Could We Please Not Do This?

No, those squiggles are not Arabic. I don't know the Arabic alphabet, but I do know that it's written from right to left, not the other way around, the way English does it.

It's annoying and condescending: those incomprehensible squiggles that others use must fit into English somehow! And if you know the alphabet, it's disorienting, requiring a bit of thought. Like the Russian Я, which is not a backwards R, but the sound "ya." Gets me every time.

And, um, a translator works with written texts. An interpreter gives you the meaning of spoken words in real time. From my first visits to the United Nations, I've always admired interpreters.