Teaching in Andong

You know you are in for an interesting time teaching students when one of their English teachers calls the toilet a “piss building”. Initially I had no idea what to actually teach the students. I knew they needed help with pronunciation, but I didn't really know how to go about teaching such a thing. Because I was the 'foreign teacher', and considered the expert, I basically had to decide myself what sort of program I would do. This was both daunting and freeing. I was afraid I would have to teach some lamo English text from Oxford with nice little dialogues and grammar notes at the end. This would have bored me to tears. Of course it would have been helpful for the students, but they already do this sort of thing everyday. So I found this story. A story about Tom Sawyer. Little did I know that I would hear this text repeated so many times that it would nearly drive me insane. After working out a lesson plan with one of the English teachers I was ready for my firs class. I was quite nervous. Understandably, I would dare say. I have never lead a class before. With my Khmer teaching vocab merely containing the phrases 'repeat after me' (tadam knyom) and 'say again' (mudong deeut), I started my first lesson. In a previous lesson, where I had only helped out with pronunciation, I had gotten the 'say again' phrase terribly wrong. I said 'deeut mudong' which, instead of getting the students to repeat the phrase again, got me 10 seconds of blank stares followed by an eruption of laughter. This time I made sure I would not make a fool of myself and repeated 'modong deeut' to myself about 6 times before entering the class. I was teaching the elementary class. The class is what you would call a 'mixed ability' class. On the lower end you have students needing a simple phrase repeated 4 or 5 times and the higher end ones speaking better English than the teacher. The teacher sometimes gets one to do translating for him.
I played the student a recording of Chapter 1 and asked how many understood. No hands came up at first and I was starting to stress a little. After playing the chapter 4 times the look of comprehension started to appear on the faces of some. It took a few lessons until the students could understand the sentences and say the words correctly...well, almost. Khmer people find it impossible to say 'th'. Maybe some of the Wellspringlings can remember how Abe said 'fai' instead of 'faith', conveniently cutting off the 'th' sound at the end of it. However, some in the class have mastered it – albeit with much mouth wrenching and flying spittle.
Recently I have only helped out, within the curriculum, with the pronunciation of new words. I have the students split the words they find difficult to say into manageable chunks. I had much fun with the word 'Arsenal'.
So that is it I think. Still haven't been on my second trip to Oddar Meachey province because Abe's 4WD is getting a new engine. He said maybe tomorrow we'll go. Like yesterday and everyday for the last 2 weeks :P. The poor guy is actually getting quite upset about it. He seems a little worn out. Please pray for him!
So...I'm proud to say that in at least one village in Cambodia there won't be American pronunciation.
It is a very rewarding experience to have someone comprehend something you teach them. Even when it is something simple. Try it sometime.

What I've been up to...

At Andong – In Andong I've done a reasonable amount of teaching. Both guitar and English. I have found this to be the most rewarding of my experiences in Cambodia so far. The students at Andong are so keen to learn that they lap up everything one has to teach them. I have had so many students come up to me and ask me when I will give my next lesson. Or when I was sick they ask “teacher, why did you miss your last one?!” A really strange thing I have experienced is having students my own age call me “teacher”. It is definitely not normal. I have been teaching one guy, Vuthy, guitar on a regular basis. Every night he comes knocking on my door for a lesson. Such eagerness to learn is so strange to me. He picks up everything I show him so fast. He started with knowing only a few chords but now he is already playing in church. He comes back from school and he immediately gets out the guitar to practice. I hang out with the teachers quite a lot as well. We have dinner together most nights when I sleep in the village. This is always enjoyable because they are really eager to speak English with you and make friends. I find that it is really easy to relate despite the language barrier. During the day when there is no English lessons there is not really a lot to do so one has to find something to keep you busy. Other than preparing English lesson plans I've just been reading a lot and practising my Khmer (not enough of the latter). Abe has recently allowed me to use motorbike, which will no doubt take up more of my spare time than it should! The guy that takes care of me in the village is Uncle Chuen (pronounced Tune). He is quite the character. He became a Christian about 6 months ago and almost immediately started serving at the school. He does not speak a word of English but chats away with me as if I'm a native speaker. The teachers usually struggle to translate everything so I just smile and nod.

Travelling – I have spent a considerable amount of time travelling around Cambodia already. I did a massive road trip with Abraham earlier in December. We went to Oddar Meanchey province in the north of the country. This was an amazing experience for me because I got to see real rural Cambodia. I witnessed the three governors of Oddar Meanchey province sign over a 7 hectare piece of land for free to Abraham to start a school and a church. It was really encouraging to see the grass root beginnings of a faith based project in such a rural area. He did not have any money to start building at all but he told the governors that his God will supply. Sure enough about a week later he has a pledge for 9000. 2000 of that has already come in. However, there is no water in the village where he wants to build. So there is a need for wells and they cost 600 a pop. I will write more on this after I come back from my second visit to the place. I also spent some time on the coast in Sinahoukville with some people I met at church. This was really nice. I went on a dive trip to a tropical island called Koh Rung. The part of the island we were on was so secluded that most of the time the beach was completely empty. Diving I saw a sea turtle and hundreds of sea urchins.

Hanging in the city – I've had quite a few Khmer language lessons from a guy called Chantea. He is really good and I am picking up quite a lot. However my motivation to study is not that great because I am leaving so soon :P. The missionary family I am staying at is starting an English language school so I have helped out a bit in preparing the building i.e. scraping paint. I've spent a considerable time in the markets and in various internet cafes around the place. It is not overly hard to keep yourself busy if you have free time.

Anyway, that is about it. Sorry for he late blog update. I hope everyone is well.

Much Love
Christo