hello
what can I say?
welcome to Qatar
how is your Arabic by the way?
terrible
terrible?
no it's good
I'm lazy, I don't even learn... I try but... this guy, this is your guy
so Andy, you've lived and worked in Saudi, UAE, and Qatar
yeah
can you just talk a little but about the difference between those three Arab Gulf states?
if at all, if there are any
and how the work has been slightly different in each of those places
and whether or not... if I were to ask you, which students are the best?
I'm not going to
You can't answer that...
they're watching this video
there's no way I'm answering that question
I find they're all very similar
the Arab mentality with the students is...
let's be honest, they're great guys
they're very generous, they're very humble
they're down to earth people
I have so many friends in Saudi still
in the UAE still whom I keep in touch with
that's good... yeah
they really got under my skin, I really tried to become part of the community, where I worked in Saudi
and also in the UAE
they're so similar... they really are so similar
and a lot of the families that you'll find... the big family names
they're the same in Saudi as they are here in Qatar, and also the UAE, which means that they're all around
they're all relatives
they're tribal... those lines in the sand which we call boarders, which were largely made by the British
they're not really... it's not where the tribe ends
right
you know, despite the fact that there are some political problems
some difficulties between these three countries right now
the families are intertwined
between all three countries
so... in short, I find them all very similar
yeah
there's no huge differences between them
they tend to think the same
they tend to want the same things
they tend to behave the same way
but I'm not answering which one's my favourite, there's no way... there's no way
that's fair
I would tend to agree with that, when I first arrived in Doha
the first thing that struck me was just how similar
and how much it resembles Bahrain
UAE
Kuwait
it's remarkably similar
I would say the other big difference
between Qatar and the other Gulf countries
is the extent to how many expats there are here
now we talked briefly yesterday didn't we
about the number of Qatari citizens and then the total population
and what was it you said? That only about 10%
of the people who live in Qatar
are Qatari citizens
so if you were to take 10 random people in this whole country at random
chances are 9 of them wouldn't be Qatari
9 of them would be people like us, from the UK, from India, from the Philipines
from Bangladesh
like Egyptians, people from all over the world
come here, they make their life here
they stay here for 5, 10,15, 20 years
and often a lot of them have families back home
they're sending money back home, and it's got... I mean Kuwait is heavily expat
I think 2/3, but...
here 90%... that's really high...
it's astonishing
if you go for a walk,  down the Corniche, which Mike maybe will take you along later on in the vlog
you're definitely going to bump into almost anybody except a Qatari
yeah yeah
it was often said in the UAE
it's like an adage or an old saying...
by the expats that you never meet Emirati's
yeah
it's a bit like... have you ever been to New York?
I have yeah
did you meet any actual, actual Yankees?
who drove your taxi, was he a Syrian?
I got an Uber... I got an Uber from the airport as I do, as you know if you watch my travel vlogs
and he was from....
he was a.... I want to say Yemen, yeah...
no Afghan, I think he was Afghan
you tend to never meet a Yankee in New York
and it's often the same thing here
it's quite difficult to actually make friends with the locals
but when you do, it's so rewarding
you get the best insight into the culture, you learn little things that no expat knows
you can oly get from the locals
so, I mean, if you get a chance to meet a Qatari, or any locals in these Gulf countries
make friends with them, they're extremely friendly
they will welcome you with open arms
they're great people
I'd like to make a video called chatting with Arabs in Qatar
where can I find some Qataris... I'm going to go around with binoculars
oh, there's one
do you know where the Qataris like to hang out?
go on tell me
on the weekends?
the hotels
the hotels?
they go there to sit around
they drink some of the coffee
so I need to go over there, I don't know if you see that
the Sheraton
as one of many hotels over there
the Sheraton... you'll find them there
if you lean back maybe... is it in the picture?
is that it? Yeah the Sheraton, yeah so I'm going to head over there to the Sheraton
which looks like a pyramid
and talk to some Qatari's
yeah, good luck with that
if you can meet any... yeah
yeah if I can find them
if you have any questions, you can always leave a comment
down below, I have a Patreon:
where you can me directly any questions that you want
and I'll get back to in 24 hours about Arabic language, life in the Middle East
I'm going to put one of Andy's favorite videos from his channel
in the box just up there
you can check out his channel, check out his vlog, and you can see more videos all around
and hope to see you again soon
and until next time... bye bye!
