Language in the gulf

I have been travelling in the gulf this weekend and even though the architecture, built environment, and literary culture leave much to be desired, the ways that different non-Arabs I have seen interact through language has been awesome to watch. I don't know how to talk about it other than to be anecdotal (my jargon is limited, doesn't even come up to the gates of anthropology) so here are some things that have happened.

-the Indian concierge with nostalgicly babu English who cast aspersions on the Pakistani driver who looked like Jesse from full house, assuming our luggage was long gone.

-the Kenyan security manager who spoke Saudi Arabic and English equally with a thick east African accent
- the strange use of broken English as a lingua Franca mainly between Filipinos and everyone else, whereas Pakistanis seemed more willing/able to use Arabic.

-my driver to the airport in Riyadh from Peshawar who talked shit about middle America and who spoke with me in the most cluttered pidgin between Urdu and Arabic (redundant ?)

- the Saudi high school students with pitch perfect American accents with twitter accounts who must have their entire own dialect of arabic mall slang, I was only let in on one word طعس

- the person who shall remain nameless whose Bunglesome use of fuhsa with peope who clearly did not need to and certainly would not agree to use Arabic made me finally get a view from the other side as to why it's so hard to try to practice Arabic with Arabs, because unless you are being as dialect-y as possible, you sound so fucking awkward

- the first times I have ever heard Urdu on the street, a Irving breathing, joking language, I don't know why I used to dismiss it so much as some linguistic spectre, a few grammar forms hung on basically English and Arabic. A shit load of people are using it here.

- the Turks I chatted with in the hotel cafe who talked shit about how dirty Arabs are, drifting pleasantly along the cadence of their conversation, remembering the logical absurdity of many of Turkish discourse markers, missing missing turkey.

- talking with a Yemeni taxi driver and the register shifting over the course of conversation to fuhsa as the conversation moved to politics. Note to any aspiring arabists, if you're still out there ( if only I could time travel to my own dumb 2005 self), do your pleasantries and give directions in Egyptian or shami, then when you actually start talking about things, people will switch to fuhsa by themselves for both of your comforts.