Culture Shock! Egypt - A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette

260 CultureShock! Egypt

you are given the hospitality you,

as a guest, deserve. I say ‘most

probably’ because just about the

time you have this all fi gured out,

you will come upon a situation

where you are shown directly

into your meeting and then

served refreshments. This seems

to be a practice reserved for

some types of situations which are not altogether predictable.

The times I have experienced this seem to be when I have

had meetings with very highly placed government offi cials,

such as a governor or minister.

As an American, I learned long ago to be a bit sceptical

of business dealings with colleagues and to couch business

concerns in legalistic, contractual arrangements. In American

business transactions, trust goes only so far (and defi nitely

not very far at that). Then one must have the backing of a legal

document to bind the commitments. Even when someone

gives you their word and shakes on a deal, fi nal negotiations

are left to the lawyers. For many kinds of transactions,

lawyers may well be required in Egypt as well. Certainly, at

some point, legal contracts become necessary. However, at

a more informal level of negotiation, when an Egyptian tells

you, on his or her word, that something will be done or is

agreeable, it becomes a matter of personal honour and the

deal will usually be honoured. Before you run off to the bank

with the deal, however, make sure you actually know what

it is you and the other party have agreed on.

An area of common misinterpretation relates to the

subtleties of answers given by Egyptians. This is especially

true when asking something of a person who considers

you a friend (and if you are doing business with them, they

probably have put you in the category of friend). As a rule of

thumb, when a friend asks you to do something, it is never

appropriate (by Egyptian standards) to say no. If an Egyptian

answers a request with a non-committal yes or something like

‘we must look into this’, then the comment actually means

‘probably no’. By the way, this is not to say that Egyptians

Appropriate Venue

Conducting business meetings
in your hotel room may be fi ne
in your native country, but you
should not do so in Egypt.
It is usually best to schedule
a separate sitting room for
these situations to give the
appearance of the seriousness
the matter warrants.