<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Arabic-L: Thu 31 Jan 2008</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <<a href="mailto:dilworth_parkinson@byu.edu">dilworth_parkinson@byu.edu</a>></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">[To post messages to the list, send them to <a href="mailto:arabic-l@byu.edu">arabic-l@byu.edu</a>]</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">[To unsubscribe, send message from same address you subscribed from to</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="mailto:listserv@byu.edu">listserv@byu.edu</a> with first line reading:</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> unsubscribe arabic-l ]</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">-------------------------Directory------------------------------------</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">1) Subject:Limiting jobs to native speakers</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">2) Subject:Limiting jobs to native speakers: Other side of the coin</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">-------------------------Messages-----------------------------------</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">1)</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Date: 31 Jan 2008</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">From:"Shoaib Memon" <<a href="mailto:majnoonx@gmail.com">majnoonx@gmail.com</a>></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Subject:Limiting jobs to native speakers</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; ">Hi,<br>Related to this current discussion, I would like to know if University<br>Departments hiring people to teach Arabic courses give any weight to<br>proficiency exams(assuming the candidate meets other reqs such as Ph.d<br>in relevant matter etc). If so, which proficiency tests are<br>considered "good." I'm thinking of taking the ACTFL test for Arabic<br>and would like to know if it will help me out in the distant future if<br>I'm applying for such posts. Any thoughts on this matter, plus arabic<br>proficiency tests will be appreciated.<br><br>Long time Arabic student- first-time caller,<br>Shoaib</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">--------------------------------------------------------------------------</div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">2)</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Date: 31 Jan 2008</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">From:"Muhamed Al Khalil" <<a href="mailto:oryxius@gmail.com">oryxius@gmail.com</a>></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Subject:Limiting jobs to native speakers: Other side of the coin</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>It is certainly unfair, let alone unproductive, not to grant non-native<br>teachers of Arabic the same opportunity as their native colleagues. As<br>several posts made it clear, non-native professionals of Arabic bring so<br>much knowledge and experience to language instruction. But in this post, I<br>would like to highlight the flip side of this: the unfair and biased<br>attitudes towards native professionals of Arabic in certain countries in the<br>Arab world.<br><br>Like many on the list, I am a U.S. educated professional of Arab background.<br>I have worked for several years in the Arab/Persian Gulf and can speak from<br>experience. There, if you come from an Arab background, regardless of<br>whether or not you were educated in the West, you are looked upon as some<br>kind of inferior creature. You face much more difficulty in hiring, and if<br>hired, you will not receive the same recognition and pay as your<br>Anglo-American colleagues. To be sure, this discriminatory treatment also<br>applies to professionals from other parts of the world, as India or Africa.<br>But this discriminatory practice is becoming more serious as several leading<br>American universities have opened or are opening up campuses in the Gulf,<br>quietly adopting and thus sanctioning the same practice.<br><br>To give an example, yesterday I looked at an announcement for a variety of<br>jobs, including Arabic studies, by a Saudi university. The ad stressed that<br>the applicant must visit the university's website and fill out their<br>APPLICATION FORM (which they wrote like this in capital letters for<br>emphasis). I went to their website and downloaded the form. In addition to<br>the customary information requested on such forms, the form asks for a<br>"recent photograph." They really want to see how you look. They ask for the<br>name of your father and your spouse's father. They ask all sorts of things<br>about your degrees, but one important detail they inquire about is "the<br>medium of instruction." They ask about your mental and physical health and<br>whether or not you were convicted for "political" reasons. They ask for the<br>email address of your present employer. They ask about your religion and<br>your spouse's religion. But most importantly they ask about your, your<br>spouse's, and your children's nationalities: now and at birth. Their ad says<br>"An applicant should hold an earned doctorate from any of the accredited<br>North American, European or Australian universities." But even if you are an<br>American citizen now with a Ph.D. from the U.S, it would matter to them to<br>know that you were born, say, in Egypt.<br><br>To give this Saudi university some credit, at least it is doing it in your<br>face. Other institutions are careful not to disclose their prejudice, opting<br>to practice it more insidiously.<br><br>There is a need for us professionals, native and non-native speakers of<br>Arabic, to come together in solidarity and take a position against<br>institutions that practice any kind of racist bias. The question is what's<br>the best way to confront this?<br><br>Muhamed Osman Al Khalil<br></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">--------------------------------------------------------------------------</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">End of Arabic-L: 31 Jan 2008</div></body></html>