Job Discussion Forums

[VijayPatankar]

Hello Everyone,

I applied for a ESL position through ESLemolyment.com

This afternoon I got an email from the Director - (Mod edit) Majali,
Director of Hawthorn Muscat English Language Centre.

But when I tried to contact him back via the email, the email bounced, which got me thinking ... and hence this post.

Does anyone know much about

Hawthorn Muscat English Language Centre?
Has anyone had any dealings with Majali?
Has anyone worked at the above place before?

My background

New to this forum, finishing my MA(TESOL) next week. Previous 2 year part-time teaching experience in EAP + ESL at UNSW in Sydney, Australia. I have CELTA as well.

Australian citizen
Married + son (10 yrs old).
Interested in working in the middle-east.

Any suggestions or recommendations would be of great help.

VP

(Mod edit - don't use full names)

[veiledsentiments]

Do a search for Majali - use the search button above. He has been around Oman forever and is pretty infamous. That said, many have worked for him over the years and survived to tell about it.

The bouncing email is likely caused by the fact that the local provider inboxes are small and when applications start coming in, they fill up fast. That is why many use hotmail or yahoo or whatever.

As to advice, this would be a tolerable job to get those first couple years post MA on your CV to move up in the Middle East market, BUT... with a child, this could be a problem. Many of these recruiter jobs are in smallish villages with no expat schools. (not sure which branches Hawthorne is recruiting for - whether this is for a Muscat position or not) An even bigger problem is that they don't give education allowances as far as I have read here. A giant slice of your pay check would go to your son's school.

VS

[Kornan DeKobb]

[veiledsentiments]

I'd do a search. All have been discussed here.

VS

[inasianow]

I worked for Majali for just under a year. The pay wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. I know some people say they have had trouble with Majali but I never did. He did what he said he would do, and the contract was straightforward. Not the best terms, as I said, but okay. The guy is not a charity, he's in this to make money - and I bet he does. But again, in my dealings with him he was straightforward and kept his word. I would work for him again if circumstances required it. On the other hand, I'm now making twice my former Oman salary, so I sincerely hope circumstances never require it!

[EFLprofessional]

Hawthorne Muscat does not recruit for Sohar anymore. Sohar was taken away due to "Omanization". Hawthorne now only recruits for Sur (this is the last year for it due to the same reason) and Rustaq.

I worked in Sur at the College of Applied Sciences for two years, and while I enjoyed my time there, it was not without its difficulties; lack of support from administration, lack of basic equipment, funds, supplies, etc. (I finally gave up and just began buying what I needed myself!). For the most part, the students are very sweet, intelligent, if not a little lazy, and a joy to teach. Most of them, like anywhere, want to learn; however, the biggest problem is not the students, it's the curriculum. The curriculum is designed for the failure of the student in that it assess the student on only 3 points: 50% the final exam, 25% the written report, and 25% the oral presentation! NOTHING ELSE, not "homework"...NOTHING! So, don't expect students to do homework! If the student "falls down" on any 1 of those 3 points, then his final mark goes right down the toilet! That puts a HUGE amount of pressure on the student....and the teacher because the administration DOES NOT LIKE TO SEE STUDENTS FAIL AND BLAMES THE TEACHER FOR THAT STUDENT FAILING!

Having said that, my advise to anyone thinking of taking a job with Hawthorn Muscat is DON'T!!! The Director, A.M., is as crooked as a dog's hind leg! He used to work in Sohar at Sohar University and was convicted of embesselment and served time in prison! But that didn't teach him anything beause he continues to run his scams on teachers by not paying them what is due to them. He is paid by the Ministry of Higher Education a "gratuity" of two months salary which is supposed to be paid to the teachers as incentive for their return and instead, he keeps that money for himself. I could go on because the "laundry list" of his "rapsheet" is long...but I think you get the picture.

So, while I would say that the people of Sur are friendly, helpful, kind, generous...and if you can put up with a "provincial town" then you would have no problem living Sur. Sur sits right on the ocean and there is plenty of things to do there; at Ras al Hadd there are the nesting grounds of the green sea turtles, there are wadi's to explore by 4x4 - this is a "rock climbers" paradise, and only 50km west of here is the Sharqiya Sands, a 200x400km expanse of muli-colored sand that is just beautiful to look at.

But if you are really interested in Sur, try to get a job directly with the Ministry of Higher Education in Muscat....but AVOID HAWTHORN MUSCAT AS IF IT HAD THE PLAGUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[EFLprofessional]

Oppps! Sorry for all the misspellings in the above post from me. I was in a hurry and didn't check! I didn't follow my own advice to my students!

[Ma]

...is a dive, has legal problems and really shonky management. Stay away unless you fancy working with people who are illegally employed, get raided regularly by the Ministry of Manpower (ask why there are so many man-sized closets) and have NO idea about current methodology...

yours,

scarred and scared....