Welcome

Historically, Arab culture is one of the most hospitable cultures in the world to foreigners. The word for "welcome" in Arabic is "Ah'lan" and is used in a variety of ways.

 

If somebody gives another person something, before the other person can say "thank you", they are told "you're welcome". It always throws me for a bit of a loop, "Here's your coffee, you are welcome" " Well, thank you!" "You're welcome"

 

At a recent work meeting, we had some visitors from a partner organization. We were discussing which projects we had and where they were. One is in a town near Bethlehem, and one of the woman from the partner organization said, "Yes, I know where that village is, I'm from Bethlehem." And my colleague replied, "You are welcome." The subtext being.: "You are a visitor here in Ramallah, and so I welcome you." I had to suppress a giggle – they are both Palestinian, Bethlehem is 25 km from Ramallah, and this woman has probably lived in Ramallah for 10 years. But apart from religion, the most important identifying factor is the town you are from. And so, you must always welcome an outsider.