When Bahrain is looking westwards...

Yesterday in Bahrain, there was a sport celebration, "the big event" of this beginning of year on the little island. The national football club, which was founded in 1957, was celebrating its ... errr... ( 2007 minus 1957... equal...) okay, its 50th year. What would have been better than to invite the leader team of the Italian league? Before starting again the championship, the Italian team were having a kind of "resting period" in Middle-East. The Bahraini coach then decided to invite the "Nerazzuri" for a little show. Even though Bahrainis are still developing their economy towards leisure and tourism, they don't have that many opportunities to catch the attention of the countries all around. Once a year, there is the Formula 1 Race at the International Circuit (see pictures of the circuit here), big hotels are being built, a business district as well... Somehow I have the impression they want to compete with Dubai... hopelessly, I think. Someone told me that 70 % of all the cranes in the world are currently located in Dubai. 70 %... it sounded incredible but it's not impossible. Ehm, I think this post was about football...

So, to get back to our initial topic... This match (pictures here and maybe videos one day :p) was interesting. Of course, there was not the least stake (not steack) for any team... However, I would say that the main objective for the Bahraini team was to score at least one goal, "for honor". And they did so, finally there was a difference of only 5 goals! 6-1, and honestly I would have never imagined that Bahrain would score any goal. The Nerazzuri were not even running, I think they were just pretending... except for the goals : the ones Adriano scored were really nice. I also appreciated Figo's game, who was in my opinion "the man of the match" (if we can call this a match). The atmosphere was friendly, the public was cheerful.

But you will ask me "Quid of Materazzi ?". Ehm. I think that he is the most hated player in this professional generation, since the public did not forget this famous episode which happened during the final match of World Cup 2006. Whenever Materazzi was touching the ball, the public were whistling him down... and so was I ;) Honestly, I think wouldn't have replied anything if Materazzi had insulted my mother because this guy is very tall (I would say 1,95m) and quite strong. I guess Zidane knew that Materazzi would not "reply"... That's why the shock was a bit violent :p

That's all about sports for today, we'll open this topic again soon. I hope I will attend this Formula 1 race, on the second Sunday of April. By this time, I consider changing my camera whose pictures are really poor in quality and disappointing...

See youuuuuuuuu

Christmas memories...

There are some countries, maybe most of the countries in the world, where children's eyes will be illuminated in front of big displays of Santa Claus made of chocolate. But in Saudi Arabia, this does not exist... I mean, it could have existed but it didn't. This story happened in the supermarket (Hypermarket) Carrefour of the region. The department-Head for Food supplies decided to make a huge display only with Chocolate Santa-Claus, Kinder products like on this picture. The display was nice, prices were attractive and many people were filling their trolleyswith those red & white chocolates. But the issue was that some guys, wearing white and red suits but WHO WERE NOT Santa-Claus (look at the next image) but actually people called "Muttawa" came to the supermarket and asked to talk immediately to the General Manager. They gave him "fifteen minutes" to empty the display completely, otherwise they (the Muttawas) would call their colleagues and do it themselves. Of course, such a threat is not something to joke with... Why??

Because the Muttawas represent the religious authority here in Saudi Arabia. (5th of January : I have found the name of the Commission that hires the Muttawas : the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice ... I will make no comment about this.) They have as much power as the police, maybe even more according to some sayings. Some years ago, the community of Muttawas pressured the royal family to get more power on people and companies, and they obtained satisfaction to their request. For example, in Saudi Arabia all the shops and companies stop their activities during prayer times, and the Muttawahs are in charge of "checking" that this rule is well observed. Subsequently, at prayer times, you will always find those guys with policemen, walking around and looking into the shops if anyone is working. And if they catch someone "red-handed", and if - this detail makes the consequences even more serious - the guy is Muslim... He could be beaten. Or his ass could be kicked until he reaches the gate of the Mosque. So... better not mess up with those guys. Also, if they see a woman who doesn't hide her hair, they absolutely have the right to make a remark to her. This is all about Muttawahs!

About my Christmas eve, it was how to say, less boring than a 14th of July :p No.. Honestly, those two days were interesting, I have no reason to complain. I received many phonecalls from relatives, friends, and was busy quite all the time. I celebrated the Eve in a nice bar-Club of Bahrain with Jais, it was the occasion to meet with some British and Irish people. They are incredible... So drunk that they could say "hello, where are you from?" 3 times to the same person in the same night. But very sociable and funny, when it comes to drinking. For one night I thought I was in the Rasmus Rask Bar, in DK. So... the atmosphere was good.

Today I went back to my office to correct the papers of my students... It took one hour all in all, which is not that much actually. My expectations as far as those exams were concerned were actually much lower than the results. I was well surprized by my students' papers, even though some of them are a bit weak at some points, they all made some efforts to pass it. I have no failing student this session. For level 1, particularly, students shew interest and motivation for language, even though they all have different aims. I have a 11-year-old boy, a British manager, and the 12 other students are Saudi doctors or engineers who will complete a postdoctoral program in France.

For the next days, I will try to enjoy some rest, but will go on working for private courses with a student who will attend a french school in Tours from next February and during 8 months. Then, he will be attending a speciality program in medicine at Hopital Cochin, Paris. On the 10th of January, 3 days before the beginning of a new session, I will invite my students from all the levels, here at the Institute. It would be an opportunity for them to meet with more experimented students, and also some managers from FR companies settled here. They are all complaining that there are too few occasions to implement their knowledge, to speak french in the region and that's true... So, let's try, we'll see the results.. Now I feel a bit hungry, i'll go and have dinner...

Seeya..

This blog is not dead

No it's not! Just that for some time, you know, I wanted to leave some things away, stop analysing all the time everything that was happening to me and live it 100%. I have to admit as well that the level of laziness was quite... how to say.. HIGH. But let's say that I managed to put up with this, and that i'll try to write here more regularly.

My last message was posted some 4 months ago, in the middle of August. At that time, I was just considering starting to write “seriously” my internship report which was to be handed one month later, when I would go for some vacations. Today, my need for some vacations is comparable to that former period, all the more since everyone around me (not geographically speaking, I’m talking about my relatives) is preparing Christmas. I don’t mean to complain at all about my situation here, since I will spend this period in Middle East – hoping that some 2 weeks will be given to me after the January-February Session – but it feels very weird to know that it’s Christmas period when absolutely n-o-t-h-i-n-g in your immediate environment reminds you of the events. No need to mention that in the Muslim context, 24th and 25th of December are not more significant than a 12th of April, unless one of those three days might match with an Islamic celebration. Even at my workplace, the students didn’t seem to understand clearly why I took the Christmas days “off”. “ But it’s going to be a hole in the session, isn’t it ?”,one said....
Yes, so what? Isn’t it me, the boss, after all? :)
It is in Bahrain that we find some elements, decorations that remind one about Christmas. Some big trees are decorated (Christmas palm trees are a bit... exotic but still, a tree is a tree even though it requires big balls.. ehm). However I still haven’t found the sandman with a carrot as a nose.
This “opening” to Christian culture in Bahrain is mainly due to the important community of filipino people. Some of them chose Islam, but they are not that many. I had long been wondering what was the connection between Filipinos and Christianism (Roman Catholicism). It’s thanks to – or because of, choose your point of view :P – the Spanish. Them Spaniards, again! They brought Catholicism there, and also had an influence in the forming of one of the main Filipino dialects called “Tagalog”. When you hear Filipinos speaking this language, despite their pronounciation which is typical from this Asian-Indonesian part of the world, it’s possible to recognize some spanish words such as numbers, for example...
So Bahrain is more tainted with this Christian tradition but we shan’t exaggerate : it’s still a Muslim kingdom and even though Christian churches are tolerated – contrary to Saudi Arabia that admit nothing but mosques – you will obviously find more mosques than any other religious temple. Another difference, as far as religion is concerned between Bahrain and S.A. is the belonging to a specific dissidence. In Islam, we mainly find two dissidences, the first one which is “Sunnite” and the latter that is “Chi’ite”. The Chi’ite Muslims have different mosques, their convictions are based upon the great tragedy of Islamic people in the History of religion. In Bahrain, the religious color is Chi’ite contrary to Saudi Arabia, where Islam was born. I’m not sure that the open-mindedness of Bahrainis is due to this religious specificity.. I’ll try to find some documents for next post about this and explain it better.
Today I found again my little book entitled “learning Arabic without pain”. So far, I’ve ignored the therapeutical virtues of learning this language. When you look more thoroughly into it, you realize that the title is a big joke, since its content seems to be very hard to digest. Still... This is a language I want to know more about. Now that I can read numbers (٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩) and most of the arabic alphabet, it would be quite useful to grasp their meaning. To me, learning a language which looks like no one else has always looked exciting. I experienced that through my “very light” learning of Ancient Greek 4 years ago and I liked it very much. At that time, it was the changing of alphabet that gave a special difficulty and interest to the language. Now, the difficulty has reached another level above, since not only is the alphabet different, but the direction of reading is different. Another interesting thing is that letters, in Arabic, are not written in the same way depending on their position in the word : there are 29 letters in the alphabet, and each of them has 3 graphic variations : one variation if the letter is at the beginning of the word, another one when the word is in the middle of the word and a “final” version, when the letter is at the very end.
Let’s forget about linguistic stuff for a while... Some more news will be coming soon. For now, I will just go to bed, keeping some things to say – I mean, to write – in a little corner of my mind. I hope my “frequent readers” who were disappointed with this huuuuge break will excuse me.
See you..

After 6 days of silence, here I am :)

Hi... It's been almost one week since I last posted a message on the blog. It's true that I've been very busy in the last period. I started working at the center last Wednesday and tried to find some basis for my project. As I wrote in the last messages, I need to find a "direction" for the Franco-Saudi Center and to think of a new way of communicating outside. To rely on a "self-made" reputation is definitely not enough. What is required is to give a new, fresh skin to our image. And it's not easy at all, you can believe me. I admit that sometimes, I've been too lazy to face the problems directly : I did face them, but I took my time to do that, postponing always postponing the tasks to the next day, until the deadline. Now I have to reconsider my way of regarding things. Efficient reactivity is needed, and once again, I have to admit that I am not that good for this. I'm not used to making decisions that are both "fast" and reasonable. When I hurry up to make a decision, it's sometimes very imperfect, and when it's reasonable, it means that it needed time. Now, I have to make those two qualities match : that's my personal purpose.
For example, let's talk about courses for Women. As you might guess, in Saudi Arabia it's not possible to have men and women in the same class. If it was the only "problem", still it would be ok... but I was told that it's not even possible for men and women to be in the center at the same time. I thought about having Men courses in one room, and Women courses in another room, independently. Unfortunately, this is not something we are allowed to do here. This would have been more practical, but it doesn't fit with Saudian traditions and moral rules. It would be very risky for me to show any sign of anger about this. It would cost much... I would lose my job, if not worse.. Today women called me to discuss this. Actually, for the reasons I've just given, they have to go somewhere else to attend the lectures. And this 'somewhere' is inside a compound (A secured residence), whose director lends us a classroom for free...provided that the French-Saudi center is in charge of the cleaning. It had been 3 months since the last teaching session, which means that the room hadn't been cleaned since then. One student woman called me to complain, because the place was dirty and too small to welcome 10 students. As I was new, as I didn't know about this before, how could I react? Actually I felt ashamed. I was ashamed, because if it had happened to me, I would have called the director to complain and I wouldn't have been very nice on the phone, thinking that I would be "right" to do this. When you pay for a service, particularly language lectures, the minimum is that you attend them in acceptable conditions. Dust, Dirt is not what I call an acceptable condition for studying. She was right to complain, and I didn't have the good role. I understood that the responsibility of a captain (it's not very humble of me to use such a metaphor...) is not just to lead his ship towards the direction he wishes. Sometimes, there are contrary streams, storms. He can do nothing about it, but try to find solutions to keep it over the surface. That is my role : to react rapidly and efficiently. Today, I hired a cleaner to tidy up the woman classroom. Otherwise, I would prefer to give their money back, rather than provide them a service in such conditions. The center needs a new image : image is strengthened by credibility, and if you provide a service in bad conditions, you're going backwards. I don't want to harm our image. Men and women attend the class separately, all right : but in the same conditions, that's my word.
The positive aspect is that despite the world cup (that explains some kind of absenteism), registrations for the classes are going quite well, particularly registrations for women. We are going to hire a new teacher (not to replace the previous one) because the classroom is too small to welcome more than 10 people... And we have 14 registrations. Today I received a c.V. and a letter of motivation from a french-speaking woman from Canada. She speaks Arabic, English and according to the secretary, has a very good level in French : besides, she has already taught this language and already knows our teaching method. (Méthode Panorama 1 and 2). The funny thing is that she doesn't have any literary carrier, she's rather a scientist (She has a PhD in physics). What matters is that she speaks well and teaches well. I will receive her soon at the office, probably next week. That is another part of my job, to be responsible of human resources. The center is not that big but still, if people keep on talking about the center to their relatives, we should gain some importance and consider hiring new teachers. I like this "coordinating" aspect.

About the courses I've been teaching, today was my third day. On Saturday, I started teaching 2 different levels : from 5.30 to 7.30, I have a class of beginners who are already able to introduce themselves correctly, with a good pronounciation, after 6 hours. I'm happy about it : they are very interested in their learning process, and always talk with me after the session, around a cup of coffee or tea. Then, from 7.40 to 9.40, I have a group of good speakers. I don't need to use english for the teaching, I just speak French and they understand quite correctly. However, I still need to speak slowly. Their level is "6", which corresponds to the studying of the Unit number 6 of the method that counts 12 units all in all. Their level is very good, I would say, considering that they reached the middle of the "learning process". Of course, it doesn't mean that when they pass level 12, they have the same level as native speakers, not at all. Still, they can do many things with their knowledge and competences... to ntroduce themselves, talk about many topics, construct a skilled argumentation, or even apply for a job. I didn't imagine that teaching your native language to people could be such a satisfactory experience, when you realize that they do well and that they constantly want to improve themselves. So far, I have spent 6 hours with each group, so 12 hours all in all... there are 48 hours of teaching left before I reach the minimum amount of hours for the Master thesis. I have to make a paper about this experience... Something like 20 pages. I think that it's ok : I already know what I'm going to write in this mini-thesis. I won't have to invent anything, if you know what I mean... I just have to open wide my ears and my eyes to find something interesting to write about my first official teaching experience. I didn't want to have an internship in FR, although it can be very useful for foreign people who arrive in France to know some words. I would certainly have enjoyed to committ my internship into a social and human action, but I prefer travelling. To teach French is a good pretext for travelling, and for the moment I really don't regret the choice I made. Another aspect of my mission is to go to the companies' headquarters and propose them the services of the French-Saudi center. However, it requires that I have a car, and before having a car I need to convert my FR driving licence into a Saudian one, and this process requires that I get my residence permit.... The problem is that my passport is in Paris now (again...) at the Ministry. It will come back soon, I hope so.

I'm having my last 2 days at Eric's place, the teacher of Greek and Latin at the French school, I think I won't forget the way he has welcomed me here in Saudi. He completely shared his big house with me, shared his food (delicious diet meals from Carlton hotel ;) ) and his good mood. Today I made a present for him, a pair of jeans from his favourite brand (Replay) and he looked very happy. At the moment, I'm proud of myself in the sense that the presents that I made did provoke the effect I was silently hoping for, which is pleasure... and it makes me even happier afterwards. I'm hesitating about asking Eric if he would like to rent me the same room from September on... On the one hand, this place is very pleasant to live in, but on the other hand, I don't want anything bad to happen if we become room-mates, I experienced this in DK.. I want to keep on getting along with him, meeting him some time and go to Bahrain with him, as he promised me.

As soon as possible, i'll write about my new life downtown. It's going to be very different from life in the compound... but it's another interesting step to take.

See you soon and take care..