While you travel in any of the Arabic speaking countries of the Middle East, you will be asked about what you do for work. Moreover, this is likely to be even truer when you talk to someone for the first time. However, why do you think this is?
When you were young, you were most likely asked what you wanted to be when you grew up. As a result, your answer might depend on when we were born, as when and where we were born might affect what future careers appeal to us.
In general, no matter where you live in the world, what you do defines who you are and how much respect you get. Likewise, this is as true in America as it is in the Middle East. In fact, a group known as the Varkey Foundation – a worldwide education charity - recently performed a survey in 35 countries to get feedback on 14 typical career choices. Furthermore, in each nation that was surveyed, one thousand members of the general public were asked to rank careers from the highest respect (14
th) to the lowest respect (1
st).
For the most part, which careers did the study find are today’s most respected? All things considered, doctors ranked the highest followed by lawyers and engineers. Furthermore, teachers at both the grade school and high school levels were ranked lower than police officers, nurses, accountants, and the like.
Nevertheless, no matter your profession, when you meet a native Arabic speaker for the first time and they ask what you do, say it with these words for jobs in Arabic. Furthermore, remember the old Arab proverb that states: “Get together like brothers, but work together like strangers.” meaning always be professional no matter what you do or, more importantly, who you work with.
طَبيب
/Tabeeb/
Means
Doctor
مُعَلِّم
/muʻallim/
Means
Teacher
مُوَظَّف
/muwaDHaf/
Means
Employee
مُحامي
/muHaamee/
Means
Lawyer
دِبْلوماسي
/diblumaasee/
Means
Diplomat
To form a feminine word from a
masculine word we add ة/ ــة
to professions, humans and animals
As in (طَبيبَــــــة)
/Tabeebah/
هَلْ
/hal/
Is used as a question word for
for "Yes or No" questions
As in (هَلْ هَذِهِ سَيَّارَة؟)
Is this a car?
أَعْمَل
/ʼaʻmal/
Means
I work
لا
/laa/
Means
No/ Do not/ Does not
As in (لا أَعْمَل)
I do not work
For more info regarding jobs in Arabic and how to learn Arabic online,
you can download the Arabic learning app Kaleela to learn Arabic the right way.