Questions Questions Questions

[Anathema&sin]

Thanks Kite for your answer.Now I think that I get the point.It is really fantastic.It is our honor to meet a person like you.about your question I should say that I love your language and as you know English is an International language but for me learning English is just a personal hobby I love English translation.I`ve been studing ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRANSLATION for 4 years but as you probably notice I can`t write as a fluent one.I need sb to help me on this.
there is something about my invitaion;it was not just a simple salutation,you can count on me.

I think there are many things that we can learn from each other
sorry I should introduce my self before my name is Aidin(25 year old man) just like you..

[www.babakebadi.com]

Dear Kite,

Tehran has more than 40 districts, each district has different quality and of course different price
if you like to enjoy cycling your bicycle, it is better for you to live in north of Tehran,, which is the best , you can easily find a pension apartment, it costs about 200$ in north of Tehran, you will have a single room, ADSL internet service, pool and other facilities, you may make half your rent, if you share your room with another person

it is better you introduce yourself as a university student, in this way they offer you a reasonable price, than a tourist one

the best newspaper to look for accommodation is Hamshahri , if there is any help I can provide, don't hesitate to ask

regards

babak

[Kite102]

Thank you very much Aidin and Babak Ebadi again for your replies.

Aidin: I would be delighted if we could help each other when I arrive . Your English is perfectly comprehensible so don't worry too much about not being completely fluent. I just wish that my Persian was as good as your English!! Do you live in Tehran? I hope you do!

Babak Ebadi: Thank you yet again for all the useful information. Do you mean $200 dollars a month? I will look out for the Hamshari when I get there.

I am just waiting for the Iranian embassy here in London to issue the visa. After that I will come hopefully. I'll keep you informed.

Huzayfa

[Anathema&sin]

Thanks dear Kite for your support.That was really hopeful.Yes fortunately I live in tehran with my family and they are also waiting to see you eagerly.We are waiting to see you in a ver near future in MEHRABAD airport.I am going to come to the airport and meet you in the very first moment.

Question:what`s the meaning of HUZAYFA?Is this your new name?

[Kite102]

Khayali Mamnun Aidin

I have sent you a private message with my email ad.

Yes my name is Huzayfa. It is an Arabic name from the h-dh-f root which means 'to erase'. It is also the name of a famous companion of the Prophet (SAW) called 'Huzayfa bin al-Yaman'.

[Arasp]

Hello there,

I am Arasp Kazemian the president of the online English institute of Ezaban.com.
Well, I really do not understand why my Iranian friends are motivating you to come here in Iran.
Honestly, nothing is guaranteed here! You need to do more studies about Iran before you decide to come here.

First of all, maybe the expenses are not as big as the expenses out there in UK. But how much do you think you can make here?
You are not gonna bring 1 million pounds with yourself. So you need to find a job here.
Working here as a teacher is good, but it does not pay the bills.
Another important point about teaching: Being a native English speaker is really great but for being a good teacher you need to be real teacher and you need to know how to teach.

Well, regarding your first question:

Yes! I do have an American teacher (Dr. Barbara D’Elia) in my online English institute. Her PhD is in psychology and she knows how to communicate with my students perfectly. I pay her very well because of many reasons, the most important one is that she is a doctor the second reason is that with the “virtual institute” I am making more money by eliminating the extra expenses of running a real institute. So I pay my teachers more! You will not be able to find other virtual English institutes in Iran I guess. There are only two virtual institutes, OLC.ir and ezaban.com . However the OLC method of teaching online is quite different of my institute’s policies. We are a kind of pioneer in teaching English to Iranians online.

Another important point, most of our students who are studying in the advanced levels prefer to learn the American accent. Your accent is British anyway.

Well, I am not going to discourage you but just showing the real facts that you may encounter in Iran.
Because you’re gonna stay here for a long time so you should study every aspect of this.

And the expenses are not that much cheap, one of our friends had mentioned, you can rent a pension for around $200 with ADSL connection and other required stuffs in north of Tehran. Funny! This was the price of 5 years ago not now. Yeah you can get a 4 or 5 star hotel room with paying $200 a day!

Nowadays, in order to get a 60-80 meter apartment in north of Tehran, you are gonna pay approximately around $15,000 as deposit and $400 a month.

Yeah, Iranians are very compassionate and our hospitality is well-known in the whole world. But do you think it’s enough?

Do not hesitate to ask more questions.



Arasp Kazemian

[www.babakebadi.com]

Well, different ideas about the same reality

As dear Arasp Said, Tehran is not a good idea if you are thinking about making a good money, if you are serious about living in Tehran, you should have other intentions, like knowing Iranian culture or learning Farsi.

Again as Dear Arasp said, Being a native teacher is a privilege, but first you should be a good teacher and I guess you are.

I don't agree with dear Arasp about British Accent, it is not a matter here, since IELTS Certification is very popular here, so your British accent can be even useful.

I don't agree with dear Arasp about expenses either, the pension which I mentioned ( 200$ per month) was in Hamshahri newspaper just a weak ago, and already I know some students who are living in similar conditions,

With all respect, Online training in Iran has just started, your first goal as I mentioned before should be working in British council as an English teacher, just if you can achieve score 9 in IELTS, I guess you can!

Finally I believe Iran doesn't have stable economic condition, but it is not as unpredictable as Dear Arasp explained for you

Well, I see you are making some new friends, even before you get here! It is brilliant! I'll be happy to meet you too, perhaps we can arrange a meeting when you arrive.

Don't worry about Tehran, just continue researching about it.

Regards

Babak

[Anathema&sin]

Mr.Arasp and Dear babak:I think there is something lost here.It seems that Huzayfa is going to travle here to study not making money or something like it.that is what I got from his ideas.may be I am wrong.
But Mr.Arasp I think it is not fair,you just mentioned to your career and profession.all the things you said is not what Huzayfa is looking for.I haven`t heard anything about VIRTUAL ISTITUTE in iran or at least that is something new in iran.What I know is that the majority of the people who are interested learning English would prefer to learn English in a REAL SITUATION with FLUENT and NATIVE teacher.I`m sure that he can do it as well as anyone else who`s coming from abroad

.I know there are important information for teaching English.but I think teacher`s authority is much more important than anything else.However Huzayfa can refers to the books that talks about this information.PRINCIPLES OF LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING (4th edition,written by H.Douglas Brown) and TECHNIQUE AND PRINCIPLES IN LANGUAGE TEACHING(2nd edition,written by Diane Larsen-Freeman).Thease are the most useful books that can help Huzayfa. This books taught in many universities of iran.I read them.
It seems that he loves our islamic culture and society.He has a great goal and I think he can passes all the obstacles.
Yes we all know that living in the north of Tehran is much more expensive than the other places in the capital but he is not going to live in a Penthouse.There are varoius range of houses in the north of Tehran.
Huzayfa is a young man but as he said before this is not his first experience in living in a foreign country as he mentioned he lived in Syria before.The quality of life in Tehran is better than Damsacus (may be the best city in Syria, I know there is another good city in Syria called HALAB or sth like it)
We all know that living in a foreign country especially in the very first days is difficult but his great goal can solve the probable problems)

[Kite102]

Thank you for your reply Arasp Kazemian. As you know I have never been to Iran before and I appreciate all the advice and the 'dose of reality!' As I mentioned in my first post here my main aim in coming to Iran is to continue my study of the Persian language. As I'm sure you know, the best way to learn a new language is to spend time in a country where that language is spoken.

As for teaching English whilst I am in Iran, this is to earn some money and also as a way to extend my period of stay in Iran. I may have forgotten to mention above that I am a qualified and English teacher with about a year of classroom experience and I have a Masters degree. Of course I do not expect to make lots of money teaching in Iran but this is not really my intention in coming.

It is quite difficult for British citizens to get visas for Iran and I have heard of people who were even refused a tourist visa! The tourist visa is only for one month and in order to extend this period, I need to either study at a recognized institute in Iran or I need a work-visa. If I am not granted this whilst I am there, I would have to leave the country after a month.

As dear Aidin mentioned, I have worked and studied in foreign countries before and I know that there will perhaps be some difficulties to be encountered. But as they say in America, 'No pay, no gain!' I wish you and your online institute all the best Arasp. I was slightly surprised to hear about it, do many Iranians have the internet at home ? What is the price of ADSL in Iran? Are you based in Iran Arasp?

Thank you once again for the information and encouragement Babak and Aidin. I looked forward to meeting you when I arrive. (If I am granted a visa! Fingers crossed!)

Huzayfa

[Arasp]

Mr.Arasp and Dear babak:I think there is something lost here.It seems that Huzayfa is going to travle here to study not making money or something like it.that is what I got from his ideas.may be I am wrong.
But Mr.Arasp I think it is not fair,you just mentioned to your career and profession.all the things you said is not what Huzayfa is looking for.I haven`t heard anything about VIRTUAL ISTITUTE in iran or at least that is something new in iran.What I know is that the majority of the people who are interested learning English would prefer to learn English in a REAL SITUATION with FLUENT and NATIVE teacher.I`m sure that he can do it as well as anyone else who`s coming from abroad

.I know there are important information for teaching English.but I think teacher`s authority is much more important than anything else.However Huzayfa can refers to the books that talks about this information.PRINCIPLES OF LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING (4th edition,written by H.Douglas Brown) and TECHNIQUE AND PRINCIPLES IN LANGUAGE TEACHING(2nd edition,written by Diane Larsen-Freeman).Thease are the most useful books that can help Huzayfa. This books taught in many universities of iran.I read them.
It seems that he loves our islamic culture and society.He has a great goal and I think he can passes all the obstacles.
Yes we all know that living in the north of Tehran is much more expensive than the other places in the capital but he is not going to live in a Penthouse.There are varoius range of houses in the north of Tehran.
Huzayfa is a young man but as he said before this is not his first experience in living in a foreign country as he mentioned he lived in Syria before.The quality of life in Tehran is better than Damsacus (may be the best city in Syria, I know there is another good city in Syria called HALAB or sth like it)
We all know that living in a foreign country especially in the very first days is difficult but his great goal can solve the probable problems)

Hi and thanks for your comment on my previous posts,

As far as I know this guy is going to come to Iran to learn Persian. He is gonna stay here for a long time and he’s gonna make a living. ( I did not mean he is gonna become multi millionaire here) but he is gonna make a living.

I don’t know how you have brought those cheap prices of renting apartment here. The price I just told him is the price of a 60 meter aparatment in Chizar. As you know Chizar is one of the low-quality places in Shemroon, maybe the worst after Emam-zadeh ghasem and Golab-Darreh. Yeah, he cannot live in a luxury apartment with penthouse in elahieh even if he multiplies that money to 10.

I don’t agree with what you said about virtual and real institutes.
If the majority of Iranians prefer to spend huge time and energy in traffic and participate in face to face classes to suffer lots of stress and other uncomfortable variables that affect the quality of learning; is because of lack of cultural knowledge of Iranians on this issue not the badness or goodness of a new method! I highly recommend you to take a look at the situation of E-learning on the other countries and then pass judgment about this.
How ever I do not blame you or other Iranians who do not believe in the advantages of e-learning. I should blame the ministry of information and communication technology that has not done any promotional activity to fill this diminished capacity yet.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am not going to make this guy disappointed or discouraged. I am just going to show the real facts that some of Iranian friends prefer not to mention here! (I don’t know why)
A person who lives in London or other UK cities will not feel satisfied if he lives in a cheap pension in Shoosh Sq, in Tehran.
Tell him all good and bad aspects of coming here and let him free to make the final decision.