[Bouli]

Hello,

Are there any teachers on the board who can tell me the difference between Asian students and students from European countries? Here in Holland kids like to test their teachers a bit (how far can you go before the man in front of the class will explode?). Do teachers have a natural respect in Cambodia or do you have to earn it?

[D Starkey]

I think the students are ten times more respectful than those in the west, I’m still young enough to clearly remember my school days and I have never been in a class as well mannered as those here in Cambodia. In the west you have to gain the respect of the students whilst in Cambodian culture just being a teacher is good enough but this respect can be lost of you are a bad teacher, but usually students won't ever tell you or anyone else this they will just change their class so if you see your class numbers drop your not doing to good but if they get bigger then word has got around that your a good teacher.

I think the Cambodian students young and old want an entertainer as well as a teacher, if you can make them laugh then you can't fail!

The Cambodians don't like being singled out so you don't get half as many smart arses as you do in the west but you still will get one or two who will ask questions to try and test the teacher all you have to do though if you don't know the answer is say "Excellent question, in fact it is so good I want all of you to find out for homework, and I want the answers by tomorrow!" I find this soon pisses on their bonfire and you can find the answer off another teacher in the mean time.

(:D

[The Governor]

For the most part I find the Khmer students to be good and not act up, but in every class I have at least one spoilt bastard who's Dad is high up in the military or government and he seems to (as far as the other students are concerned) have the right to dish out as much abuse as he likes (mainly to the other students) You will be able to spot this individual with ease as he will be the fat kid with a large tacky looking ring which looks like it came out of a Christmas cracker and a mobile phone the size of a matchbox.

Now I feel it is my personal duty to society to give these types verbal and mental abuse when ever possible and a good old taste of their own medicine.

One of these types who happened to be a girl was a student of a friend of mine who taught in the next classroom along, the girl in question threatened to have the female teacher shot after she had given the girl a telling off.
The teacher just grinned and carried on with the class leaving the obnoxious girl to sit there smugly thinking she had won. Then half an hour later when things had calmed down the teacher quietly popped out of the classroom and came back with one of the security guards who put the girl in a restraining arm lock and man handled her down the stairs before literally throwing her out of the front door much to the amusement of me and my students who were watching from the upstairs window.
:laugh:

[Cookie Monster]

Year I know all about those little shits Gov, but I have an answer to it and it is called my discipline stick which I take to all of my classes, it is basically a length of 2 by 4 with discipline stick written on the side then in class I use it as a white board pointer so it is always in my hand ever since that little puppy has been coming to class with me not has so much as an eye-brow has been raised and if anyone steps out of line I smash the stick on their desk to make an almighty bang, I wouldn't ever use it (well maybe but just a couple of softies to the face) but the students don't know that.

I've seen my Khmer colleges dishing out a few slaps in the classroom and even the head thinks my stick is a good idea (which I stole from a couple of teachers at another school)

:angry: smack

[Mac]

. . . you still will get one or two who will ask questions to try and test the teacher all you have to do though if you don't know the answer is say "Excellent question, in fact it is so good I want all of you to find out for homework, and I want the answers by tomorrow!" I find this soon pisses on their bonfire and you can find the answer off another teacher in the mean time.

But they never do look it up for homework, do they? Another great excuse is, "That's a great question. I would love to answer it right now. But as a matter of fact, the answer is quite complicated and we have too much to do today already. So, we'll discuss that at the start of class tomorrow." Then you ask someone for the answer, or look it up in a reference work, and just hope that the explanation isn't absurdly simple.