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FEATURES & COMMENT
house with several balconies, a big garden
and a hammam (a local version of a sauna). MONEY MATTERS
The school pays for utilities; we only pay for
our internet. Algerian law demands that
payments for foreigners are
Day-to-day life a maximum of 70 per cent in
Algerians are extremely helpful and friendly hard currency. In our company,
people. If you have a smattering of French, we were given a choice
it is highly appreciated and a handful of between euros and pounds
words in Arabic will make you friends for life sterling. We don’t have local
(almost). As very few people speak English, a bank accounts, so the 70 per
cent has to be transferred to
bit of Arabic really helps with taxi drivers or accounts abroad, which can
doctors. As a woman, I haven’t run into any be another somewhat lengthy
problems. process. The 30 per cent paid
The government has recently imposed an in Algerian dinars is enough to
import ban on hundreds of articles ranging make living very comfortable.
from tech to medicines to food because they
want to encourage the local economy. This For a comfortable life, one
poses problems if you need specific stuff (like would need about 60,000
my cats need their annual vaccinations), but dinars per month (about £380),
otherwise this has little impact. but depending on experience
English, Ielts preparation and also ESP Being vegetarian is a concept many and position, teachers can
expect to earn between £1150
(medical, oil and gas, maritime, legal). Algerians don’t understand – But you eat and £2300 per month. This
Magda Sobczynska, the head of chicken? Is a question I get quite often. means somewhere between
transnational projects for British Study Having said that, local produce of fruit and £800 and £1600 going back
Centres Worldwide, said of setting up British veg is very good and the traditional bread is to your bank account in hard
Study Centres Algeria: delicious. currency every month.
‘It was extremely exciting as it was the first There’s alcohol available in special shops,
overseas school in select restaurants
our portfolio and As very few people or hotels. Hotels THREE BOOKS TO
it was incredibly also offer gym READ BEFORE COM-
rewarding to speak English, a bit of memberships and ING TO ALGERIA:
bring high quality Arabic really helps. As a swimming pools.
English language n A History of Algeria
by James McDougall
teaching to the woman, I haven’t run into Things to explore
people of Oran.’ any problems. Algeria is a huge n The Plague
country of vast by Albert Camus
Paperwork distances. There
Getting the paperwork to enter the country are 1,500 km of Mediterranean coastline, n So Vast the Prison
by Assia Djebar
and dealing with the red tape locally is mountain ranges higher than 2000m and of
easily the most painful part of the job. In my course the Sahara. You could visit any of the
school, we are lucky that the management is 10 National Parks or some Unesco World USEFUL WEBSITES:
dealing well with these matters. Heritage Sites including Roman ruins or
It can be a rather lengthy process to get petroglyphs that are thousands of years old. n www.huffpostmaghreb.com/
the visa, and then once in Algeria one has The capital, Algiers, sports some wonderful algerie/ (in French)
to submit vast quantities of paperwork to museums. Each town or region has its own n www.lonelyplanet.com/
get a work permit and a residence permit. festivals and food. algeria
Translations of the Celta certificate into
French are also necessary. In addition to Travel
being time-consuming and complicated, the Because of the enormous distances and the
whole thing is rather expensive. general laid-back feel, travel takes time.
On top of that, there are limits set by Trains and the ferries to Spain and France Life here has its challenges, but there are
the government: an age limit of 60 years tend to run on time, flights don’t. Car rental so many positives about living and working
(Algerian retirement age); and they is available in certain places, but most people in Algeria that those pale into insignificance.
stipulate a minimum of two years of teaching either have their own car or take a taxi. The people make everything worthwhile.
experience before you can work here. So, in My students tell me they don’t like
the words of my colleague Sean McGann: travelling by bus because they’re usually KRISTINA KLUG
‘Not a country for rookies.’ crowded. And the driving style? Writing is @teacherkristina on
a message while driving, talking to the twitter and blogs under
Accommodation person in the car next to yours while being www.spockisworld.
In our school, we live in shared on a roundabout or going backwards on a wordpress.com
accommodation. It’s a spacious six-bedroom highway is daily normality.

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