First week in Cambodia

My dream of showing the kids in the villages in Cambodia to the world is one step closer.

There are many national holidays in May in Cambodia so basically I won’t be able to do much this month but I managed to have a meeting to discuss the curriculum with the person-in-charge before the holiday started. The students in the villages learn English at schools but they are unable to communicate with foreigners (not yet) because they seldom have the chance to interact with English speakers (not yet). Hence, their listening and speaking skills are quite poor but they are really hard working and they are very eager to learn. The only thing that is missing is opportunity. I visited them in January 2019 and I decided to spend one year here, tentatively.

I proposed to include International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in the curriculum even though I wasn’t asked to. This is the basic thing that they need to learn and it will help them to correct their pronunciation.  The local teachers may have never had this training before so they pass on their accent to the next generations.  Now, if you go to say, a restaurant in Cambodia and if  you order ‘tea without ice’ or something to do with ice, when the local people repeat your order, instead of saying ‘ice’, they will say ‘eye’.  For example, they will say ‘no “eye” in your tea?’ (definitely no eye in my tea please. It’s not Halloween) And if you say the word ‘ice’ properly, they will look at you ‘curiously’ as if you were the person who couldn’t speak proper English.  This is something that I am going to help the kids in the villages. Once they learn the language properly, they will be able to understand English better and hence, they will have more opportunities.

Then, ‘foreigners’ will not be ‘foreign’ to them anymore.

I can’t wait to see them again.

P.S. I am sitting in a room without air conditioning and the mosquitoes and moths are flying everywhere. My arms and my feet are full of mosquito bites, swollen.  Even after I apply mosquito repellent, it doesn’t help.  I am scratching myself and I just heard a mosquito flying beside my right ear.  The sun is also very strong here.  I have a tan already and I have only been in here for less than a week. 

This is supposed to be a Saturday blog but I have been busy with familiarizing myself with the places so I didn’t have the time to update my blog according to my plan.  I will stick to my schedule next week.  😉

P.S. If you’d like to find out my travel footprints (so far), check out my blog here. 🙂