Job Discussion Forums

[lucreziaborgia]

I am relieved and delighted to bid the above au revoir after a brief 2 months.
Without exception, I have never experienced such a sick situation in such an equally sick country in all my life - and that's saying something.
If I could be bothered, I would post an extensive description of my experiences with all the above but I lack the enthusiasm.
Others will so do and save me the effort.
It is the last time I will be posting on this forum as I cannot be bothered with the endless tedium of ESL teaching except in the context of related work that is intellectually uplifting and with people who matter in a global sense. The KSA would have to offer the most mindnumbingly dull, relentlessly time wasting, expansively asinine and unforgiveably boring work known to mankind. I take my hat off to all you time servers and trust your bank accounts grow knowing full well that your dune dwelling students' level of erudition will remain at bedrock for eternity.

[veiledsentiments]

Farewell and Good Luck lucrzia...

But, I do think that we tried to warn you.

VS

[johnslat]

Dear lucreziaborgia,

I'm very sorry the Kingdom was such a bad experience for you. But I think you've let your bad personal experience lead you down the path of generalization:

"knowing full well that your dune dwelling students' level of erudition will remain at bedrock for eternity".

While it's likely none of my students will ever win a Nobel Prize, I was fortunate enough to have some very good ones (more than "some", actually), and a lot of my students, many of whom had university degrees, entered my classroom with at least a high "level of erudition" as similar students in, say, the US have.
I even met a few who were probably more erudite than I am (which, of course, may admittedly not be saying much.)
I hope they left my classroom a little more erudite.

Regards,
John

[scot47]

I think warnings were given but as is often the case little attention was paid to the grizzled old veterans.

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

Scot...and exactly what the hell do WE know???

NCTBA

[scot47]

We may have a better idea of the Qibla, if I may speak in figurative terms.

[lazycomputerkids]

[scot47]

The weather ?

[Oreally]

The warnings are valid but we just dont listen sometimes. I never thought it would or really could be like this. With the kind of money running through here, how could there be no copy machine? With all the religion, how could it be so racist? With all the plain white and black clothing, how could it be so materialistic? I refused to believe. I kept looking at the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Even the rainbow turns out to be broken. Now, just like lucreziaborgia, I am another of the many disappointed. We just dont wanna listen!

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

I kinda feel that, especially with the venomous PMs I received over the summer, there was a kind of line of thought amongst many of the posters that the old timers had formed some kind of syndicate and were posting warnings to protect our employment.

Well, I, for one, left the kingdom of pain when a few of my former compounds got bombed after the beginning of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and my family was evacuated. We had returned to the k.o.p. because we thought that it was so kid-friendly. Hah! Tell that to the poor folk at the al-Hamra Compound!

I kinda felt that, especially with the venomous PMs I received over the summer, there was a kind of line of thought amongst many of the posters that the old timers had formed some kind of syndicate and were posting warnings to protect our employment.

For whatever reason, I gave up with the warnings after it became crystal-clear that new posters weren't hearing what they wanted to hear and adopted the refrain, "Sometimes you can't talk someone offa ledge."

The fall is hard...

NCTBA

[johnslat]

I am reminded of my second wife. We met and married in Florida (a year between the meeting and the marrying.) Before she came with me to Saudi, I went into exhaustive detail about what it would be like, especially for a woman, over there. She listened with a smile to everything I said and nodded. "Don't worry," she reassured me, "I'll manage just fine."

Well, a week after we'd arrived in Riyadh, she said, with an aggrieved look,
"Why didn't you TELL me it was going to be like this?"

Umm, could we replay the tape, please?

No amount of warning, no amount of preparation can really convey just what the Kingdom is like, especially for women. The reality simply cannot be fittingly expressed in mere words - they make little or no impression, and there's always the thought, "Well, I can handle that." Only the experience itself can penetrate.

Now there ARE some women who can fit it well, but they, I'd say, are the exception rather than the rule. And, of course, to a lesser degree, given the fact that Saudi is a male-dominated society, what I've written is also true of (most) men. In the category of "straight" males, only weirdo specimens, such as, say, myself and scot47, last there for many years

Regards,
John

[kazazt]

BAE is full of misers as are other military contractors such as Booz Allen -they last until they are forced out.

[Mia Xanthi]

[lazycomputerkids]

These posts, save John's usual effort to strike a balance, read like text-book examples of confirmation bias.

The self-described veterans seem, to me, a little eager to render the original post as rational when its text can not support such a reading. The original post might be described as emotional, poetic, extreme or hateful, but not a substantiation of much, other than a very angry person.

I have little sympathy for the OP. After two months, they're leaving after finding the demands of the job beyond their expectation. It's that simple to me. Someone wasn't suited. Big fat deal.

Statements condemning a culture until the end of time reveal more of the speaker than the subject. Extreme statements, generally, reveal more about a writer than the subject of the writing.

As the veterans note, it's not like there weren't warnings. I find the outrage of the poster humorous. And such is why I responded with a joke, attempting to undermine the vehemence of the language. But, oddly, the 'veterans' seek to validate the outrage rather than see it as a rant . The outrage is interpreted as validating an unstated thesis-- we're right about (it all).

And this is a confirmation bias. You were never wrong. You never will be.

[johnslat]

Dear lazycomputerkids,

"I find the outrage of the poster humorous."

I like to think I have a pretty good sense of humor, but I found the outrage sad, not funny. I feel sorry for anyone who's undergone an experience that can generate such outrage.

Regards,
John