Job Discussion Forums

[meyanga]

7atetan

oh my god!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really can't believe what I've been reading. Is this actually for real?

If this is all true, then you have been lucky so far, but it won't last forever. If you are really unable to be sensistive, diplomatic and at the very least, sensible, then you shouldn't come to KSA. If you are so anti-religion, why come to a country where everything revolves around religion? It doesn't make sense.

I am not particularly religious, but I know where I am and I understand that I am teaching students whose backgrounds and lives are very different from mine. I act accordingly as TEFL teachers do in all the diverse situations they find themselves in.

Why anyone would want to boast about being rude and culturally inappropriate is beyond me.

How very strange...

[meyanga]

[quote]I had lunch in my office at noon, and was not concerned about who could smell the food. [quote]

I also eat during Ramadan...but being blatently unconcerned about others in this manner is so disrespectful.

meyanga

[scot47]

Meyanga

EFL-land is full of strange characters. You may have run into some of them.

[meyanga]

apparently so!!!

[trapezius]

I eat and drink in my office as well during Ramadan, but I never let it be known to anybody on campus. Consequences are too severe to take a risk with anyhting like that in Saudi.

[7168Riyadh]

Once i took a swig of water during class knowing full well my students were fasting. Before doing so, and suddenly realising my faux pas, I said "sorry, i know you're fasting, but i'm going to drink this anyway." The students' response: "No problem teacher, take your time." Perhaps my behaviour was rude!
It seems to me Muslims [vast group of people; vast generalisation] forgive a great deal if you display a little courtesy. It's all a question of your attitude. And not taking other people into consideration is rude anywhere.

[Sheikh N Bake]

Personally I hate religion too. Sometimes I can be the Tony Soprano of sensitivity, but not in Saudi Arabia, where I mostly switch to Alan Alda mode. Fortunately I have nice students who make it fairly easy. One cadet gave me an Islamic pamphlet--as I am, of course, worthy of saving--and frankly I was pleased, not because I wanted to read the thing but because the guy is an excellent student and hard worker and I appreciated where his heart was. I smiled a genuine thanks and he appreciated that, and that was the end of the Islamic lessons. I don't know--but it seems to me that strategy, at least that time, saved a lot of time and stress. I don't care what my students believe in and I don't care if they know anything about my beliefs. I just want to do my job, respect the culture without being a sycophant, respect the students as individuals, and be respected. That's what they pay me for. And we all want to be respected. The students mostly don't mean to be disrespectful if they seem to cram the religion down your throat, and it usually doesn't go that far anyway. it's their country.

I've had much worse from a highly educated Algerian woman friend--a scientist working in France-- who once wanted to marry me. She seemed to assume that I would take it for granted that I would convert to her religion. Of course! Who wouldn't?! It's the best religion, the perfect religion. Three guesses what my response was.

[With Malice Toward None]

Most of my Arab colleagues have never even expected me to keep up pretences of fasting with them. Some of them (non-Gulf Arabs) even advised me to smuggle in a sandwich and water and I used to go into the pantry to gulp everything down. Nobody seemed to bother. If I had openly defied, the story would've been different.

[Cleopatra]

Not to be pedantic, but is it not the case that only a believer in a certain religion can 'blaspheme' against it? That is to say, a non-Muslim cannot blaspheme against Islam?

Anyway, like VS I think this 7atetan character is likely trolling in order to stir things up - which he has certainly succeeded in doing! Citizenkane, johnslat and Sheikh n Bake have given some good advice - there are ways of being sensitive to your students without being overly 'pandering'.

[Mia Xanthi]

Yes, Cleo is right. Many people do not realize that women do not have to fast during their "time of the month". Therefore, if you are caught breaking the fast, this is a fast and easy explanation.

However, IMHO, it is just plain rude, not to mention illegal, to eat or drink in front of someone who is fasting.

Furthermore, it is also preferred that a woman be especially modest in dress during Ramadan, since men are forbidden to even think sexual thoughts during this time. I always kind of enjoyed this part...Ramadan was my time to forget about make-up and doing my hair...and even leaving the heels at home, Cleo!

It is not such a difficult time to get through Ramadan in a sensitive manner. Remember that the purpose is to remind yourself what it feels like to be poor and hungry and thirsty. We could all use a little reminding of this now and then, no matter what our opinion of religion is.

[Cleopatra]

[7atetan]

[Linguist]

[With Malice Toward None]

(Oh, and they're MALE students, so those fries were not gobbled up by menstruating women but by healthy 20-year-olds bang in the middle of Ramadan.)

Your claim to having been witness to such collective 'haraam' is outrageous and I have never seen or heard of such a thing even in much liberal Oman. Yes, many students do tuck away tetrapack drinks and the odd falafil and drink/eat perhaps inside even toilets, but publicly- no. On the other hand, Arabs are least offended by the sight of construction workers and such, sweltering under the sun glug-glug down bottles of cold water collected from the school filters.

[With Malice Toward None]