doha is developing but how good is the real development?

Dweller how long have u been in Turkey? Is it still chaotic after the explosions?

I personally thought Turkey was weird. I kinda miss it but for no particular reason. The nature is ok but not unique. The same goes for architechture. The people certainly arent the most polite. Pollution and way too many smokers.

Dont flatter him. He's not even close to being worthy of that title.

I thought that was khara? Or is it AA.:)

Y did u call urself that? sounds like Zaga!(no offence) 4 those of u who dont know its Qatari for s**t

Asian Games Asian Games is all you hear and see but is Doha really ready to cope with them??? I mean you hear every body say Doha is trying to be the next Dubai/U.A.E...LMAO Lets start off with the media here QBS...They got RJ's who call themselves DJ's and are busy promoting their home country...No.1 Radio Station..and Bahrain radio also says the same thing, but is way better..I think ppl only listen to QBS wen they can't get 100.5 or 104.8 and 106.0....Even 92.6 which plays both english and arabic songs alternatively is better.. QBS is so desperate that they play BBC produced shows which keep bragging abt things happening in UK...I mean why does a person driving around want to know abt some Horse shows and House shows happening in U.k??And then they got the French transmission????Whats the logic ??How many French speakers are there in Qatar??

Next the airport ... Do asian passengers get the same treatment as Europeans or GCC citizens?? I remember when I was in Transit in Dubai the cop goes like Sir Please come this side I wonder wen we will get the same treatment here....

Now that Ramadan is approaching...I wud like to bring up an incident from last year...My friend had a hit and run accident on CORNICHE road .he called up the cops and waited for more than an hour. Finally he goes to the traffic cops who tell him to sit which lasted 2 hrs till they finally tell him to come in the evening....whats the logic ??The victim has to suffer????

SOmebody here said since we r in a Arabic speaking country we all shud learn arabic to get all the services...ok..Does that mean all the people who come for the Asian Games shud learn Arabic and Come????

I mean they say get ready for the GAMES OF YOUR LIFE and next thing you know is Half the cops are either overweight or don't speak English..

I got no problem with anything as long as the music is good on QBS...you got Rj's who read half the news paper...one who reads forwarded email like some bed time stories...one who calls himself a dj and doesn't know who Guns and Roses or Skid Row are...hahaha I mean the guy pronounces Earth Wind and Fire as Earth Wiiihnd and Fire..Another one who is trying to be a hiphop guru and another one who is a wannabe Joe metry ( what a person to imitate)?? Dj Joe and Jojo...

Can't QBS afford professional RJ's from U.K, U.S.A,Australia or New Zealand who have energy and creativity and speak fluent english...not guys/gals who talk as if they r doing the listeners a favour...

A lot of what u said I identify with. The biggest hurdle right now is for the police to enforce the law here since it would be silly to assume that Qatar is just going to stay safe forever without any effort put in. A lot of the police force here violate the laws that theyre supposed to be implementing and enforcing so its all just topsy turvy i guess. As for QBS, only an idiot would buy in2 their selfprolaimed number 1 status announcement so ppl DO know how crappy it is. What i would encourage as posted in an earlier thread is to get ppl to sign a petition, one made here atleast, to get them to take notice. I heard from a friend of a friend that this annoying DJ joe guy who we have the misfortune of hearing often is very controlling at the station and dismisses ppls criticisim when directed towards him. What i dont get is howcome i only recieve 2 frequencies, QBS and sawa FM, and not radio 1 from dubai or bahrain FM.

hey ppl..

man.. i didnt expect so much of a response and now we are discussing language. this is interesting.

what i actually meant is that development should not be skin deep.. arabic as a language is great but no matter what nationality it isnt practical to ask everyone to learn arabic just bcos u r in an arab country.

doha has developed a lot since the good old days.. i came to doha when i was 2 yrs old and believe me its changed a lot. But as we develop look at the Labour scene-exploitation,low wages etc.. labourers who are making this country "Asian Games worthy"

Once my friend called up the police to complain about some disturbance from youth near his house and believe it or not he was made to wait 20mins so that someone who understood english came on, and after all the wait, a guy comes on the line and asks to come to the station and give a written complaint all this when teenagers high on whatsoever are running up and down my friends just painted sports car.. :(

check this out once i was working on my car outside and i had to remove the battery for some electrical work. i place the battery right next to my car and am busy working under the hood about 10-15 mins later i look up for some reason and voila.. the battery's gone. would u believe somebody just walked off with it from right under my nose.whats happening to this country.. whom do we blame?

now the best part, how many of you listen to our dear old QBS, the self-confessed "Number 1 in the gulf" if the radio was alive i would ask it to go get a life.. Some of our DJ's suck big time, not all though. I mean there's a lot left to wish for. Compare it to signals coming in from other GCC countries and the quality just mind boggles you. Keep wishing i guess

i know none of these are connected but hey.. welcome to qatar!!! Its like that perfect imperfection.. Qatar can do a lot better but i think thats gonna take a lot of dedication.. i hope it comes soon

Oh, my God!!! Did I really make you feel this way??? I am deeply sorry, i didnt mean that. I didnt read a lot, just some linguistic books, only because I was interested. I am sure you know a lot of things I dont.

And believe me...it wasnt about you, not at all. IT WAS ABOUT NATIVE SPEAKERS LAUGHING ABOUT ACCENTS WHICH MAKE NON-SPEAKERS LIKE ME FEEL STUPID ABOUT THEIR LANGUAGE SKILLS INSTEAD OF TRYING TO APPRECIATE THAT THEY ACTUALLY SPEND SOME TIME AND EFFORT LEARNING THEIR LANGUAGE.

P.S. Dg, I dont know maybe i met different kind of Korean people but they were encouraging people being able to say just "annyong haseyo" saying "wow, you speak Korean":))

Speaking English? How about plain old good customer service. I have had good service from some staff at Qtel and I have had lousy, walk away anger service from Qtel. Utilities, same thing, very spotty, depends on who you get on the desk.

Another phone service, etc would help companies learn it is important to serve the customer. The customer may not always be right, but he is always the customer and he is spending his money. When a customer has a choice, service will improve.

Actually when I was in Khobar(Saudi Arabia)I encountered that problem as police do check passports etc of expats there more often or not and almost all of them dont know enlish,now this make them more frustrated and they become more errogent and less helpful ,u have to be on your tose to deal with them there.I hope tht Qatar would be better on that aspect

well if i read a lot and learn a lot does that mean I have to become boring and sit soberly nodding considerately as someone makes an hysterical mess of whatever language he/she is speaking?

i hope not.

Far more fun to have people like Dg's koreans cracking up as you inadvertantly say you want to marry a pig and buy a fish umbrella.

I really said what I wanted to say. Maybe I wasnt clear, this is my fault:).

I dont think that only native English speakers laugh at accents.

I'll even tell you more:). I used to laugh when somebody said something wrong in one of the languages I perfectly knew (Shame on me:). However...the more you read, the more you try to learn the tolerant you become.

agreed sometimes it is rude to laugh but sometimes ppl just laugh because they find it funny. it does not mean theyr belittling you.sometimes u just laugh without thinking about the moral issues...it's spontaneous..and a funny sound is a funny sound is a funny sound ad infinitum. it is possible for ppl to laugh without judging in a negative way.

the police here, well at least most of them, r highschool dropouts. They couldnt care less if they improved their english. What they should do though is ENFORCE the law as mentioned in an earlier thread but I dont see that happening anytime soon since a lot of them r hooligans who dont abide by it themselves. Bear in mind im not generalising I just happen 2 know A LOT of them and they fit the discreption.

Super's right, most people laugh when someone tries to speak their language with a really bad accent. Koreans used to laugh at me all the time, So do the French, the Spanish and Germans. They think my accent is hillarious. I usually laugh right back with them. It's not snobbery.

Terana, nope don't know of any classes.

Ridiculous to suggest that only native english speakers laugh when something is funny said in their language by a non speaker. It is not a derisory laugh it is laughter at something funny.

For example I refer you to a post yesterday called italian accent which was posted by a non native english speaker. It was mildly amusing because of piece sounding like piss and fork like fuk when said in italian.

Also the fact that you said "sorry but it is a case of snobbery and arrogance" suggested you were answering that particular statement of mine which was nothing to do with accents.

Btw dont you know about any Korean language courses or conversation classes here? I would like to have some practise

Super7 in my view the English of locals can be improved with improved literacy rate as they don,t gonna learn it just to help you out and if literacy rate improves to greater extent I don,t think they would need much expats here.

So its just a matter to appoint PRO(with good english skills)at critical govt offices to interact with Expats.

Ideally police ,more importantly traffic police should also speak english,but u never know it may be a blessing in disguise lol

Super7

I perfectly know from where I picked your subject and what i didnt like (which is my right) in your another post. I just wanted to accent that in the case when you say " laugh when i hear funny accents because it sounds funny" you sound snob and arrogant to me (pardon me).

Nothing personal, I swear:) It was about some native English speakers in general

Granted Terana, I should have said a real ear opener. Learning to read Korean was the eye opener.

terarse dear your criticism was personal and not based upon my comments. The snobbery and arrogance was in relation to suggesting that the Qatari government spoke more English. I was stating that it wasn't for my benefit as I am fortunate enough to not have to deal with the Qatari government at all.

I like your conclusion:). It is really an eye opener. If one doesnt want to waste his life with closed eyes, of course:)

Terana, Just to comment on what you said about different phonetic sounds in different cutltures, the best part is when you actually do start hearing how two normally completely different sounds can sound the same. I remember in Korea when I realized the r and l really do sound the same and so do g and k. It's an eye opener.

You should improve your reading skills. My nick is Terana:)

Take it easy and learn to criticise yourself or accept criticism positively as I can effortlessly talk about my "ng and thless english".:))

Super7 do u wanna say that you are here just to make Qatar a developed country. well its give and take my dear.They have purchased you on agreed terms and this language support I guess was,nt there in ur contract,or was it?

r lousy english speakers and now its gay scandals?! i have a feeling Qtel wont be too happy about this...qatari certainly wont.

well sum1 woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning!

Gay Scandals was half the fun of my school. (Which was also a public school, but in the Canadian sense)

Dull it isn't. Great fun is boarding school. No gay scandals though.

I don't complain terarse. I occasionally (and very occasionally at that) laugh if I find an accent funny. Live with it.

My reference to snobbery and arrogance was nothing to do with laughing at accents so before contributing in your ng ad thless english read it properly

Whats with this morbid fascination to speak perfect english. I think that a large sum of Qataries speak competent english if not fluent. Besides, my generation is much more conscious of their english skills and thats y u have education city. Ironically, their arabic skills r deteriorating when it comes to grammar and vocab. Theres no balance. I think thats how it's almost always like in Qatar. Nothing done gradually and tactfully.

What does funny accents mean? That I cant pronounce properly "ng" or "th" because I dont have these sounds in my language? Could you ever say properly Al Khor (I know that that it is almost impossible for native English speakers due to the absence of "kh" in their language)?

Instead of complaining about Koreans' accent when they speak English one can read some books on the phonetics and learn that they dont have "f", for the sounds "s" and "sh" they use the same letter, for the "r" and "l" another one and all English words ending with a consonant will have a hard "i" at the end.

I've recently learned from my extremely educated Indian friend that most of Indians have a problem pronouncing "f", so now when an Indian guy in the shop asks me "Where prom?" I exactly know what he means.

Sounds a little dull to me. :(

No. And if anyone had ever heard that another boy was gay he would have been run out of school. A all male boarding school is the most homophobic place I have ever experienced.

Remember we are allowed out at weekends it is not a prison.

So your first "experience" wasn't with another boy Super?

None of the public school rumours are true. They are propogated by chippy peasants like GIASI

I hear varying things about what you public schoolboys do Super. ;)

I agree that there should be some people in the civil service who do speak English, but to expect them to speak perfect English when the vast majority of Qatar does not speak perfect English is silly. I think they all get along better speaking bad English to each other than trying to speak proper English.

Also, what natural English speaker is going to take a low paying civil service job at the Doha DMV?

By the way DG being a public schoolboy is a good thing

I keep saying whatever language is most suitable. However english is an excellent alternative as it is spoken by most indians/sri lankans/pakistanis/filipinos to varying degrees.

I think that the government has a responsibility and it is not practical to expect everyone to learn arabic for a 2 year posting. They already make some concessions (note the use of the roman alphabet on road signs) so it would be a little bit of effort to provide additional english (or whatever) speakers in government offices.

This is not a question of arrogance or snobbery because I have people to deal with the government on my behalf. I believe the government needs to care for all the countries citizens/residents.

I never take any notice of Super, GIASI, unless its to make fun of him. :P

Dont take any notice of super DG. Hes a public schoolboy and speaks with RP :P

If the government departments started using english the PRO's would become redundant.

Believe me, knowing arabic doesnt make it easier. The processes you need to go through are never clearly defined and you get passed from pillar to post until you finally give up, go home and arrange a PRO to do it anyway.

You're a big English snob Super :P We will have to agree to disagree. I don't have a problem with people not speaking English because I've grown used to not being able to deal with governments that aren't my own and look for alternative routes or people who can help me. And I would never expect an Arabic country to have manadatory English speakers in civil positions, especially since even the most commen language amongst expats isn't English.

Qatarcat I laugh when i hear funny accents because it sounds funny. I don't laugh because I can do better.

I mock and shout at professional football players for being crap when they miss penalties in the world cup. I couldn't do any better. Does that mean I have to sit and watch football in silence or only to complement the players on a good effort, better luck next time.

Well I disagree with Farhan. I think the qatari government is duty bound to provide communication in whatever tongue is necessary to ensure that the population (which the country could not survive without) can access government services. DG your Korean example doesn't work because again the indiginous people outnumber the expats by a significant amount.

Qatar has imported a large number of workers (significantly more than its own population) to enable development and it has a responsibility to support them.

I missed all the discussion again.

I agree that it would be nicer for foreigners to speak Arabic. However, I tried and failed, as I found it to be very difficult. I could never learn it enough to be able to deal with government officials. In a reciprocal move, I don't expect government officials to speak perfect English. They are not obliged to.

I do have a problem with native English speakers who laugh at various accents, while they in most cases couldn't put two words together in any language other than English.

There was a time when not being able to speak French would make you look uneducated or not having perfect accent of Russian in my country could cause a worse attitude of upper class people. Nobody knows what if our children will have to speak Arabic or Chinese because they will be languages of highly developed countries. The matter is people should be flexible and use any opportunity to educate themselves.

Why we dont think that it is a shame not to know anything in the language of the country which became our home if even for a very short period of time? And why some English native speakers pick on the accent of non-native speakers when they cant say a word at least in one of the languages that non-native speaker use.

Lets study new languages, at the end it is a good excercise for brains.

I agree with Farhan, we came here knowing that this is an Arabic speaking country. We have to accept the hurdles that involves. I never expected everyone in Korea to speak English, and they didn't. I was forced to learn enough Korean to adjust very quickly, which is much easier when noone is trying to speak to you in their bad English.

I think there should be less English spoken here so that I could be forced to learn more Arabic. This system doesn't benefit anyone.

In my view the ppl here should try to learn English for their own sake not for ex pats.The expats are the one who have chosen this country to earn money,now its upto them to cope with all the hurdles and language is ofcourse one of them.If a french can refuse to speak in English despite knowing how to speak it,u cant compell a local to learn a language (which is not his native one) just to make life easier for the expats.

i don't know. i personally think it's great that people in qatar speak english at all. in other countries you would be lucky to find anyone who even knows the english alphabet..eventhough the economies of some of these countries rely heavily on tourism revenues..

At least you can communicate your point in bad English. I don't think it's possible to learn Arabic in a short time well enough to deal with official paperwork.

Yes DG but it would be relatively easy for the Qatar government to invest in some good English speakers to man critical areas. Hindi speakers too.

That interpreting service only addresses asian languages. Arabic isnt on there :P

Well... yes... i agree. Plus the immigrants to the UK made it their home. No chance of that her yet. However, i am a great believer in learning the language of the country you choose to live/work in. Its a great opportunity

Well as you just said, English is difficult to master, therefore in all reality Bad English should be the most spoken language in Qatar and it is.

also giasi despite the small relatively speaking numbers in the UK

http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/Home/CommunityServices/InterpretingService/default.htm

Shows that they do make the effort

Giasi I am being realistic as well. I simply do not think it realistic to expect the vast majority of the working population of Qatar to learn arabic.

The labour force here is also very transient and does not stay for extended periods required to learn the language.

Giasi in contrast to the UK we are talking about an immigrant population in Qatar that outnumbers the indiginous.

Actually DG hindi (hindu is a religion) although the national language (i think I'm right in this) is not spoken by all indians. You also have to factor in Sri lankans and pakistanis all of whom have english as a lingua franca.

English I am told is easy to learn but very very difficult to master due to the large number of irregular verbs etc

Come on super7... youre doing nobody any favours. Youre here for the money like everyone else. I think learning the language is the least people can do.

When colonial immigrants were asked to come to the UK to do jobs that white brits didnt want to do, the immigrants had to learn the language. They couldnt communicate with anyone otherwise.

English is not that easy to learn actually, it is one of the more difficult languages in the world to learn. As for gov'ts catering to the people, should they not all speak Hindu than, there are far more Indians here than Arabs or Westerners.

I guess I'm just used to not being able to speak to government officials, I couldn't anywhere in North East Asia, and even in Canada a lot of them spoke far better French than English.

And being realistic, English is a lot easier to learn than Arabic.

yes but I argue that they need help from English speakers more than we need them.

plus you have to be realistic. Government departments must cater to the entire population so which is more reasonable to have a few people trained to speak english or simply ask the population to change?

Governments should be run like a private business. if any business simply refused to take bookings or orders in english because this was an arabic country then they would fail.

We could also do a better job of learning their language. English is a common tongue, but not the national one.

Hmm not so sure I agree DG. They are unfortunately heavily dependant on an expat population who largely talk english as a common tongue. I think that the government departments could do a lot more to improve their communication skills.

Bahrain is far better for example.

You're in a country where the national language is Arabic, you have no right to ask that they speak English. You don't like it, learn Arabic.

the swiss, the french to name some, are doing ok with most of them sticking to their language. sometimes it is really not how u say it but what's the content of what u'r saying. qatar can learn to speak perfect english but if the thought of what theyr saying is still BS, it is still BS no matter what language.

Thats why you have Public Relations Officers in most companies to do all that stuff for you. As Thazza said, you are in an arabic country so i really think you have no right to complain. I think English is very widely used already.

Well you are living in an Arabic speaking country. Or is that just stating the bleedin' obvious.