Teaching English in Saudi

Accommodation together? Get married first.

no, actually it might not. unless u want to be deported

Thanks for the replies.

I will be married before I leave for Saudi. We have already come across the point of Saudi law regarding relationships, which is one of the main reasons for us marrying at this time.

felixortizszewiel wrote:

Hello everyone, nice to virtually meet you all.

I am a soon-to-be married British national looking to teach English in Saudi and would love any advice that you guy might be able to give me.

My partner is also a teacher and we will be looking for positions in the same region and of course accommodation together. How might this work? Are we mad? What might the do/don'ts be re: teaching English in Saudi?

Any advice would be gratefully accepted.

You did not mention if your partner is male or female but if she is female I would suggest to not to live in together in the same accommodation here in saudi arabia because it is absolutely prohibited here unless you get married and have a marriage contract in your possession, or else you will be charged of ''zina'' in arabic adultery in english if you you will be caught living in  together in one room, and the penalty is death penalty in sharia law.

Thank-you for your reply.

We will be married before we leave and I appreciate your advice!

From my experience here with several different places. Always assume the worst, if you give any place here the benefit of the doubt about anything it will be to your detriment. Ask for pictures of where you will live. Require to talk to several teachers already teaching at wherever you may be placed. Even after asking questions I have found that you will ineveitably find things at your position that you cant believe are occuring. Saudi is surreal in how it operates. I have never been to a place that functions like this. There are good responsible reliable positions, but they are teh excepetion and not the norm and a failure to not ask every imaginable question about everything imaginable will come to you in the price of things like lack of health insurance, living conditions, pay, seisure of your passport and a host of other things that I have watched occur to many people in my time here. Imagine going into the military and not asking everything you could about what your entering and seriously wishing you had asked more questions later. If getting married definitely get married BEFORE you come here. The boyfriend/girlfriend thing just doesnt fly here and yes could get you in trouble and deported.

bertonneau wrote:

From my experience here with several different places. Always assume the worst, if you give any place here the benefit of the doubt about anything it will be to your detriment. Ask for pictures of where you will live. Require to talk to several teachers already teaching at wherever you may be placed. Even after asking questions I have found that you will ineveitably find things at your position that you cant believe are occuring. Saudi is surreal in how it operates. I have never been to a place that functions like this. There are good responsible reliable positions, but they are teh excepetion and not the norm and a failure to not ask every imaginable question about everything imaginable will come to you in the price of things like lack of health insurance, living conditions, pay, seisure of your passport and a host of other things that I have watched occur to many people in my time here. Imagine going into the military and not asking everything you could about what your entering and seriously wishing you had asked more questions later. If getting married definitely get married BEFORE you come here. The boyfriend/girlfriend thing just doesnt fly here and yes could get you in trouble and deported.

You make it sound as if it is hell in Saudi. You're scaring them off. 

but  @felixortizszewiel, he did give a pretty good advice. Assume the worst and just be pleasantly surprised that its not as bad as you imagined it to be. I actually love staying in Riyadh. There will definitely be a culture shock on top of adjusting to the climate, to the new place, etc. It will be hard, just as it is hard uprooting yourselves and moving to any other strange place. You can read a post about culture shock in Saudi Arabia to help you prepare, it's around this site somewhere.

My advice, keep an open mind for discoveries and bear in mind whatever reason you decided to go here in the first place.

PS There are a lot of westerners who are teaching English here, you can form a group or whatever, if there isn't one yet. 

That's great advice, thanks everyone. I am readying a store of questions as we speak!

well if they are not Muslim they will get kick out of Saudi Arabia I guess so . but not losing your head .. stop give a wrong idea please if you don't know

Im not trying to scare anyone off. If you assume you'll get paid every month because "who wouldn't get paid by their company and who wouldn't provide health insurance or decent housing" since it's in the contract. If you make that mistake without talking to some teachers presently at whatever place and then show up and don't get things that Ive never even thought about not expecting than you are making your own naive assumptions about Saudi. Yes, there are some reliable and responsible jobs here. BUT, go to any ESL website (Daves ESL Cafe) though and read people's comments about their experiences here and you'll see I'm definitely not making anything up. Basically, better safe than sorry. All I'm saying is if you don't take that approach having read what I wrote and get here and find out that some of these things happen to you that's now your fault. You've been advised.

Thanks everyone,

Having looked for a while at jobs my wife and I have decided we will need to go over with a reputable recruitment firm, having been through various scenarios with various firms.

Your advice has been invaluable, and following it we have postponed our plans until next year, when I will have more experience teaching adults and therefore a stronger bargaining position.

Thank you all once again, and we may see you sometime in the future!