2006/12/10

Only in the UAE

I had one of those "only in the UAE" moments the other day. A group of librarians from UAE U, Zayed U, and HCT trying to work out the wording on a brochure about a new service we are launching together. The only problem is that the group consisted of two Americans, three Canadians, three Emiratis, and one African who had learned British English, so trying to get everyone to agree on simple things like what preposition to use (e.g. we Americans wanted to say "staff at the university", the Canadian/British English users wanted "staff in the university"). After working all this out, I had to point out that few of the students at (or in) our universities will ever read any of this anyway, since we will also have an Arabic version.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am Canadian and I would say staff at. Couldn't you say University staff?

The one I can't swallow is the British Exam Revision instead of study.

Brn said...

I actually like a lot of British English, but that one would drive me nuts too. The one that really grates on my nerves is referring to singular nouns as if they were plural, like "the Government are" or "Arsenal are". I know that it isn't wrong, just different, but it sounds so wrong to my American ears.

Oh, and the whole inability to pronounce the letter z properly.

redstar said...

As someone who speaks British English, I'd say that 'staff at the university' is correct. 'Staff in the university' sounds plain wrong!

redstar said...

I sympathise with the American inability to pronounce the letter z properly too. It must be frustrating for you all :)

Anonymous said...

Now would that be the letter zed or the letter zee. Or maybe we can organize the organise....

moryarti said...

That happens in Arabic as well. Especially between Egyptian/North Afrian vs. Levant schooled - rivals for life :)