English is Everywhere

One thing that is noticeable immediately when you enter Riyadh is that English is everywhere. Almost all signs are written in Arabic and in English. There is much, much more English here than in European cities like Rome and Paris. We've always had English speaking waiters, and random people we run into from guards or shop keepers, seem to always speak English. My uncle speaks very good Arabic and almost never uses it. As far as I can tell, there isn't much of a reason to learn Arabic. Not that it wouldn't be nice, but it doesn't seem necessary to do well in Saudi. An interesting example from a story that an official told my uncle, about a bad move Northrop made, "Most defense contractors send a retired general who says, 'I know what these planes can do, because I've flown them for 30 years.' Northrop sends an Egyptian who says, 'Hi, I'm Ahmed, and I can speak Arabic."