I've been trying to call my friend in Egypt today. He still lives with his family, and whenever I've called, a man would pick up, say "hello" several times, speak in Arabic to someone next to him, and hang up on me. This has happened twice.

Is there a proper way of calling an Egyptian? Are some Egyptians uncomfortable speaking with an English speaker? I just don't understand why I was hung up on.

I said "Hi this is ----, may I please speak with [his nick name]?"
The second time, I said "Hi, this is ---- from ----, may I please speak with [his real name]?"

I don't know what to do. Is there a certain time that I should call? Is it rude to call at 9 or 9:30 pm?

If someone could please explain to me, I'd be most grateful. I really want to speak with my friend. I apologize for any ignorance on my part.

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Originally posted by RaniaMe:
Are you sure this friend really wants to talk to you? According to what you said, it seems he's rejecting your call.

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Maybe you can e-mail him and ask him what's going on? Is he a very good friend of yours?
There is no specific manner to call an Egyptian, what you did is the right way. Does he have your phone number? If he's living with his family, maybe he doesn't want the whole family listen to what he's saying, or know that a foreigner is calling him, so I think he will prefer calling you rather than answering you at home.

Wellcome to Egypt.Im looking to have a friends from the other countries and im ready to host you at my home with my family without anything (( FREE )).
If you need any help and wanna to keep intouch,mail me at this addresse :
express_joker@yahoo.com
or call me in this mobile number :
0105466200

your 'friend' probably doesn't want to deal with the crap he'd get from his family if he did admit some foreign girl is calling him because:
1/ men/women are typically not friends in their culture

2/ women don't call up men at home, typically. if they do, they're the fiance/girlfriends or they're slutty.

3/ his family may assume he's fooling around with you and he'll get grief from them

4/ OR you misunderstood that your 'friendship' is part of the 'welcome to egypt' package and it's part of his job to be friendly to people.

These are ALL guesses and stereotypes, so please don't get offended.

Bottom line is, if your friend works in tourism industry, whoever answered must've said to him... some foreign woman called.

Now, how your friend reacted to that is something only you can interpret. (Most people would email you saying, did you call me? Or write down something simple in english for his family to answer next time you called.)

Your friend must have given you his phone number so one would think it is OK for you to call him at his family home.

Now as you are calling Egypt lets 'assume' his family don't speak English and get rather confused on the phone not knowing what to say to you if your friend is not there.

So try this in arabic:-

Mumkin Akallim .......... his name ( not nickname) This mean can I speak to ....

If they say Mish Hena or Mish Mawgood then that means he is not there.

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Originally posted by Dulcibella:
Hi!

I've been trying to call my friend in Egypt today. He still lives with his family, and whenever I've called, a man would pick up, say "hello" several times, speak in Arabic to someone next to him, and hang up on me. This has happened twice.

Is there a proper way of calling an Egyptian? Are some Egyptians uncomfortable speaking with an English speaker? I just don't understand why I was hung up on.

I said "Hi this is ----, may I please speak with [his nick name]?"
The second time, I said "Hi, this is ---- from ----, may I please speak with [his real name]?"

I don't know what to do. Is there a certain time that I should call? Is it rude to call at 9 or 9:30 pm?

If someone could please explain to me, I'd be most grateful. I really want to speak with my friend. I apologize for any ignorance on my part.

[This message has been edited by Dulcibella (edited 03 July 2005).]

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1st of all make sure that u r dialing the right number and the right country code...
If u've any other Egyptian friends u can give him/her the number and let them call to check out wts goin on, It's will be much easier cause they speak arabic.

There is a possiblity that the other party answering the phone doesn't speak English and that's why he hangs up.

Good luck

quote:

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Originally posted by Dulcibella:
Hi!

I've been trying to call my friend in Egypt today. He still lives with his family, and whenever I've called, a man would pick up, say "hello" several times, speak in Arabic to someone next to him, and hang up on me. This has happened twice.

Is there a proper way of calling an Egyptian? Are some Egyptians uncomfortable speaking with an English speaker? I just don't understand why I was hung up on.

I said "Hi this is ----, may I please speak with [his nick name]?"
The second time, I said "Hi, this is ---- from ----, may I please speak with [his real name]?"

I don't know what to do. Is there a certain time that I should call? Is it rude to call at 9 or 9:30 pm?

If someone could please explain to me, I'd be most grateful. I really want to speak with my friend. I apologize for any ignorance on my part.

[This message has been edited by Dulcibella (edited 03 July 2005).]

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I must thank everyone for their thoughtful replies. It has meant so much to me knowing that there is a community such as this that really cares about its members.

And I wanted to add.....thank goodness he is not in the tourism bussiness!

Must go to sleep...I only had three hours of sleep last night. My ideal amount of sleep is ten hours, so I'm really in a daze. *yawm* Good night.

QUOTE]Originally posted by mysticheart:
hi there, there are other possibilities too as i call egypt from the states very often, sometimes the calls do not connect through well so the person on the other end in egypt does not hear you, also are you using your home phone or your mobile or cell, I have found that when i try to call from my mobile i can hear them but they can not hear me at all. If you are calling from your home phone, if you are using a calling card that also sometimes causes problems with connection where they can not hear you. And also as someone else said, maybe they do not understand english so that they do not know what you are saying but it seems that if they are saying hello over and over they are not hearing you. Do you know your friends age??? Cause also if he is young, then maybe it is his father answering and he is not allowed to speak with girls over the phone...... but really i think maybe whoever is answering is not hearing you[/QUOTE]

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Originally posted by Dulcibella:
You are completely right. I am happy to say that he has just e-mailed me explaining the reason for the hang ups. It is, as you said, that the man most likely couldn't hear me. He after elaborated that in America he had a very hard time establishing a strong phone connection with his family in Egypt. I must say...what a relief it is to have recieved his e-mail!

I must thank everyone for their thoughtful replies. It has meant so much to me knowing that there is a community such as this that really cares about its members.

And I wanted to add.....thank goodness he is not in the tourism bussiness!

Must go to sleep...I only had three hours of sleep last night. My ideal amount of sleep is ten hours, so I'm really in a daze. *yawm* Good night.

QUOTE]Originally posted by mysticheart:
[b] hi there, there are other possibilities too as i call egypt from the states very often, sometimes the calls do not connect through well so the person on the other end in egypt does not hear you, also are you using your home phone or your mobile or cell, I have found that when i try to call from my mobile i can hear them but they can not hear me at all. If you are calling from your home phone, if you are using a calling card that also sometimes causes problems with connection where they can not hear you. And also as someone else said, maybe they do not understand english so that they do not know what you are saying but it seems that if they are saying hello over and over they are not hearing you. Do you know your friends age??? Cause also if he is young, then maybe it is his father answering and he is not allowed to speak with girls over the phone...... but really i think maybe whoever is answering is not hearing you

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[/B][/QUOTE]

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Originally posted by smiley:
i hope it is the correct explanation.. ok ..ok im sorry but i do.... for her sake or else there is going to be another post on how an egyptian broke a westeners heart....just a thought

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Originally posted by Dulcibella:
No, don't worry. I called him using my long distance company without a calling card and the connection was great. I reached him. Unfortunately, it's $5 for the first minute, and $3 for every minute after that. Yikes!

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Holy f*ck buckets! I use an MCI card because my mother pays for it, and for only $15 I get about 40 minutes. You can refuel these cards 3 times a week for denomination of $5 to $60 dollars with a check card. The MCI card can be bought at Costco, if you would enter a costco.

Then there much cheaper, "Go Africa", "White" or "Red" card is about $5 for 35 to 50 minutes. It depends on the time of day, week and traffic of international calls to that particular country. I don't know if you go into any 'ethnic' neighborhoods. But a international or African grocery store does sell these cards. You just have to borrow some teens beat up car in order to access these neighborhoods. I take the bus (public transit) and often shop at these stores regardless so I am accustomed. The reason why I note this is because I have seen suburbanites enter these stores and put on latex gloves and try to make the transaction in less than 2 minutes and not wait in line. Yup talk about a phobia.