I remember the daze at the old skool yard!

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Alby teaching English! Well, it is Cambodia where anything can happen and usually does….

You can only drink cocktails on beautiful tropical islands for so long until a feeling of guilt starts to play on your conscience. (Plus the fact the monsoons were coming!)
So, Siem Reap, Cambodia was the destination of choice partly due to the fact they were screaming out for volunteers and that it’s quite cheap to survive there. I was paying $100 US a month for a guest house room with fan, hot water, cable TV and wait for it… this was the sealer…FREE laundry!!
Salarin Kampuchea was the lucky school to recruit the tanned Aussie lad with mumbling English. The school has a couple of hundred or so snotty nosed, dirty, smelly loveable little tackers with the odd adult thrown in. The kids there were the extremely poor in fact they were poorer than the normal poor kids making them the poorest! I.e. note the use of the superlative….(English teacher lingo;-)
The first month or so I’d say I was defiantly learning more than the kids, getting my head back around adjectives, superlatives, past tense, pre tense, ad verbs, etc etc! (Reading the teacher’s answer book before each class was a must, just so didn’t think the new teacher was a complete idiot!) It was many moons ago that I studied at that fine institution called Boddington University.
4hrs a day was the tough schedule that I signed up for 3 months for..11-12am, 5.30-8.30.I had 4 one hour classes a day, teaching beginners English through to HAvard University level English (that’s what it felt like anyway!)

My roster meant keeping me out of the bar until at least 10pm. I’d actually wanted to do the teaching thing so I could detox a little after the Island life Things didn’t quite work out that way as one of the other volunteers worked at the most happening bar In Siem Reap called the Angkor What??? Bar which doesn’t shut until the last customer leaves! Which happened to be me on the odd occasion? (No surprises there!) The bars logo is “proudly promoting Irresponsible drinking since 1995”

Anyway my time at the school was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. The kids are just so keen to learn as they fully identify the connection between learning English and making money. Their job prospects increase ten fold if they can speak English and it definitely beats collecting plastic bottles out of garbage bins for the rest of their lives!
There was genuine disappointment from the students if homework wasn’t given or there was no school due to holidays. You wouldn’t see that kind of response from Australian school kids that’s for sure!

Highlights;
1, The kids sense of humour (hence the “if you’ve got nothing, you appreciate everything!” saying)
2, Class singing the “Heads, shoulders, knees and toes” song at the end of most classes
3, Being called “Mr Handsome” by the students on my 2nd day… I was wearing my Handsome sandwiches shirt! (Didn’t stick unfortunately)

Lowlight;
1, Leaving them

I would defiantly recommend to anyone stuck who’s sick of being stuck in their job and looking for a change to look at doing something along these lines.. It’s a big wonderful world out there that we live in and if you don’t enjoy it, it’s your own fault.

Keep smiling ;-)

www.albyadventures.com

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Photos

Who said school can't be fun!
Note- my beautiful handwriting on the board.

Time for work!
Dirt floors, no doors, holes in walls!!

Word dictation test day!
Always brought the best out of them especially when the word "prizes" was mentioned.

Introducing "Mr Handsome!"
What will it be ladies? A hamburger without meat!! Maybe i could interest you in a salad roll then?