Job Discussion Forums

nomadder · Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2003 10:03 pm Post subject: Where in the World?

You're offered a great job and apartment. It's the typical one year contract and the salary is quite decent. The only problem is you don't think you could handle this country for a year so you refuse. Where in the world are you?

For me I'm thinking probably one of those stan countries or possibly Saudi.

shmooj · Joined: 11 Sep 2003 Posts: 1758 Location: Seoul, ROK

A year?? I could handle anywhere at all for a year if I had to. It has to depend on your motivation and your needs.

You know what though, seeing as it takes about a year to settle in to a culture markedly different from your own, a year would be tough mentally as you are neither in nor out really. Contemplating longer helps you knuckle down and come to terms with difficulties, language - a kind of mental separation from what has gone before so that you can get through what is now to the future.

Anyway, from the sound of these forums, seems like Italy would be tough for a year and some places in China though I've been to neither.

Canuck2112 · Joined: 13 Jun 2003 Posts: 239

I'd literally like to travel almost everywhere on Earth. I think your experience is what you make of it...one could have a blast in a stereotypical "less than desirable" country, whereas someone in a sought after country could have a miserable time.

That said, I'm not sure I could cut it in Greenland. I can't imagine Nuut would have a great nightlife, and I would think teaching resources would be hard to come by. Field trips would be out of the question...I mean where are we going to go? "Look kids, vast, barren tundra as far as the eye can see!". Yep, Greenland is definitely out.

Also, any country where the sole TV station, radio network and newspaper are owned by the oppresive ruler is a big no no. Yes, North Korea, I'm looking in your direction Smile

Steiner · Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Posts: 573 Location: Hunan China

That should be Nuuk.

I'd stay out of Iraq for the next year.

Gordon · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan

Iceland. My wife spent a summer there and it sounded boring and that was with 24 hr of sunlight. I shiver thinking of the winters!

khmerhit · Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2003 5:15 am Post subject:

I went on a blind date with an Icelandic woman in February. She was striking looking, but not too impressed by my ESL status. Oh well. Nevermind.

Any rate, she said Icelanders frequently fly to the States to go shopping, especially to Minnesota where they have lots of rellies, and that serious shopping is their major recreation.

Capergirl · Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2003 9:47 am Post subject:

Saudi Arabia. Even my Emerati students said they are "all crazy" in Saudi. Laughing

donfan · Joined: 31 Aug 2003 Posts: 217

Buck Turgidson · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Posts: 96

A small town in the United States. That would be (is) tough for a whole year.

I agree with those who would be willing to live just about anywhere in the world. When I went to Japan it was primarily to pay off debt. I feared it would be hard to endure a year. Well, I stayed two and it wasn't easy to leave. I really think I would grow to enjoy just about any place outside of North America.

Canuck,

It can be entertaining to watch state-run propaganda TV. I think it is fascinating to study how media can be used to control people.

Khmerhit,

Don't forget that Minnesota has the Mall of America too. Very Happy

nomadder · Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2003 3:40 pm Post subject:

Travel is one thing but living is another. When I travel I like to see even the unappealing things but being stuck somewhere and getting extremely bored(as in eating or drinking are your biggest pastimes) or having to deal with strict Islamic restrictions etc. would be too much for me. It would be a year wasted.

struelle · Joined: 16 May 2003 Posts: 2372 Location: Shanghai

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

I did just that when I moved to China almost ten years ago! What a change in those years...

But back then, living in a hellhole was living in a hellhole: Housing with plumbing that leaks, cracked floors and walls, windows that don't shut, doors that you can push open even when locked. Telephones that ring but have no voice coming through. Fleas in the rattan furniture. Mosquitoes to drive you mad. Toilets that clog up if you flush down paper. And a screeching loudspeaker ten meters from your home that wakes up staff and students every day at 6 a.m. sharp and showers patriotic songs and agitprop allover the place. Students moving in army-like formations, dressed in uniforms, like robots.
Some of them reporting back to the FAO or principal on you.
Classrooms too hot in summer, too cold in winter, windows open all the time, people making noise all the time. Students dropping by at all times, unannouced. Principals hauling you to their office, and those that haul you come when it suits their own timetable, not yours.
The post office being a laughing matter that cannot handle outgoing mail with addresses written in Roman letters, even less so if written in Hebrew or Arabic. (letters simply disappear). Your own mail opened (and in some cases, letters put back in the wrong envelopes).
News? News from CHINA DAILY, of course: 70% (minimum) good news from the home front, 30% (at most) bad; from abroad: 30% (at most) good, 70% (or considerably more) bad.

Telephone lines crackling, sometimes someone else in the know what you were discussing with outsiders...
Food from the canteen - three times a day rice. Three times a day the same food, every day a week, every week a year.
That was in 1994.
I do not know why I have stuck it out this long!

richard ame · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 319 Location: Republic of Turkey

Hi
Yeah Roger I can relate to where you're coming from if any one had told me 10 years ago I would still be living here and enjoying it I would have recommened them for a brain change ,but despite all the hassle I have no regrets come on it takes at least 3 years just to get the feel of a place a year a lousy year doesn't even scratch the surface I would try anywhere for a year I mean ANYWHERE, but, the wife , thats a different story I haven't convinced her about the possibility for a only a year of ANY other country yet shes hooked good and proper .

nomadder · Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2003 1:50 pm Post subject:

How about Siberia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Algeria?

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

I have plenty of Bangladeshi friends and they reckon it's great if you have a bit of money. Mind you they spend much more time in the house in New York or London than in the one in Bangladesh :)

Iraq would be great if the Yanks and Brtis would get out. As it stands at the moment any Westerner would just be a soft target for the Iraquis to vent their justified anger against occupying troops to well armed to pick off easily.