Job Discussion Forums

[Purple Murphy]

There are many options for well-qualified teachers in the UAE. Among the major education providers/employers for master-level ESL people are HCT , Zyed U, UAE U in Al Ain, MLI, Sharjah U, American U of Sharjah (and quite a few others). Obviously, prospective teachers would have to weigh the pros and cons of each institution - the location, the institution itself, the pay and conditions, the management, the students, and so on. I've heard plenty of comments regarding the places to stay away from and why. I would be interested in hearing comments about workplaces from people who are currently employed or who have left recently. Where do all the happy people hang out?

[mli_vet]

In the recruiter/monitor offices no doubt!

Sounds like you know pretty much about the options already Mr. Purple Murphy.

Just how "happy" would one have to be to reply to your query ? ? ?



MLI Vet
Over and Out

[scot47]

In the UAE you will find a lot of long faces. As in KSA most teachers seem to spend their days complaining about what a hard lot in life they have.

Happy ? I did not see many !

[mli_vet]

Buncha moaners! Saudi seems to me to have more of these, but perhaps that's just because Saudi is larger w/ more ESL teachers.

Happy, happy ! ! !

MLI Vet
Over and Out

[MLI Advocate]

Happy is what you make it. I know many people who are happy at MLI and enjoy living in the UAE. Why don�t they post more often? Posts that are positive draw the fire of the �nattering nabobs of negativity� (LBJ). Folks that are happy do not usually sit around telling everyone how happy they are � sounds a bit mental (free shot). Yet to go around moaning about how awful the world is and how downtrodden we all are makes for interesting reading

It seems anywhere you go, you will find people that derive pleasure from complaining non-stop. More often than not you will find them congregating in one office to feed off each other. Such is the case at MLI and quite likely at other places. �Misery loves company� didn�t become an old saying without cause. Since they hear the same whining coming from their office mates, the complainers think that they are right and everyone else must be just as fed up -- not always accurate.

If you are asking around, trying to choose a place to work, don�t just ask those who complain all the time. Do a bit of digging. Get in contact with the local TESOL organization and find out who is involved from different institutions. Get contact information from teachers who have made presentations at recent conferences. The more sources of information you have, the more balanced the picture.

[mli_vet]

Speak for yourself, but I like getting paid on time, in the amount I thought I would be getting paid, and having access to the level of benefits to which I thought I'd agreed.

Does this mean I'm unhappy in every other area of my life? Not necessarily. But it sure makes a big difference when your employer keeps their side of the bargain.

I can be happy about a lot of things, even about aspects of working at MLI, without necessarily being happy about getting jerked around by Administrative chain-pullers.

Good advice for job-seeking, by the way--except for the conference thing. Why should conference presenters' advice be more valuable than anyone else's? It helps in the job-seeking process for one to realize that there are certain workplace expectations, and that there are variations in the ways that some institutions adhere to such--some conscientiously, other downright deceitfully.

MLI Vet
Over and Out

[Cleopatra]

Let's face it - as far as EFL goes, teaching in the Gulf is an easy ride. Sure, life can be dull, students can be uninspiring, management corrupt...

But look at some of the other pages in Dave's Cafe for some real EFL hardship stories. The problems TEFLers in the gulf face are trivial compared to those that TEFLers eslewhere have to put up with. I think too many teachers come here with a real sense of entitlement and think that they should be treatted like demiGods just by being there.

I don't deny that there are some crappy places to work in the Gulf. But lets put things in perspective: you can literally earn in one month what many TEFLers earn in a year, plus have a nice flat, kiddies' education and long hols on the side. All in all, not so bad a deal.

[J-Pop]

[johnslat]

Dear j-pop,
You're quite right. It was Spiro ( I was around at the time, aged about 30 then ). But the quote here isn't quite right, Ir was actually, "nattering nabobs of negativism" and William Safire ( columnist and right-wing speechwriter ) claims credit ( blame? ) for it. Another of his more famous alliterative utterances was
"an effete corps of impudent snobs".
his description of the press.
Here's a website with some of his more memorable sayings.

http://www.superseventies.com/spirotag.html

Regards,
John

[scot47]

Spiro Agnew !

Now there was a real incompetent ! But his boss was a diffrent story. At least he had the sense to sign a deal with Peking, and to get out of Vietnam, even if that was ten years too late.

Do you suppose those Bozos running the show now have got ten percent of the savvy of Nixon ?

[johnslat]

Dear scot47,
You know, the answer - which, by the way, is NO - to your question is really scary.
Regards,
John

[guest of Japan]

God I wish you guys weren't right.

I am in no way a Nixon fan, but at least he made a few good decisions.
If Bush had to deal with the press war that Nixon had, we'd already have a new President.

[Purple Murphy]

Thanks for all of your comments and the pm from writerman. From the last few postings we can easily see that the self-serving bozos of the good old days were far superior to the self-serving bozos we get these days.

Cleopatra, you are right, of course. Just look at the posting from a teacher in Sur, Oman in Dave's ESL Job Information Journal entitled Life In Sur, Oman as a teacher. So some people get really shafted. It happens. Some of us have "not bad" gigs, but the search for the best gig continues...

For all your rantings and paranoia, VET, I'm inclined to agree with you on your Oct 28 posting. A legitimate grievance is just that. It's happy-go- lucky geeks with a tube of astroglyde in their back pocket (like MLI Advocate) who choose to ignore genuine workplace related problems and perpetuate the myth that all TEFL professionals are willing to take it anywhere anytime.

And 47, I feel sure there are places out there in the UAE where happy teachers hang out. Not just one or two randomly happy individuals, but herds of them (perhaps flocks if they were having a really good day). I do believe I saw a flock of happy teachers soaring on the thermals over Sharjah yesterday, but they were so high I really couldn't be sure...

It seems to me, given the authoritarian nature of the educational landscape, that "good" places are determined by good coordinators/administrators. If there's one bad coconut, one Savage Henry, one Psycho Bob running the show, you sign up for the BS rollercoaster. Perhaps if we were to hang some of these individuals out for public inspection, a clearer picture of the better work environments would begin to emerge. Ready?

[mli_vet]

Ready! Let's do it ! ! ! Let the public inspections begin!

MLI Vet
Over and Out

[shebab]

One person's hellhole is another one's paradise..While people continuously gush on and on about how wonderfully organized HCT and ZU are, I have friends who detested their experience with those places.

I take every criticism I hear with the proverbial grain of salt...