Job Discussion Forums

[Queen of Sheba]

This rant on South Africans has gotten out of hand. Anyway, the original poster, blues clues, needs to learn how to spell Saudi before attacking others' credentials and abilities. Actions speak louder than words.

Saudis dont care where you are from so long as you have a native accent. If they are going to be racist it is going to be against Indians, Pakistanis and other Asian ESL teachers who have an "Indian-esque" accent. I have had students complain to me about other colleagues who have such an accent. They seem to want a Western style accent rather than an Indian/Asian one. This is their own take on English and maybe related to the fact that there are so many domestic workers in KSA with the same accent. Its actually somewhat intelligent a discussion for them to have, as the ESL world is also discussing it.

If someone doesnt care for South African teachers, perhaps its because they may be prone to settle for lower salaries, as was implied in the original post. That is due to their economic status and standards and there is nothing we can do about that. People are going to settle for the salary that suits them at that time.

Nationality is irrelevant when it comes to teaching English, and anyone who says otherwise is saying so becuase they get some professional benefits out of their nationality. I happen to have worked with great ESL teachers who are non White, non Western and have themselves learned English as a second language. Actually the argument that ESL learners are the best ESL teachers can be made. So there is no point to pick on one nationality or another short of pointless attacks on nationality and race.

[Van Norden]

[Queen of Sheba]

[Van Norden]

QoS, once the Saudis realise that any Pakistani or Egyptian could do my job as good as or better than me - for a fraction of the cost - my goose is cooked! Please edit your post asap before the cat gets out of the bag.

[Queen of Sheba]

Van, Van, Van, your naive view of KSA baffles me. They are onto that already - its just that they think if they pay more, for anything, they will get something better and of more value...something you have ironically admitted to disregarding with your anti-ambitious self. Besides, it�s the Anglo "accent" and sometimes "faces" they after, its good PR for Saudis who still see Asians as cleaning staff alone -which is arguably the vast majority of Saudis.