12 Lessons Learned Proposing To An Egyptian Girl Who Only Spoke Arabic

It’s time.
I’ve been here in Korea for two weeks and I’ve been hearing quite a bit about cross-cultural relationships as there seem to be so many foreigners here dating Korean men and women.
Hearing about the cultural differences and challenges they face has really made me reflect a lot on what I learned from almost getting married to a girl while I was living in Egypt – a girl who didn’t speak any English.
Yea that’s right. Our relationship was entirely through my second language, Arabic.
I said I’d write about it eventually and here it is; forbidden love between a Middle Eastern girl with no English and a bloke from Australia learning Arabic, as well as the important lessons learned from the whole experience.
Forbidden love?
Well, not initially.
At first there was nothing forbidden about it at all – we met, we did the right thing and approached her father for permission, he gave us the green light, preparations for the engagement ceremony were made – everything was perfect.
That was until a bunch of unforeseen problems came our way that threw a spanner in the works and brought the whole thing to a halt.
A short-lived fantasy.
It was a heartbreaking end and one that neither of us wanted but in the end it wasn’t our decision to make.
So…
Today I’ve decided to share a few lessons with you that I learned from the whole experience.
It should give you some idea of what’s usually expected in Egyptian society if you ever meet the man or woman of your dreams. Enjoy!
Note: This is what I personally learned from my own experience and those of my Egyptian friends. I realize that there may be slight differences depending on how conservative the family is, whether they’re Coptic or Muslim and what area they’re from.