Spelling it with a "Mu" gives it an Egyptian connotation, other spelling would be more like "Mhandis" or Mouhandis" or "Mohandis". Arabic is my mother tongue.
I am not trying to undermine your knowledge of Arabic culture, 16 years is a long time.
However, as an Arab engineer who has lived for more than 20 years in different Arab countries (and kept contact later when in Europe and the US), I think you are making too much of it. Maybe your sample population is specific...
You are generalizing: "Ana Muhandis" is spoken Egyptian.
Egypt is a very large country with a low percentage of college degrees, combined with the fact fact that Egypt is has very large agricultural and industrial sectors, gives you that weird claim. In other Arab countries, being an engineer is just like being an engineer in the US or Europe.
Anyway, this is *not* the case anymore, engineers are not envied at all in Egypt (compared to business people or medical doctors). And honestly, how would you know that they claim to be engineers just by being in an immersion program?
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Spelling it with a "Mu" gives it an Egyptian connotation, other spelling would be more like "Mhandis" or Mouhandis" or "Mohandis". Arabic is my mother tongue. I am not trying to undermine your knowledge of Arabic culture, 16 years is a long time. However, as an Arab engineer who has lived for more than 20 years in different Arab countries (and kept contact later when in Europe and the US), I think you are making too much of it. Maybe your sample population is specific...
You are generalizing: "Ana Muhandis" is spoken Egyptian. Egypt is a very large country with a low percentage of college degrees, combined with the fact fact that Egypt is has very large agricultural and industrial sectors, gives you that weird claim. In other Arab countries, being an engineer is just like being an engineer in the US or Europe. Anyway, this is *not* the case anymore, engineers are not envied at all in Egypt (compared to business people or medical doctors). And honestly, how would you know that they claim to be engineers just by being in an immersion program?