ESTEEMED ADMINISTRATORS, FACULTY MEMBERS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN ...

Paul was recently asked to represent his Level 7 Arabic class at the annual open-house and Language Center gathering: Al-Yaum Al-'Ilmi. This meant preparing a 5-minute quickie speech in formal Arabic discussing my experiences in Jordan and stereotypes of Arabs/Jordanians in my country.

I am glad to say that three speech drafts later (with help from one of my Arabic instructors), I gave a very commendable 5-minute speech in front of a largely Arab academic audience (and a few classmates) that was well received. I was the last speaker after two student reps from lower levels.

Afterwards, comments by Arab faculty members basically said that (a) my Arabic pronunciation was surprisingly close to native-like, (b) I seemed to understand Jordan quite well including references to the Bani Sakhr bedouin tribe, (c) my ideas were important for Arab-American relations (one member of a non-government news agency in Amman wanted to borrow my text to excerpt).

Very flattering, and helpful if it gives me some useful contacts locally.

FUNNY, HE DOESN'T LOOK JEWISH ...

One annoyance since I've been here this time is that some Jordanians seem to assume I'm Jewish - the BERG on the end of my name?

The first time it came up was when I called the Tourist Police to get help finding a missing camera. When I arrived at their office, the gate guard started speaking to me in Hebrew! (I know the barest amount to know what it was.) I explained - IN ARABIC - that I was American, born in Saudi Arabia, and spoke either ENGLISH or ARABIC.

Then, last week, my very nice Arabic literature instructor, Dr. Mothanna (a man), asked me if I could give him some advice about the Israeli embassy in Jordan! (How should I know? I don't even know where it is!)

What ties these two topics together this posting is that I decided to use my formal Arabic speech to clarify that my father's ancestors came to American from SWEDEN ("... I come from a family of immigrants ...") I have nothing against someone being Jewish, but in the Arab World it is not a neutral problem to have people assuming you are Jewish!

DEAR JORDANIAN INTELLIGENCE: I am a PROTESTANT, CHRISTIAN AMERICAN of DUTCH and SWEDISH background. -BERG means 'mountain' in Swedish and SUND- means 'bay'. Check the Stockholm phonebook!!!