Well today marks 5 months to the day since I arrived in America. There wasn’t any kind of “culture shock” for me since I have been raised and living in a western lifestyle. I have visited America before and have interacted with them my whole life. Living here made me realize many things about them and about living away from home. Here are a few observations from the top of my mind.
- First of all most people are friendly to you, even after they find out that you are an Arab, same thing goes if they found out that you are a Saudi Arab, maybe its because they don’t recognize what Saudi is
- The worst kind of Americans that I have encountered (includes immigrants and citizens) are Arab-Americans. As soon they found out that you are not one of them, as you are only an Arab (no kind of prefix), something different happens. Being from the Gulf makes it even worse. Yeah I said it, and that’s from my experience, I don’t care if any Arab-Americans are reading this, but this has happened with every single Arab-American I have met, and if you don’t like it I’ll use one of your excuses, Freedom of Speech Baby!
- Arabs, real Arabs, are much more mature than Americans. I live in an apartment with 3 other people, a 19 year old saudi, 24 year old American, and a 26 year old American (I’m 3 weeks shy of my 23rd B-day). Let me tell you that my saudi roommate is much more mature than the other two guys, in American maturity years I might be a 37 year-old male with 3 kids.
- Beracracy in America is just as bad as it is back home, especially for non-immigrants (international students, like me, its probably a post-9/11 thing).
- Your responsibilities in life as an American begin after graduating high school. Both my roommates cant believe that my government are actually giving me money every month to study here. I think if I tell them the truth about how much my government is giving my each month they’d probably kill me. They are getting suspicious cause they know that I don’t have a job, but i cant still pay rent and live with $150 till then end of the month :P. On top of that they were flabbergasted when we (my saudi roommate and two other Saudis) bought this
- Your responsibilities as a Gulf Arab begin after having your first baby, at least for most people.
- You appreciate life more, and don’t take things for granted as much when you live outside your country and start a new life from scratch.
- You become extremely patriotic.
- You miss stuff that you don’t realize if you are at home.
- I will never like country music.
- Most importantly people here have DREAMS. No matter how stupid this might seem, but unfortunately its true. Our dreams are to get married, have kids, have enough money for a huge villa that is 4 times the size of what we actually need, drive really expensive cars, etc.. Their dreams are not always materialistic (I am not saying all Americans are like this, but 99.9% of Arabs are not like this). They might work their whole lives, live in a single floor house with 3 rooms and they would thank god for what they have. While back home if someone lived in a house like that, no matter how poor they are, the only thing they would do is ti7il6um (complain).
Very interesting observations. I was an Indian-Indian in America not too long ago, and I echo your thoughts with the appropriate substitutions, i.e. the worst people I encountered during my 17-month stay were Indian-Americans.
I agree with your other point too. I started to enjoy life more during my stay in the US and at the same time began to appreciate India more. Life and relationships can be unecessarily complicated in the US.
nice post dude.
i was really surprised by the things i missed.
even tho i’m not an arab i did grow up in this part of the world, and the one thing i really missed:
good fresh hummous for less than KD0.500, within, at the most, a 5 minute walk
on the dreams issue, i would actually say its the other way around if you take out the material lust found here. i found the west to have more drive when it came to things like job satisfaction and personal growth, whereas many people here “settle” for government jobs to be able to afford the material things you mentioned such as the ridiculous villas.
I’ll agree with it all, except for the maturity part. I’ve met MANY mature Americans in my time. Maybe it’s the people who you chose to build these observations on, or maybe it’s the college environment. All I know is that there are a lot of Americans out there who are VERY mature, putting to shame most of the Arabs (esp. Khaleejis) that I’ve met in my lifetime. I’ll see you out there soon, Yazood - keep NC on ice for me!
Yazeed,
I don’t know from where you got this idea of Gulf people not beging their responsibilities till having their first child!. Guess you come from a real rich family, masha’Allah
I left home after high school and even I studied in Kingdom (n Dhahran) I was in fully responsible about myself!. I didn’t ask dad for money all my 5.5 years in university. He supported me financially when I got married, I got to admit. The same thing apply to most of my friends!.
All arabs hate gulf people.
Mahesh Shantaram,
Welcome to the Blog, it is interesting to see all of the similarities that we have, even though we come from different backgrounds. I agree with relationship being complicated too, especially with the people you spend most of your time with, people who you didn\’t know before coming here. I call it a forced relationship, I was planning to post some points of that soon. I
BTW you got a nice website with absolutely amazing pictures.
sknk,
Hummus!!! $2.99 for a tiny plate that tastes like shit!!!!
About the dreams, believe me people back home will not be satisfied with what you said, there is no such thing as enough money.
Boss,
Hey I know who you are! I\’ll be waiting for you.
Well on the maturity issue, well yes i am talking about the college environment! I don\’t hang out with middle aged Americans that seek international students so that they can add a bit of \”culture\” to their otherwise dull lives
Plus I am comparing them to other Arab students, no matter how long they have been here.
Abu-Joori,
Well, no offense, but it seems ur were raised in the \’old days,\’ you cant tell me that what happened to you, happens to everyone! Plus Saudi is a whole different story, many young students travel to different parts of the country for university, but you are still in the same country, same culture, same ….. almost everything, on top of that the Government gives you a salary and housing, so you cant be THAT proud of what you did
At least my marriage point was correct, and applies to almost everyone.
Carlsb3rg,
Well its much worse here
Well Yazeed I must say that I am in no position to validate your comments. But I have known you for many years and I know that you never lie and that you always speak your mind. With that said, I agree with your comments.
As you know, I have lived half my life in Kuwait and half my life here in England. I spent the last two years of my high school days here in the American School in London. It was filled with Americans. Only about 30% of the high school was international (meaning not American). Only 2 british students.
I also study at an American university here in London. So even though I live in England, I am surrounded by Americans. My experiences with them has taught me some of the same things as you have.
On the other hand, I have also met many English people. Now before I say any thing I must mention that Londoners are quite different than the rest of England. Londoners, with respect to other English people, are more open-minded, more aware of other cultures and of the diversity of nationalities and religions in this historical city.
However, I have also realised that the other English people are in turn more open-minded, and aware of other cultures than Americans are.
In addition, the English are a nation proud of their heritage and culture and in turn respect other cultures and religions. (With the exception of the French and the German :P)
I know it sound like I hate Americans. I don’t. Most of my best friends in high school were American. It’s just that I am more comfortable around the English.
dude, that was my point exactly. they settle for high paying government jobs to be able to afford their lifestyle, and their decision has nothing to do with their drive/job satisfaction, if they have any beyond paying off the large silly house.
so yeah there will never be anything as enough.
i was in the UK for 7 years, and yeah londoners are different from the rest of the country. lol i dont think you can call london english any more
i think the principal difference between east and west, is that they grow up knowing very little about world affairs, while everything here is very politicised. the papers here carry more international news than papers in the west simply cos it doesnt concern their readers and wouldnt sell.
on the hummus,… look for a greek shop, they do decent but different hummus
one that opened near my place in uni saved my life 
and i think i contributed to half their revenue!
Yazeez,you have some very interesting observation.I am feeling happy that a lot of it ressmbles with my experiences. America is all about success .Most of the time its the financial success. As long as you work for a business and they are happy with your work then you are at the top.Its the material success which people are after not too much into family . A lot of pals they love their girlfriends more then they love their parents. A girl who just came a few days back in my pal’s life is more dearer to him than his very own parents. Life is selfish and one has to live it .you have been here for only 5 months and myself for a couple of years.Yes i do remember my country and try to focus more of my time on religious values .The truth of the matter should be our motive for being in the country whether to benefit ourselves or others.
HI GUYS ,IT WAS NICE TO READ THE ARGUMENTS YOU ALL HAD ON YOUR EXPERIENCES WHILE LIVING IN THE WEST.I JUST WANTED TO TELL YOU ALL YOU ARE BLESSED YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO STUDY ABROAD. NOT ALL PEOPLE HAD AN APPRATUNITY LIKE THIS ,FOR ME I COULD NOT GO BECAUSE MY FAMILY CAN NOT AFFORD IT,ALTHOUGH I WAS BORN AND RAISED IN THE US DURING MY CHILDHOOD,BUT I DID NOT GO SINCE.I JUST WISH THAT DAY WILL COME.GOOD LUCK ALL