Job Discussion Forums

[Theriel]

Hi all! I've been working up here in the (not so cold) north for a few years and thinking of heading south for a change. I'm not sure if I could handle the Middle East forever, as I do enjoy my beer and winter, but as you all probably know, Finland is not the cheapest or most lucrative of places, and money is unfortunately becoming really tight. Would love to climb out of debt a little and meanwhile see something different. I'm choosing the Middle East because I've had experience and education in the ESL field, and I've heard that the Middle East is a good place for those with real training and experience. Furthermore, I was amazed at the really warm welcome I received in Egypt, even being invited to a man I had just met's home to share a homecooked meal and tea (And it wasn't even a scam!)

Been browsing opportunities for a while but haven't come to any conclusions yet where to go. So, the main purpose of the post: if anyone's had any interesting or enjoyable experiences at a particular school or city/country, I'd love to hear! I've been looking over the different posts here to get an idea too, of course, but also, if you know of a particularly good post from a while ago summarizing particularly good places, that'd work too. I've checked all the most recent ones.

Libya seems to be so far at the top of my list, as I've seen a number of jobs in Tripoli from 1500-3000� per month, and although it's rather quiet/dull there, the money seems to be substantially more than basically all the other countries in North Africa/Midlde East (and more than likely most of the rest of the world). UAE seems to be a good one too, although with a substantially higher cost of living. But I'm still a bit of a n00b on this one, so any advice is welcome.

Of myself, I'm originally American, but have lived the past 4� years abroad, 1 year in Brazil and then the rest here in Finland. BA in Linguistics and just finishing up my MA thesis in phonetics, with a specialization in pronunciation and articulatory phonetics (some of you may have seen my posts about that earlier.) I've taught English for about 3 years now, 1 year of ordinary English, 2 of Business, and now just started teaching normal English courses again in the evenings on top of my daily business English routine. I prefer teaching either Business English, or my area of specialization of pronunciation, or at the very least adults... I'm not a kids person. I'm not a clubber, but I do like good beers and social life, although I can survive without it for some time. I'm liberal but know how to keep my mouth shut, and enjoy quite a lot of different activities, from scuba diving to travel to playing the pan flutes to studying minority languages.

Open to any advice, including PM's. And if you're curious about Finland at all, I'm happy to swap stories or give advice about this quiet northern country

Don

[veiledsentiments]

Hi Theriel,

Just a couple comments. Finish the MA, though the subject is rather esoteric. But, employers in the countries which pay well want to see an MA. There is little or no call for pronunciation courses in the Gulf and limited Business English. The vast majority of teachers are doing Academic English focusing on reading and writing because that is where Arabic speakers tend to be weakest.

There are few jobs in Libya. A couple of times a year there is an ad for teaching the oil workers... a British organization I believe that normally hires Brits. Perhaps someone here knows more, but I think the reason the pay looks high is because they are required to pay UK taxes. I've heard that it is a long and drawn out process to get the money back if you are not a UK passport holder. That may no longer be true, but do check it out.

The only countries where you can't get alcohol are Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The rest of the Gulf provides liquor licenses to purchase at government shops and it is served in the hotels.

VS

[Theriel]

I'll be done the thesis within a month or so. Took a bit longer to finish because I was working full time, and MA theses are not minor subjects here. (Oh for a 1 year MA in Britain with a simple 30 pager!) The subject is more esoteric than you know, though.. heh, I'm studying the acoustic properties of sibilants in the Helsinki dialect of Finnish. Not a subject particularly appealing to most people I imagine.

Phonetics itself isn't that esoteric.. in fact I feel that most teachers focus far too little on what is actually a very important aspect of language. For better or for worse, we tend to make judgments based on someone's accent; if they have a very good accent we're far more forgiving of grammar mistakes/vocabulary limitations than of someone who has good grammar and extensive vocabulary, but has a heavy accent.

But I suppose that's a bit off topic from the original post.

[veiledsentiments]

But not really crucial when the majority of your students will be staying within their own country where their English accent will be the norm... more important teaching ESL in a country like the UK or the US to immigrants.

I too had an esoteric MA thesis topic... pauses and hesitations in spoken English and whether it could be used as a way to use a computer program to test fluency. (taking away teacher prejudice...) And I know what you mean about the easier British MAs. I found someone who did a very similar topic to mine at about the same time, and he was allowed to do the thesis with 4 subjects. I did it at an American university and they required 20!! I spent more time transcribing and analyzing data than he did on his whole thesis!!

VS