Job Discussion Forums

[David S]

"A Crisis in Work Ethics: Are Expatriate Teachers mercenaries?!"

An article from November 2015 written by Ali Mansoori, Programme Director at........... wait for it.........A'Sharqiyah University, Oman.

https://issuu.com/a1950/docs/a_crisis_in_work_ethics_are_expatri

[EFL Educator]

YES I agree...I have met many EFL mercenaries aka BACKSTABBERS during my time in Oh Man.... [/u]

[americanjoe]

I know the writer of this article personally.
In fact, he was the dean at the university where I taught and he was my direct supervisor.
He's an Iraqi with a PhD from Leeds and believe me when I tell you that Dr. Ali is nobody's fool.

And he makes a pretty good case for his thesis in the article too.

[David S]

The article is more or less fine.

At what time was he your supervisor?
When did he move to ASharqiyah?

I'm wondering if he's managed to rescue or buttress the English language program there.

[veiledsentiments]

[Tazz]

I think he means that people were trying to advance their own position by dropping others in the poo.......seen/ heard of plenty of that. Doesn't really relate to the word mercenary though...

[veiledsentiments]

I know what he means... he's obviously talking about that sort when he refers to "backstabber."

Has nothing to do with the word "mercenary."

And obviously many, if not most, of the teachers are there for the money. Nothing wrong with that if one does one's job.

VS

[balqis]

Yes, but as definition has it, a mercenary is somebody who is: '' primarily concerned with making money at the expense of ethics.''
EFL Educator meant: ''at the expense of ethics''.
This kind is verily quite common in Oman, I would say more than in other khaleeje countries. I do not know why Oman attracts this ''at the expense of ethics'' kind. But it does.
balqis

[americanjoe]

I won't go into to too many specifics for a variety of reasons.
But...
Dr Ali was trying to run a decent Foundation program.
Key members of the adminstration began cutting corners by hiring non-native speakers (you guess here who I am talking about) and the administration went the NN route to save money.
Program suffered (of course) students weren't learning English (of course) due to "Yes memsabe! Cannot fail students!"
Worked ok until the girls talked to the older girls and, uh oh, the bedu girls figured out that Dr Ali was correct, as "Yes Memsabe!" is not an effective way to teach English to 18 to 20 year old arab girls.
But, too late.
Ali caused embarressment, so he's gone now.
Now Mr. "Yes memsabe!' is the new director.

Everything ok except...
Kabeer muskala..
The girls have figured it all out so enrollment waaay down...

[veiledsentiments]

[babur]

[veiledsentiments]

I would say that both mercenaries and non-mercenaries are totally capable of "backstabbing" or not...

I suspect that even with the normal usage of mercenary as a soldier who fights for another country for money, a band of mercenary soldiers likely works together the same was as a normal band of soldiers. The French Foreign Legion were mercenaries. Their lives still depend on each other.

VS

[madrileno]