Master’s student Salma Khaled ElRouby believes if you understand a language then you understand the culture.
(Photo: Heather Montague)
“When you come from such a big city like Cairo with 20 million people the world becomes Cairo. Life is very multifaceted there: the people around you, working hard, education and social life. I used to do research, I worked in a design office, and I used to teach. I also have a very big family and a lot of friends. You juggle all of these things, it’s always busy, but it’s your world.
And then you come here and it’s a huge change. It was strange to me that people finish work at 5 p.m. and then go home. I thought, but then what do you do? I suddenly had a lot of free time, more than I’ve had in my entire life. And I can’t handle free time so that was hard for me. I went back to Egypt after my first two months here because I wanted to be home. Again, I went home for the Christmas break thinking the same thing, but after three weeks I actually realised I wanted to be back in the Netherlands.
‘It would be such a waste if I live here for two years and don’t learn the language’
That was when it hit me. The experience is starting to sink in. I’m more understanding of how things work around here. I’m getting to know a lot of people now and have a lot of friends. I feel like I’m enjoying my time now that I stopped comparing here to my home. Coming from a very warm country like Egypt, it’s culturally very different, the kind of relationships you have are very different and the way we interact is so different. So, I think I passed a milestone the moment I started thinking differently about my time here and stopped comparing it to Cairo.
I’m a native Arabic speaker, my English is also very good because I studied at an American university, and in school I studied French for around 17 years. And everyone here speaks English so that’s easy. But I think it would be such a waste if I live here for two years and don’t learn the language. I think if you understand a language then you understand the culture. I don’t know if I’ll continue with research or work here after my master’s, but I really think two years is long enough for me to learn the language, at least conversationally. And again, I have nothing else to do after 5 p.m.!”
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Heather Montague / Freelance writer
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