Well, I haven’t learned to read Arabic yet. I tried to get into a class, but haven’t yet been able to schedule one. So, it still looks like squiggly to me. I do know that my name in squiggly looks like this:
However, on my first day here I did figure out the numbers. I was standing in line at the airport where they check your passport and visa before admitting you into the country. That’s the place where you stand and watch all the passport agents gabbing with each other, seemingly hardly noticing the person waiting to get their passport stamped. (For each person waiting, there are a few keystrokes followed by about 10 minutes of watching the agents gab, then they take your fingerprints, you wait and watch a bit longer, then they motion to you that you can move on - not a lick of English spoken in the process, but a whole bunch of unintelligible Arabic!)
There were several aisles to line up under. Each aisle was numbered in both Arabic and English. So I tried to commit to my memory the following:
1 looks like a 1
2 looks like a mirrored 7
3 looks like a mirrored 7 with some extra points in it
4 looks like an E or a mirrored 3
5 looks like a 0
6 looks like a 7
7 looks like a V
8 looks like a tent
9 looks like a 9
0 looks like a dot
Here’s a picture of my keyboard to help you figure it out:
And that brings me to the money: It is a cash-driven society, so I have become well acquainted with it. I don’t even bother to carry dollars any more. It’s easy enough to get money exchanged if needed.
And I even think in terms of Saudi Riyals now. (There’s a rough formula: 1 dollar = ‘mirrored E' riyals.) A coworker refers to it as “Monopoly money.” It definitely feels different from American money. It seems durable enough, because it resists tearing. However it still feels light in comparison.
It is very colorful. (I find it interesting that even American cash is getting more colorful. In my opinion it is starting to look more international). Every bill has the image of the king or some notable person on the back. Each is printed with English on the front and Arabic on the back (or maybe it's Arabic on the front and English on the back) – making it easy to practice at least three of the numbers.
The denominations are 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, and 500. I don’t know if there is anything higher than 500. The actual bills increase in size as the denomination gets higher. (This means that whenever I have a 500, it’s sticking out of my wallet just a little.)
The coinage is pretty similar to American – sans the penny. Actually they don’t seem to be sticklers when it comes to change. I do have some coins, but for the most part when you’re buying something, they seem to round to the nearest quarter riyal, and, if necessary, give you one or two coins as change. So I can’t be certain whether or not there are coins other than these:
So, now it’s time for a test (I am an Instructional Designer, after all): I’ll leave it to you to figure out which bill belongs to which denomination. And then you can brag to your friends that you know all about Arabic numbers and Saudi Riyals.
Enjoy!
P.S. Lest you get flummoxed, the correct answers are below. No Cheating!!!
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