It can be easy to forget where you are and stick with your own kin. When you do see local Arab nationals in these places, they’re usually speeding around in their enormous 4×4’s or shopping in expensive stores.īlue collar workers, storekeepers, taxi drivers and so on are predominantly South-East Asian. I can understand that for many people it’s a harsh and frustrating place to live, making the expat bubble a very tempting comfort zone to stay in.
In Dubai around 70-75% of the population is non-Emirati. The stats don’t offer much incentive either:Īround 90% of Qatar’s population is foreign (aka non-Qatari). Now I get that when you look at the demographics of a place like Qatar, it’s easy to just stick with English, stay in your expat bubble and live the Friday brunch lifestyle. “ I started a course in Modern Standard Arabic through work and found it to be too much after the first few lessons.”Īs I concluded after living in South Korea, it simply astounds me that so many people opt to live in a part of the world long term without reaching even a basic level in the local language. “ Most of the people here are expats from India and Pakistan who don’t speak Arabic.” One of the things I hear a lot from expats living in the Gulf (places like Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi) is that they really want to learn Arabic but that it’s too challenging here.īefore I came to Doha I met expats who had lived here for many years and never learned a word of Arabic all the while making excuses for why they couldn’t. I can’t believe that people used to sleep in this desert heat without air conditioning! 🙂
I’ve just moved my base here for a while to continue work on and man oh man is it hot and humid right now.
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