Saturday 25th July 2009
Was an interesting time with the holiday request form recently. Yup, as you have predicted already, it involved delays and bureaucratic, infuriating nonsense. Ohh but the kind that, if my hair was weak enough at its roots, would have involved a large amount of hair LOSS during the two weeks it dragged on.
So what happened? Well, I finally got around to filling in my holiday request form. No, I hadn't done it before now despite the warring mood I was in when I mentioned it before. Now was the time. The filling-in process wasn't too horrific itself despite confusion over what the hell Arure Days were (was a mistranslation and/or mis-spelling of Accrued Holiday Days so far).
Ohh I don't really want to drag on about this as it is really not worth the time and effort. So I'll distill it rather. So ….. I gave it to the HoD to sign which he duly did. I then took it “upstairs” with the SIX PHOTOS that were required for, I presume, Personnel Department approval or whatever. There it stayed for a few days. In the meantime, my colleague had got his all done. How DOES he do it? Actually he seems to have got this place sussed and knows how to get things done. He sure does have a way with people here that nobody else does. Gift Of The Gab? A Way With Words? Insider Knowledge? A Nod and a Wink?? Who knows, but he has lived in similar chaos before. In fact, he said at the start just how surprised he was how quickly everything went!! Bloody hell!! Don't even THINK about what he is normally used to!! For SURE I don't want to. I do still have a lot of useful hair STILL standing on this head of mine. Please let it remain!
Anyway, where was I? So a few days passed with no word on where my form was. Then I had a call from a woman in the Personnel department upstairs. She “kindly” informed me that the number of holiday days I had requested was more than what I had accrued so far. Just to explain that, as a new staff member, the number of holiday days IS stated on the contract BUT you kind of “build them up” the longer you are here in the first year. It is, I suppose, to prevent people who have just joined, taking all their holiday in the very first month and, therefore, never being here. Perfectly reasonable. Anyway, I knew that this was the case. So, she informed me, my only option was to take the “extra” days as Leave Without Pay. OK, no problem, I thought, and that was the end of that phone call. No further action had been asked of me. Just a clarification that was, I thought.
HAH!! TEN MORE DAYS passed without anything more being heard of my holiday request. I mean, WHAT could they have been DOING with the blasted thing? Eventually I felt I HAD to go over to the Leave And Travel department because this was where I thought my holiday request was now.
Can you guess what is coming now? Ah, well, no you might not be able to. Although you surely realise that it is not a straightforward thing and that this is NOT the end of this blog entry.
Well, I hate to drag a story out. Basically next the young Filipino lady in Leave And Travel looked up my Leave Request on her computer system AND she found my paper request form. Good – so they hadn't LOST IT at least. She told me, first, that there was not even a photo of me on the system! Despite handing over a total of EIGHTEEN photos to these people, NOBODY had bothered to take the few seconds to scan my picture and get it on there. But I doubt that I'm the only person who has been ignored there. So THAT was dealt with first which involved going to this person, that person and then this office person here. Fine.
Now back to L&T and again after much faffing around where nothing concrete was found they said I should phone. Gave me the number and a strange name which I'd never heard of. Phoned, and it seemed the woman knew me. AH! It was that woman in Personnel back in the college building – the one I'd had the phone call from to ask about my “extra days”.
OK, now it gets really silly. I was told this: I needed to write a memo to my Head of Department to inform him that I intended to have these extra seven days over and above my currently Accrued Holiday Days and for him to agree that this was all OK and above board. Or strike me down with a lightning bolt I presume.
A MEMO?? To the man who is only ONE PARTITION AWAY and ask him what he already knows? What the BLOODY HELL do I need to do THAT FOR??
More to the point …. WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T THAT WOMAN TELL ME THIS WHEN I TOOK THE HOLIDAY FORM UP TO HER??
Ten days had passed with nothing having got done. As I had been asked the question of what I wanted to DO with these 'extra' seven days, I naturally assumed that this was all I needed to do. I was certainly NOT TOLD of any stupid memo to be written!!
Just imagine if I had NOT gone over to L&T to check on this!! I would and COULD have NEVER KNOWN that this was required of me and nobody would have told me till way too late!! And then BANG would have gone my holiday!!
IDIOTS!! IDIOTS!! IDIOTS!!
When I went back down to the English department it was nearly home time. So in the morning it would be dealt with.
Went in the next morning and told the HoD about this memo. He didn't react with surprise, and his response was one of the type, “Well, yes, that's obvious and normal” ….. as if I should've known this. HOW COULD I HAVE KNOW ABOUT IT?? I've never done a holiday form before and nothing about any memo was ever mentioned.
OK, so I knocked up a quick memo – gist of it was to inform him that I was having these 'extra' seven days and was it alright and that I would take them as Leave Without Pay as I had been advised was the option. Seemed to do the trick, gave it to him, he signed then it went upstairs for “further approval”.
End of story? Noooooo!! Soon after it had gone up, a phone call to the HoD from the secretary up there. She asked him to ask me if I actually wanted Leave Without Pay or to Borrow From Future Holiday. What?? BORROW from Future?? I'd been told that was NOT an option! But apparently it was now so I said yes, I'll Borrow. End of phone call.
Ah, but NOT end of story (of course!). A few minutes later ANOTHER phone call from the same person informing me that I now needed to write YET ANOTHER MEMO with this new information on it that my Option Of Choice was to Borrow From Future.
GRRR!! OK, you morons I'll do it. Just get this done please! So I did the memo, and the signing and delivering procedure was repeated. Up it went.
Before you ask ….. NO it was STILL not the end of the farce. Some minutes later YET ANOTHER phone call came from upstairs. Can you believe it? THIS TIME they wanted to know when the Start Date of my contract was. Well, I didn't have this off-hand but got it in the end and had to correct myself after the HoD had put the phone down which annoyed him a bit that he had to phone again.
SO MUCH STUPID BUREAUCRACY for a holiday request!
I am just so unlucky with this kind of stuff. Sometimes in the past I've had help with doing this which is always welcome, but THIS kind of thing only serves to INFURIATE me and I am NOT a patient man in such situations.
I didn't rate my chances of getting anything done. A few days later still no word so I went up again. No, still no signed form and it was STILL on the desk of the useless man who has to sign so much and yet delays everything.
There was nothing I could do but wait. Well, anyway, I decided to go ahead and book my flights and get my plans in order. Surely this WOULD come in eventually.
And so it did ….. early this week.
You know, people wonder why bureaucracy grinds on so long in some places. One answer here seems to be plain, simple lack of communication and with all sides blaming each OTHER for not getting things done.
I mean, if such a simple thing as a holiday request causes so much organisational pain, then WHAT is the point of trying more complex things like getting them to send my salary direct to my bank account? May as well save the bother and continue to take the cheque down the bank every month and pay it in myself. More reliable that way and I KNOW that it's gone in the right place.
Just want to finish with one more word ….. AAAGGGHHH!!
There. That's better.
Friday, 31 July 2009
Sick in Saudi (Again!)
Saturday 25th July 2009
Now, now!! Before you accuse me of ignoring you, my blogsters, let me say how BAD my internet connection has been lately. I always put aside the weekend Thursday or Friday or, if not done, at the latest I do it on Saturday evenings. But ALWAYS I have been foiled by, as I referred to last time, the “Curse Of Mobily”.
I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong but it just seems as though this connection is getting so much WORSE the hotter the summer period gets. And I have NO IDEA what to do to make it better. Or even if I CAN make it better.
Far too many times lately it has been as good as down for the best part of the day. I used to be able to rely on daytime at weekends for my best surfing time, but no more. The weekend just gone, for example, I had almost ZERO uptime. And I know it to be so because I didn't go out at all since I was feeling ill.
Yes, indeed, sick again. Why this time? Well I really don't know, but here are my top theories …. in no order of preference. Firstly, my cheese was off. I thought it tasted funny but kept on eating it because it was actually quite good in this state. But the longer I went on, the less wise I felt about eating cheese that tasted like “bin food”. Eventually, in the latter stages of last week, I really DID feel rough and so thought it best to be kind to myself and my refuse tip.
“A bit rough?”, you say. Well, yesssss and not like the last flu-suspect time. This was different and actually was more worrying. It's gone now, but it involved an iffy stomach and dizzy spells on Wednesday morning and afternoon.
What could THAT mean? Not sure. Sometimes such dizzy spells mean trouble in the ears which was worrying as I'd had all that ear problem stuff earlier in the term here and thought it cured. Dizzy spells meant that lying down made the room spin madly as if I'd been a night on the town (impossible of course here!), or it meant that, on one occasion, standing up to go back into class after the long break time needed two “goes” because the first attempt sat me down again pretty sharpish and needed me to hold on to the chair to keep my balance.
Doesn't sound good, does it? No, I didn't go to the doctor. Whatever for? A special appointment, the effort to get myself over there and a hot walk into the bargain. Yes, you could say I should take advantage of the facilities. But YOU try a wander across the exposed concrete in near 50-degree celsius heat in mid afternoon and then YOU will see the problems it brings when you're not feeling at your best.
Well, I took a rest at the weekend. Didn't go out (except to the laundry room), and didn't even make my once-a-week trip to town for shopping and coffee. Quite simply I did NOT feel up to it and even felt decidedly wobbly still. So really it WAS the best thing to do just to take things easy and have a rest.
And that did it. Had a good rest Thursday and Friday, got to bed in good time Friday night, even put myself a new pillow on the bed. Got up this Saturday morning feeling MUCH better.
So you know what I think all that dizziness was about? Plain and simple – the HEAT! Yes! These last two weeks it really HAS been absurdly hot and I mean MORE than normal. My umbrella offers me little or no protection when a hot wind is blowing and dust is flying. The purpose OF the umbrella is just to keep the sun off my head. Yes, to some extent it helps, but my face is still well exposed. AND NOW I have, for some bizarre reason, some VERY raw spots round the sides of my neck left and right. Makes wearing collared shirts in the morning a rather painful affair especially the newer shirts I have with their stiffer collars. OUCH!!
And STILL it is only the end of July! STILL they tell us that it will get EVEN HOTTER! Well, so in that case I hope there is somebody to pick me up off the floor next time! I mean, I walk the minimum I can, but I do so at some of the worst times of day – namely from midday to just after 1pm. Well, I HAVE TO at those times because it is the beginning and end of lunch hours. I CAN'T NOT go to and from lunch, and believe me it is far better to do my lunches at home in my room instead of going over to the hospital canteen which IS that Hot Walk over the concrete. No Way matey!!
Even though I was feeling better this morning, I was AGAIN feeling a bit rough after my walk back to the college building after lunchtime in all that heat.
And so it will continue ….
One thing I was wondering today is about my clipon sunglasses and their effectiveness. Since it has been nasty headaches which have been part of my problem, one wonders if these have been brought on by not proper UVA filtering by my clipon sunglasses. If they have not been keeping out the sunlight properly then this would explain the headaches and the dizzy feeling suffered at and before the weekend. Something I must consider when I am away from here in about a month's time.
Now, now!! Before you accuse me of ignoring you, my blogsters, let me say how BAD my internet connection has been lately. I always put aside the weekend Thursday or Friday or, if not done, at the latest I do it on Saturday evenings. But ALWAYS I have been foiled by, as I referred to last time, the “Curse Of Mobily”.
I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong but it just seems as though this connection is getting so much WORSE the hotter the summer period gets. And I have NO IDEA what to do to make it better. Or even if I CAN make it better.
Far too many times lately it has been as good as down for the best part of the day. I used to be able to rely on daytime at weekends for my best surfing time, but no more. The weekend just gone, for example, I had almost ZERO uptime. And I know it to be so because I didn't go out at all since I was feeling ill.
Yes, indeed, sick again. Why this time? Well I really don't know, but here are my top theories …. in no order of preference. Firstly, my cheese was off. I thought it tasted funny but kept on eating it because it was actually quite good in this state. But the longer I went on, the less wise I felt about eating cheese that tasted like “bin food”. Eventually, in the latter stages of last week, I really DID feel rough and so thought it best to be kind to myself and my refuse tip.
“A bit rough?”, you say. Well, yesssss and not like the last flu-suspect time. This was different and actually was more worrying. It's gone now, but it involved an iffy stomach and dizzy spells on Wednesday morning and afternoon.
What could THAT mean? Not sure. Sometimes such dizzy spells mean trouble in the ears which was worrying as I'd had all that ear problem stuff earlier in the term here and thought it cured. Dizzy spells meant that lying down made the room spin madly as if I'd been a night on the town (impossible of course here!), or it meant that, on one occasion, standing up to go back into class after the long break time needed two “goes” because the first attempt sat me down again pretty sharpish and needed me to hold on to the chair to keep my balance.
Doesn't sound good, does it? No, I didn't go to the doctor. Whatever for? A special appointment, the effort to get myself over there and a hot walk into the bargain. Yes, you could say I should take advantage of the facilities. But YOU try a wander across the exposed concrete in near 50-degree celsius heat in mid afternoon and then YOU will see the problems it brings when you're not feeling at your best.
Well, I took a rest at the weekend. Didn't go out (except to the laundry room), and didn't even make my once-a-week trip to town for shopping and coffee. Quite simply I did NOT feel up to it and even felt decidedly wobbly still. So really it WAS the best thing to do just to take things easy and have a rest.
And that did it. Had a good rest Thursday and Friday, got to bed in good time Friday night, even put myself a new pillow on the bed. Got up this Saturday morning feeling MUCH better.
So you know what I think all that dizziness was about? Plain and simple – the HEAT! Yes! These last two weeks it really HAS been absurdly hot and I mean MORE than normal. My umbrella offers me little or no protection when a hot wind is blowing and dust is flying. The purpose OF the umbrella is just to keep the sun off my head. Yes, to some extent it helps, but my face is still well exposed. AND NOW I have, for some bizarre reason, some VERY raw spots round the sides of my neck left and right. Makes wearing collared shirts in the morning a rather painful affair especially the newer shirts I have with their stiffer collars. OUCH!!
And STILL it is only the end of July! STILL they tell us that it will get EVEN HOTTER! Well, so in that case I hope there is somebody to pick me up off the floor next time! I mean, I walk the minimum I can, but I do so at some of the worst times of day – namely from midday to just after 1pm. Well, I HAVE TO at those times because it is the beginning and end of lunch hours. I CAN'T NOT go to and from lunch, and believe me it is far better to do my lunches at home in my room instead of going over to the hospital canteen which IS that Hot Walk over the concrete. No Way matey!!
Even though I was feeling better this morning, I was AGAIN feeling a bit rough after my walk back to the college building after lunchtime in all that heat.
And so it will continue ….
One thing I was wondering today is about my clipon sunglasses and their effectiveness. Since it has been nasty headaches which have been part of my problem, one wonders if these have been brought on by not proper UVA filtering by my clipon sunglasses. If they have not been keeping out the sunlight properly then this would explain the headaches and the dizzy feeling suffered at and before the weekend. Something I must consider when I am away from here in about a month's time.
Saturday, 4 July 2009
Standing In The Sun
Friday 3rd July 2009
The week just gone was not such a bad one. Only one bad day, and that was the Saturday which so often IS a bad day these days anyway. But when it IS a bad day now, it seems to REALLY be bad and not just a little bit bad. Not worth going into details about Saturday because it was the usual thing of me trying to get the lesson going and them having their Big Discussion which means that the presence of me in the room is non-existent. And as usual it centres around a group or a few individuals.
But there was drama this week. Oh YES! And THIS time it was not of my making.
You will recall a few weeks ago now that I was off sick with my flu-ish thing. Three teachers were used to substitute for me. One of them enjoyed his time there and was liked by my students. One of them, who only took the class for one lesson only and spent much of the time shouting and bellowing at them, did NOT enjoy his time. And the third teacher seemed, so I thought, to have got on alright (but now I have my doubts because of what I've heard about him).
However …. Saturday at almost the end of Lesson 4 we had a visitor. Actually on THAT day there were four interrupting visitors. Days like this happen as you know. In THIS case it was another visitor of some distinction and of rank 'one crown and one star' (sorry but I don't know my Saudi army insignia).
So he came in at about five or ten minutes to 11 which is almost the end of the day. I don't know what he expected from such a meeting, but he said he wanted to talk to me for a moment outside the classroom. WHY do they ALWAYS have to come and crash my lesson like that?? Because they CAN – that's the answer, and because they're army and because they run the show around here. And pfffft to it all, but there you go.
He had received a long memo from our HoD which he showed me. I'd had no idea of such a memo being written and I, for sure, hadn't said anything to make it happen. The gist of the memo was that, “These soldier boy students are an unruly bunch, how are we expected to teach them? And anyway they all fail when they come through the system. And their discipline level is low and etc. etc.”.
Well, yes, this is actually true. But it didn't come from me. The HoD shows little interest in what we do over with these soldier boys. So WHO had made it happen and WHY was it being dealt with in THIS way?
The thing is, if this guy wanted to deal with this matter properly then some proper time should have been scheduled to talk about it. Not ten minutes to the end of the teaching day and certainly NOT in class time. But they don't respect that. I don't know what he expected from me as I knew nothing of this memo having been written. I had not been consulted either. So WHO exactly was making judgements on the classes?
Well, I told him, yes they can be difficult and yes they have good and bad days. I also said that this year was not the only time that such trouble occurred. Not interested in other years, the man said. Surely it was relevant since such behaviour is not new as I have heard much about. Yes, I HAD had some discipline problems, I added, but these had been dealt with (I was referring to the key-throwing incident).
That was about all I said. No names mentioned and no specifics given. Back in the classroom they wanted to know what I had talked about. I told them that it was only general stuff and that was about it. I also said that I mentioned no names.
Fast forward a little to Monday morning in the lesson. First it was my teaching colleague who informed me that all the students had been standing out in the sun for two hours the previous afternoon after classes. Standing in the SUN?? Yes, I'd heard that they do that sort of thing around here. Into the classroom and yes indeed – the students confirmed this. “Because of that man yesterday”, they said.
That was not the end. The next day, Tuesday, they said that AGAIN they'd been two-plus hours in the sun. Standing there, caps ordered off, face up to the sun. Then exercise, crawling around on the concrete soldier-style and more of same.
OK, now I'll say this. Although there IS a problem with this class and indeed with these soldier boy classes in general, this is NOT THE WAY to solve it. Punishment versus Rehabilitation I guess is what it's all about. Plus copious amounts of sadism and so-called “discipline” hoping that THIS will teach them to not do it again next time.
I'll tell you what it has done. First of all, I had a class of students who were feeling (and excuse the non-intended pun here) very much under the weather all day. More sleepers than usual in the classroom. And a VERY angry bunch of people who now wanted to know WHO had caused all this to happen. Having established that it was neither myself nor my colleague, they were then pointing the Finger Of Blame at one of those teachers who had taken my class when I was off ill. And the one they most suspected was the first teacher who had shouted and yelled them so much.
“What is his name? Where does he live”, they wanted to know from me. What the hell were they going to do?? I was having no part in any vendetta here so I just said his name which they were never going to remember anyway.
Even at the end of the week they were still being given this sun treatment. Ah no, all except the Wednesday when they told me that it had stopped. One of my students said they had complained during all this sun exercise and so he was going to be in the “jail” for a while. Came back into class Wednesday middle with the blue finger which meant he had been fingerprinted and classified and processed. Others seemed too to have had trouble because of answering back and stuff.
Well now, THAT is a part of the army which everyone knows you must not cross into. Answering back or questioning orders is always going to be dealt with severely as it would be in any army in the world. THAT is fair enough.
But what of the sun punishment? Well, as I have said already, this is, in my opinion, NO WAY to solve the problem. In fact, when the temperature is in the mid-forties celsius it is downright DANGEROUS! Those guys could dehydrate, get nasty sunstroke and other such things! Sunstroke can even KILL if it is serious enough. I've only had it a few times in my life, but it REALLY is unpleasant.
I have heard that the possible writers of this memo are two in number. The shouter teacher and the third teacher who had them on my second day away. And, apparently, he is not so cool, calm and laid back as he seems to be. The word is that he gets very uptight with such discipline problems and cannot take much of it. He is on a very low number of teaching hours. I have EVEN heard that he lost one other job in this country possibly due to this. And, in addition, he was heard to be complaining a lot that my class was a really bad lot and that if he had this class himself then he would quit the job at once.
Hmm …. well I can't say that I haven't thought in that way. When those boys are at their worst, when they just won't be quiet or when they are having one of their heated discussions amongst themselves then they will NOT shut up and I certainly cannot make them. Then I feel like I'm not even there, I don't want to be there, they descent into total chaos and I feel like I want to quit-and-run there and then. But then when they are OK, then it is better for everyone. There have been a lot of bad times lately for me in that class it is true. But then there are times when they're quite agreeable too although this does not mean they work any better! But if they were at that worst ALL THE TIME then really I would not stand it and WOULD be going crazy and thinking of exiting. And I have written plenty about THAT since I started with them more than two months ago.
HOWEVER …. perhaps what they need is a proper motivation to be there and maybe incentives to learn more. We all know full well that they don't NEED to be here learning English however much you can justify it as being a “Foundation Course” for medical school next year. Marks they get in the tests I give them don't seem to matter to them. So what IS the motivation to learn more English? And HOW is this sun punishment going to suddenly make them better?
I am not the guy in charge so I do not decide what happens.
Ah, one more thing. This 'crown and star' guy in charge came out, on successive days, to sit with me at break time to have a chat. Nothing much, just small talk really. He seems to have been in England for some period of time. Some mentions of if I needed to drive then he might be able to help with the “paperwork” here ….
The students obviously saw him sitting with me chatting and wanted to know what he was talking about. I told them it wasn't much. But in any case, I was not going to be caught in the middle of loyalties to anyone. And was not going to be seen to be taking sides.
Next week the students are on holiday. FREEDOM for a while, and the chance to relax a bit.
The week just gone was not such a bad one. Only one bad day, and that was the Saturday which so often IS a bad day these days anyway. But when it IS a bad day now, it seems to REALLY be bad and not just a little bit bad. Not worth going into details about Saturday because it was the usual thing of me trying to get the lesson going and them having their Big Discussion which means that the presence of me in the room is non-existent. And as usual it centres around a group or a few individuals.
But there was drama this week. Oh YES! And THIS time it was not of my making.
You will recall a few weeks ago now that I was off sick with my flu-ish thing. Three teachers were used to substitute for me. One of them enjoyed his time there and was liked by my students. One of them, who only took the class for one lesson only and spent much of the time shouting and bellowing at them, did NOT enjoy his time. And the third teacher seemed, so I thought, to have got on alright (but now I have my doubts because of what I've heard about him).
However …. Saturday at almost the end of Lesson 4 we had a visitor. Actually on THAT day there were four interrupting visitors. Days like this happen as you know. In THIS case it was another visitor of some distinction and of rank 'one crown and one star' (sorry but I don't know my Saudi army insignia).
So he came in at about five or ten minutes to 11 which is almost the end of the day. I don't know what he expected from such a meeting, but he said he wanted to talk to me for a moment outside the classroom. WHY do they ALWAYS have to come and crash my lesson like that?? Because they CAN – that's the answer, and because they're army and because they run the show around here. And pfffft to it all, but there you go.
He had received a long memo from our HoD which he showed me. I'd had no idea of such a memo being written and I, for sure, hadn't said anything to make it happen. The gist of the memo was that, “These soldier boy students are an unruly bunch, how are we expected to teach them? And anyway they all fail when they come through the system. And their discipline level is low and etc. etc.”.
Well, yes, this is actually true. But it didn't come from me. The HoD shows little interest in what we do over with these soldier boys. So WHO had made it happen and WHY was it being dealt with in THIS way?
The thing is, if this guy wanted to deal with this matter properly then some proper time should have been scheduled to talk about it. Not ten minutes to the end of the teaching day and certainly NOT in class time. But they don't respect that. I don't know what he expected from me as I knew nothing of this memo having been written. I had not been consulted either. So WHO exactly was making judgements on the classes?
Well, I told him, yes they can be difficult and yes they have good and bad days. I also said that this year was not the only time that such trouble occurred. Not interested in other years, the man said. Surely it was relevant since such behaviour is not new as I have heard much about. Yes, I HAD had some discipline problems, I added, but these had been dealt with (I was referring to the key-throwing incident).
That was about all I said. No names mentioned and no specifics given. Back in the classroom they wanted to know what I had talked about. I told them that it was only general stuff and that was about it. I also said that I mentioned no names.
Fast forward a little to Monday morning in the lesson. First it was my teaching colleague who informed me that all the students had been standing out in the sun for two hours the previous afternoon after classes. Standing in the SUN?? Yes, I'd heard that they do that sort of thing around here. Into the classroom and yes indeed – the students confirmed this. “Because of that man yesterday”, they said.
That was not the end. The next day, Tuesday, they said that AGAIN they'd been two-plus hours in the sun. Standing there, caps ordered off, face up to the sun. Then exercise, crawling around on the concrete soldier-style and more of same.
OK, now I'll say this. Although there IS a problem with this class and indeed with these soldier boy classes in general, this is NOT THE WAY to solve it. Punishment versus Rehabilitation I guess is what it's all about. Plus copious amounts of sadism and so-called “discipline” hoping that THIS will teach them to not do it again next time.
I'll tell you what it has done. First of all, I had a class of students who were feeling (and excuse the non-intended pun here) very much under the weather all day. More sleepers than usual in the classroom. And a VERY angry bunch of people who now wanted to know WHO had caused all this to happen. Having established that it was neither myself nor my colleague, they were then pointing the Finger Of Blame at one of those teachers who had taken my class when I was off ill. And the one they most suspected was the first teacher who had shouted and yelled them so much.
“What is his name? Where does he live”, they wanted to know from me. What the hell were they going to do?? I was having no part in any vendetta here so I just said his name which they were never going to remember anyway.
Even at the end of the week they were still being given this sun treatment. Ah no, all except the Wednesday when they told me that it had stopped. One of my students said they had complained during all this sun exercise and so he was going to be in the “jail” for a while. Came back into class Wednesday middle with the blue finger which meant he had been fingerprinted and classified and processed. Others seemed too to have had trouble because of answering back and stuff.
Well now, THAT is a part of the army which everyone knows you must not cross into. Answering back or questioning orders is always going to be dealt with severely as it would be in any army in the world. THAT is fair enough.
But what of the sun punishment? Well, as I have said already, this is, in my opinion, NO WAY to solve the problem. In fact, when the temperature is in the mid-forties celsius it is downright DANGEROUS! Those guys could dehydrate, get nasty sunstroke and other such things! Sunstroke can even KILL if it is serious enough. I've only had it a few times in my life, but it REALLY is unpleasant.
I have heard that the possible writers of this memo are two in number. The shouter teacher and the third teacher who had them on my second day away. And, apparently, he is not so cool, calm and laid back as he seems to be. The word is that he gets very uptight with such discipline problems and cannot take much of it. He is on a very low number of teaching hours. I have EVEN heard that he lost one other job in this country possibly due to this. And, in addition, he was heard to be complaining a lot that my class was a really bad lot and that if he had this class himself then he would quit the job at once.
Hmm …. well I can't say that I haven't thought in that way. When those boys are at their worst, when they just won't be quiet or when they are having one of their heated discussions amongst themselves then they will NOT shut up and I certainly cannot make them. Then I feel like I'm not even there, I don't want to be there, they descent into total chaos and I feel like I want to quit-and-run there and then. But then when they are OK, then it is better for everyone. There have been a lot of bad times lately for me in that class it is true. But then there are times when they're quite agreeable too although this does not mean they work any better! But if they were at that worst ALL THE TIME then really I would not stand it and WOULD be going crazy and thinking of exiting. And I have written plenty about THAT since I started with them more than two months ago.
HOWEVER …. perhaps what they need is a proper motivation to be there and maybe incentives to learn more. We all know full well that they don't NEED to be here learning English however much you can justify it as being a “Foundation Course” for medical school next year. Marks they get in the tests I give them don't seem to matter to them. So what IS the motivation to learn more English? And HOW is this sun punishment going to suddenly make them better?
I am not the guy in charge so I do not decide what happens.
Ah, one more thing. This 'crown and star' guy in charge came out, on successive days, to sit with me at break time to have a chat. Nothing much, just small talk really. He seems to have been in England for some period of time. Some mentions of if I needed to drive then he might be able to help with the “paperwork” here ….
The students obviously saw him sitting with me chatting and wanted to know what he was talking about. I told them it wasn't much. But in any case, I was not going to be caught in the middle of loyalties to anyone. And was not going to be seen to be taking sides.
Next week the students are on holiday. FREEDOM for a while, and the chance to relax a bit.
A Woman is like a Banana ....
Friday 3rd July 2009
A woman is like a banana!”. Yes, my friends, these were the wise words from the mouths of one student this week. Don't know how we came to be talking about bananas. Ah, probably because I now have bananas with my coffee every day. Yes, that must be it.
He didn't say, but I suppose this is one of the wise words of the Qu'ran. No, I haven't read it so let's take his word for it.
The way he explained it was this. Oh, and it goes without saying that mainly he was referring to Arab women:
Like a banana, a woman is covered up. In her case, it is the long, black 'abbaya' clothing she wears and the banana, in turn, has its yellow banana skin. Only one person can eat this banana, and when the banana is yours then you, and only you, can peel back the banana skin and see and enjoy the banana inside. This banana is, therefore, yours alone and nobody else may have this banana.
And, I assume, you may not share your banana with anyone else. And, I also assume, you are not allowed to have more than one banana at a time. But that was unclear.
As beautiful and thought-provoking this philosophy is, it is full of flaws.
Oh, he also went on to say that because western women are not covered up, then they, like a banana once you open it, can go bad after a while because it is outside its skin. As in, a banana going brown and ripening too much once peeled.
Now, what would he say about me? I love bananas and every day I have three or four or sometimes even more. In one sitting I might consume two or three at a time. And for SURE this has no relation WHATSOEVER to me and women. If THAT was paralleled, then I would not have any bananas at all and the last banana I had would have been nearly two years ago.
Well, and the banana I briefly had some of last time in Krakow, Poland ....
A woman is like a banana!”. Yes, my friends, these were the wise words from the mouths of one student this week. Don't know how we came to be talking about bananas. Ah, probably because I now have bananas with my coffee every day. Yes, that must be it.
He didn't say, but I suppose this is one of the wise words of the Qu'ran. No, I haven't read it so let's take his word for it.
The way he explained it was this. Oh, and it goes without saying that mainly he was referring to Arab women:
Like a banana, a woman is covered up. In her case, it is the long, black 'abbaya' clothing she wears and the banana, in turn, has its yellow banana skin. Only one person can eat this banana, and when the banana is yours then you, and only you, can peel back the banana skin and see and enjoy the banana inside. This banana is, therefore, yours alone and nobody else may have this banana.
And, I assume, you may not share your banana with anyone else. And, I also assume, you are not allowed to have more than one banana at a time. But that was unclear.
As beautiful and thought-provoking this philosophy is, it is full of flaws.
Oh, he also went on to say that because western women are not covered up, then they, like a banana once you open it, can go bad after a while because it is outside its skin. As in, a banana going brown and ripening too much once peeled.
Now, what would he say about me? I love bananas and every day I have three or four or sometimes even more. In one sitting I might consume two or three at a time. And for SURE this has no relation WHATSOEVER to me and women. If THAT was paralleled, then I would not have any bananas at all and the last banana I had would have been nearly two years ago.
Well, and the banana I briefly had some of last time in Krakow, Poland ....
Coca-Cola? No thanks, I'm Saudi!
Wednesday 24th June 2009
I wanted to do the Passive Voice with the students last week. There is a very nice unit in Headway Pre-Intermediate involving the History Of Coca Cola which breaks it down well and I have lifted it out of Headway before to use. Thought it would work well with this often-tricky grammar point.
Started the class well with a Coca-Cola brainstorm. Associations, things they knew about it etc. etc. The usual things came up like it was nice but not good (for you). I did wonder why they had said it was “not good” but assumed it was a simple error meaning “not good FOR YOU”.
I was going too use the Coca Cola text from the book and I'd prepared a nice worksheet to go with it involving True/False, vocab questions and comprehension questions. First I gave out the text which I had photocopied which was to be used first for reading for gist type activities and then more.
I was quite pleased with what I'd prepared. It is a very good unit on introducing the Passive which can be tricky for low level students.
However, soon after giving out there were murmurings in the corner which grew louder and louder.
I carried on. The class is often like this and they often have their own little conversations which are nothing to do with my lesson. It's how they are. But I soon found out these were different.
One of them spoke up. “Teacher I won't do this! I am Muslim and Coca-Cola is from Israel and bad”. He threw it down on the desk. Another joined in also showing his contempt of it and distaste of what I was trying to do.
I did not understand. Then I noticed that there were pictures of Coca-Cola bottles with the writing in different languages, ie, non English alphabet. OOPS, I thought, maybe one of those is Hebrew and yes, for SURE they would object to THAT.
No, it was not that. Well, I did not quite understand what the objection was. But it was a strong one and when that happens here, you just have to abandon what you're trying to do so as not to offend them. That is the way here. If you do something which can offend, then you can find yourself in big trouble.
I had to abandon it. My great lesson on the Passive was destroyed. Quickly I had to think of another way to do it, but by then they had been stirred up enough. Even with my attempted recovery where I used my pen and tried to ask questions like, “Where is it made? Who makes it? Do we know or need to know?”, was rather in vain.
Lesson break time came and I had to know more. Outside in the 'break area' I called over one of the 'objectors' to explain what all this Coca-Cola thing was all about.
He got me to write the words, “Coca Cola”, on a piece of paper. Then he put a line through the “l” in “Cola” and then said to turn the paper over. Read the words “Coca Cola” now backwards, ie, right-to-left as in Arabic, and probably squint a lot and maybe with the stylised way that “Coca Cola” is written. Of course, you have to read it as Arabic script and not just as backwards English letters.
What you get then is, apparently, something in Arabic resembling, “No Mohammad and No Makkah” which is, of course, totally 'HARAM' (forbidden / blasphemous).
So where is the connection with Israel? Well, NOW I need explanation help from the internet.
The association of Coca-Cola and Israel goes back more than 30 years. Not only the Coca Cola company but other big western names too like McDonald's.
Have a look at THIS entry in Wikipedia which gives the basics of Coca-Cola and its problems in the Arab world. Their problems started in the mid-1960's when they opened a bottling plant in Tel-Aviv. Wikipedia goes on to say, “In response, the Arab League boycotted Coca-Cola from August 1968 to May 1991, as part of the economic boycott of Israel."
So that didn't help their image here. And now to the issue of the alleged anti-Islamic messages in the Coca-Cola logo script. For THAT may I refer you to this Coca-Cola article in Snopes.com.
I have also found this forum and one of the forum threads is also about the Coca-Cola backwards Arab script issue. You can read it here but, being a forum, it may well disappear at some time.
So there you go! According to the 'rumour', if you flip over the stylised Coca-Cola logo and kind of move it around a bit, it resembles this most blasphemous of phrases for Arabic speakers.
Interesting. And what is MORE interesting is that you can buy and drink Coca-Cola here quite freely and no need to look over your shoulder for someone cursing you from behind.
And THAT is one of the things that is just SO ODD about being here – the contrast of what you SHOULDN'T do and what, in reality, IS happening. If Coca-Cola so offends them then WHY do they have it here? My students said about it that, yes, they do buy it and drink it but with clenched teeth and, I suppose, a troubled mind.
Food for thought. Or should that be DRINK??
I wanted to do the Passive Voice with the students last week. There is a very nice unit in Headway Pre-Intermediate involving the History Of Coca Cola which breaks it down well and I have lifted it out of Headway before to use. Thought it would work well with this often-tricky grammar point.
Started the class well with a Coca-Cola brainstorm. Associations, things they knew about it etc. etc. The usual things came up like it was nice but not good (for you). I did wonder why they had said it was “not good” but assumed it was a simple error meaning “not good FOR YOU”.
I was going too use the Coca Cola text from the book and I'd prepared a nice worksheet to go with it involving True/False, vocab questions and comprehension questions. First I gave out the text which I had photocopied which was to be used first for reading for gist type activities and then more.
I was quite pleased with what I'd prepared. It is a very good unit on introducing the Passive which can be tricky for low level students.
However, soon after giving out there were murmurings in the corner which grew louder and louder.
I carried on. The class is often like this and they often have their own little conversations which are nothing to do with my lesson. It's how they are. But I soon found out these were different.
One of them spoke up. “Teacher I won't do this! I am Muslim and Coca-Cola is from Israel and bad”. He threw it down on the desk. Another joined in also showing his contempt of it and distaste of what I was trying to do.
I did not understand. Then I noticed that there were pictures of Coca-Cola bottles with the writing in different languages, ie, non English alphabet. OOPS, I thought, maybe one of those is Hebrew and yes, for SURE they would object to THAT.
No, it was not that. Well, I did not quite understand what the objection was. But it was a strong one and when that happens here, you just have to abandon what you're trying to do so as not to offend them. That is the way here. If you do something which can offend, then you can find yourself in big trouble.
I had to abandon it. My great lesson on the Passive was destroyed. Quickly I had to think of another way to do it, but by then they had been stirred up enough. Even with my attempted recovery where I used my pen and tried to ask questions like, “Where is it made? Who makes it? Do we know or need to know?”, was rather in vain.
Lesson break time came and I had to know more. Outside in the 'break area' I called over one of the 'objectors' to explain what all this Coca-Cola thing was all about.
He got me to write the words, “Coca Cola”, on a piece of paper. Then he put a line through the “l” in “Cola” and then said to turn the paper over. Read the words “Coca Cola” now backwards, ie, right-to-left as in Arabic, and probably squint a lot and maybe with the stylised way that “Coca Cola” is written. Of course, you have to read it as Arabic script and not just as backwards English letters.
What you get then is, apparently, something in Arabic resembling, “No Mohammad and No Makkah” which is, of course, totally 'HARAM' (forbidden / blasphemous).
So where is the connection with Israel? Well, NOW I need explanation help from the internet.
The association of Coca-Cola and Israel goes back more than 30 years. Not only the Coca Cola company but other big western names too like McDonald's.
Have a look at THIS entry in Wikipedia which gives the basics of Coca-Cola and its problems in the Arab world. Their problems started in the mid-1960's when they opened a bottling plant in Tel-Aviv. Wikipedia goes on to say, “In response, the Arab League boycotted Coca-Cola from August 1968 to May 1991, as part of the economic boycott of Israel."
So that didn't help their image here. And now to the issue of the alleged anti-Islamic messages in the Coca-Cola logo script. For THAT may I refer you to this Coca-Cola article in Snopes.com.
I have also found this forum and one of the forum threads is also about the Coca-Cola backwards Arab script issue. You can read it here but, being a forum, it may well disappear at some time.
So there you go! According to the 'rumour', if you flip over the stylised Coca-Cola logo and kind of move it around a bit, it resembles this most blasphemous of phrases for Arabic speakers.
Interesting. And what is MORE interesting is that you can buy and drink Coca-Cola here quite freely and no need to look over your shoulder for someone cursing you from behind.
And THAT is one of the things that is just SO ODD about being here – the contrast of what you SHOULDN'T do and what, in reality, IS happening. If Coca-Cola so offends them then WHY do they have it here? My students said about it that, yes, they do buy it and drink it but with clenched teeth and, I suppose, a troubled mind.
Food for thought. Or should that be DRINK??
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