Advice for people following us? Ok the big thing is despite the surface glamour and glitz never forget that this is still a third world country and stuff does not work quite like it does in the UK. Workmanship is shoddy and everything – and I mean everything - is done to the lowest price. Quality is not valued. Businesses will rather save AED100 cost than spend 1,000 to make 1,000,000.
Most of the people you are in contact with every day are paid peanuts and managed harshly. Do not be surprised if you don’t get a lot of co-operation.
Everyone speaks English but very few as their native language. This means you have to learn to speak slowly and clearly and be prepared to repeat yourself often and to live with daily mis-communication. What also hurts us English is the fact that our accents are hard to understand. English is mostly heard and taught as Indian English. Even Emiratis often speak an English that is heavily Indian tinged. Get used to it and don’t be rude about what to us are quaint foreign mannerisms. You try communicating in Arabic! Not many foreigners can. Indeed some local children are so used to speaking English that they continue to do so among themselves and occasionally need remedial Arabic lessons to take up government jobs.
Contracts and paperwork are valued. You can never have enough copies of you passport, visa and photograph.
Emiratis don’t do trivial jobs. Even the lowliest Emirati fresh graduate is a Manager of some kind. Expect work to be passed over to someone else. Expect to have to chase everything.
Our approach to time here is different. Things take as long as they take. This doesn’t mean people don’t hustle – it’s just that no one rushes to respond.
Learn the 40 different meanings of the word “Yes” – ½ of which mean some form of ‘No”. Neither Arabs nor Indians like to give bad news or say no to you. So they will find a thousand ways to avoid negative response or bad news. Learn to read the clues.
Arabs in particular value politeness and hospitality, which is very pleasant socially. But it drives Western business people crazy. Countless sales people from Europe have been stunned at how easy it is to get to see the Chairman of very big companies and then wondered for months why business never went anywhere. It’s because they didn’t separate social hospitality from real business need.
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