So my time is nearly up at Conversations With Foreigners. I’ve had an incredible experience, met some exceptional individuals and grown as a teacher. The culture here is quite different to the one at home and the same can be said with my Khmer students. They are generous, respectful and enthusiastic to learn. I’ve enjoyed teaching the curriculum; it is based on their culture and lives – to empower the people to be able to talk about themselves and not the ‘generic’ western curriculum that would have no relevance to the people of Cambodia. With saying this, I have had to be creative. I would just like to share a few things that the students and I have enjoyed:
- Keeping with the theme – culture. When teaching my students how to bargain in English (you can and should bargain/ask for a discount when you purchase anything in Cambodia) I recreated the situations where they would bargain. This is what led me to a break through. Place 3 seats in the middle of the room, all facing one way, one in front and two behind. Sit in the front seat and shout “Tuktuk!” The students laughed so hard before joining in and helping create a realistic learning activity.
- Shocking as it is… None of my students had ever seen a GUIDEBOOK! Yes, I was shocked. We were learning about the landmarks and tourist spots of Cambodia. I collected 5 guidebooks and based my class on them. Explaining how they work with the index, the order, the recommendations etc. The lesson consisted of competitions (finding something faster than someone else) and partner work. As an overall it worked fantastically, other teachers went to use the guidebooks and they found that it worked extremely well.
- Tongue twisters. “Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair, Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t very fuzzy was he?”, “Two witches watched two watches, which witch watched which watch?” and “The big bug bit the little bug but the little bug bit the big bug back.” These are just a few examples of how the class would start or end, with a little fun and focus on pronunciation.
I’m excited at the prospect of teaching in the future in other places in South-East Asia. I hope to develop more skills and push my creative teaching boundaries. I am very grateful for what I have gained at CWF; friends, memories and experience. I’ll be sad to leave but happy about what lies ahead.
