Job Discussion Forums

Dominic-Pax · Joined: 20 Oct 2009 Posts: 77

I was just wondering if anybody reading these threads has any experience with having an asian wife (i.e. Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Indonesian, etc.) accompany them as they teach/taught English in Saudi Arabia.

More specifically:

-How did they like it?
-What did they do to keep busy?
-Add your own information and thoughts that don't mind sharing on this topic?

Sheikh N Bake · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: Dis ting of ours

Yes. My wife is Chinese from Malaysia, KL. And a career girl at that. No, she did not like it. Nor would any Chinese, Indian, Malay or Japanese woman I ever knew in Asia. I'll admit I met one or two loser housewives on the Raytheon compound, Korean ex-bargirls and the like, who got off on ordering maids around and pretending the compound was a Newport country club when they played tennis. My wife stuck it out for 2 1/2 years, a total waste of her time except that we were newly married (in the early '90s). She left for the US a year ahead of me. This was before wide use of the Internet, however. Later, in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, she got her distance bachelor's degree while working. (But that was through independent study and proctored exams, not the internet...so I suppose she should have done it while we were in Saudi. I guess we didn't know about it or think of it.)

Dominic-Pax · Joined: 20 Oct 2009 Posts: 77

Sheikh N Bake · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: Dis ting of ours

I wrote "loser," not "looser." Yes, I had a negative view of that particular type of housewife because of exactly how I described them. Yes, I worked there.

Dominic-Pax · Joined: 20 Oct 2009 Posts: 77

Dominic-Pax · Joined: 20 Oct 2009 Posts: 77

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Losers ? KSA is full of losers. Not many winners come here !
All of us foreigners are here because we screwed up somewhere else !

All I can say is "Roll on demob !"

Chaudhry · Joined: 22 Aug 2009 Posts: 59

O boy some people never take their loser glasses off.

Dominic-Pax · Joined: 20 Oct 2009 Posts: 77

Sheikh N Bake · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: Dis ting of ours

No, the Korean happened to be one of those... I was referring to the behavior. Some of the Latinas were like that as well.

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

I think what SnB was referring to was we called in the UAE, the "Jumairah Janes." The housewife types... not necessarily the mothers of small children who are working very hard... but the ladies who lunch... loll by the pool... and gossip all day... play a spot of tennis perhaps... interspersed with shopping... all done with delusions of superiority to us mere drones who actually work for a living.

Nationality can vary... Laughing

VS

Cleopatra · Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 3:19 pm Post subject:

Jumeirah Janes...Kompound Kathys.....doncha jes luv em?

Those unfamiliar with the social mores of the Gulf might refer to any films they've seen or books they've read on the subject of 19th century colonial wives in Africa or India. The same attitudes can be found in many an expat enclave around the Gulf today.

eclectic · Joined: 09 Nov 2006 Posts: 1122

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

Definitely in English... none of this type knows a word of Arabic... in spite of living in the Gulf for eons.

VS
(that said there may be a parallel group of Arab wives doing the same... but the two groups would never intersect)

svatopluk · Joined: 16 Sep 2009 Posts: 81

Sounds like the army, where the wives wear their rank more than the actual soldiers.

I knew guys with Sudanese wives in Saudi and those women used to order around the service staff like a sargeant major.