Job Discussion Forums

[scot47]

Right. KSA is the worst place on the planet to study Arabic. I lived in the Hejaz for many years but my Arabic is Levantine-Palestinian because most of my "comprehensible input" came from Palestinians and Lebanese.

Finding competent and affordable teachers or classes anywhere in KSA is problematic. Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language in the region focusses on teaching Arabic as the language of the Koran and the Mosque. The assumption will always be that you are learning the language for religious purposes.

FSI publish teaching materials on Hejazi Arabic but I have never come across anyone who used them for language acquisition.

[Captain Willard]

This time of year, the universities and vocational colleges are looking for warm bodies. So, the odds improve markedly for someone without the right qualifications, e.g., MA TESOL, to find a well paying job. The bulk of the hiring is done now. At a another time, the HR departments will be more selective of qualifications. As with any other job search, it is a matter of being at the right place at the right time. Generally, that time is now, at the beginning of the academic year. (I just had a 2 minute Skype interview which was just to see my face and check my accent.)

[vikramkr]

I would actually prefer to learn Levantine Arabic, but thought that Hejazi would be more feasible if I were living in Jeddah.

[veiledsentiments]

I guess you need to focus your goal... if it is to learn Arabic, you could get work in Lebanon or Jordan, and you could work on your preferred local dialects. (a shame that Syria is no longer an option)

But if it is about saving X amount of dollars, you are rather stuck with Saudi. If this is the priority, you might search up a Syrian or Jordanian private instructor. Most of the serious Arabic learners prefer Syrian dialect because of the heavy effect of French on the Lebanese dialect.

VS

[hash]

[scot47]

This time, Hash has got it right !

[spanglish]

Teaching English is an exhausting (albeit often fulfilling), full time job. That will be your focus and it will leave you with very little time for language study, particularly for a difficult language such as Arabic. Also, keep in mind that whatever foreign country you end up in your job as an English teacher prevents any kind of full immersive language experience. Even Spanish, which is a possible exception because of its relative easiness and ease of cultural immersion, is difficult to learn properly while teaching full time. For example, I showed up in-country in Latin America and studied Spanish for 5 months before starting teaching, and this was after having a prior upper-intermediate level. Nearly everybody I knew who spoke good Spanish had devoted comparable levels of investment. Arabic will be that much more difficult (as you know from your studies), and as others have pointed out Saudi Arabia sounds like a terrible place to learn that language - I can't speak to this personally as I haven't been there. I did however do quite a significant stint in Libya, which is a fantastic place to learn the local language, but my long work hours and difficulty of Libyan Arabic precluded any real progress.

Regarding saving, I would think long and hard about taking off for a couple years. In the end, losing that time building experience in your field could result in significantly lower life-time earnings than you would make otherwise. By the time you get back to the US your peers or those younger than you may already be in management and you may find yourself uncomfortably interviewing with some 24-year old for an unpaid internship. In addition, being in grad school (especially if you are at a top school) gives you a lot of forward momentum for moving into your field of study - you are far, far more likely to be considered for those vital entry-level internships while you are a current student than you are a couple years out of school. Before graduate school would really have been the time to put in a couple years teaching abroad. In-country experience abroad will be looked upon favorably by employers, but teaching English will not be seen as qualifying experience for mid-level or even most entry-level positions - these days a lot of kids may complete as many as 4-5 relevant internships on the way to their first 'entry-level' position.

Now, all I have said can be taken with the great big caveat that I pretty much did exactly what you want to do - but I was realistic about my Arabic language learning ability (and knew that Saudi was not the place to learn it), took lots of extra time to properly learn Spanish, and treated EFL as a career in and of itself while I did my years abroad, always knowing this would be a clear, separate work chapter of my life. Also, as a teacher, I was surprised at the real dearth of outside opportunities to expand my skill set in international affairs related fields. English teachers really do tend to get shunned by pros in the NGO and government world, so you have that potential stigma to consider as well.

So, having said all that, my big piece of advice would be this - if you know you want the international, immersive experience, go ahead and do that, but strongly consider doing something that allows you to build your primary skill set and experience base that will serve you well later in life. A Fulbright (even teaching English because Fulbright is a good brand), volunteering for an NGO or the United Nations, even doing business development or marketing for a school abroad would all be seen as much more relevant to your desired career in nonprofit management than classroom EFL teaching.

If you do decide to go ahead anyway and do a year or two teaching, try to stay in contact with your peers from grad school, spend some quality time with your school's career services office before going abroad - they may be able to set you up with something, make an introduction, or open a volunteering opportunity - and plan to do so again when you get back.

[currentaffairs]

Spanglish makes some good points but his lack of experience working in Saudi shows.. You have tons of time to do whatever you want when in the desert. Both my previous jobs had a relatively easy workload of 15-20 hours a week. You are generally out the door at 4pm sharp. It is the perfect place to have a project going on, do some study, and so on.

I will leave the language learning element for others to discuss!

[RustyShackleford]

Where is the freaking "like" or karma button this site? Spanglish wrote it all out beautifully.

That said, language is far from impossible as an English teacher. So many who worked in Japan or Spain, for example, acquired very impressive language skills despite working in all-English environments. I don't know how Saudi is but I can't imagine it being THAT much more difficult.

Will look forward to eating my words down the line.

[spanglish]

[scot47]

For an English user, acquiring competence in Arabic is much, much more difficult than doing the same in an Indo-european language.

Best to start young and to do a BA in Oriental Languages !

[vikramkr]

Thanks again to all of you for your feedback and advice. A special shout out to you, spanglish, for your illuminating advice. I've actually been considering doing a TEFL Fulbright. Good to know that it wouldn't be perceived as "off course". Do you think it would in fact be viewed as a "plus"? Also, any advice on just packing my bags after I get my MA, heading to Beirut, and knocking on UN/NGOs' doors in hopes of getting a job?

hash: I'm sorry, but I really don't think it's impossible to become fluent in Arabic in two years. Maybe I'm one of those "gifted" language learners. I learnt fluent Portuguese after six months in Brazil and have intermediate proficiency in French, Hindi, Turkish, and Urdu as well. I am experienced in teaching myself languages. Obviously this would be harder to do for dialects which lack course books (i.e. Hijazi) than it would be for MSA. I also never claimed to be able to become fluent in Levantine while in Jeddah.

Because I imagine that I would be exhausted at the end of school days (and therefore potentially lack the self-discipline which independent study demands), I feel that taking formal courses would be the best way to improve my MSA in Jeddah. I found the following two schools, in case anyone has an experience with them?:

http://www.jcec.com.sa/lang/langcourse.html
http://ali.kau.edu.sa/Default.aspx?Site_ID=973&Lng=EN

[scot47]

There is teaching material in Hejazi Arabic. Your problem will be finding a competent teacher. See the FSI link -

http://www.fsi-language-courses.net/

[spanglish]

[nomad soul]