Tag Archives: ESL
Cambodia ESL: A Culture of Insouciance
The Cambodian rubbish dump, and my not so final, final exam “I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it.” Benjamin Franklin, “On…
Phnom Penh Restaurant Reviews: The Tea Club
As two smiling young Cambodian men roll open the double doors of “The Tea Club” I enter into an atmosphere of fine Chinese elegance. The interior of this place is imbued with a calming mixture of deep, rich, red paint…
Cambodia Teaching Update 2- Different Lifestyles/The Thai Exodus?/ The Easiest Ways of Getting Fired
I ended the last piece by examining the differences in pay and working conditions between teachers at the better language schools and those at the lower end places. There are also big differences in lifestyle. His or her Cambodia is…
ESL Cambodia Update: Part 1
First the good news. Cambodia is still is the land of opportunity for ESL teachers and it’s difficult to imagine teaching work drying up here anytime soon. If we consider Cambodia’s population surge, factor in its booming economy and take…
Maps of Cambodia
In August of 2006, my wife began a new job. She was to be working for an NGO in the hinterlands of Kep and Kampot, visiting and introducing herself in small villages and generally preparing the ground for the introduction…
Lights Out at 8pm: This is Pursat!
For the first two years that I lived in Cambodia I was often asked if I had been to Angkor Wat, Sihanoukville, Kampot, Kep, any of the provinces that begin with ‘Kampong’, or end with ‘… kiri’. I was always…
Phnom Penh Teacher’s Diary 3
Day Five: The End of Week One One of the objectives that I set myself for the first week is to learn the names of all my new students. At the moment, I’m not teaching very many classes. I have…
Cambodian Teacher’s Diary
Day Three: The Grammar Lesson The grammar lesson. This is your chance to show them what you know. Not to mention your ability to communicate what you know with more than cut and dried rules, examples on the board, and…
Cambodia Teacher’s Diary
Day Two: Starting the Book The least enjoyable classes to teach in Cambodia are often the last ones of the day. The students who sign up for evening classes often attend high school or university or work in offices all…
Cambodia ESL Teaching Update 3: Co-workers
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We’ve all seen the wayward characters and over indulgers. We’ve seen them catatonically drunk at 4am and then arriving, zombie-like and wearing the scars of their battles, precisely one minute before their first morning class. They pitch up unshaved and…