>> From the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.  
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>> Mary-Jane Deeb: Welcome to the Africa Middle East division.  And I'm Mary-Jane Deeb, Chief of the division.  And as many of you already know this division is made up of three sections.  The Neary section, which is the biggest section and it's headed by Joan Weeks who just left to see the investors coming up.  And the African section, and the [inaudible] section. Together we serve, preserve, acquire materials from 78 different countries in the Middle East, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the entire continent of Africa.  And our ambassador has arrived.  So hello.  Hi Ambassador.
>> Rana F. Nejem: Hi, how are you?  
>> Sit down.
>> Mary-Jane Deeb:  Okay.  Okay.  Please have a seat.  Yeah.  That's it.  Yeah.  Please, please have a seat.  Okay. Welcome, welcome, welcome.  We just now, just now and I was saying something about our division and our [inaudible] division is made up of three sections, and the Neary section is the largest in terms of staff.  We also serve materials, as I was saying from the Middle East, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the entire continent of Africa, as well as [inaudible] materials from the entire world.  We're very active developing collections, serving our patrons in this reading room, responding to queries through our Oscar librarian system.  Briefing visitors coming from all the countries of our regions.  In fact, John just had a group of visitors from Kyrgyzstan this morning organizing programs, symposia, displays, exhibits, workshops, and so on.  And we also invite scholars and experts who have research and done work in our areas of responsibility to share with us their insights and their findings, so that all of us attending these programs and participating leave enriched with new information and a better understanding of the cultures and societies whose publications we collect and serve.  A case in point of course is our speaker today, Rana Nejem, who will be talking about her new book, When in the Arab World an Insider's Guide to Living and Working With Arab Culture.  And she will be introduced by Arab world's specialist, Nawal Kawar.  But before we start, I just want to say how delighted I am that among us today is Ambassador Dina Kawar, who I was very familiar with on television and many of you would be to, who was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to the United States in June 2016.  She served as the permanent representative of Jordan to the United Nations from August 2014 through June 2016.  She has led the Jordanian delegation during Jordan's non-permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council from 2014 to 2015, and became the first Arab woman to ever preside over the council.  In February 2016 she was appointed by the president of the General Assembly as a co-facilitator for the high level meeting of the plenary of the General Assembly on the large movement of refugees and migrants from the Near East and Africa, an issue which is very close to my own heart.  But now to introduce Rana Nejem is Arab word specialist Nawal Kawar.  And yes they are related.  
>> Nawal Kawar: Thank you Mary-Jane.  Rana Nejem, we are really very pleased to have our guest speaker all the way from Amman Jordan.  Author, social and cultural intelligence coach, Rana Nejem started out her career as a broadcast journalist with Jordan Television.  After working with CNN during the first Gulf War she moved to the Royal Hashemite Court where she was responsible for his majesty, the late King Hussein International Media Department for two years.  Rana then moved into the field of communications and public relations leading the public diplomacy and communications work of the British Embassy in Amman for 18 years.  Throughout her career, whether it was formulated communication strategies, advising diplomats and business people on cross cultural communications, conducting interviews with heads of state or making arrangements for royal visits and VIP events, intercultural intelligence and business protocol were always an essential part of her work.  Rana learned firsthand from top professionals in the field, and put it all into practice throughout her career.  Rana founded her own company in 2013 called Yarnu, Y-A-R-N-U, an Arabic word meaning to look towards to aspire to with calm and serenity.  Yarnu helps people to distinguish themselves by raising their social and cultural intelligence enabling them to float with ease and confidence from one situation to the other.  Yarnu has since been coaching, training, and advising business executives, diplomats, and officers, refined their professional profile, increase the impact of their personal presence, and raise their intercultural intelligence.  In other words, sensitivity to the Arab culture.  She has also been helping organizations build and strengthen the foundation of their corporate culture.  Her first book, When in the Arab World, An Insider's Guide to Living and Working With Arab Culture was published in the United Kingdom on May 2016.  She is regularly invited to speak on the subject of cross cultural communications.  Rana carries a master's degree in international communications and negotiations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and is certified as an international etiquette consultant by the International Etiquette and Protocol Academy in London.  Rana was also trained by the Protocol School of Washington in international protocol management, and is a trained coach in intercultural intelligence.  Please help me welcome Rana Nejem.
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[ Applause ]
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>> Rana Nejem: Thank you so much, and thank you for being so patient and for waiting here with us.  When I first started working -- actually during my last couple of years, few years at the British Embassy in Amman my sixth British ambassador I served with walked into my office one day and it was just two weeks after he had arrived to Jordan to take up his post there.  And he announced to me, "Well Rana, I have just been asked to take part in Hajaha.  Can you please tell me what this is all about?  I've already committed."  Now of course he had no idea what he was getting himself into.  As when there was a British national, a British gentleman who was living and working in Jordan fell in love with a Jordanian girl who comes from a quite a big tribal family there, and they wanted to ask for her hand in marriage.  And the British man didn't have any of his family there.  So he asked the ambassador to sit in for that, and to be part of his Jaha.  Just to give you a bit of an idea of how daunting this was.  This is what it looks like where the elders and the most important people in the groom's family get together, and they meet the elders and the most important people of the bride's family, and then they ask for their hand in marriage.  And it's something as formal as this, and as big as this.  Now of course all of his diplomatic training did not prepare him for Ajaha, and so we worked together.  He was well-prepared on what he needed to do, how he needed to greet people, how he had to handle the cup of coffee that was going to be presented to him.  And at the end of it he actually ended up really enjoying the experience.  But the most important thing is that this set the tone for the rest of his stay in Jordan.  When he was seen to be doing the correct thing and had just arrived, it really set the tone and made the rest of his stay in the country so much easier.  
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Now the world does seem to be getting smaller.  The media and communications and through the whole technology seems to be making the world a smaller place, and seems to be unifying in unifying us in many ways.  Still culture will never disappear.  On the contrary, the more open the world becomes, the more important culture becomes.  A recent Harvard study quoted that up to 40% of international business ends up in failure and 70% of those reasons is due to cultural misunderstandings.  So that is why in this time and age being culturally intelligent, being culturally aware is a crucial skill that's no longer a luxury.  So a lot of culturalists and sociologists have likened culture to either an iceberg or a hippopotamus underwater.  Eighty percent of its mass is hidden, it's covered underneath the water, and culture is exactly like that.  It's in that hidden part lies all the foundations, the values, the beliefs, that drive our behavior, that make us see the world in a certain way and to determine what is appropriate, what is not, what is acceptable, and what is not.  And it is in that part where culture lies.  So what does that mean to us?  The reality of the matter is that there is no impartial ground from which to interpret reality.  The fact is we see the world as we are, not as it is.  Our beliefs our values all of those things that we carry on the inside and that are affected by our culture determine how we see the world, how we view what is right, what is wrong, what is appropriate, and what is not.  So we think we use the same words.  We think they're universal concepts.  They mean the same thing.  What else could they mean?  Words like.  I trust you.  That's pretty clear.  What else could it mean?  But if I was from a specific culture, I trust you means I trust you will do the right thing.  If I was from another culture, I trust you means I trust you will do the honorable thing.  And honorable and [inaudible] are completely different.  And if I was from another culture, I trust you could mean I trust you will protect me.  So we say, I trusted you but you betrayed me.  What do you mean I betrayed you?  I did the right thing.  Yes, but you didn't protect me.  And that's where clashes happen.  So we move to a new culture.  It might be through work.  It might be even just a new organization within the same country where you live.  And we do things just the way that we have always been used to doing it, because we think that's the only way to do it.  But then we realize that the rules of the game are different.  Things are different.  And that is what we call cultural shock, and that should never be underestimated.  Cultural shock is when your expectations of how things should be clash with the reality that you face, and things as simple as just opening the window, you're used to seeing greenery all the time and then suddenly you're in a different country.  You open the window and you see just desert and sand, or people that look different than you or the food or the weather.  Never underestimate how difficult that can be, and what kind of stress that can cause.  It can cause a lot of stress.  It can cause people to actually go even into the victim mentality of I'm well, I'm fine.  I'm not the problem.  It's those stupid locals.  If only they did things that they were supposed to do.  Or it's that crooked system.  If only they did things the way that it's supposed to happen, then everything will be fine.  I'm all right.  It can cause too a lot of tension in the workplace.  It can cause too a lot of problems at home, and it can actually lead to a lot of substance abuse as well.  So even if you are the what we call cultural learner, an open minded person and you have a lot of other experiences outside your own culture, still prepare yourself well before you work or move to any other culture, and take care of yourselves.  Don't underestimate the effect that that will have on you.  But moving to a new culture doesn't mean that I have to shed my skin.  It doesn't mean that I have to forget about my own values, forget about my own beliefs, and go native, as they say.  No.  It just means adjusting the externals, just adjusting the behavior.  But I keep true to my own DNA, to my own beliefs, and own values.  And cultural intelligence is the ability to first look take an honest look inside myself to understand my own beliefs, my own cultural values.  The reason how I see the glasses through which I see the world and judge the world.  Only then am I able to anticipate other people's behavior.  Correctly interpret that behavior, and then adjust my own behavior to match the culturally motivated behavior of others.  And that is being culturally intelligent.  Now, a lot of researchers have come up with many theories, and tools that are meant to help us understand how culture affects our behavior.  These are old guidelines that are meant to just help us better understand how culture affects our behavior.  But the most important thing we need to always keep in mind is that we never deal with cultures, we deal with people.  And each individual has their own self culture.  And by self culture I mean so, for example, I'm Jordanian, but I'm far from a typical Jordanian.  My mother is Jordanian.  My father is Palestinian.  They brought me up in a certain way.  I grew up in Kuwait.  I picked up a lot of that culture.  I studied in the US for a while.  I picked up some of that culture.  I worked with the British for a while.  I picked up a lot of their culture.  So I have created my own self culture in the end.  So we need to remember always that we deal with people, and each person needs to be treated and respected as an individual.  But one of the many theories and tools that were used was one called the three colors of worldview, which was first brought by Roland Wooler, who did a lot of research on the Bedouins and then another organization called Knowledge Works that are set up in Dubai and the Netherlands took up that research and expanded it and applied it on the business world.  And this is the tool that I use as a basis in my research and in my book.  So let's move on to When in the Arab World.  Start from the basics.  I say the Arab world, but of course the Arab world is not one big lump.  It's made up of 22 independent countries.  Each country has its own specific unique culture, unique history, and unique traditions.  Still having said that, there is a thread of commonalities that ties us all together, and that is based in the Islamic religion and in the Bedouin culture.  Knowing of course that not all of the Arab countries come from the Bedouin culture, but there is this thread of commonalities that can justify the kind of generalities that I make in the book and that I will make today.  But again these are the core, the values, the main motivators of behavior that can explain as a guideline of what motivates our behavior in the Arab culture.  Basics again, before we move any further.  Arab and Muslim are not the same thing.  The media here unfortunately uses the term to interchangeably to mean the same thing.  They're not.  Even though the majority of the Arab population is Muslim, not all Arabs are Muslim.  Depending on which source you use up to around 13 percent, 13 or 14 percent are Christians.
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And Christianity started from the Arab world.  It did not come with the Crusades.  So actually Jesus Christ was born here.  And so, not all Arabs are Muslim, and not all Muslims are Arabs.  Actually the majority of the Muslim populations in the world are is not the Arab world.  It's in Asia.  So be careful not to use those two terms as the to mean the same thing.  If we are looking at the main motivator of behavior, the centrality of honor, faith, saving face and pride cannot be overestimated in the Arab culture.  It is central to understanding how we do everything, and the reasons why we do everything.  The main motivator of behavior in the Arab culture is basically to safeguard my honor and avoid shame.  If you were to walk away with just one thing today if you understand that the centrality of that it will help you ease your way around dealing with so many aspects of the Arab culture.  But who determines whether I have been honorable or if I have done anything of shame?  Is it the legal system?  No.  It's the people.  It's my community.  It's the people around me, and therefore it makes absolute sense why we put such weight on reputation.  The public perception of how people see us, and what people say about us is very, very important, because again it reflects on our honor.  And honor here also means might mean something completely different from what may be an American person might conceive as honor.  Remember in these cultures this is a community based culture.  This is where the group, the community is far more important than the individual.  And here I don't only represent myself, I represent everyone else in the community.  Just look at the way that we write our names.  So our names as written so my first name.  My name Rena, followed by my father's name, followed by his father's name, followed by the family name, and then the tribal name, if I belong to a tribe.  So just by looking at a person's name you can actually tell where exactly they fit into that society.  You can tell which part of the country they come from.  You can tell if it's a Christian or a Muslim family, and in many cases you can even tell their political affiliation just by a name.  So that's why someone from the Arab world we might think it's a bit odd that you have a middle name that your parents pick out for absolutely no reason.  For us it tells a whole story of where you sit in that -- where your position is in that culture.  Saving face becomes a very, very important concept that you have to keep in mind, especially if you're doing any kind of negotiations.  If you're giving any kind of feedback.  Again, the main motivator is to avoid shaming, and to maintain that honor, because I don't just bring honor to my -- I don't just bring shame to myself, I bring that to everyone that I represent, everyone that I hold the name of.  Naturally in an honor based culture, the family becomes the most important thing.  Loyalty to the family comes above all else.  And by family here, I mean the very extended family.  So we're looking at uncles, cousins, second cousins, that whole big family, extended family is a network of support for every individual.  They are the patriarch is the head of the family.  Elders are revered.  
They take members of the same family look out for each other.  Our support for each other in the good times and the bad times, but it's also a double edged sword.  Their support for each other, but they also hold each other accountable.  And that's why maybe an uncle might have a say in who I decide to get married to.  But at the other end of the spectrum, they are always there.  They're supporting each other through thick and thin.  And that's why you find rarely, rarely find any homeless people across the Arab world, because they're always taken care of, taken in by some member of their family somewhere.  And you saw that what happened exactly during the Syrian crisis in the very, very beginning.  All of the Syrian refugees that came across were actually absorbed by family members in Jordan, and then until a few months later when all of the family's homes were completely full, then we found that we had -- there were too many people and the refugees camp started to be set up.  But then the resulting social structure is that children stay living with their families until they get married themselves, and then they move out to set up their own families.  The end in many cases in many different cultures, and many different countries you will find that the young man will get married and maybe bring his wife and children in the family home as well.  They all take care of each other.  When the wife, when the lady goes up to work the children are left looked after either by her own mother or by her mother in law.  Friday which is the main day weekend day is spent with lunch, and with the extended family, and that's the most important thing.  Family businesses are most actually businesses across the Arab world are family owned.  And so if you end up working with a family business, be very careful.  Criticism of any family member, even though it might be well-deserved is not a good suggestion.  So stay away from that.  The difference here, the generation gap, between the older generation and the younger generation, what's called Generation X and Generation Y, and I think there are other letters now I think is more pronounced in the Arab culture than in any other culture.  The gap there is I think maybe even wider.  The younger generation now they are 60% of the population across the Arab world is under the age of 25.  That makes it the most youthful area of the world.  Very young.  And this younger generation is changing a lot of things.  They are much more outward looking.  They are much more connected to the rest of the world.  They're educated in the best universities in Europe, and in the US., and they want to change things a lot.  But what you find now that's happening is that although they may not add so much as much weigh and value to the to the traditions as their fathers did.  Still they are holding on to the core cultural values, and they're finding very creative ways of getting to what they want, but within their culture, within their communities.  And you will see, keep seeing those changes happening now.  The issue of women in Arab culture I think is one that is the most misrepresented aspect of the Arab culture probably Arab women across the board have broken so many cultural taboos, have achieved so much across the board in the fields of politics, in medicine, in business, and in everywhere.  I'm not going to go into the full details of how much women have achieved and all of that issue.  But still the Arab, the structure of the Arab society is a patriarchal society.  The male dominance is very much ingrained in the Arab culture, and many women still remain under a sort of a little bit subversive socially only to the male members of their family.  So the main decisions are made by either the father or the husband or the brother.  But still do not jump to conclusions here.  This is one area of the culture I think in across the board where it's very easy to fall into stereotypes, and to make judgments based on appearances.  They tell you it looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it walks like a duck, and then therefore it must be a duck.
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Probably anywhere except here.  It's probably not a duck.  You look at this lady and you think, right.  We see a woman wearing the hijab covered up and we think she's probably oppressed, she's probably ignorant, she has no idea about her rights and gender equality, and I'm going to come here and tell her about her rights and gender equality, and women's issues and I will free her from the tyranny of the veil.  Think again.  This woman is a Saudi woman.  Her name is Nalla Yan..  She actually owns and runs the largest financial and industrial corporation in the region.  This is another lady.  She's a minister of international cooperation in Egypt, and another also a minister in a very dominated liberal Qassemi and the UAE, very male dominated culture, but yet she is the minister, was the minister of economy and now has several portfolios as well.  A group of Jordanian women MPs as well.  The issue of gender equality and women's rights is something that's really fraught with so many cultural minefields.  That whole concept of the freedom to choose, and personal freedom is a very American way of thinking.  Other cultures including the Arab culture, put a lot more weight on our position in the end role in the society.  A lot more, that has a lot more meaning than personal freedom, and even freedom the end of the whole concept of freedom means something completely different in different cultures.  So be aware when not to jump to conclusions on what other women need based on your own cultural views and values.  And this is just one picture that you don't often see coming out of the Arab culture.  This is a very famous Lebanese singer.  Her name is Nancy Hallström.  So one other thing that differs from one culture to the other is the how we see this concept of faith and faith.  In some cultures, like the American culture here, we believe here or it's maybe just the perception that you are in control of your destiny, that you predict the weather.  You work hard.  It's the cause and effect mentality.  The [inaudible] thinking, cause and effect.  You predict the weather.  I am the master of my ship.  I control my destiny.  It's a belief or perhaps it's just a perception.  In other cultures, again it's a belief or perhaps a perception that we don't actually have that much control over circumstances or anything that happens around us.  If something happens, whether it's good or bad, it was something outside of my hands left up to a power far greater than myself.  Call it the universe.  Call it God.  Call it Allah.  Call it luck.  How you look at it, different, so someone from the American culture might think, hmm, that's very passive and lazy.  And someone from the Arab culture would look at the American belief, and think that's pretty arrogant.  I can work.  I will do all I can do, but then I get to a certain point and then things are out of my hands.  The belief in we have a term in Arabic, Kadiatu cadet, which is faith and God's will, literally translated.  Means that I can do everything I can.  I will work, do my best, but then whatever is left is out of my hands.  If you ask any American, a group of American people you'd say, so how many of you have already booked a holiday, a flight, and booked your hotels and know exactly where you're going next summer for holiday?  Show of hands.  Have you?  No, okay.  We've got some there.  [laughs] It's very accepted.  It's the norm that you plan ahead at least six, seven, eight months, maybe a year ahead of time.  For someone coming from the Arab culture, that's completely bizarre.  Because I don't know if I'm going to be alive six months from now, let alone if I actually am going to feel like going to that particular vacation.  I don't know who in my family is going to get married, who's going to have a baby.  I don't know if there's going to be a war next door.  So we don't plan.  Everything's left to the last minute.  And that affects every aspect of our life.  Why we've had business consultants who come to the Arab world and try to do financial forecasting.  And business plans, five year advance business plans.  It's tough.  It's tough.  The belief is that we are tempting fate.  And of course if you come to anywhere in the Arab world what's the first word that you will hear?  Inshallah.  [laughs] Inshallah.  And Inshallah literally means God willing.  But when I was doing research for the book I discovered that we didn't invent that concept actually.  There is a Latin term that the Brits used in the 1900s, when they signed their name to any letters, they used the Latin term, deo volente, which literally means God willing.  God willing, if God permits, whatever I said I will do, I will do.  So we didn't invent that Inshallah.  But again, it is that concept and belief in that things are out of my hand.  I don't have absolute control over my circumstances and what happens.  Religion is also a very integral part of everyday life.  The word "Islam," in Arabic means the willing submission to God.  And that seeps through a lot of things that we do in business, and politics across the board.  And you will find it that it actually has nothing to do with the level of education.  It has nothing to do even with, you know, Christians Muslims, you find that some of these beliefs and values and traditions and the way we do things get mixed up, and are completely intertwined, and affect how everything is done.  So if we look at now the style of communications, if we understand that the main motivator of behavior is to safeguard my honor and avoid shame, then it makes sense that we prefer the indirect style of communications. In the western culture it's very direct.  It's I say what I mean and I mean what I say.  Very direct, straight to the point, clear.  In Arab culture I have a lot of other things going on in my mind that I want to juggle while I'm trying to get the message across.  I want to make sure I save my face.  I want to make sure I save your face.  I want to make sure I'm honoring us.  And I want to make sure I safeguard that relationship.  There's so many things that I'm thinking about other than just getting that message across.  And this is one area that causes a lot of stress and miscommunications among different cultures.  So let me tell you an example.  So if I have my boss is John, and I want to tell John something.  And of course we never want to upset the boss.  So I think about if I want to tell John that I'm not quite sure how he's going to take it, who is close to John?  Okay.  So maybe Eudunda might be.  So I will go talk to Eudunda and I'll tell her, Linda I really want to tell John this, but I'm not quite sure how he's going to take it.  So she would think a bit and think, don't worry about it.  I'll see.  I'll take care of it.  She will then think and go tell him Hamid.  And we'll tell Hamid this is what we want to tell John.  What do you think about that?  And then Hamid will go tell John.  Message delivered.  No confrontation.  No problem.  Now John would then of course have a nervous breakdown, because he would be very offended and would think first, why are you going behind my back?  And second, why are you involving people that don't need to know about this issue in the first place?  But if you understand the reason why this is happening, and it's about avoiding confrontation, trying to get that message across.  One, saving face, saving honor, saving the relationship.  It gets very complicated, but there is this is how you can when you understand why it happens, then it might lessen the offense taken or the reaction taken.  
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Having said that, of course, there are certain ways that we are much more direct than any other culture.  It's one of the stories that I use in the book is this David he walks, he's working in Jordan.  He gets into a taxi, and the first question is, "Hello, where are you from?"  He says, "From the UK."  "Oh, Manchester United.  Nice football.  Are you married?"  "Yes."  "How many children?"  "No children."  "Really, why?"  "We don't have any children."  "Have you been to the doctor?" [laughs] And of course when David wants knows this is the -- wants to end the conversation, he would end it with, "It's out of my hands.  It's all in the hands of God."  And that's where the conversation ends.  But somebody like David who was actually very culturally aware never got offended by that, and he would laugh and think that if somebody in the UK if I had to have this conversation somewhere in the UK, it would be horrific.  Completely out of out of order.  But then this is the difference between what is accepted and what is not and what is direct and in direct.  But one of the other ways of communicating that's very important in Arab culture is the face to face communications.  While it is you can actually get a lot done over email or just a phone call in other cultures, don't expect that to happen anywhere across the Arab world.  It has to be done face to face, and it takes time, because everything is about the relationship.  Relationships are more important than anything else, and you will find in many cases that people will take a decision that might be bad for business, but that in order to safeguard a relationship.  So while it takes a little bit of time to build that relationship, and it's said that two American business people can get off to different planes, meet in an airport lobby, and set up a business together if they have a product and a business plan they will do that and they walk away their different paths, and it will be successful.  That can never happen anywhere in the Arab world.  Everything is based on relationships, and building relationships is core, but takes time.  And that is where it's the investment in that relationship that's very important, and it needs to be done face to face.  After you've established that, then you can take it to emails and telephone.  But it has to be that trust and the relationship has to start first.  One thing if I may really more and against here, it's that condescending attitude that we get a lot from a lot of foreign experts that come our way.  Now, the region, the Arab region has been developing at such a fast pace that it's going incredibly fast that it's actually outrunning, if you like, the abilities of a lot of its people and the abilities of some of its leaders.  So that's why we will always continue to have to need the foreign experts and the advice of the foreign experts, but be careful here.  The all that used to we used to have, the older generation of Arabs towards the foreign expert is diminishing fast.  And you will find that in especially in the GCC there's the national pride is growing more and more.  And they are replacing a lot of the foreign experts with the local nationals.  Be aware of this condescending attitude of we are here to instruct you.  Or we are here to teach you, because we know better.  We know the right way.  Just do as we say, and we've got it.  That's one thing that a lot of foreign experts make that mistake.  It's a very small community.  Everyone knows everyone, and everything travels by word of mouth.  And if your reputation is that you are in a place of trust and respect, that will travel fast.  And you will be able to do great business, but otherwise that news will travel fast as well and you will not be able to do much anywhere in the Arab world.  Language.  Lost in Translation.  The Arabic language, just to say that very quickly, it comes in two parts.  The instructions were to write this in Arabic, and they did exactly that.  The Arabic language is in two parts.  There's the classical Arabic, and there's the colloquial Arabic.  The classical Arabic is the same Arab language, the same Arabic that is spoken across all 22 Arab countries.  It's the same Arabic that is written in books, in newspapers, and you will hear it read on the television newscast or the radio newscast.  That is the same one that's across all of the Arab world.  And then there's the colloquial Arabic, which is different in each country, and each country has its different dialect as well.  So, but you'll find that, for example, the GCC countries, the Gulf countries have a similar dialect.  The Levant, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria have similar dialect.  Egypt is very distinct.  Iraq is very distinct.  And the North African countries all have a similar dialect as well.  But each country has separate accents.  You can tell the difference between Kuwait, and [inaudible] and Saudi by the accent, and the certain words that they use.  The important thing here is if you think that you can do a campaign or issue a press release at headquarters, here in the US, and then send it out for translation, think again.  A lot can get messed up in the translation.  When I was working with a British foreign office I worked on a campaign, and in 2012 for the 2012 London Olympics there was a fantastic campaign called The Great Britain campaign.  A great year for Great Britain.  And everything was fashioned was Great Britain is Great Britain.  Education is Great Britain.  Sports is Great Britain.  And I was one on the panel that was trying to translate that campaign into Arabic.  And if anyone speaks Arabic can understand that this actually when you translate it, it rings about all the colonial past.  And actually it is completely counter campaign.  So it's actually very, very negative.  And we ended up choosing at least in Jordan not to use the Arabic translation, because it was actually counterproductive, and was getting us into an area which we were trying to work against.  So be careful.  Just the translation will not work.  It's really advised to use the local talent that you have in the country.  They know the nuances of the language, and what would go, what would work here, and what would not.  So in closing, cultural intelligence again starts from an honest look inside ourselves first.  I have to look inside myself at my own beliefs, my own cultural values, how I view the world, and how I determine what's right and wrong.  And only then can I anticipate other people's behavior.  Correctly interpret that behavior, and adjust my own behavior to suit the culturally motivated behavior of others.  And remember again, we never, we don't deal with cultures, we deal with people.  And every person must be respected as an individual.  Use the local talent you have wherever you are.  Ask, you will always get an answer.  People are very friendly and open and would love to give advice.  Don't make assumptions at all.  And don't forget to get a copy of one in the Arab world. [laughs].  Thank you.  
^M00:49:25 
[ Applause ]
^M00:49:31
>> Nawal Kawar: Thank you, Rana for a wonderful speech.  Now we open the floor for questions, please.
>> Rana F. Nejem  Questions, yes.
^M00:49:40
[ Inaudible ]
^M00:49:49 
>> I was wondering in technical terms what is the attitude of society towards old people, the season, the experience like at the workplace.  Are they regarded just as revered or as regarded as [inaudible] their wisdom on the job [inaudible]?
^M00:50:19 
>> Nawal Kawar: Repeat that.
>> Rana F. Nejem: The question is how are older people in the Arab culture, what's the attitude towards older people in the Arab culture in the workplace in particular.  Are they revered or are they expected to retire?  It actually it varies again.  But in general, the wisdom of the older generation is very much respected, and they are even the way that you speak to an older person is and the way that you communicate and interact with an older person, the way you address an older person, there is a lot of respect when you are actually interacting with somebody older.  In the workplace now just recently things are changing as the younger generation are coming more and more into the workplace, and because of the invasion of the technology and how things are being done are changing a lot.  There is this attitude of, and of course with social media changing that as well, which gave everyone a megaphone and a size that is quite larger than their true size I would say, has changed the balance a little bit.  And undoubtedly it is creating some sort of, I don't know if it's tension or how things are changing, but in general the culture continues to respecting the elders and the wisdom of the Elders is very, very important.  Thank you.  Question?  Yes.
>> I'm curious about how the US [inaudible] culturally speaking [inaudible] better in communicating and understanding [inaudible] where you see trends in how [inaudible] related to various societies.
>> Rana F. Nejem: So the question is about whether the American military has been able, have learned to be more culturally sensitive in the Arab countries where it's functioning, where it's present.  It's difficult to generalize here, but I think there were a lot of in the past there were several clashes or incidences that showed that there was very little cultural awareness and understanding.  And so what ended up happening now is that you will find that they are very isolated from the rest of the culture.  So they live wherever there is a US military base you'd find that isolated from the rest of the culture.  They have their own, I don't know commiserate, they have their own entertainment, so that they don't actually interact a lot with the local culture.  This differs from one country to the other, but I would say more cultural sensitivity and awareness is still needed.  And it's just because when you don't know something, and you make assumptions on what you already believe is right, you're going to do what you think is right.  Which is the natural thing.  It's your default setting.  But that thing that's right for you doesn't work in another place, and that causes offense, but you don't know that you're causing offense.  And so I think there is still room for a bit more cultural awareness training, and more knowledge, more about the nuances, the values, the beliefs, the motivators of behavior, rather than just giving them a list of do's and don'ts.  Don't sit with the sole of your foot facing somebody.  Don't do that.  Those are those are very important things, but they don't explain why.  Does that answer your question?  Thank you.  Yes.
>> I was really fascinated by your remarks on the men in Arab world, and the assumptions that others make about the [inaudible] about choice and about being independent.  And I guess I want more insight about this younger generation of women in the Arab world.  How do they define feminism?  What do you think you can share, you know, maybe just give us some light on that [inaudible]/
>> Rana F. Nejem: Yes. yes.  So the questions about how the younger generation of Arab women and how they are viewing feminism and how they are viewing their role, their world, their rights.  It's fascinating to see the changes that are happening.  But the number of women actually, and from the younger generation who choose.  And I underline choose to wear the hijab, which is the scarf, which is very different from the niqab is actually on the increase.  They are a lot more now.  But the interesting thing is that how it is -- how you doing that.  How they're doing it with it's into fashion.  And now you find so many new young fashion designers who are coming up with the most amazing designs on the catwalk for specially for Arab women who want to be fashionable, but want to be modest at the same time.  And you find that it's simply an item of clothing that does not prevent them from doing anything or being anywhere.  They go out to restaurants, they dine.  There's sometimes there's alcohol being served.  As long as they're not drinking that's fine.  They are in sports.  They're in football.  They're in medicine.  They can do anything.  This is simply an item of clothing that reflects on -- it's something that's their cultural or religious values and beliefs that does not prevent them in any way of achieving their full potential in any field that they choose.  So we look at that item of clothing, and we give it a lot more weight meaning than it really needs to.  We attach so many of our own assumptions to it.  That she's not free, she's oppressed, she's ignorant, but that's all of us really.  It's in the eye of the beholder, as it said.
^M00:58:06
[ Inaudible ]
^M00:58:11
>> Everything you said I identify with.  When you hear somebody saying it, it's just a comedy.  It's true. [laughs] I remember my children who were raised then in France.  You know, in Jordan everybody asks how many kids do you have.  What this, what that, and the French they [inaudible] that.  They find if interfering in private matters.  So my children was always getting, you know, a cold shower.  Then they ask somebody do you have kids?  It's like this is very personal.  This is very private.  And it took them a while to realize the cultural aspect, so they stopped doing it, you know?
>> Rana F. Nejem: Yes.
>> And it's true that there is so many things that can be offensive, and [inaudible] because I have a copy you kindly sent me, and explaining these things [inaudible] and everybody who's interested and at least or even not, just in these cultures [inaudible] read them.  So I just wanted to tell you bravo.
>> Rana F. Nejem: Thank you. Thank you.  Thank you.  It's very interesting, so the topics of conversation there's a whole chapter on the topics of conversation.  So in the US, for example when you meet somebody you chit chat, the small talk we call.  And the small talk is you ask about the wife.  How's the wife, how the -- you don't do that in the Arab world.  The wife is completely private.  You never ask about the wife.  You ask about the family.  You ask about the children, but never the wife.  And when you go visit somebody's home, you never take a gift that's personal for the wife.  You take flowers, chocolate, not a bottle of wine, unless you really, really know that they drink, and you've visited their house before, but the wife is always private.  So it's interesting how.  Yes. 
>> Just more like a comment.
^M00:59:58 
  But this is all about [inaudible] world.  But with experience Egyptians are not [inaudible] Egyptians.
>> Rana F. Nejem: Definitely.  Definitely.  Of course now there's -- this is what I said in the beginning.  These are the basic values that are the same more or less across the Arab world, but there are differences.  Of course life in Beirut is vastly different from life in Riyadh.  So you will find the social differences and within each country if you're in the capital city it's very different than if you're in the rural areas.  But once you understand those basic values, the motivators of behavior, then you're able to intelligently weigh your and adjust according to each local country.  And then you're able to really enjoy the magic of each country.  Thank you.  Thank you.
^M01:01:02 
[ Applause ]
^M01:01:06
>> Rana F. Nejem. Thank you so much.  
>> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress.  Visit us at loc.gov.