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What do you like about Kuwait

 
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lynnknows



Joined: 17 Mar 2005
Posts: 153
Location: Here, there, everywhere

PostPosted: Sun Jul 17, 2011 4:37 pm    Post subject: What do you like about Kuwait Reply with quote

Hi,


I worked in Kuwait in 2005 and really didnt like it much. I went there recently on an interview and was shocked to see how much the place has improved.

My question is for the people that live there now or recently left. What did you like about Kuwat? What made you stay? How expensive is it to live there and not want to jump out a window becasue you are so bored?

I was going to take a job in Oman but the offer I was given in Kuwait is about $14000 a year more. I think I would be a fool to not take it. I just want to get more information about living there so I can feel better.

Thanks in advance


Very Happy
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sheikh radlinrol



Joined: 30 Jan 2007
Posts: 1222
Location: Spain

PostPosted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 6:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I liked the vast choice of food in Kuwait and being British I loved the fact that it hardly ever rained. Plenty of sports facilities and it WAS cheap when I was there. Out of interest, what had improved so much in 6 years?
Regards
SR
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Sirens of Cyprus



Joined: 21 Mar 2007
Posts: 255

PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 9:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I heard about a year ago alcohol sales were legalized for buyers with a license. True?
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greatminds



Joined: 14 Jun 2011
Posts: 16
Location: United States

PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 4:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

No to the alcohol sales. But there are clubs that are offshoots of embassies that you can join and then attend some events. That's about it.

Kuwait is expensive. Housing is very expensive, sometimes 500 or 600 or a 3 bdrm apt in a decent area.
The only thing cheap in Q8 is petrol.
Hope you are not going to work for AUM.
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Sleepwalker



Joined: 02 Feb 2007
Posts: 454
Location: Reading the screen

PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 7:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I worked in Kuwait before and life wasn't too expensive.

However, I visited for a few days last year and, in the evenings, had a look around at the malls etc. I was astounded at how expensive things were.

Life definitely has become more expensive and I doubt salaries have risen in response.
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lynnknows



Joined: 17 Mar 2005
Posts: 153
Location: Here, there, everywhere

PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 8:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the replies.


No, I am not working at that University. I will be working for an international school. The pay is about the same as a university. For some reason I thought universities paided more. From what I read on the board the pay is maybe 50-100KD less. My goal this year was to work in a university so I could get away from working with children. I guess thats not going to happen.

Yeah, I agree housing is expensive. I am greatful for a nice package that includes rent. I could not imagine paying 450KD out of my own pocket.

One person asked me what changed. They have done a lot more building there. It seems cleaner than it was before. Before TO ME, it looked like a city someone plopped down in the middle of a desert. Now it looks like a city you drive through to go to the desert, if that makes sense.
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scienceguy



Joined: 27 Jul 2010
Posts: 5

PostPosted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 9:59 pm    Post subject: Sevant class V. master class Reply with quote

After working in Kuwait, I can say that what really disturbed me are the snobby Kuwaiti students who know that they are privileged by birth and that every foreign born person is little more than a servant. Teaching in Kuwait was only an extension to being one of their nannies or cleaning help. Education while desired, is essentially limited because no matter how poorly performing the student, the school will be forced to change the grades upwards. I can even say that some of my students who have had years of expensive private schools, read at a middle-school level if that! The grades that a student earns are never really a true measure of the student's ability. Kuwait, a country of master and servant with no in-between. Beware folks and do not waste your time there.
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johnslat



Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 13859
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

PostPosted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 11:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dear scienceguy,

"Beware folks and do not waste your time there."

Well, from your description, that would pretty much take the whole Middle East off one's job search list. Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy

Regards,
John
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It's Scary!



Joined: 17 Apr 2011
Posts: 823

PostPosted: Sat Oct 22, 2011 3:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

To be more specific to John's post, make that the Gulf Arab region of the ME! Shocked

It's a sad fact as these were once great people. Now, with God's gift of O-I-L they're, well... you know!
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huh?



Joined: 17 Mar 2011
Posts: 18

PostPosted: Sat Oct 22, 2011 5:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am not saying that the other posters are wrong. I have seen some of the arrogance in the Gulf that they talk about, but then I have seen that kind of arrogance lots of other places - the newly wealthy tend to be an obnoxius lot wherever you go, and the established wealthy can be pretty out-of-touch and self-absorbed. But my teaching experience in the Middle East has been pleasant. Before the invasion, I taught at one of the oil companies. The students were great - clever, fun, friendly, respectful and conscientious.

More recently I taught at Kuwait University. Like anywhere, there was a certain percentage of unmotivated students, and many students were not at the level they needed to be, but most were hard-working and clever, and all of them were friendly and respectful. And I am not an exception - although all of the teachers where I worked were exasperated with students at one point or another, only one of the teachers had any real problems.

I think that maybe the problem is not so much geographical in nature, but socioeconomic. Go to a private school almost anywhere in the world and you will encounter a fair number of teens with a sense of entitlement and a fairly inflated sense of importance.
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It's Scary!



Joined: 17 Apr 2011
Posts: 823

PostPosted: Sat Oct 22, 2011 5:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
I think that maybe the problem is not so much geographical in nature, but socioeconomic. Go to a private school almost anywhere in the world and you will encounter a fair number of teens with a sense of entitlement and a fairly inflated sense of importance.


Rubbish! That type of arrogance takes GENERATIONS (read: Old Money) to develop. The arrogance you find in the Arab Gulf is SOLELY bourne by the oily muck that started oozing out of the ground half-a-century or so ago.

Their fore-bearers would shake their heads in shame if they saw what they have now devolved to!

It's MTCW!
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Middle East Beast



Joined: 05 Mar 2008
Posts: 836
Location: Up a tree

PostPosted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 3:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's Scary! wrote:
Quote:
I think that maybe the problem is not so much geographical in nature, but socioeconomic. Go to a private school almost anywhere in the world and you will encounter a fair number of teens with a sense of entitlement and a fairly inflated sense of importance.


Rubbish! That type of arrogance takes GENERATIONS (read: Old Money) to develop. The arrogance you find in the Arab Gulf is SOLELY bourne by the oily muck that started oozing out of the ground half-a-century or so ago.

Their fore-bearers would shake their heads in shame if they saw what they have now devolved to!

It's MTCW!


I say, well said IS!

I can't speak for Kuwait, but, since the floor has been opened to the Gulf Arab region, I will state that more often than not, I and most of my colleagues at various teaching venues in this area were, shall we say, unimpressed with many of our students in so many respects, but especially regarding their behavior.

We go there to earn a living, ladies and gentlemen...we go there to earn a living. Sad

MEB Cool
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sharter



Joined: 25 Jun 2008
Posts: 878
Location: All over the place

PostPosted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 5:11 am    Post subject: ha ha Reply with quote

And then we go back to the real world to regain our sanity and have a life......
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posh



Joined: 22 Oct 2010
Posts: 430

PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 10:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's Scary! wrote:
It's a sad fact as these were once great people.


You knew them in the 1920s?
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