What's Where In The Middle East? Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Yemen,

What's where? Here's an overview of the Middle East, with the flags and capitals, and UAE. Individual countries will be dealt with later.

Arms	Flag	State	Area (km²)	Population (2012)	Density (per km²)	Capital	Nominal GDP, bn (2018)[23]	Per capita (2018)[24]	Currency	Government	Official languages
		Akrotiri and Dhekelia	254	15,700	N/A	Episkopi	N/A	N/A	Euro	De facto stratocratic dependency under a constitutional monarchy	English
		Bahrain	780	1,234,596	1,582.8	Manama	$30.355	$25,851	Bahraini dinar	Absolute monarchy	Arabic
		Cyprus	9,250	1,088,503	117	Nicosia	$24.492	$28,340	Euro	Presidential republic	Greek, Turkish
		Egypt	1,010,407	82,798,000	90	Cairo	$249.559	$2,573	Egyptian pound	Presidential republic	Arabic
		Iran	1,648,195	78,868,711	45	Tehran	$452.275	$5,491	Iranian rial	Islamic republic	Persian
		Iraq	438,317	33,635,000	73.5	Baghdad	$226.07	$5,930	Iraqi dinar	Parliamentary republic	Arabic, Kurdish
		Israel	20,770	7,653,600	365.3	Jerusalema	$369.843	$41,644	Israeli shekel	Parliamentary republic	Hebrew
		Jordan	92,300	6,318,677	68.4	Amman	$42.371	$4,278	Jordanian dinar	Constitutional monarchy	Arabic
		Kuwait	17,820	3,566,437	167.5	Kuwait City	$141.05	$30,839	Kuwaiti dinar	Constitutional monarchy	Arabic
		Lebanon	10,452	4,228,000	404	Beirut	$56.409	$9,257	Lebanese pound	Parliamentary republic	Arabic
		Oman	212,460	2,694,094	9.2	Muscat	$82.243	$19,302	Omani rial	Absolute monarchy	Arabic
		Palestine	6,220	4,260,636	667	Ramallaha	n/a	n/a	Israeli shekel, Jordanian dinar	Semi-presidential republic	Arabic
		Qatar	11,437	1,696,563	123.2	Doha	$192.45	$70,780	Qatari riyal	Absolute monarchy	Arabic
		Saudi Arabia	2,149,690	27,136,977	12	Riyadh	$782.483	$23,566	Saudi riyal	Absolute monarchy	Arabic
		Syria	185,180	23,695,000	118.3	Damascus	n/a	n/a	Syrian pound	Presidential republic	Arabic
		Turkey	783,562	73,722,988	94.1	Ankara	$766.428	$9,346	Turkish lira	Presidential republic	Turkish
		United Arab Emirates	82,880	8,264,070	97	Abu Dhabi	$424.635	$40,711	UAE dirham	Federal Absolute monarchy	Arabic
		Yemen	527,970	23,580,000	44.7	Sana'ab Aden (provisional)	$26.914	$872	Yemeni rial	Provisional presidential republic	Arabic

a. ^ ^ Jerusalem is the proclaimed capital of Israel, which is disputed and the actual location of the Knesset, Israeli Supreme Court, and other governmental institutions of Israel. Ramallah is the actual location of the government of Palestine, whereas the proclaimed capital of Palestine is East Jerusalem, which is disputed.

COUNTRIES
Afghanistan


Bahrain
A series of islands, of which the largest is Bahrain island, connected to Saudi Arabia by a series of bridges and causeways.



Wind tower, Bahrain.                     Flamingoes, Bahrain.

Dubai
Egypt

Ethiopia
Is this country in the Middle East or Africa? Hard to tell. I would have said Africa. It is in East Africa, a Christian country, and the capital is Addis Ababa.


Iran
Iraq
Israel
Jordan
Kuwait
Lebanon
Pakistan
Qatar





Saudi Arabia (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)

Syria

Turkey

UAE

• 1 Abu Dhabi The nation's capital, filled with major museums and monuments.
• 2 Dubai The financial capital and commerce center and largest city of the UAE.
• 3 Sharjah The nation's cultural hub famous for its Arabic and Islamic architecture.
• 4 Ajman The smallest emirate, one of the quiet destinations with a relaxed atmosphere.
• 5 Umm Al Quwain A peninsular town extending into the gulf with multiple beach resorts.
• 6 Ras Al Khaimah   An adventure hub of the Middle East, with the highest mountain in UAE and many thrill activities.
• 7 Fujairah – Popular tourist and stay-cation destination on the gulf of Oman. Nicknamed as The Bride of the Eastern Coast.

Others

Yemen

Glossary
Al Jazeera

Not to be confused with Al Jazeera America.

Al Jazeera English
Availability
Terrestrial
Freeview UK	Channel 235
Freeview (New Zealand)	Channel 16
More in later post.

Al Jazeera English (AJE) is the Qatari pay television news channel owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network, headquartered in Doha, Qatar. It is the first English-language news channel to be headquartered in the Middle East.^[1] Instead of being run centrally, news management rotates between broadcasting centres in Doha and London.

Cities
Abu Dhabi, capital of United Arab Emirates
Jerusalem, Israel
Mecca, Saudi Arabia
Medina, Saudi Arabia

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahrain
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Bahrain

About the author
Author, Author! About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. (Not related to the actress.) See books and profiles on Lulu.com and Amazon, such as Wedding Speeches & Toasts, Quick Quotations, Who Said What When. Also watch videos on YouTube.
See other posts on singers and statues and languages and destinations.
Please share links to your favourite posts.

Bilingual Toastmasters Speakers' Clubs Worldwide

UK
UK London FRENCH
French in London
Experience French
City Temple Conference Centre
near Farringdon
www.experience-french.org/
Irritating site - easy to find when Toastmasters was founded back in the USA in 1924, but impossible to find the date, time and venue of their next meeting or the phone contact details. Maybe I should go back and read the French.
http://www.meetup.com/Speed-Public-Speaking-en-Francais/

UK London RUSSIAN-English 
Canary Wharf
London UK
NW8 8QR
tel:07768720417

http://whatwhere.me/london/education/russian_english_speakers_toastmasters_273755919348001


UK London SPANISH
website page in Spanish
ww.meetup.com/SpanishSpeakers-Toastmasters/

There should be  a German Toastmasters club in London, UK, last heard of in East London, UK. 
Contacts who might know of a club or help start one:
Ilke (who started English speaking club Harrovians in NW London UK before she joined a club in East London).
Somebody at Excalibur, advanced speakers' club in London, UK. 
My searches direct me to a German club in London, Ontario in Canada. That's why I keep adding UK after London when I mean the UK. Other German speaking but non-Toastmasters clubs in London where you can practise German, or learn German, including the Goethe Institute, so you can follow when you go to a German speaking Toastmasters club elsewhere in the world.
You can get the manuals in other languages from the Toastmasters website, specific page mentioned below near the end of this post.


UK
Polish in London. Club with most meetings in Polish language only. Occasionally meetings in English.
www.polishyourpolish.org.uk

SPANISH
a) In UK

Public url for this Club

http://spanishspeakers.toastmasterclub.org

b) In Spain
Bilingual Spanish and English club in Barcelona meets Wednesdays.
www.bcn-toastmasters.com/

c) In USA
Spanish-English speaking club meets in Ventura, California.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Los-Amigos-Bilingual-Toastmasters-Club/473434029371186

AUSTRALIA -Mandarin and English
Meetings in Mandarin and English and you can give speeches in either language.
http://toastmasters.wikia.com/wiki/Chinglish_Bilingual_Toastmasters_Club

USA - Spanish

 Los Bilingues in Tualatin, Oregon.

BELGIUM
Brussels German:
www.blackforest-toastmasters.com/about
meets 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month

Armada English-Spanish
Atomium English-Dutch
Barlaymont English-French
Claddagh English-Irish
Club des Orateurs (French)

CANADA

Inspiration Bilingue in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada; 

SWITZERLAND
Bilingual German and English club with both languages in the introduction to their website about the founding of the club which meets in Basel, Switzerland.
http://baselmultilingual.toastmastersclubs.org

CHINA
Bilingual clubs include: Shanghai Humor Bilingual Toastmasters and 1st Bilingual Zhangjiang, both in Shanghai, China. 

JAPAN
Bilingual club.
Tokyointernational.org
Meets in Tokyo.


SINGAPORE
Most clubs are English-speaking and everybody whose first language is Mandarin or Hokkien or Cantonese is very keen to practise their English and learn English and give the role of Grammarian or evaluator to a visiting native English speaker, whether from England, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or South Africa.

Mandarin in Singapore
Two or three clubs are in Mandarin and one in an Indian language, probably Hindi, but since their websites and answer phones are in foreign languages it's hard to work out if you will meet anybody who speaks any English, and whether they are meeting, or changed their venue, or cancelled because of a religious or cultural holiday.

I went to a Mandarin speaking club but nobody spoke any English except one girl.
I had hoped to learn a few words. No luck. I had hoped to see a bilingual manual. No.

I asked my translator to write down a greeting in Mandarin and thank you in Mandarin.
I gave a speech in English, pausing between each sentence, thanking them for their welcome, and smiles, and food, and saying they seemed very successful, part of a great organisation, and wishing them well.  The agreeable young girl who spoke some English translated into Mandarin - sometimes much briefer than what I said, sometimes much longer! I'll never know whether she understood any or all of what I said, and whether she translated any or all of it, or gave the gist and elaborated some parts more courteously and politely, or summed up.

I should have done a lot more investigation and translation of Chinese (which means Mandarin) in advance. 

ISRAEL
I understand there is an English speaking Toastmasters club in Israel. Most Israelis speak Hebrew as a first language plus a second language, either Arabic which is similar to Hebrew, or English or a European language such as Spanish. (Especially if Sephardi which means of Spanish origin - or they will know another Latin language such as Portuguese or Italian) or French.  German, at least a few words, is likely to be understood if their extended family knows some Yiddish. A few will speak Russian.

BAHRAIN
Filipinos in Bahrain
Filipino Toastmasters Club in Manama, Bahrain.

MANUALS
asters.org/MainMenuCategories/Shop/ManualsBooksVideosCDs_1/MANUALSBOOKSVIDEOSCDs.aspx?Mode=1
Manuals are in Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, German, Japanese, Spanish. The publications include the first ten speeches manual, the leadership manual, the club kit, and advanced manuals.

More from Toastmasters International website
www.Toastmasters.org/findaclub 

I'll add more to this post when I find more information.
Angela Lansbury
Member of Harrovians Club, London, England; member of HOD Club, London, England. Former member of YWCA club in Singapore. Has visited clubs in Shanghai and Beijing, China; Singapore; Thailand; and International convention in Las Vegas USA.
Author of Wedding Speeches and Toasts; Quick Quotations; Who said what, where, when? (Lulu.com) For more about Angela Lansbury, public speaking, spelling, grammar, performing with puppets, comic poetry, and Toastmasters, see Youtube, LinkedIn, Facebook.