It hasn't even been a week and already the atmosphere is sizzling with drama.
Today was my first day at "work". I wasn't actually working, but my presence was required to attend some kind of workshop that I decided to sleep through it.
Why? Well, it was all in Arabic. Look, no doubt I know I am in Saudi, the national language is Arabic and I am all for people speaking the lingo at any given time. However, if you decide to deliver a presentation for an audience that is 98% non-Arabic speaking, then it is literally falling on deaf ears.
Don't get me wrong we were provided with a "top of the range" translator. Who literally translated 2% out of the 100% presentation. Now, you understand why I decided to complete my jet-lag nap. What's even more mind blowing is that I actually had a personal Arabic translator next to me, who said (quote) "this dude isn't exactly translating what is being said." I am not quick to label people with incompetency, I would rather say inefficiency. That is why the world is quick to jump to wars, maybe because the translators are not exactly translating what they should.........
The second funny thing today at our "workshop" was the presentation itself and the person who delivered it. If you are going to waste time and use the valued oxygen of telling us of what a fabulous manager you are, then I am sure nothing constructive is being achieved in this so-called "workshop". You must know that you must love the sound of your own voice when you can talk about yourself for a whole 4 hours. The best quote from this speech is "the fact that I have managed 15 centres and have done it all by myself, it is simply never heard of. So you must be grateful to be here in this University." Shohh!!Those are big words and big statements... especially if we are all finding it really hard to believe. This man always says "if you need something, please feel free to contact me", but when you dial that number it says "this subscriber you have dialed is unavailable, please try again later". Dude, I am on to you!!
The cream on the cake was the fact that the power point slides were "top of the range". Look I am the kinde person that that will give credit when credit is due and I will praise you for excellent work. After all, I am only a BA student, what do I know??" However, I am sure that even an elementary kid can put a slide show together by simply copy and pasting some cheesy quotes and elaborating on them. Not even metaphors or some kind of definitions..... quotes.
Here is an extraordinary example of how people epic fail their own brains to come up with creative stuff.
"Use things, don't use people. Praise people and don't praise things." Can we say "cheesy"!!!
This is only one of the 100 slide shows that had these quotes on them.
Once again I will say, I am only a BA graduate, but even I know that slide show was put together the night before. It makes me start questioning the level of intelligence somehow... As a matter of fact, I felt that my intelligence were insulted in some kind of way!!
The punchline in all of this had to be that everyone kept nodding and agreeing. No one was brave enough to actually say something like "dude we are on to you!!!"
However, not to bring the whole day down, amazing departments were developed for the University. Each department had a head. I actually like our head, even though he is the very dodgy translator, I still like him. He is one of those easy-going guys.. now we know how the English department will be like.
A good thing is that an amazing plan was put together. Somehow we have to do a certain amount of units from the curriculum per semester, the students have to do a research topic each month and we have to put together a report every second week. Sounds fabulous. However, I have taught these students before, some of them can't even write their names in English. I had to learn Arabic to help them write their own names in English. Now, if you can't even write your own identity down, what are the chances they will come up with a research topic each month??? I will give it to our head, on paper this plan does sound very "rah-rah" and will get us many brownie points, but the execution of it might be a tad to out of our reach. I don't want to be a pessimist, in this situation I am more of a realist.
And so the drama and comedy continues in Saudi. You gotta love this!!! This actually cheered me a helll-of-a-lot up and has set the tone of the semester. Clearly all I have to do is just "smile and wave".
I am extremely excited to start my work soon!! Keep them fingers crossed.
