Month: February 2008

I was sick all of last week, it really threw off my schedule. I missed all but one Arabic lesson and I really dragged through my classes. I’m feeling better now and I’m hoping I can get back to normal….

The other night we wandered onto the topic of “freedom” in my conversation class. It was quite interesting to listen to them talk about it. The first thing they told me was that they are quite a bit freer in Yemen then in many Arabic countries. I hadn’t really thought about it, but it’s true. Compared to KSA, Syria, Egypt, and many others, Yemen is pretty free in political terms. There are many tribal/sociatal norms that limit people, but you are (mostly) free to talk about the government here.

I then asked them about that old chestnut about the tradeoff between freedom and stability. I don’t really believe that that a real tradeoff, but it’s good for getting people talking. All of them agreed that freedom was a far better thing than any sort of security or stability…

Wow, what a bunch of libertarians! I was quite surprised, but gratified. That night, the thought occurred to me, “Wait a minute, what about those Danish cartoons about the prophet Mohammed (PBUH)?” Clearly the response to those showed a real intolerance to freedom of speech. I brought them up in the next class and sure enough, the entire class said, “Oh, freedom is important, but there needs to be limits…” Like what? Well, like being able to say anything bad about any prophet or God, the inability to switch from Islam to something else, and of course any real criticism of Islam. So much for those libertarians…

I have to come up with a way of asking people why they care. To me, feeling that someone that blasphemes needs to be killed shows a real lack of faith. Surely, if that person has committed an awful sin, they will be punished by God, no? Why the need to exact punishment right now?

Anyway, I am being pleasantly surprised and predictably disappointed by them. I just hope that they learn as much from me as I’m learning from them.

I teach two classes every weekday (sat-wed.). The first one is an upper level English course, we cover grammar, vocab, the whole works. It starts at 2 and goes until 4. My second class is a conversation class. It starts at 7 and goes for one hour.

The English class is a challenge. Their English is better than my Arabic and so I’m able to talk to them for the most part. A lot of it is fun, the challenges for me are remembering my grammar rules and spelling. Inevitably, I know to to put sentences together properly, my problem is answering the question “Why?” As we go through the book, I’m being reacquainted with things like combining the past continuos with the past simple… I’ve always been a terrible speller. Thank God for spell check on the computer.. The problem is there isn’t one on the board of course. My course of action is to admit right up front that I misspell (ha! got it right on the first try!) a lot of words and keep my computer with it’s dictionary close by.

I love the sections when they explain how native speakers (north America) pronounce things. So far, my reaction has always been, “I’ll be damned, I do do that…” It’s fun to see the technical side of something that I do unconsciously.

My conversation class is nice. Nice in the sense that there is a lot less work for me, there’s no real lesson plan to speak of, and there’s no testing or grading. I’m just supposed to get people talking and address any major problems with grammar and vocab that come up. The trick is that there are two people in there that are pretty advanced and the other 4 lag behind significantly. It’s easy enough to just let the two dominate the conversation, but I work hard to try to get the others involved.

So my Arabic class is from 10 till 12, then I have to eat a quick lunch and get way the hell down Hadda street by 2. i stay at the school until 8pm and get home around 9ish. Busy busy busy but it pays the bills and more importantly I feel like I’m accomplishing something.

I turned 37 today. It really isn’t a big deal. This one isn’t, ask me again when 40 rolls around:-) I had Tami, Diana, and a new guy whose name I can’t remember over for pancakes and ham. It was a good time. I narrowly avoided disaster when my gas ran out in the middle of cooking. Luckily my new Yemeni neighbors gave me an extra can they had. It was really nice of them and saved me from having a lot of half cooked stuff…

We sat around and chatted for hours, mostly about Yemen and college days. Of course I had my requisite feeling old moments, like when we talked about when Kurt Cobain killed himself. I was in college at the time and it was a big deal to me. The others had dim recollections of it because they were too young. Then I told them that I remember the day John Lennon was killed and they were astounded. I then made them gasp when I told them I remembered the day Elvis died… Ah to be old….

Anyway, a good time was had by all. Tami is making lasagna for dinner tonight and there should be a bunch of people over at the student building for that. This sure beats my usual birthdays back home when I have to celebrate with friends the day before or after and spend the actual day by myself. Yeah, I know, if I would get off my butt and get a girlfriend it wouldn’t be so bad… I’ll work on that when I get back home:-)

I’ve got some new pictures up. I’ve been trying to upload them for a week. For whatever reason, it has decided to work now. I’ve got some more that were taken around Sana’a and a couple from Christmas. Enjoy!

Before I left for home, I had worked out a program with the principle at ALTI. I would start teaching when I came back. Well, when I came back, there was a new principle and they did not have any classes ready for me. But they said that they would get some classes together for me. She said that the conversation class would start on a certain day and that the level 4b class would start 3 or 4 days earlier than that, Inshall’a. She said she would call me if the level 4b class got off the ground. The day came when it could have started, and I didn’t get a call. Or the day after that, or the day after that… I showed up on the date when the conversation class was supposed to start only to find out that they couldn’t get one together, but that a new term would be starting in 2 weeks. I had already waited for a couple of weeks, so another couple of weeks was going to put a significant dent in my budget. I started to look for another place to teach.

Tami put me in touch with TLC, I went there, saw some classes, and I signed on the next day. The pay is better, and it’s a brand new place. They have wireless internet and everything is, as Tami says, “Shiny.” My first lesson was going to be the next day.

That day came and I got a call during my Arabic lesson, it sounded like it was TLC, they wanted me to come down as soon as possible. I told them that I would be there at one. It’s about 40-45 minutes to get there and I got out of my class at 12:00… I zoomed down there, got there at 1 and talked to the administrator. She looked surprised to see me. “You asked me to get here early?”
“Yeah, but not 2 hours early!”
I was confused, but I let it slide… I taught my class at 2 (more about them later), and got on the bus to go home. I got a phone call 5 minutes later.
“Why didn’t you come when I called you this morning?” Now I was getting weirded out. I told her I be right back. As I hung up, everything became clear to me. It wasn’t TLC calling, it was ALTI. I had meant to go there after I taught my class and tell her that I was working at another institute, So I went there and gave her the news…

She was not happy. She had called me to come in early to tell me that they were going to give me a raise (up to what I am getting paid at TLC). Doh! She also informed me that she had fired their only other native speaking teacher that day. He was a Canadian, and a real tool. She then explained the obvious bind she was in, “But we were expecting you to teach a couple of our classes, what will we do now?” I did the best I could to explain that I couldn’t take the uncertainty and waiting any more, I had to start working! I think she understood, but I sure did ruin her day…

My second day at TLC, the director asked me if i’d like to teach a conversation class as well. It is only one hour long, and there is no grade assigned to it. That means there are no tests, so no grading, etc. The only problem was that it started at 7. My first class ended at 4, that would leave me 3 hours between classes. At first I said no, but then I decided to take the class. I need the money, but that three hours will be put to good use. I can use that time to do my internet stuff, grade, do my lesson plans, and even do my Arabic. The teacher’s lounge at TLC is probably the best study area in the entire city… Anyway, my new schedule has me busy up until 4 my time. Ill be available from 4-7 my time on the computer, and that’ll probably be it sat. through wed.. For those of you that are interested in Skyping me, I can work something out on thursday or friday, just let me know when a good time would be…

Anyway, I should be earning around $600 a month, that should be enough for me to pay my living expenses and my tuition without too much of a problem. Yipee!