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With Malice Toward None
Joined: 20 Oct 2009
Posts: 250
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 Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:06 pm Post subject: |
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| Sheikh N Bake wrote: |
| With Malice Toward None wrote: |
| Sheikh N Bake wrote: |
| Because they've been so sheltered, imprisoned and gender-segregated, relatively speaking, that their maturity level is somewhere near junior high school level. |
Was that on purpose, Sheikh? |
Ah--I had to think about that for a bit. A prison can be a form of shelter, to be sure. One thinks of Morgan Freeman and the old guy in Shawshank Redemption. |
I, too, was thinking, what did Bill Sikes' dog think of him? The more Sikes beat the poor animal the more obedient it became. Of course a dog needs a shelter... |
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meyanga
Joined: 02 Mar 2008
Posts: 103
Location: Malaysia
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| Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:08 pm Post subject: |
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thanks for the advice, jdl, I think I am starting to get the picture. Hopefully next term will be better.
meyanga  |
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Kalima Shahada
Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Posts: 198
Location: I live in a house, but my home is in the stable.
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| Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2010 5:59 pm Post subject: Re: How do you tell a Saudi student they've failed? |
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| veiledsentiments wrote: |
Tears and drama are part of the job if you teach these young Arab women (and even the middle-aged ones). The real problem for us is that many (most?) of them are not there to improve their English because let's face it... they don't really need the English. (there were always a handful of serious types to save your sanity) They are there for something to do. They are perhaps there to get out of the house and socialize with some different faces. |
I had to deal with issues of students being cruel to one another in Arabic outside of my classroom. Whatever they said to one another in Arabic brought tears into the English classroom. It wasn't an everyday occurance, but the troublemakers did what they could to make a difficult situation even more difficult.
I would agree that most of them come to class to socialize as they don't often get out of the confines of their family structure and limited supply of friends. However, quite a few of them enjoy causing trouble amongst their peers as well as between admin. and teachers. Smart administrators can see through this BS and they are usually Arabs who have a lifetime of seeing this routine play out.
On another note, I failed one student and there were no tears, only shock  . I just explained to her this, "I can't pass you because of your attendance problem. It's the rule of the university... I know you had a doctor's excuse, but you still missed out on some really good and important lessons. Don't take this the wrong way. This is just another chance for you to take the class again, meet a new teacher and make more friends while improving your English." She understood! |
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slaqdog
Joined: 29 Apr 2003
Posts: 211
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| Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2010 7:16 pm Post subject: Re: How do you tell a Saudi student they've failed? |
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Quote: "I recently failed two students who then complained to management that they failed because of me. I have been pulled up, not for my teaching, but for "the way I communicated" the failure to the students and will received "training"  on how to do it better.
The problems arise as we must do 5 assessments - 2 speaking, 1 reading, 1 writing, 1 listening - they call this continuous assessment, although there is nothing continuous about it. Each teacher devises their own way of assessing, therefore, there is absolutely no standardisation whatsoever. " Unquote
Do the training and stop failing Sauidi's; it's not worth the hassle. The training has been set up as a trap so your management can hang you out to dry WHEN THE NEXT COMPLAINT COMES IN!!! |
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Sheikh N Bake
Joined: 26 Apr 2007
Posts: 1307
Location: Dis ting of ours
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| Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 11:58 am Post subject: Re: How do you tell a Saudi student they've failed? |
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[quote="Kalima Shahada"
Smart administrators can see through this BS and they are usually Arabs who have a lifetime of seeing this routine play out. quote]
Arab women administrators at Dubai Women's did not see through it at all. The little princess with the complaint was always right. |
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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| Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 4:00 pm Post subject: |
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I have to say that my experience with the local female administrators was the exact opposite. I was invariably supported both in the UAE and Oman. Like most things... it is the individual administrator... whatever their sex or nationality.
VS |
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Sheikh N Bake
Joined: 26 Apr 2007
Posts: 1307
Location: Dis ting of ours
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| Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 5:00 am Post subject: |
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Western women may well get a pass. You were not the evil American male.
Last edited by Sheikh N Bake on Sun Feb 14, 2010 2:16 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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| Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 5:21 am Post subject: |
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Well... that makes perfect sense to me.  
VS |
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scot47
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343
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| Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 6:59 am Post subject: |
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Meytanga
Be sure that your mastres have now seen this thread and marked your file in the appropriate manner. |
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meyanga
Joined: 02 Mar 2008
Posts: 103
Location: Malaysia
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| Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 8:07 am Post subject: |
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Thanks Scot47. I realise this..what are they going to do..give me 100 lashes? Yes, I want the dosh, but no, I will not live my life accepting unfair treatment from anyone. Anyway...there are loads of opportunities in the world..(if and) when one door closes, another one opens.
Just because we get housing provided and higher salaries than elsewhere does not mean we should live in fear. I work for the British Council, for god's sake...this should not be happening! I have done nothing but speak the truth as I see it. If this gets me in trouble then so be it. I do not feel the need to hide who I am or what I think on this forum or elsewhere.
Meyanga  |
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007
Joined: 30 Oct 2006
Posts: 2684
Location: UK/Veteran of the Magic Kingdom
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| Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 10:03 am Post subject: |
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| meyanga wrote: |
| I work for the British Council, for god's sake... |
Lord Kinnock will be pleased to hear the above, and will honour you with her Majesty's MBE medal for promoting British's culture, education, and encouraging failed students of the Magic Kingdom to come an study in Britain! |
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Sheikh N Bake
Joined: 26 Apr 2007
Posts: 1307
Location: Dis ting of ours
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| Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 2:18 pm Post subject: |
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| Sheikh N Bake wrote: |
| Western women may well get a pass. You were not the evil American male. |
VS said: Well....that makes perfect sense to me
Bet you didn't notice that my post above was #666
Sopranos quote of the day: There's an old Italian saying: **** up once and you lose two teeth."
Good intro to a daily class of little DWC darlings, I thought  |
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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| Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 3:17 pm Post subject: |
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Hey... losin' those two teeth gives you someplace to anchor that ceeegar...
VS |
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With Malice Toward None
Joined: 20 Oct 2009
Posts: 250
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trapezius
Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 1670
Location: Land of Culture of Death & Destruction
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| Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 10:24 pm Post subject: |
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| Also, lower the passing score. It's generally 60 to begin with in KSA, which is already a joke, but why can't it be 50? |
It is a joke? Well then I guess almost all US universities and colleges are jokes as well.
*************************************************************
That reminds me of this joke, except that it is true:
A couple of weeks back just before finals one of my 'pre-calculus' students stopped by my office to ask how much he needed on the final to pass the course. I looked at the grading sheet and added up all his marks and subtracted from 60. The result was 50 (remember, final exam = 40 marks!), so I told him he needed 50 marks on the final to pass the course. He asks how many marks the final exam carries, and whether it was from a 100. I said no, it is 40. So he says "it is 40, and I need 50?". I respond in the affirmative. His departing remark "OK I will try my best to get 50"!!!
(This student can't even add and subtract numbers, such as -7+3, or 2-5, etc)
He ended up with a grand total of 18 marks out of 100; 9 out of 10 in attendance and class participation, and 9 out 90 in all the exams and tests combined |
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