Job Discussion Forums

[prairiemaker]

Hello, if anyone has any input I would be grateful. I am an American on faculty as a professor of English in South Korea. I work on a small campus a few hours away from the main campus. I am a one man English department at this university of about 5000 thousand students. I have been lucky in that my student evaluations have been very high and because of this I am left alone by the main university campus. I work in a good close relationship with my Korean professor peers. I enjoy knowing and teaching my students more than anything I have ever done. I am respected and well liked by both my students and my coworkers. If I had not dreamed of working in Saudi Arabia all my life I would not consider leaving.

I have tried to know as much about Saudi Arabia and the culture as I can from a distance. Since I was a kid I have been reading and dreaming of coming there. This desire has never left and I feel it is something I need to follow. When I hear the call to prayer on television I feel it is deeply sacred and hauntingly beautiful. I am not a Muslim, but I admire the faiths positive aspects and understand deeply some of it justified anger in my own countries past actions. I am not foolish, or have romantic notions about Saudi Arabia. I am well aware there are deep adjustments for myself as learn living in the culture of the Middle East. .

I applied to KAU and was offered what I felt was a fair contract based on my experience and education. My concern is not my adjustment to Saudi Arabia, but I fear deeply being a robot following a strict syllabus. I am willing to make adjustments. All universities have different expectations. But I fear greatly being so controlled in the classroom I lose my ability to be a good teacher. I fear doing something I love so much turning into something I would hate. I am a very good teacher that would quickly become a very bad teacher, if I was allowed no creative freedom to motivate my students and teach in my own way. If anybody has any input to the actual day to day classroom teaching at KAU and how much freedom you have in the classroom I would greatly appreciate it.

I should also add I will be bringing my wife. She is Philippine. I am aware of the cultural perceptions of Philippines in Saudi, as is my wife. Any thoughts about Jeddah as a married couple wood are greatly appreciated.

[veiledsentiments]

To be honest, unless the money is significantly better, your teaching situation in Korea sounds significantly better than you will encounter in Saudi. (I know the won has tanked...)

As a non-Muslim, I fear you will find that your perceived notions of the country based on your studies will leave you disappointed, as will the teaching. (you will find that the students have much lower abilities to read and write in English and their vocabularies are very limited in comparison to Korean students)

JMHO... and I suspect that your wife will hate it... many marriages have crashed and burned in Araby...

VS

[SD BOY]

Yes, very well put VS. Saudi is definitely no the place for anyone with romantic notions of Arabia.
Why not consider Oman? It's a beautiful country with a much more hospitable atmosphere.

[felton]

Thanks for that one, VS. I have a telephone interview with KAU tomorrow. I am also in Korea and am stuggling with the tanking Won. My motivations to come to the ME are purely financial. Although I won't relish being in the ME, at least I know my bills are being paid and I am able to save again.

[prairiemaker]

I appreciate the advice, but I am saddened by the direction this thread immediately went to. That I admire a religion that ask a man to humble himself before his god five times a day, or the beauty of its sacred call, does not necessarily make me a romantic incapable of functioning in the big bad Saudi. Nor does the fact that since I was a child I have been fascinated with Saudis culture make Saudi Arabia �no place for me�. That you think the only people that should come to Saudi Arabia or those driven simply for money saddens me greatly, not for myself, but for you and for your students. I hope deeply I have misread your comments.

I see this same line of thought posted all the time on the Korean thread. I often hear how unmotivated the Korean students are, how many can not read and write English, or speak even at a basic level. In my beginning English conversation classes I have on average fifty students. Half of these students will be incapable of understanding a word I am saying. They are usually, at first, scared to death of me. That I love teaching unmotivated students to be motivated and to love the magic of English is the reason for my writing this thread for help.

I recognize fully, that because of my particular style of teaching, I am capable of motivating the students you describe, only if I am left alone to do so. I am lucky, that in my present job I am given the respect and creative freedom to finds ways to reach these students. This often means a less traditional teaching manner. My teaching is very fluid and dynamic and can very from class to class as I read the class and its needs.

So again my question from anyone working at KAU is how much creative freedom will I be allowed in the classroom?

[cmp45]

[veiledsentiments]

[bje]

[007]

[Kipling]

Not very religious myself but when I lived in Indonesia,in contrast to local efforts, often quite out of tune, the morning call to prayer broadcast from the Masjid, was always the same genuine recording from the Middle East.......it was, ....still is, stunningly, incandescently evocative and beautiful.
Mr K

[freesoul]

Dear prairiemaker,

A friend of mine asked the same question your very same question in an interview with KAU-ELI; he was answered that freedom, in the form of bringing in extra materials, is pretty much encouraged as long as this leadsand smoothly integrates into the ultimate goal of the course books they are using there ( Interaction).

Good Luck,

F

[Kipling]

Oops my last post is here by mistake
Something must have happened on the way to the Forum.