September 04, 2004
sections of life
Over the past three years I’ve taught beginner English classes up to advanced English levels. I’ve had in my classes at all levels, ladies and men, Arabs: Iraqi, Afgani, Syrian, Jordanian, Palestinian, Saudi, Yemeni, and Emirati. No one Arab from Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, or Oman, though. Nor, never once have I had in my English classes an African Arab: Egyptian, Sudani, Ethiopian, Somali in my classes, have I had. I’ve had many, many Persians in my classes.
Am I a lucky man? Yes. I’ve learned a lot from my students, month to month. I’ve learned a lot about this unique culture that is housed by the cozy, cosmopolitan country that is UAE.
Today, I told my last class I was leaving for good. No longer here now to teach English, you see. I’ve been hired by somebody else to teach something other than English. That felt good – to close a chapter like that. I’m generally not good at closing chapters. My life is rather a series of headlong rambling sections where the new section is generated in the chaos of the last section sputtering, faltering but never quite really closing before the move to the new is completed. A perpetual contractor I’ve been. Now for once I’ve closed the chapter. I told my colleagues and my boss that the new job required my to go tomorrow and the next day to begin a paper trail and it was a wonderful feeling to have been cheered by my boss. It was a wonderful boost to hear them say there was always a spot for me if I needed it there in the future. Much better than being lied about, lied to, and then transferred to a new school just to satisfy the political notions of an American middle-manager gone wacky…. Don’t ask.
So onwards now to the new employer. Soon all will be revealed. I’m hedging now because I don’t want to jinx anything you know? Sounds ridiculous I know, but anyways. Just trust me on this on and watch this spot in the next few days ok.
Am I a lucky man? Yes. I’ve learned a lot from my students, month to month. I’ve learned a lot about this unique culture that is housed by the cozy, cosmopolitan country that is UAE.
Today, I told my last class I was leaving for good. No longer here now to teach English, you see. I’ve been hired by somebody else to teach something other than English. That felt good – to close a chapter like that. I’m generally not good at closing chapters. My life is rather a series of headlong rambling sections where the new section is generated in the chaos of the last section sputtering, faltering but never quite really closing before the move to the new is completed. A perpetual contractor I’ve been. Now for once I’ve closed the chapter. I told my colleagues and my boss that the new job required my to go tomorrow and the next day to begin a paper trail and it was a wonderful feeling to have been cheered by my boss. It was a wonderful boost to hear them say there was always a spot for me if I needed it there in the future. Much better than being lied about, lied to, and then transferred to a new school just to satisfy the political notions of an American middle-manager gone wacky…. Don’t ask.
So onwards now to the new employer. Soon all will be revealed. I’m hedging now because I don’t want to jinx anything you know? Sounds ridiculous I know, but anyways. Just trust me on this on and watch this spot in the next few days ok.
