as he was actually speaking the classic spoken Arabic, the Arabic of The Qur’an, whereas my knowledge and scope of learning is almost exclusively with certain areas of the Gulf, and more recently thr Shams, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine.
Arabic is not like English to English speakers. Most native English speakers who go to univerisity will take minimal English courses unless required by their major. Arab speakers, on the other hand, will take Arabic classes throughout their university years. Mastering Arabic grammer is a hard thing to do. People who speak Arabic and speak it well are respected in Arabic society, it is one of the reasons why bin Laden has such appeal. His Arabic is very good, almost poetic in nature. Many people who do not speak Arabic do not realise what a difficult language it is to learn. For example, Arabic has different words for plurals. There is a word for a singular, based on whether or not the item in question is masculine or feminine. There is a seperate word, often looking and sounding much different than the singular word, for a plural. This is broken down even further because there is a different word for a plural of two, than there is for a plural of two or more. Formal Arabic also uses different words and different ways of pronouncing the same words. Trust me, the first time I took an Arabic class at university it was like I was learning a whole new language although I already spoke, at a conversational level, the dialect of my wife’s family. It is said that learning Arabic is compared to learning any three European languages.
The whole subject is fascinating to me and I look forward to Mahmood’s response.
Re(3): In the Parliament this morning
[quote]I have consciously tried to increase my understanding of the Arabic language and its vocabulary, but that process is long an arduous.
Don’t get me wrong though, I am fluent in both languages thankfully, however I catch myself most of the time thinking in English, so when I speak in Arabic, I have to instantly translate those thoughts into Arabic sentences before I speak them. That sounds very bad. I know. However, I can now say that I can switch my thinking at will! [/quote]
What makes Arabic so hard for me Mahmood is that you are required to learn a wider range of vocabulary than you are for other languages because Arabic is so diverse. Because of the diversity of the Arabic community in the USA you have to know the, at least to a certain extent, the vocabulary of many different dialects. I am just getting the hang of this now. When I moved here I had trouble understand Egyptians and to a lesser extent Palestinians, Jordanians and the like. The slang still gets me. Like the first time a Kuwaiti asked me “ish loanak”? LOL! I had no clue, I answered “white.”
My wife had the same issue as yourself. She spent most of her school years abroad. Her father, God rest his soul, was worried that her Arabic would slip completely. At age 10 he hired an Egyptian professor to tutor all of the sisters. Although my wife speaks the Hijazi dialect, you can still hear the influences of her Egyptian professor in some of the words she uses.
As to thinking in one language, I do this as well. I speak German as well as Arabic, but do not use the German much. Now I tend to mix all three languages together if I am not thinking. I remember taking my daughter to a German deli here because we wanted fresh pretzels. I ended up saying “abga vier pretzels.” One request, three languages, one confused clerk. It was a long cry from “Ich brauche vier Brezeln.”
In the Parliament this morning
next time you’re there put whoopie cushions on all the chairs
Re: In the Parliament this morning
There is so much “hot air” in the place anyway do you think anyone would notice????
Re(5): In the Parliament this morning
At home we speak in English, sometimes in Arabic if I want to confuse the hell out of ’em, including the dogs!
The children do know Arabic though as they take it at school.
Re(4): In the Parliament this morning
Wow!!!
Thank you, gentlemen, for your responses. I had read that the Arabic of the Quran was not the Arabic spoken on the street, but I had no idea it was such a difficult language to learn, even for Arabs.
Mahmoud, what language do you speak at home? I am wondering, since if you speak English primarily at home also, won’t that make it difficult for your children to learn their native language?
My brother married a Filipina, and Ellen wants to teach their daughter Tagalog (her language), but my brother believes it would only confuse their little girl, and wants her to wait until she speaks English well. I think he’s crazy, as that is half her heritage, and children learn so easily languages when they are young. By the time he thinks his daughter is ready to learn a second language, she’ll be too old to easily pick it up, and since they live in the U.S.A., she probably won’t even be interested in learning her mother’s language. Such a shame! (Sorry, I went off on a tangent.)
Alinna
p.s. Thanks for the welcome! π