One going around in the Central Area next to the Grand Mosque notices stalls of Saudi youths selling vegetables, gifts, books, textiles and other items. Those sellers speak to the customers, mostly foreign visitors of the mosque, in their languages. Bassam Al-Harbi who sells carpets in the Central Area says “the work is exhausting and requires me to be there all the time, but the pleasure of mingling with different races is worth it.” “I now speak Indonesian, Urdu and Turkish after years of dealing with pilgrims.” Mishari Al-Jahdali who has been dealing with pilgrims for ten years and has learned many languages said “some languages are easy like Urdu while the utterance of others like Turkish is difficult. However we learned them after a long period.” Hassan Al-Mutasim who speaks good English said customers surely prefer a shop where the salesman can speak their language.
