Job Discussion Forums

[boconnor]

Hello,

After about 2 weeks time I will be going to Aleppo, Syria to find a TEFL job. I've recently completed a CELTA course with a preliminary Pass-B, and I have a bachelor's degree in Classical Languages. I have no other experience in teaching besides the CELTA. I am a native speaker of English (American). I have lived in Jordan and visited Syria once before, and I know a decent amount of Arabic, although I am far from fluent.

Basically I'm just looking for some general information regarding jobs in Syria. I have an incomplete list of schools in Aleppo, but there is very little information about them that I can find�are there some disreputable ones that I should look out for? What kind of pay should I be expecting? Does anybody perhaps know any English teachers currently in Aleppo whom I might be able to contact? Anything would be helpful at this point.

Thanks in advance,
B

[Renata]

If you need any particular information about National School of Aleppo (NSA), feel free to send me a PM - I worked there last year and I have a lot of useful stuff to share

[veiledsentiments]

Since you are no longer there, why not put the information here? You can keep it general, of course.

VS

[ghost]

There are jobs in Syria, but you will not be paid any more than the locals. I was there this past summer in Damascus and Tartus, and that is what I was told.

The local salaries for teachers are around $300 to $400 per month, and it would be very hard to make ends meet on that kind of salary. Especially so for a foreigner. Your rent alone would eat up more than half your salary, which is often used as a barometer for poverty.

It is a great country, but teaching there is certainly not lucrative. There may be a couple of better paid jobs but there are not many of those.

There is potential in Syria, because the general level of English is pretty poor. It is the only country I have been to where I met professionals, like doctors, who knew little or no English. Some of them knew French, and one of the doctors knew Romanian, because that is where he had done his medical studies. You would think there would be a high demand for English there. Hopefully that will come about in the future.

It was one of the few countries where I could not find any English language (or French for that matter) daily newspapers. It was strange, almost like a closed shop to foreign influence. But most Syrians are delightful to deal with.

Ghost

[gibberish222]

I am a newbie interested in the ME, as well, and since my situation has a few things in common with that of boconnor, I thought I'd post a request for some advice here, too.

My wife and I both have Master's degrees in Classics (admittedly unrelated, but we have lots of language training and some academic experience with the Middle Eastern religion and history...). After several years of substantial T.A. work, we have now been employed for two years at a Canadian university as Teaching Fellows, teaching full-time in an intensive first-year interdisciplinary humanities programme. But, we've now decided we need a change of scenery, and when our contracts are expired we are keen to find employment teaching in the ME. We are especially interested in Syria.

We plan to take a CELTA program this spring, since that seems to be quite important. Once we've done that, I'm wondering if folks with experience here think that we sound like decent candidates for a job in the ME (especially Syria), and if you have any advice on what steps we should take from here. Would our university teaching experience help us in any way? (I've also done substitute teaching and guest speaking at local private primary schools.)

We're very new to this scene, but I've found this board very helpful already (though I've yet to find someone with exactly our background and situation). Thanks very much for any advice that might help us achieve our goal.

[veiledsentiments]

I am assuming that a large salary is not a requirement? You have neither the credentials to get much, nor does Syria have many jobs going for high pay. It will be survival pay mainly. These are not jobs that you can get from NA. You will have to go there and knock on doors. One of the first places to check would be the ALC... American Language Center in Damascus. Nice management, nice students, and they have classes running most of the year.

What you most probably won't find is full-time with a work visa. This is a big drawback, as visa runs do get old... though it is a chance to do some shopping in Beirut. Once you get tired of visa runs, you might head to Cairo. The same kind of part time jobs are available there, and visa runs are not as necessary. (you can renew in country as long as you are changing foreign currency) In both places, one can supplement one's income with private lessons.

Once you have a few years at starvation wages, you might start looking in the Gulf where you may be able to overcome your unrelated MAs with some related experience teaching Arabic speakers.

VS

[gibberish222]

Thanks -- I figured that somewhere like Syria might not the best place to begin if we're looking for full-time jobs with decent pay...

Just wondering -- once we get ourselves CELTA-certified, is there anywhere that you think our MA's and university teaching experience could possibly work in our favour? Or are they a bit too irrelevant to matter? We'd really like to start in the ME, but we're open to lots of other possibilities, too...

[veiledsentiments]

Employers don't tend to count TA teaching as "full-time" teaching, and... you didn't tell us what you were teaching. Unless you were teaching ESL/EFL and/or the usual first year academic essay writing class, I don't see how you would fit into any of the university program experience requirements.

Not that there may not be a shady private university in the hinterlands of somewhere in the Arab World that might hire you... but... I suspect that you wouldn't want to live or teach there.

VS

[gibberish222]

Thanks again! I suppose I should have been clearer about our experience... We now teach full-time in a popular first-year humanities programme at a well-established liberal arts college. It's very writing intensive, and it's basically a core-text programme that surveys a great deal of literature, art, philosophy, history, etc., from a wide range of time periods. My normal teaching is in a tutorial-style format, lots of one-on-one guidance with writing, lots of grading, as well as some lecturing.

I guess I just thought that a few years' full-time experience in front of a university classroom (with positive teaching evaluations, etc.) might count for something in this scene, despite the fact that the content is quite different. Of course we plan to get CELTA as well.

But I agree -- we're not interested in the "shady private universities..." Maybe we'll end up looking in Asia in the end, but we're pretty keen on Syria/Lebanon.

[veiledsentiments]

The problem in the parts of the Middle East where there are good university jobs that pay very well is that they are able to demand the credentials that they want. So, they want to see both related MAs and experience... and they can get it. There are plenty of teachers around with related MAs and/or years of teaching in IEPs around the world. It limits the opportunities for people like you.

You are at that place where your experience prepares you for jobs that require a PhD.

VS