Job Discussion Forums

[desultude]

A lot depends on your background and where you are teaching.

I am not a teacher- I have never taught anywhere but in universities. That make a lot of difference in experiences. I had a great uni job in Korea, and enjoyed the country a lot as well as the people. People who worked in hogwans often did not have so great an experience. The culture of Korea is a challenge, but it is easy compared to Saudia. There is little, save have lived in a different culture than your native one, to prepare you for Saudi Arabia.

The university I taught for in Saudia might as well have been a hogwan in many ways, except for the holidays. We were employees who had little if any academic freedom or autonomy. Everything is heavily top down, and quite autocratic.

"Real teachers" often teach abroad for a variety of reasons. If you are making 35K abroad with not taxes, no rent, and paid airfare for anual holidays, the you are making a hell of a lot more than someone making 35K in the States.

Many of us are teaching abroad because we like teaching abroad. I like teaching, and I love to travel. I teach abroad to satisfy those interests. I went to Saudi Arabia because when I got the offer, I was just amazed at the possibilities. I was curious- as I can see you are. The problem is that we are too American- and I don't mean that in a bad way. What I mean is we are used to things we don't often have to consider- like mutual respect, a given level of equality, rights we never have to think about, etc. And we are too demanding and confrontational to just accept bad treatment and incompetence without responding- a real problem in the Kingdom.

I guess the best thing to do is to go and learn about it. But do try to learn. The real take away from a place like Saudi Arabia is knowledge and insight- about the culture and yourself.

[veiledsentiments]

[rigel]

I've gotten off my original point, so I'll restate it.

The jobs that pay well in TESOL that are open in places like Korea and in the ME are open because the previous holders of those jobs weren't happy and left. They remember what those jobs were like later and don't return to them, even though they could be given the choice between these jobs and working at Wal Mart, 7-Eleven, et al.

Those hogwart jobs that are open right now in Korea could very well be filled by people who used to work at those jobs, but are presently unemployed due to the economic downturn. But they don't. They remember how bad those jobs were (at least in their minds) and elect to not go back.

A lot can be learned from observing people and their choices.

[Stephen Jones]

[rigel]