Country info and advice - Saudi Arabia
The following comments are from teachers who have taught, or are currently teaching, in Saudi Arabia. If you are a teacher and have some advice to share, please add it here.
One of the most difficult
places on the earth to teach English. Before coming here, you are told so many
fancy stories by your employer that you would definitely ask why on earth I did
not work here before. The day you land here in this country, you will feel that
the honeymoon is over. For a 2-minute work, you have to wait for one to two
months. On the top of that everyone lies. You will never get salary in time.
Your employer will say "God willing (inshallah), you'll get your salary
tomorrow". But this tomorrow comes not before two months.
Before you decide to go and
teach English in Saudi Arabia, you need to be aware that because most Saudis are
wealthy and they have a lazy attitude towards studying, they don't care about
learning English, they just want a certificate so they can get a job. Most of
the students are lazy and never do homework or even turn up for class if there
is a football game on. Sometimes they are friendly and it is part of their
culture to invite you for a meal if they like you. Your employer may make a lot
of false promises just to keep you interested in working for him. Most Saudis
have an attitude that foreign workers are their 'servants' and if you can't
speak Arabic, usually they won't be interested in talking with you, unless you
find someone who really wants to learn English. If you want to change your job
you will have to get an exit visa from your employer and leave the country and
then wait for a new one from your new employer. The only things you can do in
your free time here is go to a restaurant or coffee shop or play biliards. Also
you can play football anywhere as football is the most important thing here
after their religion. Single men are not allowed in shopping malls. Don't expect
'professionalism' in any workplace. There are rules but no one cares about them.
The most important thing is you pray 5 times a day and don't talk to any women
who are covered totally in black. If you are lucky, you will get a nice boss and
a good salary.
I agree with what
the two above writers said. Saudis can say 'inshallah' instead of yes or no,
which is a great way of getting out of any agreements or responsibilities!
Now when my boss asks me to do something, I just say inshallah, and leave
him guessing whether I will actually do it or not ...
Make sure everything you expect from your employer is clearly detailed in
your contract, because your employer will certainly try to weasle out of it!
Also be aware that the cost of living in some places can be quite high, so a
housing allowance of 1500 Riyals and transportation allowance of 500 Riyals
won't be nearly enough. (I'm thinking particularly of Jubail.)
The first time you come to Saudi Arabia,
you are going to face a lot of problems especially, language, culture and religion. If you
keep yourself behind those compound walls, then you will keep suffering. You may even feel
you are an inmate. However, the faster you build up relationship with one or two Saudi nationals,
the more your life will be the other way around. Definitely they will ask you to teach them at their home
with the minimum rate of USD30 an hour. They will encourage you to join them for a meal every
now and then and they will ask you to teach either their relatives or their friends. "Shisha"
is one thing you will be doing late at night at one of the "coffee shops". Whether you are
muslim or not, you will be requested gently to practice Islam thousand times. That is your
time to pay back the "insha-allah" (God willing!). Just keep saying "Insha-allah" and that
makes them happy but they will never stop requesting you. Don't show that you are not
interested in religion. That will easly offend them and they can easly be rude. When it
comes to employers, I advise you to get first-hand information about the company or
employer from an expat currently work for them. You can easily login to LinkedIn to
figure that out. In general, if you are serious about coming to Saudi Arabia, prepare
yourself to pass through an informal cultural training for about a year. Then, once you
buy your own car and drive around and meet more and more saudi people, you will start
enjoying what is there for you especially the money part. Trust me, I am teaching English
in Saudi Arabia for the last almost seven years and I am not intending to move soon. You can pay all your loans and even save some.
I'm a teacher of English
and I'm Saudi, and honestly, I can't deny what you all have mentioned about
Saudi culture but what I really want to say here is not to make generalizations, despite
all these facts and situations, the Saudi people are still sociable and like to welcome
people from different cultures.
A few notes.. Saudis are generous people, very kind. How do I know?
I have been here over a year but I was with the National Guard which is much more generous than other places,
I hear. You have a compound to live in, very large and good. I love shopping places for women, and strict rules for
Westerners - Yes, I am an american (American Arab woman!) Um, what else? Around prayer time, everything closes and
ten minutes after, it all opens up again. And yes, no wine or pork (duh!). I think that the more high class students
you work with, the more hard working they are... the National Guard students are high class, many are princesses but
they do work. Other than that, follow the law and good luck!
"Lock yourself up behind compound walls?" What school are YOU working for?
The 300 teachers I work with are all living in 0 star hotels (some sharing a room) with cockroaches and mice. The others
(working for a different company) are housed in a 5 star hotel, but will soon be moved to a compound where they will live
4 to a villa with no living room and only 2 bathrooms.
I agree that it is one of the most difficult (if not most difficult) places to teach English, but am mystified by the comment
that men cannot go into shopping malls-except for one floor of the Kingdom Mall in Riyadh. Going to malls is the only thing a
woman can do here, although how an English teacher could afford a Louis Vuitton bag is beyond me.
I would not advise making friends with Saudis-especially if you are a woman as their only interest is....SHOPPING! There is no
culture, no politics, no entertainment. Virtually everything is "haram" (forbidden) and even the most innocent remark (i.e. Merry
Christmas) could get you deported-or worse.
Yeah, Saudi Arabia....RUN! The salary (not all that great) is simply not worth giving up a year of your life for. Just go to prison,
you'd have better living conditions and more freedom.
The comments above are quite on the mark. Very hard to live there. Very hard to work there.
Was there twice. First time better than second. First time had good students and the program was well organized.
The housing was fine and no problem with pay. Had a struggle with boss when he demanded I work in the summer
without the extra pay (usually this is leave time).
Second time the offer sounded so good. Pay, position, benifits, American management. But sadly this time was worse.
They brought me in under the wrong visa. WIth this visa I could never bring my wife there. The housing was simply a
single hotel room. Much like a prision the doors were locked after 10 PM. The job was teaching lazy students.
Now, I am working in Oman. Much better here. Though not imprisoned or controlled like in Saudi a bit boring.
Still have some of the challanges of Saudi teaching, but not nearly so bad.
Run! Run while you can!
I can't agree more with all the remarks above. Students are very lazy and hate to be punctual, the good ones are really hard to find. I usually begin my class 10 or 20 minutes after because we are a training center not a school. Students like to have fun in class rather than learn. They do not care for the educational process as much as they care for getting you to speak Arabic. Take care not to ask for favors or anything personal because they interpret that as a give-take attitude. Some say they are generous but it is not true. They are cunning. They can easily report you or blame you for their failures. If you try to force any discipline or a strategy, you end up hated, despised and outcast. Sometimes you just translate into Arabic and save your breath, since you get disappointed anyway. The regulations work for me as i'm a Muslim myself. They have this phobia that foreigners are there to rob them. Many employers do not keep their word. Saudis or most Arabs in general are hot-tempered, zealous and narrow minded people, therefore don't speak about politics or other saudis, don't hold high expectations in many students, just do your work and get paid. nothing else, and don't befriend your students during study time, to avoid entanglement.
"Above comments are really true and I admit it has been my most challenging and struggling experience I ever had. You really need the juxtaposition of everything to conclude whichever weighs importance as to the fulfillment of a noble profession or to the practicality of a true survivor. I never thought things I dreamt and saw are just a masquerade and that teaching is a conundrum to the people. But still, an experience in mentoring these people under very trying circumstances is an achievement. They are people living in extreme weather of hot and cold. They are also people of extreme attitude. Nevertheless, it is the place where a person with strong personality, patience, and determination can exist.
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