Say it together
Every greeting here is a wish.
Films chosen for this lesson: CanvasWonders · ArabicPod101.
In Abu Dhabi, people speak Arabic. Dabya uses marhaba to greet her friend. Marhaba means welcome. Dabya was welcoming Alexandria to her country.
Hear it said by someone who says it every day
The voice belongs to a Gulf Arabic speaker, so these words sound the way they sound in Abu Dhabi rather than somewhere else.
Now write your own name the other way round
Arabic starts at the right edge and travels left. So write your name backwards, one letter in each box, starting in the box marked 1 on the right. Marie would draw e, then i, then r, then a, then M. Then press the button and watch what happens.
start in this box →
Turned around, is this your name?
Nice. That is your own handwriting, turned around. Dabya’s name does the same thing going the other way.
Reading and writing runs the other way
When you read and write in Arabic, you do it right to left. Many of earth’s original written languages were written right to left. The handwriting is also called sand script, and it looks a lot like cursive.
السلام عليكم
Start at the right edge. Your eye has to learn a new direction — that feeling of not-knowing is the whole point.
Before and after
Everyone who remembers the before is still here.
These are real photographs. Drag the handle. The towers are new. Almost none of this existed when Dabya’s grandparents were children, and they can still tell you what stood here.
What is peace?
Arabic greetings wish peace and prosperity on your life.
Not as a slogan. As the actual thing you say when you walk in a door. Sit with these three. They are for saying out loud, together — there is nothing to type and nothing to get right.
1
What is your meaning of peace?
Say it in your own words. There is no correct one.
2
How do you experience peace?
Where are you, who is with you, what does it sound like?
3
How are you a peacemaker?
Something you have actually done. Small counts.
We’ll do this
Six ways to be a peacemaker.
Six ways to practice, from the peacemaking projects. Pick at least one your class will actually carry out. It lives in your classroom and your homes.
You have been somewhere real. Now it is about you.
Abu Dhabi greets every guest by name before anything else is discussed, and moves along the seat to make room. That is not a fact to memorize. It is something you can do this afternoon, in your own room, for somebody standing at the edge.
Welcome three people by name today. Say their name, and one true glad thing that they are here. Then come back and take your stamp.
For grown-ups
Running this with children
What the child should be able to do at the end
Welcome someone the way Abu Dhabi welcomes people, and show or tell you how they did it. You will know it happened when they greet three people by name and can say what they did. There is no test on this page and no score anywhere in it.
The reading, and the questions that go with it
“Together in Peace — UAE Day in Austria”, Sail Magazine. Reading level grade 2 and above; parents can read it to younger children.
- What were some of the highlights of the cultural exchange that were uniquely Emirati?
- How does the UAE promote peace as a country?
- Why is it important for Emiratis to share their culture peacefully inside and outside their country?
- What would you share from your culture?
Possible responses, if you want them
- Photo gallery of the UAE’s history, a traditional tent (Bait Al Sha’ar) serving traditional foods and dates, a photo booth, and henna drawings.
- Local authorities host events where visitors may experience food, music, and learn their history.
- It is crucial to understand other cultures and traditions in order to create a peaceful multi-cultural community. Stereotypes, ridicule, and misconceptions are born out of another person’s narrow viewpoint of the world. These initiatives promote cultural understanding and tolerance to resist this type of ignorance and create a promising future.
With thanks to Sail Magazine for the use of this article. Photo reference: Dr. Mona Al Ali.
A note on the mosque
Alexandria covers her hair because the place asks that of every woman who enters, and she is a guest. Frame it the way you would frame taking shoes off in someone’s home: a house rule that guests follow. She is not in costume, and she is still herself.
If a device is not available
The greetings work spoken in a circle. Before and After works with two printed photographs side by side. The six projects are the lesson — they need no screen at all.
Where this is still open
The Arabic script here needs a native-reader check before this goes to families, and Abu Dhabi collaborators hold stop authority on everything in it. That is the practice, not a formality.