OK - so I've had a lot of people ask me what the university will be like where I'm teaching. The school is called the American University of Sharjah (AUS). It's a private university with about 5000 students, and is home to the National Champion AUS Leopards basketball team [there aren't any NBA lottery picks coming from the team, but they're obviously still pretty good. The school plays about 20 varsity sports and holds its own in soccer, cricket, and tennis].The students are mainly from the Persian Gulf region - the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Pakistan, etc. If you're really curious about where students are from, you can click on this link to see some nice pie charts.
Since the students are predominantly Arab, most of you are probably wondering about language. English is the language of instruction (my dedicated readers will recall from an earlier post that the United Arab Emirates were a British protectorate until 1971), and so English proficiency is a requirement to be admitted to the university. The upshot of all this is that communication won't be a big deal for me. Nevertheless, I do plan to start learning Arabic after I get there. I know that I generally feel like people who come to the US should learn to speak English, so I think it's the right thing for me to do to learn Arabic while I'm over there.
And for those of you who are wondering about clothes, I will dress like the typical business school professor here in the US - a suit, slacks with a shirt and sportcoat, or sometimes just a golf shirt. What do students w
ear? Everything from jeans and t-shirts (just like in the US) - to the traditional abaya and hijab for women (cloak and headscarf) and the dishdasha and keffiyeh for men (robe and headdress). There are more photos of the university and students here.
ear? Everything from jeans and t-shirts (just like in the US) - to the traditional abaya and hijab for women (cloak and headscarf) and the dishdasha and keffiyeh for men (robe and headdress). There are more photos of the university and students here.Next week, Cindy will be posting on the blog (!), so send some questions her way if there's something you want to know about. Also, if you see Cindy between now and then, be sure to ask her how her writing is coming. :)
cindy, will your job hunt begin when you get to Sharjah (spelling?) or have you found anything that seems promising? Do you guys know about the Ex-pat community there? Are they well connected?
ReplyDeleteAlso, to both of you, we have some friends who have friends there ,so if we get their info we will pass it along to you if you'd like.
Even though we only got to see you guys once a semester we will definitely miss you! Love the blog.