Arabian Students

Up until now, I haven't written much about the actual working experience, so I'll try to remedy that with the next couple of entries. Today, I'll talk a bit about the students. 
I am teaching male Saudi students. I am teaching them English at a vocational school as a precursor to their technical training. They come from all over Saudi Arabia. They are well-off, and they are poor. They are dark-skinned and fair. They are nineteen to twenty-two. They have very different attitudes and backgrounds, but one thing is common to almost all of them: they are not good students. 

I wish I could explain to them in great detail how lucky they are. I would tell them that the Bangladeshis that clean the school grounds did not have the luxury of a college level education. Hell, some of them might not have had the luxury of a secondary education. And now they are working very hard in the hot sun picking up the water bottles that students throw on the ground, half-finished, because they can't be bothered to walk ten feet to a garbage can. I wish I could explain how obtuse it is of them to whine and complain to have to come to class, and do some actual work.

Some people bitch and moan about having to pay back their student loans. I'm not one of them. I think I got a pretty fair shake. I'm happy to have had the opportunity to get tertiary education at all. I think having had to take out loans made me take university a lot more seriously than I otherwise would have. The loans made dropping out not an option. So I studied hard to make sure I would get my degree, and get a job that payed well enough to pay those loans off.

The students I'm teaching have their school paid for by their companies. You see, they aren't just students; they are trainees. They have been hired by companies to go to school in return for service after their training is complete. So these guys get free room and board, free education, and they even get a monthly stipend. The Saudi government has wisely decreed that big companies must have a minimum number of Saudi employees on the payroll. Thus companies are giving out these amazing opportunities to Saudi students all over the place.

Despite all of this, most of the students do not take their training seriously at all. It is commonplace for students to: come late to class, skip class, sleep in class, talk over the teacher, play on their cellphones, forget their books, and not do their work. In short, they are more like elementary school students than college students. They have no idea how privileged they are, and they take their situation for granted.

Now, there are a few well behaved, smart and dedicated students, but they are few and far in between. I do my best for these guys, but unfortunately, I have to spend a bare minimum of 15% of class time on classroom management, so they're not getting the education they deserve.

So, that's the bad. The good is that Saudi students are incredibly friendly, good-natured and easy going. If they see you around campus, or around town, they are always happy to say hi and chat. They are have good senses of humor, and are generally really good guys. So, while as students they perform very poorly, their social skills are very good.

Unfortunately, they often try to use their charm to make you alter their grades and mark them present, when they are really absent.