Language takes up a big part of everyones life, without language i wouldn't be able to communicate with people or express myself and my emotions.
Growing up in jordan i was fortunate enough to grow up to be a bilingual person, i speak english and arabic fluently, and since I've only ever lived in Jordan or Abu dhabi I've never felt very excluded because in Jordan everyone speaks arabic and in Abu dhabi also its an arabic speaking country, apart from all the international people who live here, that speak english. since i speak both I've always been comfortable around people and I've never really felt excluded.
But one point i want to touch upon is that, even though i am fluent in arabic, i grew up learning arabic in jordan; i have a jordanian/palestinian accent. I remember when i first moved to Abu dhabi the locals here couldn't understand my accent very well. Overtime i managed to adjust my accent and now i can have a normal conversation with any arab person from any country, I've also even learned some Egyptian and local slang words. So I've adjusted to the different culture quite well.
Culture, as so defined by the dictionary "the ideas, customs, and social behavior of a particular people or society." which is basically just the lifestyle and rules to live by of a certain society/country.
Hi Alia,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading about your background and learning about how over time you were able to adjust your accent and took it upon yourself to improve and even took the opportunity to expand your variety of languages. Overall I enjoyed your blog and can not wait to read more :)