culture of Saudi Arabia . .

                              There was an argument in the class with dr.taiba about the fact that culture is shaped since early age. I think that we acquire culture since infancy the lullaby that’s sung to child in the cradle differs from one area to another. I still remember my mom singing to my little sister ( name name wa aeeb lch freekh elhammam ) years later when I moved to Saudi Arabia with my family one of my Saudi relatives was singing to her child ( dooha ya dooha seedi raah le mecca ..) I noticed this little thing among other things  like the way we speak ,our intonation, behavior , food , clothes have some differences even though that there is a quiet similarities but the differences were much more noticeable . the way we address ourselves here in Kuwait we call the person by her \ his first name while in ksa they  call each other by the first and second name for example ( Sarah – Sarah elmuhammed ) . then in school I used to call the teacher ( ablah ) but there we called her ( ustathah ) a lot  of things that I was used to do and see here in kuwait were missed and replaced with another norms of Saudi culture . at the age of 13 I wore “abaia ” in ksa unlike when I was in Kuwait its part  of their culture and believes I had to accept that and acculturate with the kind of culture I lived in .also the eating habits were different after dinner they always serve watermelons ! it was weird thing to me I used to see it only after lunch time .I spent about 4 years in different country and I gained little bit of the Saudi culture. I missed some of the norms I was raised on , I’ve gone through a lot of arguments with my relatives because I had my own thoughts and believes , I got my own way of talking , my tone level and my accent which I acquired from my culture ( the Kuwaiti culture )  however, I had to acculturate with the other culture. It was hard to assimilate but somehow it was fun to adapt another culture, language and norms with trying to give some of your culture.

by : sarah mohammad

Language and gender

Using any language involves many things; it could mean the words we select, the manner in which we produced it, the topics that are chosen, the way in which grammar is being used, the things that are worth saying and the way we arrange the events in the stories we tell.

Do you think that men and women speak in the same way?
And if your answer is NO, what do you think this reflects in your opinion?

It is only natural that men and women would speak the same language if they happen to live in the same society; however, studies have shown that the manner in which each gender uses this language is different from the other. For example, it seems that there is not much overlapping in the conversation between men; in addition, men seem to prefer to discuss sports over discussing personal matters.for example, they would prefer discussing the latest basketball game than a visit to the family doctor. As for women it seems that they prefer to use rising intonations, for example if a woman wants to declare her opinion about someone she would say in a rising intonation (She is such a bore!!!). In addition, women seem to prefer using highly polite forms of speech, for example, (I’d really appreciate it if you would give me notes to copy from)

But what is the reason for these differences? Well it must be due to several things, the tow factors that would come to mind are educational and genetic factors. However, the different manner in which they use language obviously differs from one culture to another. For example, the Western cultures and Eastern cultures do have these differences discussed above, but the differences are not identical and the ratios and frequencies of their occurrence must be different.

I would like to conclude by saying that each person whether man or woman is unique, therefore, the differences mentioned here are not strictly applied for every man and every woman, but are discussed in a general manner. In addition, I would like to read your comments about what you think of these differences and the examples you can give.