I've gotten a lot of questions about language over here. I have yet to see a sign that doesn't have both English and Arabic. There is a big hand washing campaign that just got kicked off in DHCC and those signs are in 7 languages (if I remember correctly, they are: English, Arabic, French, Tagalog, and 3 Indian dialects).
Television here is split between Arabic channels (mostly out of Abu Dhabi and Dubai) and English. Most English channels (at least movies and shows, not news that I've seen) have Arabic subtitles. Several of the channels playing American programs play really old movies and older TV shows. I have found some more recent shows - Must Love Dogs, Harry Potter 4, 30 Rock, and Journeyman (though this has been discontinued in the US this year). I found ESPN and they were playing an NBA game. And then replayed it. And then replayed it again :) Most late night shows (Daly Show, Letterman) can be found here, but they are edited and about 3-4 days old when they are played.
They are very energy conscious here. When you get into your hotel room there is a place to stick your key card. Unless you put your keycard in there, your lights do not work (the idea being, when you take your keycard and leave the room, the lights turn out a few minutes after that). I learned this the hard way (I think the bellman thought I was an idiot when he had to show me), along with the fact that they have a couple master switches around the room and unless those are turned on none of the lights in the room work.
There are lots of traffic circles here rather than standard intersections. And traffic circles are good for low volumes of traffic, but apparently there is a huge traffic circle at the intersection of the two largest roads in Dubai near the Port of Dubai. One of the UH folks here referred to it as the Circle of Terror. Check out the view from Google Maps:
Television here is split between Arabic channels (mostly out of Abu Dhabi and Dubai) and English. Most English channels (at least movies and shows, not news that I've seen) have Arabic subtitles. Several of the channels playing American programs play really old movies and older TV shows. I have found some more recent shows - Must Love Dogs, Harry Potter 4, 30 Rock, and Journeyman (though this has been discontinued in the US this year). I found ESPN and they were playing an NBA game. And then replayed it. And then replayed it again :) Most late night shows (Daly Show, Letterman) can be found here, but they are edited and about 3-4 days old when they are played.
They are very energy conscious here. When you get into your hotel room there is a place to stick your key card. Unless you put your keycard in there, your lights do not work (the idea being, when you take your keycard and leave the room, the lights turn out a few minutes after that). I learned this the hard way (I think the bellman thought I was an idiot when he had to show me), along with the fact that they have a couple master switches around the room and unless those are turned on none of the lights in the room work.
There are lots of traffic circles here rather than standard intersections. And traffic circles are good for low volumes of traffic, but apparently there is a huge traffic circle at the intersection of the two largest roads in Dubai near the Port of Dubai. One of the UH folks here referred to it as the Circle of Terror. Check out the view from Google Maps:
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