Job Discussion Forums

[kevbris]

Hi again,

I am wanting to know what the Middle eastern person likes and dislikes. What makes them smile and laugh????

Furthermore.................how difficult is it to find a GOOD swasta??

hehehehh!!!!

Cya

[scot47]

The word you want is WASTA. To the non-ME type this means clout, influence, contacts.

As to the other question can we make such generalisations ?

"the Middle Eastern person" ? Is there only one ? Do they all laugh at the same thing ?

[ohman]

My students like Mr. Bean, Jim Carey, Rush Hour and jokes about Yemen. Let them make the jokes about Yemen.
Here's a popular one:
Adam requested a chance to revisit earth for the first time since departing the world thousands of years ago. An angel escorts him on his tour. They pass over a place with many tall, modern buildings, cars, hospitals, universities--all the trappings of a modern city. Adam asks, "I don't recognize this strange land, where are we?" The angel answers, "this is Kuwait. Much has changed since you have been here." They move on to another strange place and again there are tall buildings, schools, traffic." Adam asks again, "And what strange place is this?" The angel says, "Don't you recognize it? This is Saudi Arabia." They fly on. They pass over a place with more buildings, airports, hotels, magnfiicent palaces." "And this place? I don't recognize it either." says Adam. "This is Dubai and over there is Abu Dhabi."
They go on a little farther and Adam says, "Oh look, I see Yemen."

[kevbris]

Granted we are all different. Thats why one asks for a generalisation on anothers cultural nuances

[scot47]

In my experience adult Saudi males will always laugh at jokes about the wife (referred to partly in jest as "The Minister of the Interior"). They also find jokes about the wife being the boss in the household enormously funny.

What can we infer from that ?

[johnslat]

Dear scot47,
"What can we infer from that?"
Maybe that the truth - which hurts - is also a rich vein for humor. I strongly suspect that a goodly number of Saudi husbands are - to some degree, at least - "henpecked".
Regards,
John

[scot47]

johnslat

I think there is no doubt that in Arab familes the woman is powerful. Within her own realm she is often the real power in the household.

Interesting too that Saudi feamle students often perform much better than males. Because they spend much of their time at home, they have more time to study.

Many observers have remarked that females in KSA are much better at English and other foreign languages than their brothers and husbands.

[veiledsentiments]

Scot

I have found that the women perform better in every country of the Middle East. While I would like to be able to say that this just confirms my opinion of the real human situation and intellectual superiority of the female, my own thinking quickly showed the reason why.

Boys are generally pushed to complete their education in order to support the family. For girls, however, there ends up being a natural selection process. The girls that have either no aptitude or interest in education are normally weeded out at an early age and married off. Thus the girls that continue on and make it to the university level are the best and brightest (along with a few that are unmarriageable for whatever reason).

Then you have the additional variable that many of the best and brightest boys are sent overseas for university either by their country or by their parents. So what you have left is a wide variation in academic ability with the boys.

At the faculty of medicine in Kuwait, the entry score for women was something like 30 points higher than for men - and classes were still 80% female. Obviously the best of the boys were outside the country being educated. Among the boys there was an almost pitiful feeling of inferiority to the girls in the class. 4 of my 5 boys failed and since I next taught the repeaters class, we all got to know each other very well. They were absolutely convinced that women are much smarter than men. I told them that most everywhere in the world, women tended to be better at language. But, when I asked them about their science and math classes, they felt that most of the women tromped them there too. Of course, these young women were also the absolute top of country in science and math.

I found that in general the women just worked harder than the men. Part of it was that the social restrictions kept them home to study. But, perhaps even a bigger part of it was that for many, this was their only way to get out of the house. The college was the only place that they could freely socialize with many different people. So, they worked very hard to justify their education to their family and to be able to continue on. This is especially true in the more restrictive countries like the Emirates (and probably Qatar and Saudi - where I haven't taught).

VS

[princessofquitealot]

Ohman -- I didn't get your Yemeni joke. Too long in Aden, pehaps. Can you explain?

[johnslat]

Dear princessofquitealot ( love the handle),
I THINK the "point" is that although many changes have transpired in the rest of the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen remains the same as it has always been "The "Land that Time Forgot", so to speak.
Regards,
John

[Cleopatra]

Actually, every single teacher |I met in KSA -male or female - said that given the choice, they wouldmuch rather teach boys.

Perhaps it's true, that, academically, girls may do better than boys (though I wouldn't swear on it), but teaching females in this country brings up all sorts of social and cultural issues that most teachers would much rather live without. I found - as did everyone I spoke to on the issue - that the girls were much more immature and found it very difficult to put things in perspective: every little thing was taken personally.
Precisiely because coming to college was their only outlet, they invested so much into it, psychologically speaking. As a collegue said, they come with "a lot of baggage attached". Boys were much more straightforward - and I say this as a female teacher.

[veiledsentiments]

Hi Cleo

Very interesting -- my experience has been pretty much the opposite in the rest of the Gulf. I found the women to be as or even more mature than the extremely spoiled young men. I think there are just as many cultural restraints in teaching men. I know just as many people who would rather teach women than men. Personally, I would NEVER take a job teaching all male classes.

Of course, I am painting with a rather broad brush here. But, the most fun I have had, the most freedom to teach what I wished - say what I wanted - bring in almost any topic for discussion --- was in all female classes in the Emirates.

We will have to cover this in more detail by email.

VS

[kevbris]

Keep it up................I am getting something out of this. Not sure what it is yet but I'll get there.

If talking negatively and jokingly about the opposite sex makes the average Kuwaiti laugh then thats the first base for me.

Thanks

[veiledsentiments]

kevbris

So far I haven't encountered any culture that didn't make jokes about the opposite sex - perhaps only within a same sex group - in varying degrees of negativity. I think it is just a fact of life.

Another thing that I ran into was another familiar joke type - reflected in the American culture as the 'Polish joke' or where I live it would be similar jokes against Norwegians or Swedes - all depending on the predominant nationalities. When I was in Egypt, I kept hearing the same jokes - only they were 'Upper Egyptian' or 'Saidi' jokes.

VS

[Cleopatra]

In my experience, nothing made Saudis of either gender laugh more than some puerile sex jokes - usually, to may mind at least, singularly unfunny.
I would say, if you want to make a Saudi laugh, think of the kind of jokes you used to tell during morning break at school when you were about 10. Can't go too far wrong!