So Arabs are very gracious . . . and lengthy in their greetings. An Arab friend told me that they joke that 80% of phone bills are spent on greetings. It's only after the conversation is near over that you get down to the business of why you called.
Well I am proud to say this weekend I out greeted and Arab. We were meeting a local friend in Amman and so as usual we were relying on a few key phrases and then the kindness of strangers to help direct us as we went. Well to confirm we were on the right bus I called my friend. I began with the normal greeting and reply. As we continued to talk it was a bit noisy so I couldn't make out all the details of what he was saying. But I assumed more greetings and questions of how I was were coming my way. So I continued to reply in kind. In the end I passed the phone off to the gentleman next to me on the bus and he and my friend arranged the final leg of our arrival.
Later that night my friend who we were meeting said how I had made him mad on the phone. He had been asking questions of where I was and if we knew where to go next and I just kept answering with greetings and replies. He said I had told him 10 times how I was doing but not once answered his question of where we were. So we all had a good laugh as the American had acted the Arab and the Arab had been the American.
Well I am proud to say this weekend I out greeted and Arab. We were meeting a local friend in Amman and so as usual we were relying on a few key phrases and then the kindness of strangers to help direct us as we went. Well to confirm we were on the right bus I called my friend. I began with the normal greeting and reply. As we continued to talk it was a bit noisy so I couldn't make out all the details of what he was saying. But I assumed more greetings and questions of how I was were coming my way. So I continued to reply in kind. In the end I passed the phone off to the gentleman next to me on the bus and he and my friend arranged the final leg of our arrival.
Later that night my friend who we were meeting said how I had made him mad on the phone. He had been asking questions of where I was and if we knew where to go next and I just kept answering with greetings and replies. He said I had told him 10 times how I was doing but not once answered his question of where we were. So we all had a good laugh as the American had acted the Arab and the Arab had been the American.
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