Synopsis
When I look back on my ESL career in I wonder how I survived at all. It was of course a difficult experience, the easy experience is hardly worth your while. Worse than the regular, difficult teaching experience, is the difficult, Saudi teaching experience, and worse yet is the difficult, Saudi, female teaching experience.(Thanks to Mr McCourt for my intro).This podcast is aimed at female western language instructors living and working in the Middle East. Covering a range of topics from in and outside the classroom that are, unlike life here, without judgement or restriction. So whether its practical advice for an effective lesson, insights from within the industry or stories from the people we share time with here, this podcast aims to shine a light on the full spectrum of the colourful, and often controversial, ESL experience.
Episodes
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![E4: Reality Check: Saudis Male Guardianship System with Human Rights Watchs Adam Coogle]()
E4: Reality Check: Saudi's Male Guardianship System with Human Rights Watch's Adam Coogle
16/05/2018 Duration: 47minAs educators working in Saudi, we spend hours a day in the company of the country’s bright, young women and are encouraged to reveal a world of possibilities to them. Yet many of us are discouraged - if not outrightly forbidden - from conversing with them on the challenges - one of which is the male guardianship system.The question is - what defines this system that infantilizes grown women? Who is responsible for its existence? And who are the genuine vehicles of change in the country? Human Rights Watch’s middle eastern expert Adam Coogle reveals this complex system of discrimination is not easily defined, operates in omissions and remains a serious stain on the reputation of a country that wishes the world to believe in its progression.
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![E3: Swansong The Fight to Save Dying Languages with Dr Mandana Seffdinipur,]()
E3: Swansong ;The Fight to Save Dying Languages with Dr Mandana Seffdinipur,
26/04/2018 Duration: 46minA strange landscape awaits the human race; a world population exceeding 9 billion will have less to say then ever before. In fact, if trends continue as they are, half of the 7000 languages currently spoken throughout the world will be extinct by the time the Earth’s population peaks. Are we, as ESL instructors, part of this problem? How big a part does ESL play in this mass extinction? Dr Mandana Seffdinipur, linguist, TED talker, and director of the largest endangered languages archive in the world at SOAS, speaks about her institution’s fight against the clock to preserve these dying languages before the voices that speak the universality of humanity vanish forever.
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![E2: How to Stay Sane in Saudi with Author and Wellness Coach Skye McKenzie]()
E2: How to Stay Sane in Saudi with Author and Wellness Coach Skye McKenzie
21/04/2018 Duration: 43minOne thing you won’t be warned of before coming to teach in Saudi Arabia is the work/life balance; namely, there isn’t one. Unprepared and unable to adapt to the seismic shift in lifestyle, many people leave Saudi Arabia financially better off, but spiritually broken. Does it have to be this way? Is it possible that we can have a constructive working and living experience rather than destructive one? Dare we dream we might even enjoy ourselves? Author and wellness coach Skye McKenzie gives her illuminating insights into how to stay calm and centred in the eye of the sandstorm.
