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I think almost all the people in Dubai can speak English .
Am I correct ?

No.

If you are a westener like me and only hang around the Mall, pubs, business districts then yes, everyone speaks english.

But on the way to Fujeriah one day I got lost in one of the industrial suburbs because I was trying to double back to get to the petrol station. I stopped and asked a few people for directions and they could not speak a word of English.

Plus out near my work I often give lifts to either labourers or security guards when they are hitching on the side of the road. It's out in the middle of nowhere and usually very hot so I feel terrible cruising past them in my air-con car. Many, probably at least 60% can speak barely any English. The usual 'hello, what is your name' etc is usually fine, but every now and then I get someone who clearly knows NO English. Interesting.

What I'm try to say is that for the people you will likely meet, everyone will speak English. For the people that you won't meet, most wont speak English, but those people make up a sizeable portion of the population here.

Not Most of them!!.......

In my opinion,urdu/hindi is spoken widely in Emirates than any other language.I've seen number of Arabs speaking this language and interestingly other nationalities like persians,philipinos,africans,somalies etc.
It seems that the emirates will soon have a new language which will be a mixture of Arabic,Urdu,English,Persian....

freeneasy1 wrote:In my opinion,urdu/hindi is spoken widely in Emirates than any other language.I've seen number of Arabs speaking this language and interestingly other nationalities like persians,philipinos,africans,somalies etc.
It seems that the emirates will soon have a new language which will be a mixture of Arabic,Urdu,English,Persian....

It's amazing sometimes. I had a taxi driver the other day who spoke 5 languages. English, Arabic, Urdu, something and something (don't remember). Plus he was learning Philipino.

Damn, and he was driving a cab. He should have been working for the UN or something.

Not only UN.. say FBI.. lol!...

It's amazing sometimes. I had a taxi driver the other day who spoke 5 languages. English, Arabic, Urdu, something and something (don't remember). Plus he was learning Philipino.

Damn, and he was driving a cab. He should have been working for the UN or something.[/quote]

Exactly Captain.That day i've seen an illiterate person in a shop who was speaking Russian,English,Arabic and Urdu as well as his mother tongue.I was amazed to see him indeed.

freeneasy1 wrote:Exactly Captain.That day i've seen an illiterate person in a shop who was speaking Russian,English,Arabic and Urdu as well as his mother tongue.I was amazed to see him indeed.

I hear you. The 'coffee boy' at my work speaks English, Arabic, Hindi and another (Indian?) dialect I can't remember. And he earns 1200dhs a month serving coffee to us monolingual white boys.

Damn.

EDIT: Solves the whole Nature vs Nurture dichotomy for me. There is no question of this man's intelligence. It's his external circumstances that are keeping him down.

intpages wrote:I think almost all the people in Dubai can speak English .
Am I correct ?

Out of interest, whay do you ask?

Why (not whay) - I can speak English but not necessarily type it!

Learning Languages is something that not everyone can do, however how could it possibly be linked to what people earn.

I found people in Mall, pubs and business districts can speak English... this is convenient for foreigners .

Captain Australia wrote:If you are a westener like me and only hang around the Mall, pubs, business districts then yes, everyone speaks english. ..

just want to confirm whether my view is correct .

Wednesday Jones wrote:

intpages wrote:I think almost all the people in Dubai can speak English .
Am I correct ?

Out of interest, whay do you ask?

Dubai is a cosmopolis. Driver can speak 5 languages

freeneasy1 wrote:It's amazing sometimes. I had a taxi driver the other day who spoke 5 languages. English, Arabic, Urdu, something and something (don't remember). Plus he was learning Philipino.

Damn, and he was driving a cab. He should have been working for the UN or something.

Exactly Captain.That day i've seen an illiterate person in a shop who was speaking Russian,English,Arabic and Urdu as well as his mother tongue.I was amazed to see him indeed.[/quote]

Interesting .
What is urdu/hindi language ?

freeneasy1 wrote:In my opinion,urdu/hindi is spoken widely in Emirates than any other language.I've seen number of Arabs speaking this language and interestingly other nationalities like persians,philipinos,africans,somalies etc.
It seems that the emirates will soon have a new language which will be a mixture of Arabic,Urdu,English,Persian....

Hmm..never ever thought how it would be to speak only one language. I've been atleast biligual most my life if not triligual. No big deal for a lot of people. I picked up English from sesame street even before I started K.G

At the moment I can speak, English, Urdu/Hindi ( almost the same thing ) Arabic, Punjabi, some basic Phusto and very crude German and trying to learn my what my wife speaks ! Tagalo !!!! and some malyalam ( have to speak that to survive in UAE) Since Mallus are the majoritiy here

Oh and I can curse in about a million languages

But thats nothing I know a dude know who works as a desert tour guide for Orient tours. Totally illiterate. Along with the common UAE languages of English, Arabic, Urdu and some native blah blah, Speaks Fluent German, Russian and Spanish now thats awesome.

I personally think the key to getting it right is to get the accent down correctly. You can get away with a minimal vocabulary if you have the accent right. But even with good vocabulary and a bad accent it gives the impression the speaker is not really fluent in that language.

Don't forget the intonation
Took me 2 years to get all 5 tones correct when i was learning Thai. 1 of the few languages that has words with the same spelling, but mean completely different things when said in particular tones. Arabic was a cakewalk compared to it....

Arabic just has tough grammar, but once you understand it its not that tough.

I want to learn some Arabic . But my friends told me it's difficult to learn Arabic.

Very good !:D

desertdudeshj wrote:Hmm..never ever thought how it would be to speak only one language. I've been atleast biligual most my life if not triligual. No big deal for a lot of people. I picked up English from sesame street even before I started K.G

At the moment I can speak, English, Urdu/Hindi ( almost the same thing ) Arabic, Punjabi, some basic Phusto and very crude German and trying to learn my what my wife speaks ! Tagalo !!!! and some malyalam ( have to speak that to survive in UAE) Since Mallus are the majoritiy here

Oh and I can curse in about a million languages

But thats nothing I know a dude know who works as a desert tour guide for Orient tours. Totally illiterate. Along with the common UAE languages of English, Arabic, Urdu and some native blah blah, Speaks Fluent German, Russian and Spanish now thats awesome.

I personally think the key to getting it right is to get the accent down correctly. You can get away with a minimal vocabulary if you have the accent right. But even with good vocabulary and a bad accent it gives the impression the speaker is not really fluent in that language.

Sure, intonation is very important .

Hulahula wrote:Don't forget the intonation
Took me 2 years to get all 5 tones correct when i was learning Thai. 1 of the few languages that has words with the same spelling, but mean completely different things when said in particular tones. Arabic was a cakewalk compared to it....

intpages wrote:Interesting .
What is urdu/hindi language ?

The largest spoken language in South Asia.

freeneasy1 wrote:

intpages wrote:Interesting .
What is urdu/hindi language ?

The largest spoken language in South Asia.

OK, thank you

Captain Australia wrote:No.

If you are a westener like me and only hang around the Mall, pubs, business districts then yes, everyone speaks english.

But on the way to Fujeriah one day I got lost in one of the industrial suburbs because I was trying to double back to get to the petrol station. I stopped and asked a few people for directions and they could not speak a word of English.

Plus out near my work I often give lifts to either labourers or security guards when they are hitching on the side of the road. It's out in the middle of nowhere and usually very hot so I feel terrible cruising past them in my air-con car. Many, probably at least 60% can speak barely any English. The usual 'hello, what is your name' etc is usually fine, but every now and then I get someone who clearly knows NO English. Interesting.

What I'm try to say is that for the people you will likely meet, everyone will speak English. For the people that you won't meet, most wont speak English, but those people make up a sizeable portion of the population here.

Good man. Its people like you, who always make us realise that Australia is still a great place and those few incidents are because of police being lax. I hope this issue is sorted before it escalates into something bigger, which is not worth anything.

Hello Everyone,

Hi, I am a citizen of Philippines and I came in Dubai to look for a job for me I think we should Learn English because it plays an important role in Lives. As what our teachers told before English is a universal Language even we have different Nationality that we can talk in a way of speaking English with each other. English will help as a lot as we go through our Journey.