Job Discussion Forums

Van Norden · Joined: 23 Oct 2004 Posts: 409

Sounds rough samsong. Are you going to stick it out? If so, I'd 2nd what trapezius said about not letting them use you for their 'sport.' Don't show them that they're getting the better of you (easier said than done, of course.)
Yeah we tease him a lot cause we've hot him on the spot, welcome back, welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.

I'd also suggest you compromise as much as possible; put up with things you might not put up with otherwise. Focus on making everything as easy for yourself as possible. Be a Private Dancer:
You keep your mind on the money / Keeping your eyes on the wall
(Riyals or Dollars, American Express will do nicely thank you.)

I've had horror classes before (pre KSA) and I know how it feels. It fucks up your whole life.

globalnomad2 · Joined: 23 Jul 2005 Posts: 562

I taught enlisted recruits, not officers, at Raytheon, but I heard many horror stories about the officers, stories about the power struggle in class between the instructor, who was expected to deliver teacher-oriented lessons using the DLI (Defense Language Institute) materials, and a cadre of muttawahs and surly malcontents resentful of the whole business of learning English from Americans in order to learn American technology for their own defense. I can�t remember the litany of insults I was told about, except for one: �Your mother is *beep* because she not Muslim!�
That�s when the corridors would suddenly reverberate with a crash that sounded like an 80-millimeter howitzer, the sound of a teacher who couldn�t take it anymore, slamming his officers� classroom door behind him. At that point, the Saudi commander would normally diagnose the faculty member as �nervous teacher!� and reassign him to enlisted soldiers. Students, meanwhile, seemed perplexed and said �Oh, why angry, teacher?�

Raytheon was chicken-s*** and always sucked up to the Saudis, particularly since the latter were always behind in their payments. So Raytheon decided to edit the DLI textbooks in line with local sensibilities. This meant: (a) deleting all references to women soldiers, and (b) drawing mustaches on the illustrations of female American soldiers. Fortunately, the images in DLI texts were rather androgynous-looking drawings, not photos, so it was a simple matter to assign four or five teachers to the task. You knew you were encountering some innovative curriculum development when you joined a roomful of teachers being paid $54,000 tax-free to draw mustaches on women soldiers all day.

globalnomad2 · Joined: 23 Jul 2005 Posts: 562

One day...

I�m substituting someone else�s class period and immediately feel my spine tingle and my neck hairs stand up. I sense a malevolent presence. What is it�an evil spirit? Not to worry; it�s just the resident muttawah, a pint-sized demon who keeps dismissing me with that contemptuous hand flick that says �Be gone, inferior being.� He also interrupts me throughout the period with voiced insults.
For some reason my Wahhabi immune system has sputtered out today and I�m mad as hell and I�m not going to take it anymore.
�F*****g muttahwah!� I spit through clenched teeth as the class period ends and the regular teacher enters the room.
The bell rings; the little muttawah-goblin grabs my arm and tries to pull me down the hall onto the sergeant�s office. He�s got a smirk on his face as if he knows for certain he�ll have me thrown onto the next plane out of the country. Now that would break my heart.
I wrench my arm free. �Get your hands off me, you son of a b****!� I roar, and everyone down two long, intersecting corridors hears me.
The bearded holy boy marches into the sergeant�s office where, presumably, he tells tales of gross disrespect to Islam worthy of beheading. But I never hear anything further of it.

globalnomad2 · Joined: 23 Jul 2005 Posts: 562

The following, though incredible, really happened.

Back in the classroom one summer day when the temperature outside is 115 degrees and the window air conditioner sputters haphazardly in a room full of sweaty recruits who have just been marching around in the sun for an hour or two, discipline suffers. So do I. Think of what prison does to men and you can imagine what Saudi Arabia does to a motley huddle of boot camps with ninth-grade educations.
�So, again, shebab (lads), what�s a gerund? Good. It�s an ing-verb used as a noun. Abdullah, can you give me an example?
�Mr. (name deleted), showing us your bottom.�
�What?�
�We need see your bottom!�
I stand there holding my colored chalk (the Captain exhorts us to use colored chalk to promote lucid lessons) and I probably look like I�ve just swallowed it. Zip Johnson, world-renowned author and lecturer, mulled over the quickest way to get a cab to the airport. �Yes teacher! We need see your bottom! Because you beautiful man.�
�What the hell are you talking about?�
�Blease, teacher. Need see bottom!�
�Right�this is what your government pays me my salary for? To take my pants down and show you my butt? You need to get a life. Besides, I like girls. You know, in my country, most men like women.�
Mostly good-natured lads, this class, albeit perverted; they laugh appreciatively.
�No broblum, teacher, we don�t tell anybody, believe me,� says the ringleader.
�Hhmmm�maybe some other time.�
�Blease, Mr. (name deleted).�
�Need bottom!�
At the end of the period they all crowd around me as I attempt to make for the door and some of them give me gratuitously wet Arab-style cheek kisses before I can exit. Just then my old company leader, who is now in another class and is patrolling the halls, happens by and asks me how it�s going in my class�any problems?
I don�t know what he�s yelling after I tell him, but he puts the fear of Allah into the boys. They�re lucky I don�t write them up to the Captain, but I don�t think that option would be worth the trouble. The term is almost over and I won�t be seeing these lunkheads again anyway.

hakbs · Joined: 15 Apr 2007 Posts: 33 Location: Taipei vicinity

Samsong,

Do a runner and move on with your life before you will end up in a mental hospital!

What's wrong with EIKAWA and Hogwon in Japan & Korea? At least they have a day off for teachers: May 15, TEACHER'S DAY! And they will give you tons of gifts.

Bail out when Saudis are taking a nap (13:00 to 16:00) or on a Friday early afternoon!!

Cleopatra · Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2007 1:08 pm Post subject:

globalnomad2 · Joined: 23 Jul 2005 Posts: 562

Batty Patty, I simply reported three true incidents. Take them as you like.

Cleopatra · Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2007 4:39 pm Post subject:

When a poster is reduced to borrowing lame 'insults' from other posters, then you just know they're a few halalas short of a rial.

But then, anyone who read through that same poster's bizarre stream of consciousness above, will already have jumped to that conclusion.

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

cmp45 · Joined: 17 Aug 2004 Posts: 1475 Location: KSA

I thought the stories were quite funny!

sheikh radlinrol · Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 1222 Location: Spain

Cleopatra · Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 7:24 am Post subject:

And yet another post from Stephen with no other aim than to attack other posters. Oh well, just another dull poster who is far more interested in me than vice versa - I seem to have that effect on some of the men on this board.

But at least you managed to quote me correctly this time, I suppose you deserve praise for that.