I was tutoring an East Asian student in English; at our first session, I had him writing a little 'autobiography'. As he was writing, I got reading a story in which I came across an unexpected and random mention of 'Dubai' (the protagonist notices the name on a brochure; something like that). Perhaps that was just jarring enough to remind me I had other concerns; I glanced at my student's work, to see how he was doing: he was in the process of writing the word 'Dubai' on his page.

As it turned out, he had an older brother working in IT in Dubai, and the family was planning a trip to visit him; otherwise, no connection with that part of the world ....