Working Now

Two weeks on the job. I meant to post this last week but my SD card keeps deleting randoms bit of stuff and i didn’t want to write it all out again. However here’s me trying again, i suppose it gives me a chance to rewrite the bits i didn’t particularly like.



Well anyway I have a job now! It’s in a private primary school. Named rather aptly Cambridge International School. However its a franchise from Singapore so i don’t quite know how the Cambridge bit came about. My job title is EAL teacher. EAL stands for English as an additional language teacher. I think.... Well anyway i teach from Kindergarten right up until what would be years five and six in England. So a huge mix of students.



I’m not going to lie that i found out at my volunteer school, the kids i taught were my favourite age group of about twelve to fifteen year olds. More mature but not mature enough to not find me making funny noises and being stupid whilst teaching them funny. Whilst also listening to the teacher. However these age groups provide a... shall we say interesting challenge? Its good for allsorts of experience such as classroom management, writing tests, absolute beginners and perhaps in a year i will say i never want to leave. For now though i have had a couple of moments of fondly looking at that other older age group. Not to say i haven’t enjoyed it here. My colleagues are fantastic. My bosses are great and its quite tight knit. Most of my colleagues i regularly am in contact with on a daily basis are predominately Filipino. With whom i have worked with before and i know how great they are so when i found that out i was very interested to get started.



Now i have to be careful with what i say about the students for obvious reasons. Though i will say this most are great, some are good, some are okay and some are challenges. When i say challenges they aren’t ‘oh god what am i doing here?’ they are challenges of ‘okay, how can i get them involved today?’ Which, again, is great for experience. With that in mind i believe all these kids are fairly sheltered as its a very good school so most kids haven’t had an exactly normal upbringing. Although ask yourself if you had lots of money would you not treat your child to the absolute best? I know i would. So i’m sure the reason some children might say ‘my house is bigger than this school.’ Is because truthfully, it is and they are just telling me. They don’t necessarily know that its not normal to have that.



I personally believe that in a year my khmer will be a lot better than it is now. So much so i could possibly work in a public school. So i could access the less privileged child. I think this because on my first day of being here, the children did their morning exercise and a beggar and his child walked past the schools gate looking for rubbish to pick up and sell/live off. Then i had what i’d call a bit of epiphany, i realised that those less privileged children are the ones i want to help. The ones that need english to get started and begin to live. As more and more this is becoming a world where you need English to start making money. Whereas these kids here are just like english young ‘uns they speak great english, spelling and writing leaves a little to be desired (which is fine as i wouldn’t have a job otherwise) but speaking you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between an english kid of the same age and these.



However seeing that poor beggar kid it struck me that at some point i need to work in a place where i can begin to help these poor children. Maybe in a year i’ll say you know what? I can speak khmer lets go start work in a public school. Maybe in a year I could also say I love these kids here and i don’t wanna work in no stinkin’ high school especially with my awful khmer. That’s for the future to decide, i have no idea yet. You never know what might happen. For the foreseeable future though i know for now that i’ll be here for at least year. I also know as i was wisely told in an eighteenth birthday card:



Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.

Ecclesiastes 9:10



That is for certain. For the future i may not think teaching this age group is my favourite but i know i will throw all i can into it. As that’s what this school deserves. Nothing half-assed. For the future is far away and we can only live in the now, so we might as well, work now and make a decision later on what we to do as we never know what might happen.



The other week i was speaking about taking time to talk to the people you see everyday and how i was talking to my friends at the local mart. Well this week i found out that one of my friends is living in a house with four bedrooms and one bathroom with ten other people. He has gotten a full scholarship to a university and is working his socks off to make sure he makes his parents proud. He sleeps on the floor of his house. Plus he is here all by himself. Its bordering on illegal what his living conditions are like but hes the happiest bubbliest person i’ve met and i always enjoy my time with him. For example the other day he tried to say the phrase ‘Working hard or hardly working.’ However he got it wrong so what came out was ‘Working hard or hard working.’ I was in stitches. Good effort though. To be honest thats the first time i’ve heard him get something wrong. Then theres me speaking awful khmer and helps anyway he can for me to learn.



Beautiful place, beautiful people.



Link for the day : I couldn’t find something that would fit this text. So have a listen to some rather rousing classical music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz0b4STz1lo

Football,life and blogging

Well my system of trying to upload a blog every Saturday completely went out the window. I just have not wanted to do one. As I don't believe anything that I have done is particularly interesting. Plus I don't just want to be writing 'In the morning I ate noodles. It was good' However I received a message from my Mum saying that she hasn't seen one and I realised that life isn't always about these grand happenings. Its about the little things that you do, that make life. Such as saying 'Hello' to your neighbours, buying breakfast at the local market or even just sat watching TV. These are the things we do most often in life. So why not write about them and immortalise them in words. So here goes....

I played football a couple of weeks ago and managed to badly sprain my ankle again. So most of life has been spent sat doing nothing but watching TV and eating. Its been getting better slowly. I went to the doctors for it and spent $45 dollars on an X-ray, consultation, splint and pills which to me isn't half bad. I was expecting it to be in the hundreds. Doctor said no football for 4 weeks!! My idea of hell! No matter, it lets me rest and focus on getting a job. I was also advised by the guesthouse owner to get some Khmer medicine. All well and good so I ask him to write it down so I can go to the local market and get it. Proudly I hop off with my splint on and show some people who direct me out to the other side of the market and then someone else shows me where to get it. Fantastic! I buy it and proudly come back to show off my new medicine to the manager. I thought it was slightly strange because it was just ginger. Just the plant, that was it. After my guesthouse owner had picked himself up off the floor after laughing he managed to get his friend to make it properly for me into a paste mixed with alcohol. No worries. A day later I get it back and apply it only problem is that it looks like cat sick. So its a nice thing to rub all over my ankle as you can imagine. I just hope it is helping! So I can resume a more normal life without so many stares. I mean, I get stared at for being a westerner in a densely populated Khmer location where not many foreigners really go. So you can imagine how it was when I clinked along with a big black splint on. I felt like a cowboy with spurs!

The ankle

 

The Splint

Catsick/Medicine

At the time of writing its okay, I don't wear the splint, just sometimes wear a compression thing that I thought to bring with me knowing I would play football and hurt myself.

Football really does transcend language as on Saturday I went out with five people to a club. These people were ones I had played football with for a couple of weeks. However only one speaks generally good English. I speak a bit of Khmer so I can communicate with them all. Just not in depth. We went out and they all said to the English speaker 'Even though I am not Khmer, they feel as though I am one of them' 'If I ever need help they will be there for me' This was all because I played football with them and could joke around a bit, it really helps you settle when in another country and someone says that. They are just so nice and friendly. There's no way I can explain it without yourself experiencing it. They just accept you. I just would like to learn Khmer quicker because then I can communicate with all these people and meet more of them. Such as yesterday I went and ate dinner afterwards I went to buy an ice cream at a local mart where they have seen me a few times and I have joked about my foot and a multitude of other things in Khmer. So they know I speak a bit and they speak good English. There's a few that are really friendly. So yesterday I just sat down with them for two hours and got to know them some more whilst practising Khmer.

I honestly believe that in England unless you get to know someone through work, groups, school, university you never meet the people you see everyday. For example how many readers know the name of the people in their local shop or the taxi's drivers they walk past everyday. Here I sat down with some shop workers and got to know them. In western countries the pace of life is so fast. It just goes past you and sometimes you have to sit down and let it. But in England there is no opportunity for that because if you miss a chance then it'll never come back so you have to keep up with that pace. It's like treading water, western countries are constantly treading to not sink and it tires them out which how things like depression happen just non-stop with no end in sight (RIP Robin Williams) Cambodia and many other countries around here they let themselves sink, but they sink with friends. Possibly not the greatest allegory as it ends in mass joint suicide, but I hope you kind of get the picture. Here people sit down outside of shops, marts, parks and just chat and let others join them if they want to. Further expanding their circle of people to help or be helped by. I just love it. It suits me right down to the ground. Once I get a job i'll be part of the community finally rather than a dosser that sits down outside of shops with his foreign money!

Job wise. Where to begin? I've had a couple of interviews and opportunities. That haven't arisen and nothing further has happened so now. I have started my own company! Greg Preston English Tutoring. Every night I go out like Batman seeking lampposts to put up my posters of my company and of how to get in touch. $15 p/h or less depending on what they want to be taught. As most tutors round here try to charge $35 an hour! No one has that much money to burn. So I decided to hit the niche market and go cheap. So  I hope this will pick up soon and people will notice my posters and get in touch. I spend around $6 a day so if I got even one at $15 I'd be set for at least two days! I will continue to look for a school job but if this takes off then I should be okay to continue just as private tutor. We shall see. Exciting times ahead. Lets just hope it involves me making some money and continuing to live here.

Not a song but a video from Good Will Hunting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8mn3nLPSMY