A crash course in polite conversations
I think Arabic is one of the most polite languages on this earth. Don’t get me wrong it can also be very harsh when it wants to be. But I’ll save our stories of rough encounters for another post insha’Allah. For now let me tell you about the nice people…
Incident #1: We’re riding in a taxi with an elderly cab driver and as he’s driving us we’re all speaking in English in the back. Then my friend tries to tell the driver to stop so she says, “3aleh gammeh” and he corrects her with a light chuckle and says very slowly, “3ala Gamb”. He picked up that we were Arabic Students so he patiently taught us the correct way to say it. Then when we got out of the cab and my friend handed him the money he says in Arabic to leave it, like he wasn’t going to accept payment from us. So she insisted and he kept refusing to take it until finally he accepted it. I found this to a very polite gesture because from what I’ve heard and seen so far, most Egyptians are all about money, but masha’Allah he was different.
Incident #2: One of my roommates and I took a taxi to the airport today because she wanted to say goodbye to a sister she knows who was leaving back to England. When we finished and we went outside to take a taxi home my roommate goes up to a cab driver and tells him where we want to go and asks if he’ll take us for 15 guinneh (Egyptian pounds). He appeared to be very practicing taxi driver, according to his dress..and so he says no to 15 guinneh. We thought he was being a typical Egyptian taxi driver and that he was trying to demand more fare. So imagine our surprise when he says, “3ashara!” (ten!). My friend looks at him like she heard wrong and repeats the number 15 to him but he insists to take us for less and says, “3ashara!”. Masha’Allah for once we got a cab driver who didn’t rip us off. We ended up paying him 20 at the end of our ride, just because of that.
Incident #3: Another taxi story (sorry but a lot of our day is spent riding in taxis, that’ll soon change though once we move next week insha’Allah). We were riding home from somewhere and it was really hot out, so the cab driver got his water bottle out and took a swig. Before closing the lid though he offered his water to the rest of us (we politely refused of course). That’s when one of the sisters whose lived here for a while said that it’s customary for the drivers to offer you their water if they drink it in front of you. Masha’Allah! I love it when practices from the Sunnah are embedded into the everyday customs of the people.
Incident #4: After receiving a job offer to teach at a school here, two of my friends accepted it and I was left with the choice to either join them in accepting the offer or turning down the offer. After consulting with my wise mother (may Allah give her Jannah) I decided to turn down the job offer for fear that it might take away from my energy and objective to study full time here. Yesterday morning I called the administrator to tell her I wouldn’t be coming in that day to sign the contract because I’d decided not to take the job. To my surprise she was very sweet to me and she said, “Alia, we are friends now and I want you to know I wish you were joining our staff at the school but even though you’re not, I wish you the best. I’m here for you and if you ever need anything during your stay in Egypt please call my mobile any time!” Masha’Allah! I was very impressed at her hospitality considering I’d only met her once.
In general the people here have a very charming way of speaking. Egyptian dialect is very light hearted and I find that it suits their personalities to the tee. They’re ready to find something to joke about at almost any moment. For the most part I don’t think the men have a staring problem like they do in my dad’s country.
After buying something from a shop, the salesperson says to us, “Mabrook!” to congratulate us on our buy. Almost everyone, including taxi drivers, will always reply to your salaam (which is a big deal for me because in my dad’s country people have abandoned the wajib of replying to salaam).
Alhamdulillah for the above incidents and I hope to experience many more…
Ramadans coming up so let’s hope it brings out the best in our manners insha’Allah.
Nice, nice. :) Keep these stories coming! And hey, cab rides do seem to be the most common topic for students there! Lol.
Yes it’s true but guess what? We’ll be living a few floors up from Fajr Center in the same building so we won’t have to rely on taxis to and from class, alhamdulillah. What a relief!
I find it REALLY amazing how often you are bloggin’ … seriously! I mean when you was in America and you had the other blog, it was rarely updated! I remember always checkin it to see the same post for ages. So when you mailed me the link for your egyptian blog, as excited as I was… I was thinkin’ if when she was in America and she had sound internet access she didnt update then when shes in Egypt… O boy! And now I’m seeing regular bloggin’ mashaAllah! I think you have more posts in the space of a few weeks on here, than you had in the 2 years you had the other blog! =P
Anyways, I’m really enjoying reading your experiences mashaAllah although I have a feeling it may not be as frequent when you start studying but nevertheless I look forward to whatever you can post - ( wow that was one longgg sentence )
Anyways love you…
P.S Is this the longest comment you have ever recieved on your blog =P
O boy! That comment looked dreadfully long! Don’t worry hon, my comments aren’t competing with the size of your posts =P
Well I’m sure you’d still have plentiful cool stories for us anyway! Hey btw, can I add this blog on my blogroll? I usually add blogs without asking but I’m being polite this time. :P Heh, it’s just that sometimes folks wanna keep things private!
“Me”: Ever since I was a kid I’ve always found it easier to write on one given topic and put my all into it vs. writing on a stream of random thoughts. All my life I’ve had the bad habit of keeping tons of notebooks, starting to write down a random thought on a page and then never finishing it. If you flip through my notebooks you’ll find pages and pages of unfinished writing. I think that’s why it’s been easy for me to sit down and write a blog entry within minutes for this blog, it’s easier for me to organize my thoughts when I know I have one theme to work with.
The other blog will probably lie untouched for a while unless I have a random eureka moment.
Editor: You may now add this to your blogroll, madam.
sister Alia,
In Shaa Allah you’re doing well, and still enjoying your time in Cairo. In case you want to venture out and try another mode of transportation other than the taxis, there is the metro. And there are the women-only cars in the train, el hamdu le Allah.
May Allah protect you sis.
Assalaamu `alaykum Masriya,
Jazakillahu khayran sis. Don’t worry we’ve only had to ride in taxis the first two weeks of our stay. After we move into our new house we won’t be in need of taxis much at all. We’ll be living in the same 3imarah as the school so we’ll only have to walk downstairs for classes. Also, the necessary shops and things are all within walking distance for us, alhamdulillah. I have heard about the metro with the all-women cars, and I’ll be sure to keep that in mind insha’Allah.