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All Strangers Are Kin: Adventures in Arabic and the Arab World
“The
shadda
is the key difference between a pigeon (
hamam
) and a bathroom (
hammam
). Be careful, our professor advised, in the first moment of outright humor in class, that you don’t ask a waiter, ‘Excuse me, where is the pigeon?’ — or, conversely, order a roasted toilet.”
If you’ve ever studied a foreign language, you know what happens when you first truly and clearly communicate with another person. As Zora O’Neill recalls, you feel like a magician. If that foreign language is Arabic, you just might feel like a wizard.
They say that Arabic takes seven years to learn and a lifetime to master. O’Neill had put in her time. Steeped in grammar tomes and outdated textbooks, she faced an increasing certainty that she was not only failing to master Arabic, but also driving herself crazy. She took a decade-long hiatus, but couldn’t shake her fascination with the language or the cultures it had opened up to her. So she decided to jump back in—this time with a new approach.
Join O’Neill for a grand tour through the Middle East. You will laugh with her in Egypt, delight in the stories she passes on from the United Arab Emirates, and find yourself transformed by her experiences in Lebanon and Morocco. She’s packed her dictionaries, her unsinkable sense of humor, and her talent for making fast friends of strangers. From quiet, bougainvillea-lined streets to the lively buzz of crowded medinas, from families’ homes to local hotspots, she brings a part of the world that is thousands of miles away right to your door.
A natural storyteller with an eye for the deeply absurd and the deeply human, O’Neill explores the indelible links between culture and communication. A powerful testament to the dynamism of language, All Strangers Are Kin reminds us that learning another tongue leaves you rich with so much more than words.
If you’ve ever studied a foreign language, you know what happens when you first truly and clearly communicate with another person. As Zora O’Neill recalls, you feel like a magician. If that foreign language is Arabic, you just might feel like a wizard.
They say that Arabic takes seven years to learn and a lifetime to master. O’Neill had put in her time. Steeped in grammar tomes and outdated textbooks, she faced an increasing certainty that she was not only failing to master Arabic, but also driving herself crazy. She took a decade-long hiatus, but couldn’t shake her fascination with the language or the cultures it had opened up to her. So she decided to jump back in—this time with a new approach.
Join O’Neill for a grand tour through the Middle East. You will laugh with her in Egypt, delight in the stories she passes on from the United Arab Emirates, and find yourself transformed by her experiences in Lebanon and Morocco. She’s packed her dictionaries, her unsinkable sense of humor, and her talent for making fast friends of strangers. From quiet, bougainvillea-lined streets to the lively buzz of crowded medinas, from families’ homes to local hotspots, she brings a part of the world that is thousands of miles away right to your door.
A natural storyteller with an eye for the deeply absurd and the deeply human, O’Neill explores the indelible links between culture and communication. A powerful testament to the dynamism of language, All Strangers Are Kin reminds us that learning another tongue leaves you rich with so much more than words.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published June 14, 2016
About the author
Zora O'Neill
50 books39 followersI'm a travel and food writer, with a particular interest in languages and traditional cuisine.
I grew up in New Mexico, and now live in Astoria, Queens, in NYC. I chose the neighborhood because I hear so many different languages spoken in the streets, and I can buy fresh produce 24 hours a day.
For years, my main gig was writing travel guides. It has always been a pleasure to give a great restaurant recommendation, and have someone come back and tell me how much they love it.
My first travel memoir, All Strangers Are Kin, was published in 2016. It took me back to the Middle East, to study Arabic again--a lifetime project.
I grew up in New Mexico, and now live in Astoria, Queens, in NYC. I chose the neighborhood because I hear so many different languages spoken in the streets, and I can buy fresh produce 24 hours a day.
For years, my main gig was writing travel guides. It has always been a pleasure to give a great restaurant recommendation, and have someone come back and tell me how much they love it.
My first travel memoir, All Strangers Are Kin, was published in 2016. It took me back to the Middle East, to study Arabic again--a lifetime project.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews
January 17, 2017
A travel memoir set in four areas of the Arabic World--Egypt, the Gulf, Lebanon, and Morocco--All Strangers are Kin explores the complexities of the Arabic language and the challenges of learning it, from Standard Arabic to the spoken Arabic of the street.
As someone who has traveled to all the places mentioned and has studied Arabic for years, I found the book to be a terrific read for anyone with an interest in travel, linguistics, the Arabic language, and the vast variations within the Arabic-speaking world. Highly recommended.
As someone who has traveled to all the places mentioned and has studied Arabic for years, I found the book to be a terrific read for anyone with an interest in travel, linguistics, the Arabic language, and the vast variations within the Arabic-speaking world. Highly recommended.
July 6, 2016
It is true that the only way to become fluent in a foreign language is to spend time amongst native speakers in their own land and that to truly understand and appreciate the people and culture of another country you need to be able to speak their language. In this book, the author seeks to expand her Arabic studies through sojourns in Egypt, Lebanon, the Arabian Peninsula and Morocco and in the process also finds insight into the places she visits through the differences in way the language has developed and is used in these places.
As an American who admits to very little understanding of the Arab world beyond the stereotypes and even less knowledge of the Arabic language, I found this book to be an eye-opening look at both. All great travel books depend on our being able to indentify with our guide. The best ones always leave me wishing I could tag along with the author on her next trip. This book accomplishes that in spades. O'Neill is a curious and daring traveller. She is so open to new experiences that at times I worried for her safety. Her desire to speak Arabic with the natives occasionally puts her in a position of having to deflect men's advances, which she does with great aplomb. She allows herself to be lead into strangers homes despite her own reservations. And she is mostly rewarded with the kind of experiences that give us, the reader, a view into these places that visiting monuments and taking tours never could.
Having zero knowledge of Arabic, some of the longer sections dealing with the nuances of the language went way over my head but did not lessen my appreciation for the book as a whole and many of the author's insights provide some of the funniest parts of the narrative.
My favorite section was the last one, her travels in Morocco, where 40 years before her parents had spent time as young hippies and where they met an independent young Moroccan woman for whom the author is named. When her parents join her for their first return visit to the country since the 60's the story becomes wonderfully personal and moving.
This is an exceptionally well-written travelogue, witty and wise, and I can highly recommend it to anyone, not just fans of travel books.
As an American who admits to very little understanding of the Arab world beyond the stereotypes and even less knowledge of the Arabic language, I found this book to be an eye-opening look at both. All great travel books depend on our being able to indentify with our guide. The best ones always leave me wishing I could tag along with the author on her next trip. This book accomplishes that in spades. O'Neill is a curious and daring traveller. She is so open to new experiences that at times I worried for her safety. Her desire to speak Arabic with the natives occasionally puts her in a position of having to deflect men's advances, which she does with great aplomb. She allows herself to be lead into strangers homes despite her own reservations. And she is mostly rewarded with the kind of experiences that give us, the reader, a view into these places that visiting monuments and taking tours never could.
Having zero knowledge of Arabic, some of the longer sections dealing with the nuances of the language went way over my head but did not lessen my appreciation for the book as a whole and many of the author's insights provide some of the funniest parts of the narrative.
My favorite section was the last one, her travels in Morocco, where 40 years before her parents had spent time as young hippies and where they met an independent young Moroccan woman for whom the author is named. When her parents join her for their first return visit to the country since the 60's the story becomes wonderfully personal and moving.
This is an exceptionally well-written travelogue, witty and wise, and I can highly recommend it to anyone, not just fans of travel books.
August 25, 2016
The short: I loved this book.
The long: I can't believe how much I related to the author. We both started studying Arabic in US universities around the same time (very early 90s), rejected academic study of the language for 3ameyya/colloquial, and we share a strong love for Cairo, warts and all. There were several times I felt like I was reading stories I could have written or reading about folks I could have met. She has had some great experiences and I liked her writing style very much. I highly recommend this solid book for language lovers in general, and Arabic language lovers and long time learners in particular. Both the vast and subtle differences between dialects and the level of lifetime learning Arabic takes will have you feeling less alone in the world!
The long: I can't believe how much I related to the author. We both started studying Arabic in US universities around the same time (very early 90s), rejected academic study of the language for 3ameyya/colloquial, and we share a strong love for Cairo, warts and all. There were several times I felt like I was reading stories I could have written or reading about folks I could have met. She has had some great experiences and I liked her writing style very much. I highly recommend this solid book for language lovers in general, and Arabic language lovers and long time learners in particular. Both the vast and subtle differences between dialects and the level of lifetime learning Arabic takes will have you feeling less alone in the world!
June 12, 2016
What happens when a middle-aged woman from the US decides to try and master her limited Arabic by travelling around the Middle East to different countries, learning some of the ins and outs of each version of the language? A bit of chaos, a bit of confusion, and an interesting history lesson thrown in. In short, you have 'All Strangers Are Kin'.
This book was a bit of a toss-up for me in regards to the actual reading. The parts where the author emphasized so much of the language were slow and confusing - not a surprise, really, since the language is one of the more complicated ones. However, the parts where the author spends more time talking about the places, the people, and the history of the different locations were far better and are what kept me going throughout. She has an easy way of writing that really works in getting her story out. Frankly, I recommend skipping the second chapter in the Egypt section, because she seems to have gone on a word-bender...the rest is good to go.
Overall, while I'm not sure that I would really recommend this to many friends, it was worth the reading time simply to get a different perspective on the culture of the area, as well as the constant wars. For me, this would be a library book rather than a purchase.
This book was a bit of a toss-up for me in regards to the actual reading. The parts where the author emphasized so much of the language were slow and confusing - not a surprise, really, since the language is one of the more complicated ones. However, the parts where the author spends more time talking about the places, the people, and the history of the different locations were far better and are what kept me going throughout. She has an easy way of writing that really works in getting her story out. Frankly, I recommend skipping the second chapter in the Egypt section, because she seems to have gone on a word-bender...the rest is good to go.
Overall, while I'm not sure that I would really recommend this to many friends, it was worth the reading time simply to get a different perspective on the culture of the area, as well as the constant wars. For me, this would be a library book rather than a purchase.
July 27, 2017
One of my new favorites. Funny and engaging. I already love Arabic, but this made the language all the more delightful. What a grand way to get a taste of the flavor of so many different Arabic-speaking countries. If you're not an Arabic speaker, this is a great- and needed- intro to a part of the world that sadly evokes fear in many Westerners. If you have ever been a student of Arabic, you'll get a kick out of her descriptions!
November 5, 2017
I came to this book through the NPR podcast The World in Words, and I'm so glad I read it. To a language nerd, the heartfelt hand-wringing over accuracy vs. connection is both familiar and delightful. The descriptions of popular culture, traditional language, and human connection in Arab cities are vivid and warm. I only wish it was available in audio so I'd know how to properly say many of the phrases I read.
July 15, 2017
A fun and highly informative tour through several stops in the Arab-speaking world. O'Neill introduces us to many compelling characters in Egypt, the UAE, Lebanon, and Morocco. Along the way she provides plenty of insight into (transliterated) Arabic that was fascinating even for those of us who know no Arabic.
O'Neill's journey is personal as well, and we learn a lot about her through some moving passages about her family, her struggles with Arabic, and her navigation through the Arabic-speaking world as a (frequently) solo female traveler. This is a wonderful book!
O'Neill's journey is personal as well, and we learn a lot about her through some moving passages about her family, her struggles with Arabic, and her navigation through the Arabic-speaking world as a (frequently) solo female traveler. This is a wonderful book!
June 17, 2017
I love this book. Her journey to discover the nuances of a foreign language and become fluent in a language with as rich a history as Arabic is wonderful. The humor, the danger and the overall insights provided into the Muslim culture through its language is fascinating. If you are a word nerd as I am, you will be enthralled and amazed by zora's adventures.
July 12, 2016
I have been wanting to read this book for a whille. For one, i love Travel Memoirs and two, i have an interest in the Arabic language.
This covers Zora O'Neill's travels to Egypt, United Arabic Emirates, Lebanon and Morocco.
Zora starts in Egypt, where the dialect is very different from words that are used in other Arabic dialects. Next she travels to the United Arabic Emirates, where they are very wealthy and like to make it known. Maids attend to the homes and there is an awful lot of the sex trade going on. This is where the locals manage in life and foreigners have to do the work. Next up is Lebanon, here she meets people who have been victimized by landmines left over by the civil war. Lastly she goes to Morocco, this was my favourite part in the book. Here is where her parents lived as hippies before she was born. And her parents join her for their first return visit to the country since the 1960's.
There were areas of the book that goes into a lot of detail about the history of the various countries which i found at times very mind boggling and not exactly interesting because i wanted to read more about Zora's actual trip, what she did, what she saw, who she met, what she ate and i wanted to read more about the sights and sounds to get a real feel of the places she was in. We get a lot of information about the Arabic language, including words thrown in throughout. I think this would only appeal to you if you have used or learnt Arabic. There are parts we learn from Zora about living in an unfamiliar culture and opening herself up to some situations good and bad. Arabic is an amazing language to learn, but at times Zora seemed self conscious to use it and she found it difficult initiating conversations. But she did well and i think that is part and parcel of expressing a new language that you have learnt. The Arabs love that you have taken the time and effort to learn or pick up the language, so never be afraid to give it a go.
This covers Zora O'Neill's travels to Egypt, United Arabic Emirates, Lebanon and Morocco.
Zora starts in Egypt, where the dialect is very different from words that are used in other Arabic dialects. Next she travels to the United Arabic Emirates, where they are very wealthy and like to make it known. Maids attend to the homes and there is an awful lot of the sex trade going on. This is where the locals manage in life and foreigners have to do the work. Next up is Lebanon, here she meets people who have been victimized by landmines left over by the civil war. Lastly she goes to Morocco, this was my favourite part in the book. Here is where her parents lived as hippies before she was born. And her parents join her for their first return visit to the country since the 1960's.
There were areas of the book that goes into a lot of detail about the history of the various countries which i found at times very mind boggling and not exactly interesting because i wanted to read more about Zora's actual trip, what she did, what she saw, who she met, what she ate and i wanted to read more about the sights and sounds to get a real feel of the places she was in. We get a lot of information about the Arabic language, including words thrown in throughout. I think this would only appeal to you if you have used or learnt Arabic. There are parts we learn from Zora about living in an unfamiliar culture and opening herself up to some situations good and bad. Arabic is an amazing language to learn, but at times Zora seemed self conscious to use it and she found it difficult initiating conversations. But she did well and i think that is part and parcel of expressing a new language that you have learnt. The Arabs love that you have taken the time and effort to learn or pick up the language, so never be afraid to give it a go.
March 6, 2018
All Strangers Are Kin is a fascinating book about travel, as well as the logistics of the Arabic language. Throughout the memoir, the reader comes to understand Zora and why she is motivated to travel the world. Zora discusses the nuances of Arabic and its many dialects and colloquialisms. By the end of the book, the reader understands that, through her travels, Zora not only better understands the Arabic language, but now better understands the breadth of the human experience.
As someone who has not studied Arabic, I think that an audiobook version would have benefitted me in understanding the struggles and successes of Zora in regards to the dialects and vocabulary . I found myself skimming over the paragraphs that were filled with phrases and explanations of sentence structure because of my unfamiliarity with the language.
As someone who has not studied Arabic, I think that an audiobook version would have benefitted me in understanding the struggles and successes of Zora in regards to the dialects and vocabulary . I found myself skimming over the paragraphs that were filled with phrases and explanations of sentence structure because of my unfamiliarity with the language.
August 13, 2016
Loved this book! O'Neill expressed the same frustrations and challenges that I have gone through trying to learn Arabic, and yet interwoven are the warm people she dares herself to meet, as she travels alone throughout the Middle East. Very brave, and very insightful!
October 24, 2016
This is a most unusual, beautifully written, memoir. At the age of 40, the author's desire to learn more about the Arabic language led to her taking a year-long trip to four different Arabic-speaking countries. Highly recommended!
November 20, 2017
I really enjoyed reading about the authors adventures and misadventures in learning Arabic and different dialects. As someone living in Morocco and struggling daily with Darija, this was comforting. I hope I can take the advice of just winging it but also asking clarifying questions when necessary
January 8, 2018
OK, I'm a language nerd. I love learning about different languages and their history. Zora tells a fascinating story from a perspective rarely explored when visiting the Middle East. Very refreshing and entertaining.
April 3, 2017
I expected Zora's "grand tour through the Middle East" would, for the most part, sweep the reader up with cultural experiences peppered with the odd reference to language and vocabulary. But what a delight that the converse was true. Zora does recount her experiences but her real skill lies in her ability to delve surprisingly deep into the nuances of the language. Her frustration between the classical and popular languages had me equally disheartened until she abruptly turned the whole matter on its head. This language is dynamic and her fearless leap into dictionaries and poetry and regional paradoxes was impressive.
If you're looking for a casual travel narrative, you may find yourself in a vernacular daze muddling through the vast number academic passages. But if you're a lover of language, be delightfully warned: This book is a steady stream of language analysis; and if that's your thing, this is your book.
If you're looking for a casual travel narrative, you may find yourself in a vernacular daze muddling through the vast number academic passages. But if you're a lover of language, be delightfully warned: This book is a steady stream of language analysis; and if that's your thing, this is your book.
May 3, 2023
3.5 stars
I liked a lot about this book - for instance, the author is older (40) when she goes on her travels, and though she's mostly alone while traveling, she's married, so there aren't any sexual escapades which seem standard in so many other travel memoirs.
O'Neill accurately describes the highs and lows of language learning, including the fact that it's just plain exhausting, which is something so many people (non-language learners, mostly) don't understand. I also appreciated (and agreed with) her assertion that there's a certain advantage to learning a language as an adult - namely, because you're more confident in who you are and more willing to make a complete fool of yourself, which is a prerequisite for the speaking practice needed in language learning.
She goes into a lot of detail about the Arabic language/dialects, which was interesting at first but, since I've decided not to learn it myself, did seem like overkill and I definitely didn't get all the jokes, even with her explanation.
It was a bit on the long side. There were no chapter numbers, just headings, which is a big pet peeve of mine.
God's name was misused. The author also describes herself and others as "Christian" in the sense that they come from Christian-influenced, western nations (rather than holding Christian beliefs) which was rather confusing. I thought that could have been handled better.
I liked a lot about this book - for instance, the author is older (40) when she goes on her travels, and though she's mostly alone while traveling, she's married, so there aren't any sexual escapades which seem standard in so many other travel memoirs.
O'Neill accurately describes the highs and lows of language learning, including the fact that it's just plain exhausting, which is something so many people (non-language learners, mostly) don't understand. I also appreciated (and agreed with) her assertion that there's a certain advantage to learning a language as an adult - namely, because you're more confident in who you are and more willing to make a complete fool of yourself, which is a prerequisite for the speaking practice needed in language learning.
She goes into a lot of detail about the Arabic language/dialects, which was interesting at first but, since I've decided not to learn it myself, did seem like overkill and I definitely didn't get all the jokes, even with her explanation.
It was a bit on the long side. There were no chapter numbers, just headings, which is a big pet peeve of mine.
God's name was misused. The author also describes herself and others as "Christian" in the sense that they come from Christian-influenced, western nations (rather than holding Christian beliefs) which was rather confusing. I thought that could have been handled better.
February 27, 2023
I first picked up this book years ago when I was in a travelogue phase, but it somehow got lost in the shuffle.
Fast forward many years and it randomly popped up on my mind. After some intense searching with the help of a colleague, I found it and was again launched into the world of language learning, this time in Arabic.
Zora's reverence for the Arabic language brings this books and the worlds she describe to life. I am there, in the dust covered streets with the tour guide who loves puns. Or the woman whispering a secret on a rooftop. Or even on the speedboat to the bar with the uncle that reminds you of James Bond. All of this happens in one book, and not disjointedly. I swear, I can smell the heat, sand, and exhaust.
God, it's such a good book. If you love language, culture, and travel, you will love this book.
Fast forward many years and it randomly popped up on my mind. After some intense searching with the help of a colleague, I found it and was again launched into the world of language learning, this time in Arabic.
Zora's reverence for the Arabic language brings this books and the worlds she describe to life. I am there, in the dust covered streets with the tour guide who loves puns. Or the woman whispering a secret on a rooftop. Or even on the speedboat to the bar with the uncle that reminds you of James Bond. All of this happens in one book, and not disjointedly. I swear, I can smell the heat, sand, and exhaust.
God, it's such a good book. If you love language, culture, and travel, you will love this book.
November 19, 2024
What a beautiful book. Reminds me why I love travel so much.
November 4, 2019
This started out as a 3.5 stars and degraded to 2.5 stars....
Loved the premise - - exploring a region through its language dialects, looking at similarities or the vast differences in various Arabic countries, both linguistic and cultural, through the specific lens of this American female author.
Part memoir, part linguistic history, part travelogue, this book works on many levels for a while. But after a while, the heavy emphasis on a language that I know nothing about it more of a slog to get through than something I was enjoying or learning from. Because I have no background in Arabic, I had no starting frame of reference for the vocabulary and grammatical detours she would take in each country. There was a lotttttt of very specific, very detailed examinations of dialect-specific words or syntax or pronunciation, and when you have zero context for how a language sounds, this can become soooooo tedious.
The memoir portion of it also never really took off, imo. Usually, memoirs are framed around a traditional narrative arc, with one or more characters learning and growing. While the author definitely experiences and demonstrates growth in her approach to learning an insanely complex language, I didn't feel much of an emotional connection to her or her journey, and never really felt it climbing to a natural climax. When she wraps up at the end, kind of summarizing her journey, I could see how she did address this arc, but I think it was too subtle to keep me engaged.
I do have a better understanding of Arabic as a whole, but I can't recall details about any of the country-specific dialects. It was just too in thr weeds and needed to be a bit more broad in its approach to the language aspect of the story.
Would recommend this for super labgaue nerds or anyone studying Arabic.
Loved the premise - - exploring a region through its language dialects, looking at similarities or the vast differences in various Arabic countries, both linguistic and cultural, through the specific lens of this American female author.
Part memoir, part linguistic history, part travelogue, this book works on many levels for a while. But after a while, the heavy emphasis on a language that I know nothing about it more of a slog to get through than something I was enjoying or learning from. Because I have no background in Arabic, I had no starting frame of reference for the vocabulary and grammatical detours she would take in each country. There was a lotttttt of very specific, very detailed examinations of dialect-specific words or syntax or pronunciation, and when you have zero context for how a language sounds, this can become soooooo tedious.
The memoir portion of it also never really took off, imo. Usually, memoirs are framed around a traditional narrative arc, with one or more characters learning and growing. While the author definitely experiences and demonstrates growth in her approach to learning an insanely complex language, I didn't feel much of an emotional connection to her or her journey, and never really felt it climbing to a natural climax. When she wraps up at the end, kind of summarizing her journey, I could see how she did address this arc, but I think it was too subtle to keep me engaged.
I do have a better understanding of Arabic as a whole, but I can't recall details about any of the country-specific dialects. It was just too in thr weeds and needed to be a bit more broad in its approach to the language aspect of the story.
Would recommend this for super labgaue nerds or anyone studying Arabic.
July 29, 2019
I absolutely loved this book. I love languages and linguistics. Although I did not intend to read this book at this particular moment (I am currently attempting to read all the books on the SC Librarians Association book award nominee lists for middle grades and high school), after mistakenly checking the kindle version out from the library, I went ahead and read it. Devoured it, is more like it.
Although I do not hold a strong desire to learn Arabic, I possess an intense desire to become more fluent in Spanish, a language which I have dubbed my "heart language." To read this book while on vacation in Spain? The word "serendipitous" comes to mind.
Although O'Neill's chronology could use some work differentiating for the reader between what happened on her previous study abroad trips to these areas and what happened on the trips taken for the express purpose of writing the book (the reason for four stars instead of five), I loved this book. I could nearly feel her passion for the language and every other emotion she felt on this journey ooze out from the pages. I seriously want to undergo intensive study in Spanish now. Maybe two summers from now?
I highly recommend this book, especially to all the language lovers out there.
Although I do not hold a strong desire to learn Arabic, I possess an intense desire to become more fluent in Spanish, a language which I have dubbed my "heart language." To read this book while on vacation in Spain? The word "serendipitous" comes to mind.
Although O'Neill's chronology could use some work differentiating for the reader between what happened on her previous study abroad trips to these areas and what happened on the trips taken for the express purpose of writing the book (the reason for four stars instead of five), I loved this book. I could nearly feel her passion for the language and every other emotion she felt on this journey ooze out from the pages. I seriously want to undergo intensive study in Spanish now. Maybe two summers from now?
I highly recommend this book, especially to all the language lovers out there.
October 13, 2016
Loved this book. The author tells the story of her travels in 4 different areas of the Arab world in order to study Arabic and the dialects spoken in these regions. She had studied Arabic in college and was now wanting to learn more about this fascinating language. Her travels are interesting but also of interest is what she learns about the language and its grammar and usage in these various regions. She first goes to Egypt, then to Dubai, next to Lebanon and finally to Morocco. There is a lot of detail on the language, pronunciation, word use, etc. If you like to read about travels in the Middle East and/or are interested in the Arabic language, this is the book for you.
August 26, 2016
Zora is a friend of mine and she never ceases to amaze me. This memoir is very conversational and funny and really takes you along for the ride on her adventures; so much so that at times I found myself wanting to say: "No Zora! Don't go with that person. What are you thinking?" It is deliberately and refreshingly anti-political and just presents the people she has met as ordinary people who happen to speak and pray differently from myself. What a joy!
June 14, 2018
As a language teacher and learner, I enjoy reading about other people's experiences with studying foreign languages. Who knew there were several variations of Arabic? This woman's experience was like a learner of English going to the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in one year to learn to speak English. How confusing would all the slang be? If you like languages, this is a very fun book.
March 7, 2026
I read this book because I have spent years, off and on, studying Arabic and have some familiarity with the Arab world that Zora O'Neill writes about. Unlike her, I have never actually traveled to the Middle East, and her Arabic is certainly better than mine. I envied her a little her travels (and her ability to just take off on a jaunt for a year drifting from Egypt to Lebanon to the Gulf to Morocco). I also found her naivete a little frustrating and her luck astounding. She's a lone American woman traveling through Muslim countries, and though she gets propositioned many times (and each time is rather slow on the uptake to realize that this guy asking to go back to her room with her doesn't just want to teach her verb conjugations) she somehow managed to avoid ever getting in real trouble. (Her travels were circa 2014-2015, I believe, so Lebanon was a somewhat safer and less desperate place than it is now. She wasn't foolish enough to try Syria or Iraq, though.)
If you have an interest in travel memoirs or the Arab world generally you may enjoy this book. O'Neill writes well and has many interesting and sometimes funny encounters, and she certainly presents an Arabic journey that isn't all dour veiled women and jihadist men. Arabs have a sense of humor, they celebrate and grieve and are curious and greedy and romantic like anyone else, and her whole point in writing this book, as she says in the foreword, was to give her Western audience a picture that isn't the usual CNN one of the Arab world. However, it is also a journal of her language learning, and so many of the linguistic details she talks about will be of more interest to you if, like me, you have actually studied Arabic. You don't need to know any Arabic to read this book, of course, but when she refers to certain vocabulary (and sometimes writes it in Arabic) and puns and the subtleties of the language, you'll miss these nuances if Arabic is opaque to you.
For example, "Arabic" is actually a number of languages, and one of the challenges she repeatedly faces, a challenge that faces every Arabic student, is the distinction between what is called Modern Standard Arabic, or MSA (in Arabic: الفصحى "Fusha") and local dialects. MSA is formal Arabic derived from classical Quranic Arabic. It has very strict, precise, and difficult grammatical rules. Most books and media are written in MSA, and if you listen to Arabic news channels, the broadcasters are usually speaking MSA. It's a "lingua franca" across the Arab world, and every Arabic speaker with even a little education understands it.
However, nobody actually speaks it in real life. Arabs speak Ammiya (العَامِّيَّة), which is common or "street" Arabic, and which actually comes in numerous dialects. Egyptian is Musri (مِصْرِيّ), Levantine (spoken in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine) is Shami (شَامِيّ), Gulf Arabic is Khaliji (خَلِيجِيّ), and Moroccan Arabic is unintelligible. (That's a joke... kind of. Even other Arabs can't understand Darija.) These dialects have sub-dialects (Lebanese and Palestinian and Syrian Arabic are actually quite distinct), and it's all a very rich but confusing landscape.
So a typical question from Arabic students is "Which Arabic should I learn?" Most classes and textbooks for non-native speakers teach MSA, because that gives you the ability to communicate with anyone and read media. However, if you go to an Arabic country and speak MSA, the locals will understand you but they will find it funny, like someone wandering around speaking formal 19th century Received Pronunciation. The advice given if your goal is to go live in a particular country, or if you have Arabic relatives, is to learn the dialect.
Zora O'Neill, like most students, got her start with MSA. But her travels are a sort of sampler of Arabic dialects. She spends some months in Egypt learning Musri. She goes to Dubai and Oman to study Khaliji. She then travels to Lebanon to learn Shami. Finally, Morocco, which is Arabic on hard mode, being a bastard mix of Arabic, Berber, French, and other local languages.
By her own description, she never really becomes fluent in any particular dialect, and of course her travels result in her picking up a mish-mash of multiple dialects so sometimes she winds up using Egyptian words in Oman and Lebanese slang in Morocco, and sometimes she just falls back on MSA in desperation, sounding like someone reciting from a textbook. But her struggles were recognizable to me, and though I think she might undersell her ability, she also describes well the frustration of feeling like sometimes you've almost got it and sometimes, after months of study, you can't understand a damn word anyone is saying.
O'Neill is a very particular sort of wandering white woman, married with a husband who is not at all bothered by her spending weeks traipsing around the Middle East talking to strange men, no children (a topic which always comes up with Arabs, who are not shy about asking "Why not?") and the naivete to assume nothing bad will happen and "all strangers are kin." The fact that nothing bad does happen to her sells her narrative, but she possesses a certain fearlessness that only comes from believing that the world is meant to protect you and bad things happen to other people. I enjoyed reading about her journey, and her language studies. I don't think I would recommend most people try to imitate it.
If you have an interest in travel memoirs or the Arab world generally you may enjoy this book. O'Neill writes well and has many interesting and sometimes funny encounters, and she certainly presents an Arabic journey that isn't all dour veiled women and jihadist men. Arabs have a sense of humor, they celebrate and grieve and are curious and greedy and romantic like anyone else, and her whole point in writing this book, as she says in the foreword, was to give her Western audience a picture that isn't the usual CNN one of the Arab world. However, it is also a journal of her language learning, and so many of the linguistic details she talks about will be of more interest to you if, like me, you have actually studied Arabic. You don't need to know any Arabic to read this book, of course, but when she refers to certain vocabulary (and sometimes writes it in Arabic) and puns and the subtleties of the language, you'll miss these nuances if Arabic is opaque to you.
For example, "Arabic" is actually a number of languages, and one of the challenges she repeatedly faces, a challenge that faces every Arabic student, is the distinction between what is called Modern Standard Arabic, or MSA (in Arabic: الفصحى "Fusha") and local dialects. MSA is formal Arabic derived from classical Quranic Arabic. It has very strict, precise, and difficult grammatical rules. Most books and media are written in MSA, and if you listen to Arabic news channels, the broadcasters are usually speaking MSA. It's a "lingua franca" across the Arab world, and every Arabic speaker with even a little education understands it.
However, nobody actually speaks it in real life. Arabs speak Ammiya (العَامِّيَّة), which is common or "street" Arabic, and which actually comes in numerous dialects. Egyptian is Musri (مِصْرِيّ), Levantine (spoken in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine) is Shami (شَامِيّ), Gulf Arabic is Khaliji (خَلِيجِيّ), and Moroccan Arabic is unintelligible. (That's a joke... kind of. Even other Arabs can't understand Darija.) These dialects have sub-dialects (Lebanese and Palestinian and Syrian Arabic are actually quite distinct), and it's all a very rich but confusing landscape.
So a typical question from Arabic students is "Which Arabic should I learn?" Most classes and textbooks for non-native speakers teach MSA, because that gives you the ability to communicate with anyone and read media. However, if you go to an Arabic country and speak MSA, the locals will understand you but they will find it funny, like someone wandering around speaking formal 19th century Received Pronunciation. The advice given if your goal is to go live in a particular country, or if you have Arabic relatives, is to learn the dialect.
Zora O'Neill, like most students, got her start with MSA. But her travels are a sort of sampler of Arabic dialects. She spends some months in Egypt learning Musri. She goes to Dubai and Oman to study Khaliji. She then travels to Lebanon to learn Shami. Finally, Morocco, which is Arabic on hard mode, being a bastard mix of Arabic, Berber, French, and other local languages.
By her own description, she never really becomes fluent in any particular dialect, and of course her travels result in her picking up a mish-mash of multiple dialects so sometimes she winds up using Egyptian words in Oman and Lebanese slang in Morocco, and sometimes she just falls back on MSA in desperation, sounding like someone reciting from a textbook. But her struggles were recognizable to me, and though I think she might undersell her ability, she also describes well the frustration of feeling like sometimes you've almost got it and sometimes, after months of study, you can't understand a damn word anyone is saying.
O'Neill is a very particular sort of wandering white woman, married with a husband who is not at all bothered by her spending weeks traipsing around the Middle East talking to strange men, no children (a topic which always comes up with Arabs, who are not shy about asking "Why not?") and the naivete to assume nothing bad will happen and "all strangers are kin." The fact that nothing bad does happen to her sells her narrative, but she possesses a certain fearlessness that only comes from believing that the world is meant to protect you and bad things happen to other people. I enjoyed reading about her journey, and her language studies. I don't think I would recommend most people try to imitate it.
August 7, 2018
It shouldn’t have taken me this long , I just had no reading time. I really loved this book. In some ways her journey with Arabic is mine with Spanish or Japanese. Some words are just us. I love how her journey came full circle with an understanding that language learning doesn’t need to be perfect as well as bringing her parents back with her.
September 13, 2016
I got halfway through this book and then had to stop because this book lacks heart and spirit. I kept waiting for the author to unpack some of the racial politics of travelling through the middle east, but she never does, and that was disappointing. Overall, this book lacked life.
October 29, 2016
The author describes a totally different world I knew nothing about. Fascinating book! I couldn't put it down!
March 19, 2018
Makes you want to travel (and take a few language classes)! I liked he combination of word lessons and anecdotes.
January 22, 2022
To make people laugh in a foreign language. What a wonderful life goal! Languages all have their personalities--and so in many ways when you switch languages you become another person.
I had read about Arabic, as well as Farsi, having their high and low literary and colloquial tongues. I also knew that there are many "Arabics"-- so a person would study Egyptian or Syrian --or Moroccan-- and while they’re related, they are not mutually comprehensible. I knew this as facts but it was only in this book where I got to really understand what that means.
The author is a brilliant storyteller and a genuinely great person! A wonderful ambassador to the world, I was thinking. her story is a scene-driven super fun travel memoir. Somehow she makes the intricacies of Arabic--what makes it hard?-- come alive on the page mainly by showing it in her great scenes. So reading entertaining stories you realize how much the Ottoman empire influenced vocabulary or how much Egyptians like to joke around. Also how Moroccans "hear" Egyptian. I actually felt my eyes fill with tears reading one scene where a family suddenly called her over to join in their picnic out in front of the museum in Cairo-- it was such a spontaneous act of hospitality and O'Neill had the grace of the perfect guest to plop down and join them. I also loved the scene on the bus in Lebanon when she meets a Druze lady who spent a lot of time in Chicago. They talked about life in America and her religion... the next morning O'Neill gets a text message that reads: "Hi baby".... as a translator and twenty-year expat (Japan), I thought this was one of the greatest language memoirs and reminded me a lot of the struggles involved in always being a student--even in her forties.... and to just keep going. The ending when her parents join her in Morocco was the perfect ending... from her beloved Egypt to the Gulf to Lebanon and finally where her fascination began with her parents in Morocco this was a great read!
I had read about Arabic, as well as Farsi, having their high and low literary and colloquial tongues. I also knew that there are many "Arabics"-- so a person would study Egyptian or Syrian --or Moroccan-- and while they’re related, they are not mutually comprehensible. I knew this as facts but it was only in this book where I got to really understand what that means.
The author is a brilliant storyteller and a genuinely great person! A wonderful ambassador to the world, I was thinking. her story is a scene-driven super fun travel memoir. Somehow she makes the intricacies of Arabic--what makes it hard?-- come alive on the page mainly by showing it in her great scenes. So reading entertaining stories you realize how much the Ottoman empire influenced vocabulary or how much Egyptians like to joke around. Also how Moroccans "hear" Egyptian. I actually felt my eyes fill with tears reading one scene where a family suddenly called her over to join in their picnic out in front of the museum in Cairo-- it was such a spontaneous act of hospitality and O'Neill had the grace of the perfect guest to plop down and join them. I also loved the scene on the bus in Lebanon when she meets a Druze lady who spent a lot of time in Chicago. They talked about life in America and her religion... the next morning O'Neill gets a text message that reads: "Hi baby".... as a translator and twenty-year expat (Japan), I thought this was one of the greatest language memoirs and reminded me a lot of the struggles involved in always being a student--even in her forties.... and to just keep going. The ending when her parents join her in Morocco was the perfect ending... from her beloved Egypt to the Gulf to Lebanon and finally where her fascination began with her parents in Morocco this was a great read!
June 2, 2023
Being a non-native Arabic speaker and picking up Egyptian Ammiya from holidays spent visiting family in Egypt over the span of 15 years, I envied my few and far-between Arabic teachers and their complete command of the Arabic language. All being able to switch from dialects to Fusha and Ammiya Al Muthafiqeen - all without so much as a second thought. In fact, some Arabic teachers and Arabic-speaking colleagues would enjoy switching into Ammiya for me to make me laugh or tease me. Seeing them having to concentrate to 'dumb down' their Arabic to meet mine would make me wince a little on the inside, for not having learnt a 'better' or more 'sophisticated' dialect that was close to Fusha - like the Syrian dialect, for example.
Zora's experiences were my lived experiences, although all within the context of family and sometimes new friends. Visiting a stranger's house for lunch and having them insist you take a nap, Arabic teacher's tssk'ing at me and providing me with the preferred words to my self-taught Ammiya and forever learning that a word I know has several different meanings and can change from a compliment to an insult with the slightest emphasis or intonation on a particular vowel.
Accompanying me in any and every bit of down time, Zora kept me company with her sense of humour, hilarious observations and dramatic scenarios she would make up in her head - 'I had convinced myself I was sleeping in Bitissam and Yacine's recently deceased daughter's room'. Some characters will stay with me - Houria, Tony and his overbearing Dad, and the extremely polite and refined Si Mohammed. Others, I've come across my own versions of and resembled strangers I too have maybe met.
If I've learnt one Arabic word from this wonderful book, it's the very useful - niswangi.
Zora's experiences were my lived experiences, although all within the context of family and sometimes new friends. Visiting a stranger's house for lunch and having them insist you take a nap, Arabic teacher's tssk'ing at me and providing me with the preferred words to my self-taught Ammiya and forever learning that a word I know has several different meanings and can change from a compliment to an insult with the slightest emphasis or intonation on a particular vowel.
Accompanying me in any and every bit of down time, Zora kept me company with her sense of humour, hilarious observations and dramatic scenarios she would make up in her head - 'I had convinced myself I was sleeping in Bitissam and Yacine's recently deceased daughter's room'. Some characters will stay with me - Houria, Tony and his overbearing Dad, and the extremely polite and refined Si Mohammed. Others, I've come across my own versions of and resembled strangers I too have maybe met.
If I've learnt one Arabic word from this wonderful book, it's the very useful - niswangi.
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