Many Westrens have a wrong information about Middle East such as, religion, language etc… But a third culture kid decided to provide them the right information after traveling to Middle East. Max Stanton aka Max of Arabia, is a an American and British social media influencer, However, he speaks Arabic very fluently without even studying it ! He was born in Botswana and spent his formative years traveling the world with his parents. By the age of 6, he had lived on four continents & been evacuated twice due to wars. When it was time for college, he decided to study marketing at American University of Sharjah. He learnt to speak Arabic to be specific UAE accent in just two years! Max mentioned that this made him feel closer to people. He claimed that he loved the people, culture and food, and refused to go back to US.
Max developed a passion for Arabic language and specifically Khaleeji culture. Max worked at Proctor and Gamble, an American multinational, for four years following graduation. However, he has since left the workplace to devote his time to shine out Arab and Emirati culture. Since then his mission started and he decided to use social media as tool to make foreigners and locals to be interested in each other and grew an enormous followers in his instagram account and earned him the nickname “Max of Arabia”.
“They (Arabs) are almost always portrayed in the wrong way,” he said, explaining that coverage tended to focus on geopolitics and national security. “In general, I don’t know (how to solve that). There are so many beautiful things about Arabs and about the culture, and for my part I try showcasing that. That’s anywhere. I feel more safe in the Middle East than I did in the US.”
Max is now somewhat a celebrity in the United Arab Emirates, where he frequently appears at Emirati cultural events and on television stations that broadcast in Arabic. He now has a huge following on social media. For instance, his Instagram account has more than 664,000 followers, many of whom are drawn to his video messages written almost flawlessly in Emirati Arabic.
According to his interview, He gave some tips for foreigners who wants to learn Arab language, he mentioned that practice is the number one tip for anyone who is trying to learn Arabic, and just start with conversational Arabic , not fusha which is classical Arabic because no one speaks that in the Arab region. He also mentioned that wherever the person is in middle is better to learn their accent, for example if you are in Yemen learn Yemeni, if you are in UAE learn Emirati and so on..
