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Teachers who return from the Middle East....
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johnslat



Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 13859
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
PostPosted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 2:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Yup, we REALLY need a sarcasm emoticon. Rolling Eyes

Regards,
John
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buravirgil



Joined: 23 Jan 2014
Posts: 967
Location: Jiangxi Province, China
PostPosted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 3:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
MuscatGary's use of "endemic" to characterize middle eastern culture (people and their values) is poor-- usually applied to a disease or condition and plants and animals.

Tribal cultures do behave differently from western ones in which individualism is valued. My best Saudi students teased me with their efforts by the euphemism of "cooperation, teacher".

I was uncharacteristically lucky in my experience: "cheating" was an issue for which we designed our measures through iterations (we used four). This also served to normalize our results.

As far as "in all walks of life", I explained it this way: When I would go to a ministry or office, I had to find "the guy". That is (to generalize), there might be a staff of five men, but four of them would make excuses or try to reschedule a request because they didn't know much. But there was always one who did. You just had to find him.

I never witnessed any graft. Wasta is a thing, it was explained to me, that happens over tea cups in Riyadh.
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CANDLES



Joined: 01 Nov 2011
Posts: 605
Location: Wandering aimlessly.....
PostPosted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 4:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I find it it totally sad when people try to justify someone's ignorance as Happyinshangqui is trying.

Never mind, it takes all sorts to make this world.
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MuscatGary



Joined: 03 Jun 2013
Posts: 1364
Location: Flying around the ME...
PostPosted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 4:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
buravirgil wrote:
MuscatGary's use of "endemic" to characterize middle eastern culture (people and their values) is poor-- usually applied to a disease or condition and plants and animals.

Endemic: (Of a disease or condition) regularly found among particular people or in a certain area: ‘complacency is endemic in industry today’ From the Oxford dictionary, just substitute cheating for complacency.

Tribal cultures do behave differently from western ones in which individualism is valued. My best Saudi students teased me with their efforts by the euphemism of "cooperation, teacher".

Mine used the euphemism 'helping' teacher.


I never witnessed any graft. Wasta is a thing, it was explained to me, that happens over tea cups in Riyadh.


I witnessed it at first hand in Oman albeit the main culprit was a Saudi who wanted money to send his KSA Air force officers to Oman for a training courses. He got the cash and they came.

As usual there are too many apologist hanging around here and no I didn't say that non-muslim culture was squeaky clean but I believe it is cleaner at the present time.
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esl_prof



Joined: 30 Nov 2013
Posts: 2006
Location: peyi kote solèy frèt
PostPosted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 4:12 pm    Post subject: Re: Teachers who return from the UAE to the US Reply with quote
peripatetic_soul wrote:
One feels like a fish out of water. To echo scot47's post, yes, many of our "fellow citizens" don't want or care to hear about experiences overseas . . . It's a hard place to be. Health care is the biggest culture shock . . . Return culture shock was rough.


That pretty accurately sums up my experience returning home after fifteen years in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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CANDLES



Joined: 01 Nov 2011
Posts: 605
Location: Wandering aimlessly.....
PostPosted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 4:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
That was my Original topic- returning home. Very Happy
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MuscatGary



Joined: 03 Jun 2013
Posts: 1364
Location: Flying around the ME...
PostPosted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 4:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
CANDLES wrote:
That was my Original topic- returning home. Very Happy


Speaking of ignorance, why the capital O in original?
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CANDLES



Joined: 01 Nov 2011
Posts: 605
Location: Wandering aimlessly.....
PostPosted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 4:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Nothing untoward. I forget to change it. Oops!
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johnslat



Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 13859
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
PostPosted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 7:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Well, there's this:

9 November 2014

The students who feel they have the right to cheat
By Craig Jeffrey Uttar Pradesh, India

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29950843

Regards,
John
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Sashadroogie