Language and Currency

The United Arab Emirates dirham was introduced December 1971. It replaced the Qatar and Dubai riyal at par. The Qatar and Dubai riyal had circulated since 1966 in all of the emirates except Abu Dhabi, where the dirham replaced the Bahraini dinar at 1 dirham = 0.1 dinar. The name Dirham comes from the Greek word


Drachmae, literally meaning "handful", through Latin. Due to centuries of old trade and usage of the currency, dirham survived through the Ottoman leadership.
The exchange rate at the moment is 1 AUD to 3.67885 Utd. Arab Emir. Dirham
There are a number of well known banks in the United Arab Emirates including : American Express, ANZ and the United Arab Bank.

The UAE Dirham

  

The Major languages spoken in the United Arab Emirates are English and Arabian. The Emireti's speak English because of the amount of business men and tourists that have a holiday or deal with business there. They speak Arabian because that is their natural language and their first language and this is the one thath they will probably be the language they use most but that will depend on the school and their proffession in later life.




Some traditional greetings in Arabian and in english

• 'Marhaba' ( Greetings ) reply with 'Marhabtein' ( meaning 'double greetings')
• 'Ahlan WA sahlan' ( You are welcome ) also reply: 'Marhabtein'
• 'SabaH al Kheir' (Good Morning) reply with: 'SabaH al Noor'
• 'Mas'al Kheir' (Good Evening) reply with : Ma'sal noor' (Note: Noor means 'light' thus, light of the morning/light of the moon for evening)
• Ma'asalama (Good Bye)
• ' ila-liqaa' (' see you' or 'until we meet again').