community day & writing Arabic

As part of the CSC experience, each team participates in a local community day during their month of in-country service.  For our day, UAE Team 2 was scheduled to be mentors during a business workshop for students at the male-only UAE University in Al Ain.  The workshop was put on by INJAZ, which is the name for Junior Achievement in this part of the world.  Our job was to each support small groups of young men in learning critical business skills of communication, business plan development and networking.

When we arrived at the beautiful glass and marble building at the university, we were told to expect approximately 50 students for the workshop; in reality, about 80 appeared.   As I looked out at the large roomful of young 20-something men, I suddenly realized I felt very tense.  They looked back at us curiously as the group leader introduced the IBM mentors and made introductory comments.  My neck knotted up.  I realized with shock that the only time I had ever seen a group of men in traditional Arab clothing was on TV after 9/11.

My group of 6 male students, all clad in the white dishdash, included a pair of twins.  The six young men were first and second year students, majoring in law, business or social science.  One of the twins wore a red Ferrari baseball cap and the other had the traditional red headscarf, seen on most of the students in the room.  After introductions, we were led through the first exercises.  I grabbed a pen and some paper on the table and started writing notes about our discussion on the first exercise.  A wave of activity went across the table as I wrote and the twins, one on each side of me, stared at my left hand as I wrote.  The men spoke to each other in Arabic and continued to watch me write.  I looked at my hand, then suddenly realized I was writing with the left hand.  Later, one of the twins would quietly observe that I am left handed and ask if I knew what the left hand is used for.  I told him I did know and then explained how I had been really worried before I came about eating with my left, which is not polite in the UAE.  As I have done several times, I pantomimed my attempts to get food to my mouth with my right, which made the whole table laugh and chatter in Arabic.

Working on our business plan (Sheela and I shared the afternoon team)

Mansour, one of the twins

Group preparing to present their business plan

In the afternoon, the workshop continued with a task to complete a short business plan for an innovative idea.  As the preparatory exercises were being explained, one of the twins and I talked quietly:  I told him I had been trying to learn to write in Arabic but I wasn't completely sure how to write my name.  He snatched a paper from me and a squiggle of writing appeared.  He smiled and slid the paper across the table to me.  I smiled back and (with my left hand!) slowly formed the new shapes, working right to left as Arabic is appropriately written.  I slid the paper back.  He smiled and told me I forgot 2 dots below the final arch of my name.  He slid the paper back.  I wrote them and smiled, then wrote my last name in English.  I slid the paper back.  He wrote a series of squiggles and slid the paper back toward me.  We continued sliding the paper back and forth, until we had both written the Arabic versions of my first and last names, and the names Alex and Sophie.  Each time, he smiled at my childlike scrawl, gently corrected me and watched as I slowly moved my pen through the loops of Arabic.  #ibmcsc uae

My Arabic writing lesson