A friend of mine is being deployed to Iraq soon and the SO is building a laptop for him to take along with. I got to thinking, having lived in another country myself before, about what we should load on there to help him acclimate and get along with the people he’ll be interacting with. I figure a Berlitz style course in Arabic would be a smart idea, since knowing even the tiniest amount of the language of the country you’re in is always a helpful thing, but I’m seeking more advice on what he should know about day to day getting along in such a different culture.
He’s a typical American kid, eighteen years old, he’s smart but has not been exposed to much cultural diversity (think “cornfed!”) I’d like to compile some basic information on Iraqi/Arab/Muslim culture to help him avoid obvious gaffes and misunderstandings and basically to help keep him from being perceived as a typical “Ugly American.” I could definitely use links to internet sites and resources, but what I’d really love is the first hand advice of anyone who’s been there and can comment first hand.
Some of the common cultural stumbling blocks are in body language and gestures. Are there fundamental differences in how Iraqis signal assent and negation, and what common gestures are used? When I lived in Japan I got major props for knowing how and when to bow and for knowing how to haggle–are there similar skills for Iraq?
What are the “don’t EVER do this!” things? I know that eating with the left hand and touching or even looking too much at women will cause major pissoff, but are there other things a naive kid from Washington state should know to avoid?
There’s an excellent series of books called “Culture Shock!” that help the uninitiated comprehend what to do, what not to do, and why, in various countries around the world.
Unfortunately - for obvious reasons I guess - there isn’t one for Iraq; the nearest I can find are to Saudi Arabia and Syria; I would imagine that much of the generic “Arab Muslim society” stuff would be applicable to Iraq too.
They have a low opinion of feet and shoes. Never cross your legs so that the bottom of one of your shoes is pointing at somebody. Never put your feet up on a piece of furniture so that the bottom of your shoes is pointing at somebody. Also, don’t throw your shoes at anyone.
I’ve got to ask, why is this soldier having to rely upon you for such important information? Doesn’t the military invest in some cultural sensitivity training for our troops before sending them over there? :dubious:
Well, I lived in Japan during the Vietnam war and it was pretty obvious from what they said to me that nobody had told those poor guys what they were getting into, and from some of the Iraqi veteran’s blogs I’m perusing it doesn’t look like much more is being done for the current crop. Sure, the military might just give him a lovely crash course in “How Not to Piss Off the Locals and Thereby Avoid Becoming an Insurgent Target,” but just in case they don’t I figure it won’t hurt to have a little readily available information to hand in case they happen to miss out on the opportunity to edumacate the troops in the niceties of Arab culture. It’s the old Boy Scout adage, don’tcha know, “Be Prepared.”
bluethree: That’s really interesting, any idea where it comes from? I know it’s required to remove shoes in a mosque but always assumed it was a cleanliness thing…
jjimm: Dang, did you see the pricetag on those books?! Holy moley…
Throatwarbler Mangrove: I’m reasonably sure that if there’s pr0n available an eighteen year old male will find it–it would be REALLY squicky for Aunty Aleq to be sending that along–besides, what I consider to be interesting pr0n would probably shock the poor dear out of a year’s growth or possibly get him ostracized… just sayin’…
Yes. Before he enters Iraq, he’ll stop in Kuwait for all sorts of Use of Force and Cultural Diversity type briefings.
Still not a bad idea to do what the OP is suggesting, though. On a reality note, make sure the laptop is LOADED with movies ripped from DVDs and lots of MUSIC. If he also has an ipod to go with it, that would be great too. Oh… and GAMES. Make sure there are some sweet games on there.
Also, make sure he knows Rosetta Stone is FREE for the military. He should study with Rosetta Stone in his spare time to help his skills.
Skype and a small webcam if he’ll have reasonably frequent access to broadband.
I keep in touch w/ my friends all over the world plus one kid who works in Europe. There is no substitute for seeing the face.
Sell the relatives on it and practice before you go.
I was raised in an Islamic culture–way too much for a post here. Rules of human interaction are the same all over the world. Be polite and humble.
Well, the funds don’t exist to get him a new lappie, but the one he’s getting is a slow but reliable and damned near bulletproof Toshiba that’s been in use since like forever–not a ginormous amount of HDD space so we’re leaning more toward a buttload of E-Books and suchlike than movie rips. New battery is a big check. I’m d/l’ing the Baen Free Library like a mad fiend, since a large number of the offerings are hack & slash military style SF and suchlike–easy, convenient reads in a tiny format.
We’re including Rosetta Stone, along with some phrasebook type apps–it would be uber fabulous if the laptop were capable of all the functions, but it’s maxed out on memory and it’s far below what’s needed for voice recognition and interactive feedback on pronunciation. It does do text-to-speech, though, and we’ve included a drag and drop text interpreter that does both iterative and colloquial translation–might come in handy.
We’re putting a lot of lower overhead, less graphic intensive games on it–kid loves his first person shooters but A) the laptop chokes on most of them and B) you’d think he’d get enough of that IRL!
I’m pretty sure he has a fully loaded mp3 player, but I’m not too up on his musical tastes–he’s on his own for that…
FRDE: Yup, I’m well aware of the provenance of the expression–it was a real watchword amongst IBM employees in the Far East circa the late '60s…
That’s a relief–he’s the first regular Army type we’ve known to be deployed and info is scarce on what kind of briefings they’ll get. I’m hoping the stuff we send will reinforce and buttress what the Army gives him.
If he does commit the time to Rosetta Stone, make sure he saves his certificates. I’m not sure how the CD version works, but the online version gives you a certificate after the completion of each Unit. These certs are good for 4 hours of Military Correspondence Course Credit. Every 5 hours of credit is worth 1 promotion point. Those hours/points add up fast. IOW, tell him to save his certs. He can also give a copy to his S-1 and they will make sure it is entered into the system. (If they dont lose it, that is)
Nope. Leaving that country was a pain through customs. Those people take their job very seriously. When I say they went through everything before I left, they went through everything. Every nook, every crany, every cd case flap thingy.
I know some guys who got away with it, I wouldn’t risk it though.
But like an above poster said, get him really fucked up the night before. He’ll like that.
Both. Porn and alcohol are against the laws of the host countries, and the commanders rightfully do not want to jeopardize the status of the military forces over one drunkard. Of course, it’s good manners as well.
As porn goes, you can get Maxim or FHM from the AAFES system, but anything revealing genitalia/breasts/buttocks is verboten. At the last base I was at we were told, and we saw it happen, that anybody in possession of either porn or alcohol was going home minus rank. DO NOT send those, ever, at all.
One more thing regarding porn: if you feel that you must, keep in mind that the military Customs inspectors cannot check every file on every computer, and you’re very likely to get away with a few movies on the hard drive as long as you don’t do something stupid and put them in a folder called “Porn”.
