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scot47
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343
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 Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 6:32 pm Post subject: |
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Gabe
At least one of my colleagues is now going around muttering into his beard, 'Am I a loser then ?'
Using all my long-nurtured counselling skills I tell him ,'Sure, big time ! More than a deadbeat you are a drongo !'
Is this the right tack to take ? What can I say to him to reassure him that in global terms he is doing better than 80 percent of the population of Planet Terra ? |
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Miss TESOL
Joined: 11 Feb 2005
Posts: 47
Location: TESOL
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| Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 6:47 pm Post subject: Count yer riyals, count them one by one, Count yer riyals |
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| Count yer riyals, count them one by one, Count yer riyals . . . |
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GabeKessel
Joined: 27 Sep 2004
Posts: 150
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| Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 3:37 pm Post subject: |
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| At least one of my colleagues is now going around muttering into his beard, 'Am I a loser then ?' |
That depends who you ask. According to the modern day Western society, if you are not an attorney, investment banker, a lawyer,doctor, etc., you are not really a winner. So, I am proud to be a loser. I now have a 6 room villa in Oman all to myself- 5 mts. from the beach, lots of savings that can keep me afloat for years, and no debts. Since I came out to the ME, I've been on a safari to Africa, danced tango in Buenos Aires and lived like a king in the Philippines. I rented hotel rooms by the month. Yes, I could afford it.
| Quote: |
Using all my long-nurtured counselling skills I tell him ,'Sure, big time ! More than a deadbeat you are a drongo !'
Is this the right tack to take ? What can I say to him to reassure him that in global terms he is doing better than 80 percent of the population of Planet Terra |
Please tell him that I meant it all tongue in cheek. We are not losers by any measure. We are living a lifestyle that few people can live. And he is not doing better than 80% of the world. He is doing better than 95% of the world.
Plus, while Saudi Arabia is an oasis for losers, it does not mean that all people who work there are losers. It just means that if society in the West calls you a 'loser', Saudi Arabia can be a good oasis for you. But if no one calls you a loser there, you can still come, I guess.  |
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zaneth
Joined: 31 Mar 2004
Posts: 545
Location: Between Russia and Germany
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| Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 11:00 am Post subject: |
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| Type A, that's me. Where do I sign up? Time to get serious about making some money and staying warm. |
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shadowfax
Joined: 31 May 2003
Posts: 212
Location: Pocket Universe 935500921223097532957092196
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| Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 5:15 pm Post subject: A losel's animadversion. |
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Was Ovid a "loser", though Providence sent him to the pale and frozen exile of the Euxine?  |
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GabeKessel
Joined: 27 Sep 2004
Posts: 150
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| Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 1:06 pm Post subject: |
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If you mean the north coast of the Black Sea, it is not so frozen; actually, the climate is fairly Mediterranean but a snow does fall sometimes in the winter. The Scythian girls were also quite pretty which was the reason why quite a few Greeks did not go back. Not a bad place to be exiled to and be a loser in.
BTW, the ruins of Ovidiopolis can be seen near Odessa and are quite a tourist attraction. |
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pklocek
Joined: 07 Sep 2005
Posts: 11
Location: Lafayette, California
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| Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 4:12 pm Post subject: |
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KSA is certainly a magnet for Westerners who have some sort of tortured history back home. But we don't make much money here. Who are we kidding!?!?! We make an average salary here, 40-60K per year is a normal salary for people in the English Speaking World. We came here because we were probably making half that back home ... if we were lucky! And there WE WERE THE BANGLADESHIS! I taught high school history, adult ESL and needed to deliver pizzas on the weekends so as to be able to pay the rent and the minimum payment on my student loans. My 16 y/o students snickered at me because I drove a Ford Escort and had a roommate!
Yes, I was a looser! I still am, only here I can pretend that I am important. I go to embassy functions, compound parties that are practically off-limits to locals, and turn heads when I walk through the gritty streets of Umm Al-Hammam in Riyadh. I have become a character in my own Joseph Conrad story! How can I ever go home and return to the mediocrity that I fled? |
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scot47
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343
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| Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 9:17 am Post subject: |
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| Well an oasis is better than the desert. |
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scot47
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343
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| Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2006 11:32 am Post subject: |
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| And sometimes we get to leave the oasis for a glimpse of the outside world. |
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xedmonton
Joined: 14 Aug 2006
Posts: 1
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| Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 1:57 am Post subject: |
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| running dog wrote: |
Maybe Gabe could make a career in comedy but, going by this kind of comment, you might as well forget the idea, pal. Then again you've probably got more serious things on your mind. Which reminds me, not for the first time, of the standard type of male EFL instructors who fetch up here in the Gulf over and over again. While there's always going to be some overlap between the various categories, observation and instinct tells me that they're pretty much unchanged since the first oil industry training centres were set up after WWII. For my money, you probably belong to category 1.
A. The guy with "a plan": He's typically in his early to mid-thirties, possibly married or in a relationship but often not (he's never made enough money up until now to attract or keep a partner). He did his degree later than most, after three or four years post high school in dead-end jobs, and then wanted to "live" and have some adventure, TEFL being the easiest way to travel to and live in exotic locations. After five or six years of earning a pittance in Europe or Asia, he now decides its time to get serious (buy a house, set up his own business) so he reckons a few years in The Gulf is the easy way to make the necessary shekels. He saves every penny he can, is always careful in what he says and does and who he hangs out with, and everyone agrees, if they notice him at all, that he is the greatest bore since staying at home every weekend watching the wallpaper was invented. Some of these guys realise their dream, some don't but - what the hell! Probably the most appreciated kind of employee where Gulf companies are concerned.
B. The failed "writer": Typically older than the above, in his forties or early fifties. Usually has at least 3- 4 "novels" tucked away in a closet somewhere and even though his ex-wife/wives couldn't get through the first chapter (they returned in record time from agents and publishers with comments like "You're kidding, right") he just keeps doggedly ploughing on. I mean, nobody recognized the genius of Kafka or John Kennedy O'Toole during their lifetimes either. Usually twigged to during class breaks as he's the guy always seen reading "The Canterbury Tales" or whatever other masterpiece the local bookshops deem innocuous enough to fall into Arab hands. Don't worry! He'll only attempt to thrust his own work in progress onto you after a drinking session during which he slobbers out frighteningly inaccurate renditions of Wallace Stevens.
C. The "Loco": Boy! Is this guy furious! What's eating him? From the moment he shows up on the compound/ apartment block, he's spoiling for a row, if not a full-blown fistfight. He insults everyone and everything. You, the country and its inhabitants of course, and, above all else (you guessed it), women. The very few successful members of this breed manage to gather a small cohort of like-minded instructors around them and then they swagger about like a miniature S.S brigade trying to outdo one another in their put-downs of everyone and everything in sight. Most, however, quickly manage to insult the trainees or (on a less dangerous level) the management and they rarely last longer than 6-8 weeks.
D. The Drunk: In his forties though usually not later (he either cleans up his act or he dies) and stone alco, he often doesn't make it as far as the compound. Arrives off the plane comatose and is put on the first flight back by the appalled agent. If he manages to stay dry a week or two, is guaranteed to lock himself into his room on all subsequent weekends. Passing by his door, you will hear sobbing, raving, the sound of furniture falling over or being wantonly destroyed. Shows up in the school or training centre on Saturday mornings sporting black eyes and bandages where he has been assiduously beating himself up. Usually lasts a couple of months at most.
E. The Convert: Typically even older - early to mid-fifties. He's tried them all: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, crystal worship - even did a spot of camping out near Roswell airforce base in the late sixties watching for passing UFOs. Now he's decided Islam is the final divine revelation and he wants to live in the Holy Land.
F. The Party Animal: Quite often younger than most (late 20s) and very often West Coast or Irish. Stuck for a year in the Desert? Forget it; any place can be good time heaven if you work at it. There's hot, hot party time ahead. Where are the nurses? Who's got a Hot Rod? We can set up our own disco, can't we? Spends most of his salary the minute he gets it on electronic goods and other cool paraphernalia. When down, indulges in fantasies about surfing on the (waveless) Red sea or dirging out Rebel songs. Does a runner during the first vacation.
The Homosexual: One of the least closely guarded secrets in TEFL is that the Gulf is Gay Disneyland. Still, after a year even he gets fed up with all the myriad anonymous encounters and wants true love. And who can blame him?
Anyone I've forgotten? |
This is so funny and so true. I probably fit into more than one category, but the closest is The Homosexual. It is true the KSA is a sexual Disneyland for gay men, but I did find love and stayed for more than three years. |
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Frank Verity
Joined: 20 Jul 2006
Posts: 35
Location: INDIANA
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| Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 3:14 pm Post subject: |
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These sentiments are very accurate.However,the washed out, washed up,
geriatric,freemason drunk is becoming an extinct species here.Years ago
in Riyadh it was not uncommon to see these creatures with their female equivalents -hard faced Anglo/American TESOL matrons with voices like
Yogi Bear and faces like Sergeant Bilko.
The majority of the drunks either marry Thai teenagers(of either gender)
or continue their conviviality in the monosyllabic morons bars.Either practice is conducive to premature demise. |
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scot47
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343
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| Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2006 11:31 am Post subject: |
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| Do you suppose that Frank verıty ıs the same creep as thrıfty ? |
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Stephen Jones
Joined: 21 Feb 2003
Posts: 4124
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| Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2006 12:04 pm Post subject: |
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| Do you suppose that Frank verıty ıs the same creep as thrıfty ? |
Cleopatra or Veiled (I can't remember which and have difficulty telling them apart) thought he was the same person as henry, but you're all wrong. Indeed a reading of FV's posts would make it clear he has a much finer command of the English language than either, even though he rarely uses it for anything but spewing bile.
Thrifty is married in Turkey and spends all his time complaining how he's miserable in a dead end job, and that his only pleasure is trying to persuade you you should be as miserable as him. His only useful purpose in life is to annoy Henry Cowell.
henry is in jubail where he bumps into JIC teachers and maybe somebody who answers the telephone in some hidden corner of the RC. This makes him think he is in possession of hidden knowledge regarding all its comings and goings. |
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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| Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2006 3:14 pm Post subject: |
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| Stephen Jones wrote: |
| Cleopatra or Veiled (I can't remember which and have difficulty telling them apart) thought he was the same person as henry, but you're all wrong. |
They are either the same person or room mates posting consistently from the same computer... that much has been confirmed. Not to mention that their prose is indistinguishable. Look at that locked post where "they" have the first two entries... both the unusual format and the rather unique prose style... came from the same computer and likely also the same person.
They are not 'thrifty' though...
You must not be reading us very carefully if you can't tell Cleo and I apart... our prose and approach couldn't be more different. But that is fine since I doubt if we provide much information that you need to know. 
VS |
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Frank Verity
Joined: 20 Jul 2006
Posts: 35
Location: INDIANA
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| Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2006 6:12 pm Post subject: |
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| CORRECTION: his devotion to the Caligula who runs the English Department at JIC |
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