About Hope Expertise I`m nineteen years old and I`m an expert in the United Arab Emirates culture. I`m one of country`s locals so I`m able to answer any question about the culture of United Arab Emirates, and the culture of the Arabian Gulf countries in general. You can ask me anything about the culture or the traditions of the United Arab Emirates. I don`t have enough information about the history of the traditions or the name of the tools that were used in the past. I`m also able to answer your questions about the United Arab Emirates youth and what they are interested in nowadays. I won`t be a much of a help in the matters of business. I can only help you with the culture & the people of UAE.
Experience I'm living my life according to the cultural and the traditions of the UAE so it will not be that hard on me to answer your questions.
Expert: Hope Date: 5/5/2005 Subject: culture and customs in the UAE
Question I'm a 21 year old woman living in Canada and I've recently become very interested in teaching English as a second language abroad. The highest paid and most accomodating english teaching positions are located in the UAE and other gulf countries. However, being that I am a woman from a liberal Western country I am concerned about the way women are treated in Arabic society in comparison to where I am from. How are foreign women treated and expected to behave in your country? Also, what is the social life in the UAE like? Thank you very much for your time.
Answer Hey Caitlin ,
Thanks for your interesting questions. Well to start with I want to inform you that almost every college in UAE has foreigner teachers , and so does the one I'm currently studying in. We have teachers from US , Canada , South Africa ..etc. So I think that your chance of running into people from your own country is pretty high.
As for the culture concerns thats normal . It is normal that you will have a cultural shock simply because different countries have different ways of living. We have lots of nationalities in UAE and most of them just mingle in and accept our culture.
You don't have to like everything in our culture you just have to be open minded about it and the key to do that is to ask questions about why we do or don't do certain things.
You don't have to worry about woman treatment in Arab countries that much .From talking to foreign teachers and foreign friends I find that the western media usually don't get the whole picture to the west audiance for money purposes , or other purposes. I guess what I'm trying to say here is that the UAE is a very good country in dealing with woman and I've never heard or anyone saying otherwise.
You are expected to accept our culture and learn a bit about it , that would be a very good experience I guess.
Social life oh well you can google about it :) because I don't know if you have a specific question that I can answer for you , social life is a bit too general.
Foreign women in UAE are treated well , we do respect their culture and their traditions/religion and we expect them to do the same with us. So you can keep your beliefes and your traditions , but in the same time you have to show respect for ours .. if you know what I mean.
Umm I hope that I've answered your questions in a satisfactory way. Sorry for the spelling mistakes and other things my US and Canadian English teachers are trying to solve that :)).
Please don't hesitate in writing me again if you have furthure questions.
