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This post is of a sensitive nature. I really don’t know how to say it, other than to just speak a word straight to the point.
First, I’d like to ask that Allah facilitate hijrah for those who sincerely desire a way out. Many Muslims in non-Muslim countries can take advantage of the fact that the Muslim world is in need of native English speakers to teach English in their countries. This has created an excellent opportunity for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. However, and unfortunately, it appears that many of the native English speaking Muslims are not qualified for the job. For years, I have been viewing the various expat forums. I can almost always tell, even without Muslim names or Islamic jargon, who the [particularly] American Muslims are. Their post are the most difficult and painstaking to read. I’m not talking about typos or bad punctuation (my areas of expertise…lol). Rather, these post are filled with the most embarrassing improper speech. When I read it, I can actually hear them speaking this way. This is how I know it was not an error and that the person actually talks like that.
I’m not writing about this to pick on anyone, because my husband is constantly telling me that I am the last person who needs to teach anybody. When I was in college, I could never get a straight A on my papers, because I had too many grammatical errors (but the content would be good enough for a high B). However, if you are looking for a job as an English teacher, then the least you could do is work on your English. These same people also seem to be the ones most offended by the fact that non-Muslims are employed in the Muslim countries. Let’s be reasonable, what are the choices?
Be that as it may, many of these half illiterate native English speakers, seem to slip through the cracks and get jobs in this part of the world. This is why my husband and I do not want our children learning English in the schools here. In most schools, you will have non-native English speaking teachers, teaching your children horrible English. On the other hand, you will find the more Islamic schools, who only wish to employ Muslim native English speakers – hiring teachers who not only do not know grammar but their spoken English is not up to par either.
This is not to offend or didiscourage people from making hijrah. However, be honest with yourself. It’s not fair to take a job (with fake credentials at that) that you are not qualified for.
Just a thought: Is it possible that the person may not even be aware that they are not speaking proper English? I ask because when they post these messages, it’s with confidence. Often times the person is even speaking with authority, telling you how it is and what to accept and what not to settle for. So it’s possible that they may not have ever been exposed to proper English and see nothing wrong with teaching broken English. Why not? The Arabs do it with Arabic.
Yeah, I know. I got a lot of nerves…this post is probably filled with errors!
you ain’t right, lol! girl what difference do it make if da resume lookded good…irregardless of how dey talk, lol!
Oops, guess the pic gave me away, lol! Oh well, got caught trying to be funny, hehehe! But anyway while I’m here…I know you were speaking in general, but that cartoon can be perceived as if you’re speaking about black folks.
I agree with the main point of your post though…someone needs to do one about non-native (English) speakers trying to teach elementary school aged American kids english. My daughter once was told by her English teacher to describe a picture, she looked at it and said, “We are waiting for the bus.” The teacher gave her an x and said “No, it’s ‘we wait bus.’” Eh dah?
lol dem dere avatars will cold bust ya er’time.
i agree the pic gives the impression that i am singling out colored folk, on the real it is mostly dem, but i know a whole lotta white gurls who ’sound’ good but is dmb as a door bell…lol
i’ve mentioned before how the non native english speakers be (wrong use of prposition be) jacking up the english. and don’t let one of the native english speaking kids even attempt to correct them. that’s considered disrespectful.
hahahahhaha asiya
i love engrish
“Their post are the most difficult and painstaking to read. I’m not talking about typos or bad punctuation (my areas of expertise…lol). Rather, these post are filled with the most embarrassing improper speech. When I read it, I can actually hear them speaking this way. This is how I know it was not an error and that the person actually talks like that.”
And yet if a writer like myself makes mistakes, they’ll scream at him!
As-Salaamu ‘alaikum,
Isn’t the over-use of “be” a shibboleth of Afro-English? That kind of English can actually be quite pretty to listen to, and the English employed by some of our “chavs” here in England can be far more annoying or offensive, but I agree it’s not proper formal English.
“We wait bus” … in an English lesson … seriously bad. I hope you complained to the teacher’s boss.
This conversation needs to be BIGGER and LOUDER.
1) The American education system is horrible. A large percentage of people are not even graduating highschool and many who do are considered functioning illiterate. From my comment page: “There is an epidemic problem of illiteracy in America. “[Up to] 23% of adult Americans were not ‘able to locate information in text’, could not ‘make low-level inferences using printed materials, and were unable to integrate easily identifiable pieces of information” on this gigantic, bonafide survey thingy”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_the_United_States
2) So you have these poorly educated American Muslims wanting to make hijrah to these countries that have much greater concern for education than many Americans have. And these wanna be muhaajirs think that the only skill they have to offer is teaching English–but actually they don’t even have that!
3) We have all these fatwas coming from the East telling us that we cannot go to mixed universities (highschools too of course, but many of us convert after that) and therefore many folks are left thinking they do not have any options but to be uneducated. Yet these Muslims also believe that hijrah is mandatory. The same countries from which these fatwas come out of only want to hire people with American/Canadian/British degrees. I have looked at plenty of job postings (for men and women) in the Lands of The Muslims and they are very specific about these degrees. Schizophrenic much?!
I’m really frustrated by this whole situation. I see hoards of American sisters who are not skilling themselves up because they are told that is not necessary, their “muhrams” should provide–but what about the converts who have one muhram and he doesn’t have any skills either and they want to make hijarh? Yemen doesn’t even want ‘em! Whether you are moving to a third world or cosmopolitan Muslim land, you have to be able to offer “your new community” something! And marriage ain’t forever peeps, alhumdiallah. Of course, many single sisters are told to drop school and just hurry up and marry. Same problem.
Argh, I have even heard sisters say that we shouldn’t even teach English because it is the language of the kuffar!!! Yeah, and what are you reading Quran in!?
This topic is really frustrating to me, though really I know I shouldn’t sweat it–just hate hearing Muslims be stoopid.
I know, I should write a post, inshallah, I’m just swamped.
“singling out colored folk” …wow that is racist…
This is for fun. I think Umm Adam will get it and probably already heard it:
Bad English Lessons:
bofum “I asked for only one, but she gave me bofum.”
Teacher: Use income in sentence.
Student: As soon as I laid down to take a nape, income the kids.
Teacher: Use foreclose in a sentence:
Student: If I pay my rent this week, I won’t have money forclose.
Teacher: Use China in a sentence:
Student: I don’t like her because she is always is China making trouble.
Teacher: Use undermine in a sentence.
Student: I live on the fourth floor and my sister lives undermine.
Brooke: Keep on keeping on. Keep company with like-minded Muslims who value education, being literate and knowing that it is a duty for Muslim men and women to be knowledgeable, educated and at least literate. Every person who is not Muslim is not kuffar. Not sure where or what you have been exposed to, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with you going to college, working, and being self-sufficient. I am not a scholar, or even a student of Islamic fiqh, but have raised three children, done peer counseling and been around for awhile. On the last day, Allah will ask us all what we have done with what bounty he gave us. I advise many women with the same questions you have to remember that our Creator may ask what we did in this society to advance the cause of Islam. We will not be able to say we could not drive, could not read, could not speak up, could not organize because that is a freedom we have that very few women anywhere else in the world will never have. I am willing to dialogue with your regarding this. E-mail me via Umm Adam.
you all are too much and so silly. you all have got me cracking up. for my typos
excuse me. i accidentally spilled water on my keyboard. so cant put apstrphies or capitalize. so maybe they are like me and too broke to get a real keyboard. chuckle. rofl.
Rosa Rosa–Where is YOUR blog!? Seriously, I wondered that the first time I saw you ’round here. You don’t have to update as much as some people (used to!) but you may enjoy it, inshallah. The sage Muslimas are hard to come by–always busy taking care of their own
Reply to BrOOke: I don’t have an active blog, but my public e-mail is rosarosa.shortstorywriter@gmail.com. Let’s talk.
Umm Adam
Unfortunately, TEFL is the great career recycling ground for any native speaker who wants to work abroad, no matter the quality of the English or the pedagogical deficiencies.
I sincerely do not wish to be offensive, but now I am curious. Is it possible/probable that some of the supposedly educated bloggers I have assumed were trying to ghetto-ize their English as some sort of statement of trendiness actually cannot speak/write differently? I would appreciate your impression of this phenomenon (not yourself obviously since you do so occasionally to be funny or make a point).
I HAVE A VERY BIG QUESTION FOR YOU ALL!
Who can please explain to me why my English blogs have not received comments –even from people on whose blogs I posted so many comments, including this one? Why do I receive comments only on my French blogs, as you can see here, for example?
http://mohamed.ali.over-blog.com/article-27650126-6.html#comment43695272
I do not want to believe that you are arrogant. But this is my impression when I see the kind of response I get from the French.
Say, word? Well, here I is, cuz I be sittin’ round a whole lotta dem white folks and stuff at dat ivy league school called Wesleyan University and dey dun taut me some other stuff than what ya’ll talkin bout!
Lol, but really I don’t speak the same all the time; there is my business talk, my family talk, the baby talk, the Muslim’ish talk and the close friend talk – neither one is less than than the other, just more suitable for certain times due to the society that I live in. As a graduate student of linguistics (sociolinguistics at that) I’m not offended by your post, however, I do find it stereotypical. As hard as aging prescriptive grammarians may try to force feed language illusions, there is no such thing as standard English! What we call Standard English is simply a force accepted dialect. And we know that dialects ha ve always evolved over time and have always included variations. Does the local evening news sound the same in Alabama as does in New York? Do teachers in California and teachers in Colorado have the same consonant reduction rules? Of course not! Their dialects are different, even though as teachers and/or journalist they are more likely to know how to use and speak in the prestige standard English form for their locale. It’s still just a locale variation though. On the contrast, and far more interesting to me is that in this day and age of American pop/hip hop culture and mass media that penetrates the workd, African American English (AAE) is more well known and understood than say BBC English or Mid Western dialects.
That’s not to say that Muslims who are falsifying their credentials to get a job are justified. It’s not, lol, especially those going into the mumlaka. La hawla quwatta illa billah, however, what needs to be noted and made crystal clear is that all people have dialects and speak with accents. This isn’t wrong or any ruler to judge their intelligence upon. I’ve worked with plenty top engineering students who can’t write error free essays or give public addresses with proper diction and tone to save their lives, but give them some fibonacci numbers or heck a upc code and they’ll crack it every time. Likewise, my best English professors were those who had enough sense not to draw a line in the sand over archaic “rules” of grammar that they themselves needed a book to verify it with.
Final note; speaking African American English does not make one illiterate. It is a rule governed language, just like any other language ( How else would you have known how to use that habitual “be” that is a staple in AAE Umm Adam?). Therefore standard English dialects are not more proper or superior forms to know, speak in or teach in. It all boils down to the upper-classes of dominate groups who have historically used langauge as another way to oppress minorities world wide….word!
Great post. Although I found work as a teacher in the Gulf, I chose to go back to my home country and train more (I just had an online TEFL) because A, the more qualified you are, the more stable and well paid your job, generally and B, I don’t want to take money for a job I can’t do well. I want try and be the best in whatever I do… of course this has me hesitating to start new things
U need not have perfect english in writing blogs..who cares! It’s not marked anyway! And the pic perks my day
The hijrah bubble………”This is why my husband and I do not want our children learning English in the schools here”
lol what can i say
say it gurl, that’s what I be talkn bout 2. shoot. all you need is an online certificate and a G.E.D. I know plenty people who went over and got work with this nonsense. This is straight up fraud, but they feel no shame in their hustle.
Salaams Umm Adam:
Where are you, dear?
As-Salaamu Alaykum ROTFL!
Your post reminded me of something my SIL sent me
Ghetto Spelling Bee
Tyreal came home from school disappointed. “I hate English, dem teachers is always changing stuff”.
Mother: “Tyreal, do you been using bad words and writin dirty notes agin?”
Tyreal: “Naw, momma, I sware I didn’t. I used all my spelling words in a sentence like de teacher say, but de teacher, she gave me an “F”.
1. HOTEL – My Momma said that she ain’ gon tell her friend Shaqueta nothing else, cause that HOTEL everthang she know.
2. HONOR ROLL – We was playing bidwi z on the stoop the other day and man, I was HONORROLL.
3. PLANET – Leroy got arrested cause he got him some seed to grow weed, and he PLANET in the backyard.
4. DISMAY – I went for a blood test, the doctor pulled out a needle and said DISMAY hurt a little.
5. OMELETTE – I should punch you for what you jes said but OMELETTE it go dis time.
6. STAIRWAY – Getting high is stupid. It makes you STAIRWAY into space.
7. MOBI LE – I went to buy some food, I was short on cash, and my man said gimme one MOBILE.
8. DEFENSE – I saw this dude running from the! cops, but he hopped DEFENSE and got away.
9. AFRO – I got so mad at my girl, AFRO a lamp at her.
10. AFTERMATH – I don’t feel like being at school today so AFTERMATH, I’m out.
11. LOCKET – I sla m the door so hard, I LOCKET.
12. DOMINEERING – My girl’s birthday was yesterday, so I got her a DOMINEERING.
13 KENYA – I needed money for the subway, so I axe a stranger KENYA spare some change.
14. DERANGE – DERANGE is where da deer and da antelope play.
15 DATA – At my basketball game, I scored thirty points My coach say DATA boy.
16. BEWARE – I asked the man at the unemployment office, “Is dis BEWARE I can get a job?”
17. DIMENSION – I be tall, dark, handsome and not DIMENSION smart.
18. COATROOM – The judge said, “One more outburst, you’ll be thrown out de COATROOM.”
19. DECIDE – My boy fronting’ like he love his girl but eribody know he got a couple of chicks on DECIDE.
20. FASCINATE – Her dress got 10 buttons, but she so big she can’t FASCINATE.
You are right on target with this post. As a foreign, native-born English speaker, all you have to do is walk into a school in Jordan and they will be begging you to teach. Doesn’t matter if you have a degree or not in most places. The thing is, they want you for the accent, though most of the students will have a heck of a time trying to understand your ‘accent’ once you get in the classroom. It is a funny situation. The thing is the ladies who are teaching, with an English degree, are making way more mistakes than the average native would in simple sentence structure and pronunciation. My kids come home all the time with comments on what the teacher said today. I am not sure which direction we should go. You make hijrah for the sake of Allah, but you still get a mixed bag of things once you arrive. InshAllah Allah knows what is best for all of us.
OMG, Umm Adam tell me you KNOW “be” is a verb, not a preposition. You WERE just joking, right? Girl you so funny!
I agree with Musleemah about the “King’s English” thing. Our idea of standard English is no such thing ‘cross the pond. I have always looked at our ability to flow from one vernacular to another in the blink of an eye as being bilingual, and a great asset in the appropriate setting. I may have been teased for talking “like a white girl” when I was in high school, but that ofay accent got my foot in more than a few doors, and my intellect allowed me to walk on through and get down to business. My mother did not dissuade me from speaking like a ’round the way girl”, nor a Miss Ann, but demanded I understand the difference between the two and when to use them. (Nah, nahnah, boo boo, William Buckley!)
ROFL, I’m still dying over the cartoon
[...] course, ESL is the default expat job that often doesn’t work out too well. Izzy Mo is doing and my friend Molly did the expat thing in the corporate world, but do I really [...]
I’d like to hear what you think about this post I made.
http://duniastranger.blogspot.com/2009/08/muslim-mans-beard-african-american.html
as salaamu alaikum,
Yaa Umm Adam,
where are you. we miss you and talking without. I make dua that you and the family are well ameen. Salaams to everyone and are you all ready for Ramadan.
Sawdah- Oh see that is quite nice. I was starting to get mad, but you’re right. Inshallah she and her family are well.
Missing you!!!
I wanted to wish you and your family a happy Ramadan. I hope you are doing well.
As-salaamu alaikum Sister,
I am an African -American who finds the picture very offensive. We are living in a time where many aren’t educated properly. To depict the teacher as African-American sends forth a conotation that African-Americans aren’t qualified as teachers.
Yes some based on their socio-economic background may not have access to the best teachers or literature. However to make the asumption that if one is African-American you will get inferior teaching is absurd. For those of you who find it funny sincerely think about what you are laughing at.
No race or people is superior to another. No locale or land of origin makes one superior either.
May Allah have mercy on those who degrade and belittle others-Ameen
A poem in audio with a Moroccan accent:
http://sayandpost.com/3fb8hpgfx2.mp3
Strvng4Jannah,
Thank you for that post. I, too, found the photo and the assumptions behind it highly offensive. What I found most shocking, though, was that I had to read so very many comments before I found one that objected to it.
Some years ago, I lived in a Muslim country. I was hired both at a university and at a private English school to teach English. Both jobs found me. I sought neither of them. The only qualification I legitimately possessed was that I was a native speaker of “American accent English”. I am African American, Muslim, very well educated, and I have mastery of American English language. Did I know the first thing about teaching English? No. Did my employers care? No. Was it irresponsible of me to take such positions? Perhaps. But, in looking at the others who held these positions, (non-native speakers and poorly educated native-speakers) I knew I could do at least as well.
Fast forward several years. I am now a certified teacher in a large, acclaimed school district in Texas. I am certified in 4 areas. Every single day, I communicate with WHITE teachers and administrators who have mastery of neither written nor spoken English. If I were to use the same English, I would be written up, subjected to the same racist overgeneralizations that characterize this thread, marginalized, or perhaps fired.
Very, very, very many of the young, white teachers who travel to Gulf States for money are at least as illiterate as some of those who travel for hijrah. So why do I see an Ebonics speaking black male with thick lips and flat nose at the head of this thread? I think all of us with any consciousness at allknow why.
hehe so know what you mean. Im the type that finds spelling mistakes easily and when i see that the person making obvious mistakes (their/there/theyre etc) is actually a TEFL teacher im like pooooooooooooooooor students lol
Assalamu Alaykum
Kayfa Halikum?
Was on my mind. Hope you had a blessed Ramadan and everythings good with your family,
Barak Allahu feekum
Aaishah
That is so darn funny!, sad but true-i give the pic two thumbs up-don’t get offended people, get ‘edumacated’!
As salaamu Alaikum, How are you dear? Just dropping a line. Hope all is good with you and yours.
D
As salamu aleikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.
I’m an italian revert sister, please share it and support your brothers and sisters in Italy. Barak’Allahu fikum.
http://www.mpacuk.org/story/111109/italian-mp-calls-prophet-paedophile.html
mashallah brother you are doing a great job and keep the good work on
As Salamu Alaikum, Umm Adam I dont know if you check this but if so can you pleeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaase leave one last post just to let us know that you are ok. Im sure you had your reason for not continuing with the blog. I just want to know that you are ok, or if anyone else can confirm this that would be nice.
On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 5:18 AM, comment-reply@wordpress.com wrote:
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Salaams Umm Rabiah:
She is okay, Insha Allah. You can catch her on Facebook.