MovieChat Forums > Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2012) Discussion > Horrific Arabic

Horrific Arabic

posted 9 years ago by Tomatish
3 replies | jump to latest

Being an Arab, I actively avoid Hollywod movies were Arabic is spoken, because it always makes me cringe (with the sole exception of Hurt Locker which did an amazing job getting the language right)

I don't know what I was thinking watching this movie. It completely slipped my mind that there will probably be some Arabic in it. It was so horrific that I had to mute the sound every time someone spoke Arabic. Amr Waked is an Arab, but he's egyptian and all the arabic lines were written in Standard Arabic rather than Yemeni dialect. I really like Amr both when acting is Egyptian and in English, but I just couldn't take hearing him butcher Standard Arabic when I was supposed to believe he's a Yemeni sheikh.

Hollywood should NEVER EVER come near Arabic unless they're willing to write lines in the appropriate dialect and hire dialect coaches to get the pronunciation right. Otherwise, just make the characters speak English in an Arabic accent or something.

Does Hollywood also do this with other languages?!

[–] oberwolf 9 years ago

As a non Arabic speaker, I found they way they were speaking quite odd. It just didn't seem to have the rhythm of any spoken Arabic I have ever heard (not that I have heard that much spoken Arabic).

Hollywood is pretty lazy with language particularly when it is used very minimally in a film as the majority of people will not notice unless it's their language.

[–] couzijn 8 years ago

The Netherlands is a tiny country, measuring 150 miles wide and about 250 miles tall. In The Netherlands, 16 million people speak Dutch. Yet the number of Dutch dialects is huge. People from the North, South East and West can hardly understand each other's vernacular. Yet they all speak 'Dutch'.

Considering the fact that 'Arabic' is spoken in a HUGE part of the world, spanning more than two continents (Asia and Africa & more); and considering the fact that about 20 times more people speak Arabic than Dutch; I think it is quite possible that there are versions of spoken Arabic in this world that do not match *your* idea if how Arabic 'is' or 'should' be spoken.

[–] spookyrat1 8 years ago

Does Hollywood also do this with other languages?!

Seeing you like nit-picking ... 2 things.

Note Couzijn's comment above, which "as an Arab" I thought you would have been awake to any way.

Secondly, "Hollywood" had little to do with this film, aside perhaps from helping with distribution, it being a British production.🐭