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    Saudi Arabia - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture
    Saudi Arabia - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture
    Saudi Arabia - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture
    Ebook224 pages2 hours

    Saudi Arabia - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture

    By Cheryl Obal and Culture Smart

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Don't just see the sightsget to know the people.

    From a distance, Saudi Arabia may seem a subdued, or even dull place; but for those who take a closer look it emerges as a fascinating country, not necessarily because of its political and economic importance, but because of its people. Reticent perhaps but, on closer acquaintance, charming and warm, the Saudis form a far less monolithic society than one might expect.

    Divided by region, creed, and background but united in Islam, insular yet forever traveling abroad, and living with a foreign contingent that makes up nearly one-third of the population: the list goes on. So what do Saudis have in common beyond their national dress?

    Culture Smart! Saudi Arabia will help you navigate the swirling waters of this important and fast-changing country. Social, cultural, and business life is demystified in concise chapters, while sections on the values, traditions, and attitudes that prevail will help you find your way through the new and unexpected situations that you are likely to encounter.

    Have a more meaningful and successful time abroad through a better understanding of the local culture. Chapters on values, attitudes, customs, and daily life will help you make the most of your visit, while tips on etiquette and communication will help you navigate unfamiliar situations and avoid faux pas.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherKuperard
    Release dateJul 11, 2024
    ISBN9781787023550
    Saudi Arabia - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture

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      Book preview

      Saudi Arabia - Culture Smart! - Cheryl Obal

      Front Cover of Saudi Arabia - Culture Smart!Book Title of Saudi Arabia - Culture Smart!

      The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

      Adapted from Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past.

      ISBN 978 1 78702 354 3

      British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

      A CIP catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library

      First published in Great Britain

      by Kuperard, an imprint of Bravo Ltd

      59 Hutton Grove, London N12 8DS

      Tel: +44 (0) 20 8446 2440

      www.culturesmart.co.uk

      Inquiries: publicity@kuperard.co.uk

      Design Bobby Birchall

      Printed in Turkey

      The Culture Smart! series is continuing to expand.

      All Culture Smart! guides are available as e-books, and many as audio books. For further information and latest titles visit www.culturesmart.co.uk

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      CHERYL OBAL grew up in Pennsylvania, United States and has a Master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Trieste, Italy. For the last twenty-five years she has lived and worked in numerous countries around the world, most often as a corporate trainer for multinational companies, including in Japan, South Korea, Thailand, India, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, where she has worked for more than eight years.

      Today Cheryl is based in Vicenza, Italy, where she runs her own company offering cross-cultural training and consultation to companies and individuals from around the world. More about her work as a cross-cultural trainer can be found at cherylobal.com.

      Aside from her intercultural work, Cheryl is also a professional choreographer and enjoys writing articles for her blog, reading, spending time with friends, and making videos for her YouTube channel about expat life and communicating across cultural divides.

      CONTENTS

      Map of Saudi Arabia

      Introduction

      Key Facts

      1 LAND AND PEOPLE

      • Geography

      • Climate

      • Population

      • A Brief History

      • The Political System

      • The Economy

      • Vision 2030

      2 VALUES AND ATTITUDES

      • Islam

      • Religion and State

      • Tribal Loyalties

      • Honor

      • Family and Privacy

      • Women in Society

      • Attitudes Toward Foreigners

      • Education and Work

      3 CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS

      • Calendars

      • Ramadan

      • The Hajj

      • Umrah

      • National Holidays

      • Season’s Greetings

      • Superstition

      • Rites of Passage

      4 MAKING FRIENDS

      • Meeting Saudis

      • Greetings

      • Hospitality and Invitations

      • Dating and Relationships

      5 PRIVATE AND FAMILY LIFE

      • Living Conditions

      • Daily Life

      • Social Life

      • Changing Attitudes

      6 TIME OUT

      • Shopping for Pleasure

      • Money

      • Eating Out

      • Café Culture

      • The Entertainment Revolution

      • Other Cultural Activities

      • Sports

      • Desert Trips

      • Diving

      7 TRAVEL, HEALTH, AND SAFETY

      • Places to Visit

      • Getting Around

      • Public Transportation

      • Accommodation

      • Health

      • Safety

      8 BUSINESS BRIEFING

      • Saudi Time

      • Hierarchy

      • Wasta

      • Greetings and Respect

      • Business Etiquette

      • Meetings

      • Presentations

      • Negotiations

      • Contracts and Fulfillment

      • Settling Disputes

      9 COMMUNICATING

      • Language

      • Communication Style

      • Etiquette and Body Language

      • Phones and SIM Cards

      • The Media

      • Internet and Social Media

      • Mail

      • Conclusion

      Useful Apps

      MAP OF SAUDI ARABIA

      INTRODUCTION

      The Saudi Arabia of today is nothing like the Saudi Arabia of twenty years ago, or even ten years ago. In the past, the Arab Gulf nation was a closed, secretive country, a conservative Islamic society strictly guarded by Sharia law and closed to visitors except those coming for religious pilgrimage or work.

      Now, the country is going through an extraordinary transformation that began in 2016 at the launch of Vision 2030, the plan that Saudi’s leaders King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman have devised to catapult the country into the future. More than an economic initiative that seeks to diversify the economy away from a dependence on oil revenues, it is a comprehensive plan that is driving forward changes on all aspects of life in the Kingdom. Whereas in the past, for example, there were few places people could gather in public, now there are open-air concerts, movie theaters, sports competitions, and industry conventions. Saudi Arabia’s standard of living is receiving a serious upgrade: housing, healthcare, education, transportation, energy, and tourism (including now, for the first time, foreign tourism!) are all experiencing great development as part of the revolutionary initiatives. The rights of women and their position in Saudi society, too, is evolving.

      The pace of change and its wider effects, particularly on Saudi society, cannot be understated. No matter who you talk to, from young Saudis to their parents, from businesspeople to housewives, practically everyone’s face lights up with excitement when you discuss the topic with them—and the buzz is infectious. One reason for the optimism may well be because the key message that underlies the Vision is that the country’s most valuable resource is not its oil, but rather its people. And it’s the people that this book will introduce you to.

      Currently, sixty-three percent of the Kingdom’s population are under the age of thirty, a fact that bodes very well for the country’s future. But while the population may be young, its culture is anything but. Human history in the region dates back millennia, and the Islamic civilization that emerged from the heartlands of Arabia in the seventh century has changed the world.

      Some fourteen hundred years later, it is the values and principles of Islam that are sacred and form the foundations of Saudi culture. These include faith and worship of a single God, charity, the importance of community, and the observance of religious duties such as Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that all Muslims are required to make at least once in their lives. Then, there are the values and ways of doing things that reflect Saudi Arabia’s roots as a tribal society. These include values such as honor, hospitality, and loyalty to one’s family and tribe. While tribal affiliations have become less prominent in modern Saudi as the country’s national and civic identity has taken precedence, understanding its influence is important if one is to understand the full complexity of their Saudi hosts. All this and much more is unpacked in these pages. Those who take the time to learn about Saudi history, its culture, traditions, and way of life, will find that their experience in this unique country will be greatly enriched.

      KEY FACTS

      CHAPTER ONE

      LAND & PEOPLE

      GEOGRAPHY

      Saudi Arabia is a desert country about one-fifth the size of the United States, covering some 864,869 square miles (2,240,000 sq. km) of overwhelmingly arid land. While the landscape can look much the same across the Kingdom, the features that stand out do so spectacularly.

      Only about 37 miles (60 km) south of the Red Sea port of Jeddah, an escarpment suddenly rises sheer some 1,640 feet (500 m) out of the flat land, and from there the mountains, including the 10,827-foot (3,300-m) Jabal Sawda, stretch ruggedly all the way into Yemen in the south.

      The central rocky plateau of the Najd with the capital Riyadh is traversed by a number of wadis, or dry river beds, and isolated by three great deserts from north, east, and south. In the north, the An Nafud covers about 21,236 square miles (55,000 sq. km) at an elevation of some 3,280 feet (1,000 m), mostly with longitudinal dunes scores of miles long, as much as 295 feet (90 m) high and separated by valleys as much as 10 miles (16 km) wide, given a reddish tinge at sundown by the iron ore in the sand. To the east runs the Ad Dahna, a narrow band of sand mountains also known as the River of Sand.

      Expansive red sands and spectacular sandstone rock formations in the Hisma desert, Tabuk region.

      To the south of the Najd lies the mother of all deserts, the Rub al-Khali or Empty Quarter, which covers more than 212,356 square miles (550,000 sq. km) of wandering dunes at higher elevations and sandy flatlands and salt flats lower down. In its far southeast are the fabled quicksands said to have swallowed whole caravans. Most of it is totally without water and uninhabited—hence the name—except for a handful of wandering Bedouin and a minimal number of plant and animal species.

      Located in the Eastern Region, Al-Ahsa is the world’s largest date oasis and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

      To the east of the Ad Dahna lies Al-Ahsa, the country’s and indeed the world’s largest date oasis, which in fact consists of two neighboring oases including the town of Al-Hofuf. It is on these fertile islands in the desert that the best of the Kingdom’s dates are grown.

      Saudi Arabia is bordered by Yemen and Oman in the south, the Red Sea in the west, Jordan and Iraq in the north, and Kuwait, the Persian Gulf, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the east. Across a causeway in the Gulf lies the island Kingdom of Bahrain, a popular weekend getaway destination for Saudis and expats alike.

      CLIMATE

      Most of the country has a desert climate, which means extreme dry heat during the day and abrupt temperature drops at night. In the Najd, temperatures rise commonly to 113°F (45°C) and can go as high as 129.2°F (54°C). This contrasts with the coastal areas of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, where the temperature only rises above 100.4°F (38°C) in the summer but humidity is usually more than 85 percent and often 100 percent. The winter is brief, and usually sees a few rain showers along the coast and even some rare and short-lived snowfall in northern and southern regions. Occasional snowfall can also be witnessed near Riyadh. Asir in the deep

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