Gold Star TEFL Recruitment - Wall Street Institute Saudi Arabia

Oh the lovely sand dunes! Oh the boredom!

Living and working in Saudi Arabia is not for the feint of heart. One must throw expectations to the wind and prepare for a soul-trying time teaching the students English.

'But these students are motivated,' you claim after reading the job advertisement here.

Motivated or not, Saudi students are a handful. The reason being is their lack of study skills. Throughout their high school experience, they've been accustomed to a traditional classroom format. There is not much discussion in class, and there is only one answer for each question on exams. No essays where justification/ explanation is involved to highlight a student's deep understanding of the content. Students cram before tests so they can hold the information long enough to regurgitate it onto the multiple choice answer sheet. Review material is created by teachers who don't value the learning process, which means the answers to the exam are printed on the review material. So what happens when it's time for the final exam? Students regurgitate (the good ones) or the students purchase the answers from their overworked, underpaid and underappreciated teachers. This is the typical high school experience of a Saudi student.

In the classroom orientation - progressive, as opposed to the traditional one - described by Wall Street Institute's job posting, where experience and sharing is prioritized, can be quite frustrating for Saudi students because such an environment runs contradictory to their previous educational experience. Their expectations may not be met; they may not feel like they are learning. When they get frustrated, they don't come to class. Or, if they do go to class, they disrupt the other learners and make teaching damn near difficult to cover the target language appropriately. They need to learn the basics of study skills like note-taking, how to create and use study material, how to actively listen in class, and how to interact with a text efficiently and how to be respectful to the teacher, the other students and the learning process. As well, many students look upon teachers as servants who must provide them with the answers to pass. Quite a tall order for any teacher. Re-orientating students is quite a challenge and even more so for inexperienced teachers.

Why do I bring up this issue of Saudis and motivation and their learning experiences? Because the job advertised does not require teachers to have any - ANY! - teaching experience.

If you are a noob teacher, please don't jump head-on into a 2 year contract in such a difficult educational scenario as Saudi Arabia.

Do yourself a favor and apply elsewhere to get your experience. Japan, Korea, China or Taiwan are good places to start. Those countries offer government sponsored work for native English speakers.  Do a Google search for 'Gepik' (Korea) 'NET' or 'JET' programs in Japan, China and Taiwan.

You need to find out if you've got what it takes to be an effective teacher, which means you need to learn the basics of planning engaging lessons, how to pace your lessons, how to deliver them, and how to manage a classroom of students. Yes the job advert says you don't need to plan lessons, but having a solid foundation of how to do so will help you deliver the lessons more effectively. I'm an experienced teacher (a nice euphemism for being so old!) and still I need to prepare my lessons on teaching the past simple verb tense. Why? Because all classes are different, and all students don't have the same needs/ interests. Lesson preparation ensures you make yourself aware of how the lesson will go. You have a chance to predict and anticipate possible problems and curtail the information to coincide with students' interests/ learning styles.

You might find you don't like teaching in general. In an environment such as those previously mentioned countries, you can cut your teeth, so to speak, much better than in Saudi Arabia. I'm not saying all people are the same, I'm just saying you run the risk of being knee-deep in a possible worst-case scenario. Classroom management - even if it's a class of two or three students - is always an issue in the teaching context of Saudi Arabia. If you go to Saudi with zero experience, you'll face a steep learning curve.

Most people choose to teach in Saudi for the money. If you're Muslim, then it's for the experience of living in the birth place of Islam. Attending the mosques is always a spiritual experience, even for me who is not a Muslim. Yet, I could not be bothered to teach for Wall Street Institute in Saudi Arabia for such low pay.

My advice if you've got zero experience: learn the art of teaching before going to Saudi. Even for teachers that have many years of experience, Saudi learners can be quite difficult to manage.

If you've got at least two years of teaching experience, apply to Saudi universities because they offer a much better employment package than the one offered by Wall Street.

There's no mention of contact hours. Are you teaching 30 hours per week? If your contact hours drop because not many students are enrolled, does that mean your salary drops as well?

2000 Riyals is not enough to rent a furnished hotel-apartment. The going rates in Riyadh were around 2,500 -3,500 per month. Maybe you will be working out in the boonies where rates are lower. But ask yourself, can you handle the boredom?

Also: the visa fees are paid by the teacher! Extraordinary. No teacher should pay for the visa, which is required for them to work in that country. I can't believe Wall Street would be so petty.

Remember: before applying to any job, ask yourself a few important questions.

What are my expectations for the culture and/ or work?

What is my personality like? Will I be bored without having many social activities? Or do I like to spend my time doing solitary activities?

What if I don't like the culture and/ or work? Do I have a contingency plan? (like finding another job in the country, or fleeing in the middle of the night? Fleeing in Saudi is nearly impossible, especially if your employer keeps your passport. As well, if you flee, you are blacklisted in Saudi at least for one calendar year).

Do your homework, research, and ask lots of questions if you are interviewed. In short, leave no stone unturned.