Job Discussion Forums

[tambok17]

SDT seems to pay a bit more from my experience at least for long term contracts. Short STA contracts that go on for a couple of months are some 20K a month. But long ones by SDT pay the same as STA's plus they seem to give you tickets. Correct me if I am wrong.
As far as them treating teachers as worthless, well, if people with non ESL degrees are routinely hired a well as people without any degrees are hired, how else can they be treated? As worthy?

[Marquess]

The dross they get deserve to be treated the way they are but sadly decent people get the same treatment.

[Middle East Beast]

[tambok17]

Yup! You want to know what real S&M is? Try being an MA in Applied Linguistics holder, a University instructor with 30 years of experience, bossed around by a CELTA/DELTA sergeant/petty officer who does not even know proper English.

Those amongst you who are dross, though- you have hit pay dirt and will have a field day at STA/SDT! Go ahead and apply now!

[tambok17]

[Marquess]

[tambok17]

[mrweber]

Hi folks
I thought I would contribute my two cents worth to the sta/std thread. I just finished a one year contract with a six month extension. well finished at the end of 2009 to be honest. At the moment I'm kicking it in South America that is why it has taken me so long to post. Needed to detox. Now, I have ready to give the scope and nothing but the G honest scope about sta/sdt so to speak. I have worked in the gulf for over ten years so believe me if you like or not I don't care.
First there is a rumor that STA doesn't hire Americans well since my passport is from America that is false. really gentlemen STA is a recruiter. They make money putting bodies in a contract.

Second, Some people have made a comment about the STA representative being unprofessional. Well , people grow up. I found him and his staff in Dubai to be one of the most professional organizations I have dealt with in the gulf. Yes, there were some problems running the show from Dubai Which is why he left his family there and moved to the KSA. His accountant was just great. I didn't have to worry about being paid on time well Saudi time and she even routed a months pay into another account for me.
As far as SDT was concerned I found the British management to be rather a jolly good lot. I would work with them again if given the chance. well outside the KSA ok ok 6 years is enough to spend in any country.

As far as this I have a Masters and you only have a high school diploma or D levels or is it A levels heck you get my drift, so what. I met some real characters working there and my life is richer because of it.

Saudi managers. well what can you say. They are in a tough position. Having to deal with students and a foreign staff.

Ladys and Gentlemen my parting words of wisdom. Dudes relax enjoy your time in the kingdom and all the wacky experiences you will have and save save and save your dough.then piss of. I for one am laughing my way to the bank. oh yes my next post will be teaching only women oh yeah.
Cheers

[Vancouver Girl]

Gosh, Tambok...does this all bring back ME memories!

Interesting that you contrast TEFLERS from the Emirates and Saudi. I worked..albeit briefly...for a language institute in Abu Dhabi (now mercifully expunged from the face of the earth) where the situation among the staff was exactly as you describe. A seemingly endless processional of pettiness, spite, back-biting, lying, snitching and caustic remarks/jokes based on one's national origin (the last being chiefly the domain of a certain vituperative Melbournian). I found this confusing. We were, after all, just a bunch of English teachers making $45, 000 a year plus benefits. Not some high-flying corporate lawyers in the City of London or Wall Street where such behaviour would have been understandable, if nothing else.

One point of disagreement, however. I have worked with MA's and even Ph'd's in Applied Lingusitics etc...who could not teach their way out of a paperbag..or, indeed, manage a language school (see above). I have also taught with some Texas cowboy-types without an ESL degree who had the class in the palm of their hand and a very high student pass rate.

[bounce]

Agree with the last two posts completely.

PhDs/MAs do not translate into ability to teach English effectively at all. They're only useful qualifications in the Gulf because administrators think in terms of university hierachies. Most have no teaching component and many are from joke online universities anyway. If anyone actually cared about communicative language teaching in these institutions, most of these MA dinosaurs would be on the plane home tomorrow. (That's not going to happen, of course, since communicative language teaching comes a long way down the list of priorities in most institutions, after things like having a quiet life, keeping wasta students happy, making sure nobody says anything bad about the prophet, making sure the tea-boy's got the tea ready etc).

I've met a lot of teachers with MAs here, and 99% of the time, the MA is either:
A) a way for tired hacks to keep some shred of dignity as they shuffle through the same dreary rubbish page after page. (With an MA, you can pretend you are part of a serious academic culture when you meet folks back home who know no better.)
or B) an attempt not to face the reality of being a sad and mercenary person who has let the best years of their life pass them by in some godforsaken dusty hellhole. (With an MA, you can pretend you are doing all this as part of your academic career, not because you the only reason you can find to go on living is to suck more dollars out of the Middle East.)

Give me a teacher fresh off the CELTA or DELTA any day.

[Middle East Beast]

[Geronimo]

The re-emergence of this thread is timely because STA are now offering a couple of short-term contracts for work with SDT during the summer months;
and other opportunities to be sub-contracted to work for SDT via other "recruitment consultants" are in the pipeline, too.

I'm currently working for SDT. However, I'm employed by a different sub-contractor. (As well as STA, SDT use EITC and MADA, o.k?).

Since tambok17 left there have a few slight changes. There aren't so many "strange winds" these days....but I'm sure that isn't down to his departure.

Also, since tambok17's departure, the basis for annual leave calculations has been changed. Nowadays, the Eidh breaks must taken as block leave.
(If you are familiar with the Duckworth Lewis system, you won't have any problems calculating your leave entitlement at all. )

There are worse places to work than here....(I think.) One of the main bugbears, though, is that the working day - at 9 hours, contractually - can be a l-o-n-g one.

With respect to bounce's observations about MA holders, I think that I'd place myself in category A;
as, fortunately for myself, I'd already enjoyed my best years before I became a tefler in the ME.

Geronimo

[Mia Xanthi]

[boundforsaudi]

Well, since a DELTA takes a couple of months and an MA in ESL takes a couple of years, I'd say an MA is about 12 times better. But it's not that simple. The problem with both of those courses is they typically take people who have first degrees in anything, and you wind up with teacher-socialists who can chat about methodology but still don't know "its" from "it's." This website is chock full of them. The real gold standard is FIRST a BA in English, THEN an MA in ESL.

[veiledsentiments]