A Postcard from... Cairo, Egypt

Walking the streets of Cairo

I live and teach in Cairo, Egypt. Shortly after completing my CELTA and just before giving up on finding work abroad, I found the ad for my job on Dave's ESL Cafe . I've now been teaching at Sakkara Language School (SLS) for about two months, and so far my experience has been very good in a slightly chaotic kind of way.

The flat provided to me and my flat-mate by the school was very nice, then experienced massive plumbing failure but was quickly replaced by an even nicer one. Daily transportation is covered by the school and my supervisor is one of the most helpful, professional people I've ever worked with. However, the Egyptian Ministry of Education is another story all together. As of last Monday, with three out of the several hundred students at the school diagnosed with swine flu, SLS was forced to close temporarily because of the “epidemic.” This unexpected sabbatical has given me a chance to reflect on my experience thus far.

Student discipline at SLS is difficult to say the least. The first few weeks of teaching were very stressful for all of the new teachers, and we may have been driven to put in many large orders to “Drinkie's”, which is exactly what it sounds like.

Adding to my general stress over classroom management was my inexperience with small children. I wasn’t told until our second staff meeting that I would be teaching kindergarten, and at the time I wasn't very happy about it. Teaching five-year-olds is obviously nothing like teaching adults. The material is extremely basic, and the students' motivation is directly dependent on whether they get to color after they finish their counting worksheets. How could I use my hard-earned, CELTA-certified grammar teaching skills if my students were still learning their ABC’s?

Kathy's students during Halloween

In fact I don’t teach grammar explicitly, nor do I teach “skills lessons” as such, but many things I learned at Teaching House have been very useful. Most notable of these are “chesting” (Look, you’re going to color THIS puppy!), ICQ’s (Are you going to write your name on the worksheet? Yes!), CCQ’s (Does nine come before ten or after ten? Before!), and supervising students at work (No, sweetie, all of your J’s are backwards). I still don't envision myself as a career kindergarten teacher, but I must admit my students have grown on me. They’re never quiet and always need to go to the toilet at inopportune times, but one thing is undeniable: they are very, very cute. I really can't overemphasize the power of their cuteness. One boy does no work whatsoever unless my assistant sits next to him, pointing to his worksheet every three seconds while shouting "yala!" ("hurry, let's go!"). But when I erase his scribbles that do not in any way resemble the letter G, and he shakes his head sadly saying, "bad, bad," I just can't punish him.

My experience in Cairo outside of work has also been good in a crazy way. Foreign English teachers at Sakkara are like a family--and I mean that in every sense of the term. We ride to and from school packed into an undersized minibus, get smashed in clubs together, and have potluck dinners. We also have factions, bickering, gossip, people who boycott the potluck dinners, and even, on one occasion, a small bar fight.

It's good that we have each other though, despite the occasional friction. Egyptians are very warm, welcoming people, but there are language and culture barriers that get in the way of forming meaningful relationships. I didn't speak any Arabic when I came, and even now I know only some very, very basic vocabulary. The average Egyptian speaks some English, but few are fluent and many speak none at all. In addition, the lifestyle of a "nice" young Muslim is quite different from that of your average semi-nomadic English teacher. Ideally, young Muslim people in Egypt don't drink, go out to clubs, or spend time alone with the opposite sex.

There are plenty of more relaxed attitudes in Cairo, but there is an undeniable stereotype concerning single foreign women. Rakish young men frequently catcall or proposition us in the streets. Happily, cabs are cheap and riding in one deters unwanted attention (except occasionally the attention of the cab driver).

There are so many other interesting things I could relate here, both good and bad. Ultimately, though, I think that any teaching abroad experience boils down to one question: Are you glad you did it? It may be a bit premature on my part, but so far the answer is a resounding "yes."

Bethany Edwards
Teaching House CELTA Graduate, March 2009