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lcanupp1964 · Joined: 12 Dec 2009 Posts: 381

A protest by students from Princess Noura Bint Abdulrahman University happened today because 70% of them failed their English exam. They are demanding a retake. One student summed it all up very nicely. �English exams should be easy...our English is really poor. We want the university to give us another chance...we need extensive English courses just to be able to pass the first level of English." - From The Arab News.com website.

mlmuhamma · Joined: 23 Apr 2011 Posts: 6 Location: United States

Oh wow.

Sheikh N Bake · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: Dis ting of ours

Yeah, WTF? Just pass them on. They're all going to just stay at home in their $500 slippers, fiddling with the air conditioning and conveyor-belting babies.

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

... babies who will be raised by the nannies...

VS

Grendal · Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 9:39 pm Post subject:

That's funny guys.

I was wondering also about the men who cheat and plagiarize on their exams. One of my students got a 0 (zero) on the writing portion of the exam and perfect on the computer scan-tron portion. So he got an overall 80% on his midterm exam. The funny thing is another student in my class also got a zero on the writing and a perfect score on the computer sheet. They are both contesting their marks to the gods of English. I was told that they may be expelled if they can not prove that they didn't cheat.

I kept telling them both to be happy with their 80% and let sleeping dogs lie (pun intended). They are so obsessed with getting that maximum score. I openly told my class that if they build a bridge or building here in Saudi Arabia to tell me which one it is so that I can avoid it.

They all got the joke but deep down I was serious.

Grendal

dutchiris · Joined: 02 Feb 2011 Posts: 5 Location: Around 'n about

I'm laughing like a drain! I can't BELIEVE any of the highly attentive, well behaved, motivated and studious gels at PNU failed the English exam or any exam for that matter. ( In my time it was called 'a quiz' which undermined any attempt I made to take the process seriously.) Where was management at the time the results were posted? Sleeping? Eating? Doing their nails? Orchestrating a palace coup in the back room behind the photocopier? Heads will roll! How I miss Saudi Arabia!

johnslat · Posted: Sat May 07, 2011 12:10 am Post subject:

Dear dutchiris,

I just got rid of some cancer; I kind of miss that, too (It was a nice little freckle gone wild on the side of my nose - melanoma, possibly related to my having spent 19 years in the Kingdom.)

We can miss some very strange things, can't we? Very Happy

Regards,
John

Sheikh N Bake · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: Dis ting of ours

I'm sure it added charm to your face. Sort of like Ann Francis' mole?

johnslat · Posted: Sat May 07, 2011 8:35 pm Post subject:

Dear Sheik,

More like this:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_T-arlQhEsBM/TLRMYWiEFeI/AAAAAAAAAyg/OWWE8TJxiXM/s1600/mole.jpg

But now - sniff, sniff - it is no more. Well, better it than I.

Regards,
John the Freckleless

Insubordination · Joined: 07 Nov 2007 Posts: 394 Location: Sydney

It's amusing that they have enough drive and energy to organise a protest and get publicity, but reviewing a few vocab lists and grammar points is too hard.

Mia Xanthi · Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 9:22 pm Post subject:

dutchiris · Joined: 02 Feb 2011 Posts: 5 Location: Around 'n about

I sit here in the sleet and cold having just resigned from an intolerably dull ESL job at a local university. It was tedious due to the lack of curiosity and wonderment on the part of my colleagues and students. I lasted 4 days and found myself taking flights of fantasy back to the heat, sand and my abaya wearing days where I frequently exploded with laughter (with my students) at the craziness of it all...I am pleased you understand Mia Xanthi...it was a good time.

posh · Joined: 22 Oct 2010 Posts: 430

Mia Xanthi · Posted: Thu May 12, 2011 8:20 pm Post subject:

My students ask me all the time why I really liked living in Saudi Arabia. They are so accustomed to everyone hating it that they cannot conceive of a Westerner really enjoying it there. They keep asking "Why, Miss?" but I cannot really tell them the real reason: IT WAS SO DAMNED FUNNY. The whole country is one great, big ludicrous comedy show, and there is something hilarious waiting for you every time you walk out the door. The whole place is so completely ABSURD, and the absurdity made me laugh so much that it overrode the frustration. I have never laughed so much in my life, and more often than not, it was laughing with them, not at them.

johnslat · Posted: Thu May 12, 2011 8:30 pm Post subject:

Dear Mia,

You're quite right, It could be - and often was - hilarious. But there were also some "black comedy" moments, as well.

Regards,
John