Job Discussion Forums

[veiledsentiments]

[jdl]

Ah, VS, I fear the secret of oman has been 'outed'. Have you noticed how over the last year or so this board has come to be a shadowy reflection of the korean and other boards where the backpackers have traditionally congregated?

I guess we were all too forthcoming in our praises of Oman.

[abayawearer]

If backpackers have congregated in Oman, whose fault is it?

"Oh, look at all the backpackers I've hired. I should have dug deeper in my hiring process." If only we could get the agencies to say this....

[veiledsentiments]

Yes jdl... we should have kept quiet.

Since they brought in these recruiters the employment situation has definitely gone down the crapper. Though supposedly they are finally starting to require some real credentials and experience, this place is still filled with the unprofessional backpacker attitudes.

Sad... IMHO the Omani students need and deserve better.

VS
(and yes, I am aware that they are also managing to hire some very good teachers in the mix...)

[Buffalo Boy]

So in the opinion of the veterans on this board, is anyone without an MA or PHd a backpacker?

Obviously I don't have either, but I was offered a position in Oman and I intend to do a professional job. I don't think I'll be wearing a backpack much while I'm there, to much chaffing in that heat.

It sounds like there are a lot of people interested in Oman because they think it will be an enjoyable place to live. What's wrong with that? Life-work balance is important. I had a terrible lifestyle living in an industrial city in China but that didn't make me more of a teacher. If you work hard and do well by your students then you deserve a good lifestyle as a reward. That's the basis of employee motivation in any job.

[veiledsentiments]

[Buffalo Boy]

I've encountered a lot of backpackers teaching in Asia, and they are literally backpackers, often taking their dreadlocks and body odour into the classroom, if not their actual backpacks. There is nothing more demoralising in ESL than having such people as your colleagues and peers. The problem is that the students often love these "fun teachers" with their songs and games and despise "boring teachers" who want to teach paragraph structure or connected speech, even if they desperately need those things.

It does seem to me that standards are lowering in the gulf generally. I remember when jobs in the Middle East were always asking for masters plus ten years, and now I'm going there with a BA, Celta plus five years. So I thought perhaps I was a kind of ME equivalent of the backpackers we have here, dragging down pay and standards for the more experienced teachers.

[veiledsentiments]

[abayawearer]

The salaries have dropped the last 18 months in some of the ME countries for sure. Back in early 2008, one could commonly find a job advertised here in, say, Saudi Arabia, for over 3500 USD. Those adverts are very rare now.

I imagine standards have gone down right along side average salaries.

Perhaps the word is spreading, though, on what it's like to teach in some of the ME countries, and the 'good' teachers are giving a thumbs down to those countries. The schools have to thus settle for those who, supposedly, have the skills to fog a mirror and little else.

If backpackers are being hired at these outfits, whose fault is it?

[Kipling]

Abayawearer
You are not by any chance married to Thane Kerner are you.
You seem to have picked up some of his style of writing
Funny we haven't seen old Mr TK since he was asked for his working experience in Oman, shortly before you joined the board. He/She must be on vacation. If you are his significant other please tell him,as only a missus can, how much we miss his missives.

Mr K

[Sirens of Cyprus]

So CECN emails to inform me that the HOD at Musanna will call me for an interview some time between 3am and 6am within the next 3 days. So I spend 3 hours on the internet looking into the background of this HOD and the program at Musanna, and I spend three nights half asleep and half awake, and...no call, no email...nothing. I email CECN for an explanation, and...still nothing. Gee, thanks CECN! Thanks, HOD at Musanna! Whatever.

[eha]

'If you work hard and do well by your students then you deserve a good lifestyle as a reward'

And your objective reference for this belief is...? It doesn't sound like anything I've ever seen embodied in experience--- unfortunately, lots of people DON'T work all that hard and DON'T much bother about their students, and they often organise for themselves a very nice lifestyle, probably through an excellent grasp of the skills of self-presentation. Conversely, lots of people who work very hard and try to do their best by their students, quite often aren't the ones who get the glittering prizes.

[bje]

[Sleepwalker]

Ah yes, the smoozers and the cruisers..............

[Geronimo]

VS wrote: