"Tiffany! You keep saying this!"

During one of my classes today, my professor gave each of us a series of words that we were supposed to conjugate in certain ways and add information to in order to talk about ourselves. So we went around the room, talking about all sorts of basic things like where we live and what time we do certain things, etc., and all was well until I started to talk about my work. Granted, I didn't even try to explain what I do. Trying to explain nonprofit organizations is difficult enough in the Middle East without getting into fun terms like "grassroots mobilization." The only thing I attemped to communicate about my work is that back in the United States, I work most of the time in an office from about 8 or 9am to 5pm (sure we all work at home too and no one only works 8/9-5, but again...my Arabic vocabulary isn't there yet). My grammar construction was going along just fine until we got to the last part of my sentence about work. My professor kept shaking his head, and he would ask me to repeat something. Then he would ask it in a different way. (These are Arabic-only classes unless the professor absolutely cannot communicate the meaning of something through your existing Arabic vocaulary or through pictures. They're quite adept at this, I must say...it's impressive.) Finally, after several minutes, our exchange ended like this - in English:

Professor: "Ahhhhh, Tiffany!" (he said it exactly like that too, it was pretty hilarious)
Me, mildly frustrated: "What am I missing??"
Professor: "You keep saying you work from 8-5! You keep saying this."
Me: "How else am I supposed to say that?"
Professor: "No, you say it correct, but you keep saying you work from 8-5."
Me: "I do."

And I wish I could describe to you the look of utter confusion and surprise that spread across his face at that moment. It was almost comical. After what felt like a full minute of silence, he said, "This is correct? You work from 8-5?" "Na'am." ("Yes" in Arabic.) After another pause his eyebrows raised slightly and then he said softly and simply, "Oh."

And with that, he stood up, turned around and started talking about something else.

That whole exchange sparked a conversation between me and some of my fellow language students about what sort of hours Yemeni people work. Were those hours strange because I am a female, or is that really considered a long day? I have noticed that oftentimes there are different people working at a shop from one hour to the next. Likely they are all men from the same family. Often you walk into a shop and there's no one there, but the man in charge is never far and always shows up right when you walk inside. Occasionally even a woman or young female child will be around to help if a woman comes into the shop. But at any rate, I really don't know what a typical work day is. I DO know that Yemenis make sure to carve out several hours a day to chew qat....

You never know what differences in culture will end up surprising people.