NONE
i'm here for the long haul and çan't afford to risk it!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
education
the school i visited was interesting...
i had been there a couple of times in 2007 but since then it moved to a smaller but more developed location across the road. It basically consists of dirt floor teaching rooms with no walls, a giant shed the size of a typical school gym with concrete floors (where the boys sleep) and a couple of huts where the girls sleep.
We arrived to them having dinner so waited outside before walking in and being introduced to about 50 faces all smiling expectantly at us and chanting in unison
Hello Teacher
Hi Dan
Welcome Dan
etc
They are all interested in what i have studied. Several have done their masters, many are doing community focused development roles, providing they have the support they need this country will be in good hands in the future. They value education very highly and listen even when they have already heard it.
Teaching seems to be best done by turning everything into a bit of a joke. They are very quick to smile and see the humour in just about everything.
Getting used to working through a translator is pretty hard. Saying short sentences is not really my thing. It's funny because i found myself trying to explain a concept and talking really fast at the end as if to squash it all in before it was time for them to translate. Of course making their job even harder.
Also when telling a story you keep loosing your climatic impact because you have to stop before the punch line, sometimes the translator goes for three or four times as long as you have leaving you wondering whether you have to re-explain the context again before the punchline.
You need to keep reminding yourself that although they speak in limited English they understand much more so it's always a tricky balance between using words they wouldn't understand and being too basic.
Anyway, i'm off to buy a phone(a local phone that is cheap so i'm not flashing around an expensive pda), some thongs(so i can slip my shoes off at every place i visit) and some food before going to a school to teach English and explain what Australia is all about.
I've come prepared.
I've taken a didgeridoo over here (plastic and light)and already have come to appreciate how it crosses language barriers so easily.
i had been there a couple of times in 2007 but since then it moved to a smaller but more developed location across the road. It basically consists of dirt floor teaching rooms with no walls, a giant shed the size of a typical school gym with concrete floors (where the boys sleep) and a couple of huts where the girls sleep.
We arrived to them having dinner so waited outside before walking in and being introduced to about 50 faces all smiling expectantly at us and chanting in unison
Hello Teacher
Hi Dan
Welcome Dan
etc
They are all interested in what i have studied. Several have done their masters, many are doing community focused development roles, providing they have the support they need this country will be in good hands in the future. They value education very highly and listen even when they have already heard it.
Teaching seems to be best done by turning everything into a bit of a joke. They are very quick to smile and see the humour in just about everything.
Getting used to working through a translator is pretty hard. Saying short sentences is not really my thing. It's funny because i found myself trying to explain a concept and talking really fast at the end as if to squash it all in before it was time for them to translate. Of course making their job even harder.
Also when telling a story you keep loosing your climatic impact because you have to stop before the punch line, sometimes the translator goes for three or four times as long as you have leaving you wondering whether you have to re-explain the context again before the punchline.
You need to keep reminding yourself that although they speak in limited English they understand much more so it's always a tricky balance between using words they wouldn't understand and being too basic.
Anyway, i'm off to buy a phone(a local phone that is cheap so i'm not flashing around an expensive pda), some thongs(so i can slip my shoes off at every place i visit) and some food before going to a school to teach English and explain what Australia is all about.
I've come prepared.
I've taken a didgeridoo over here (plastic and light)and already have come to appreciate how it crosses language barriers so easily.
normal questions
hello
how are you?
when did you arrive Cambodia?
when will you leave?
what is your name?
do you have a wife?
how do you like Cambodia?
what are you doing here?
how is Cambodia different to your country?
how are cambodian people different to people in your country?
do you study?
how old are you?
what is your job?
how are you?
when did you arrive Cambodia?
when will you leave?
what is your name?
do you have a wife?
how do you like Cambodia?
what are you doing here?
how is Cambodia different to your country?
how are cambodian people different to people in your country?
do you study?
how old are you?
what is your job?
death
i was travelling down a small dirt road on a tuk tuk and heard moaning music being played quite loud from a tinny speaker out the front of one of the houses.
The local i was with explained as we went past that it was because someone had just died there.
The people nearby all seemed more or less the same as normal. Quick to smile at a passerby and upbeat. death is a normal part of life i guess.
interesting the way different cultures treat death. There's something very removed about the typical Western method and i wonder about the impact it has on our lives...
The local i was with explained as we went past that it was because someone had just died there.
The people nearby all seemed more or less the same as normal. Quick to smile at a passerby and upbeat. death is a normal part of life i guess.
interesting the way different cultures treat death. There's something very removed about the typical Western method and i wonder about the impact it has on our lives...
Dan the man (ikin)
I noticed when walking through a four level market with 4ft wide aisles and stuff for sale as far as you could see that compared to everyone else in the country, being tall and white i looked pretty similar to the manikins.
This was confirmed about 10 minutes later when I steped against a clothing stall to let some local girls squeeze through. As i stepped out when the last girl walked past she jumped in surprise and gave a little scream. She said she thought I was a manikin!
The girls i was with found it very amusing and the story was repeated many times...
This was confirmed about 10 minutes later when I steped against a clothing stall to let some local girls squeeze through. As i stepped out when the last girl walked past she jumped in surprise and gave a little scream. She said she thought I was a manikin!
The girls i was with found it very amusing and the story was repeated many times...
Monday, March 15, 2010
still hasn't completely sunk in yet.
We keep saying phrases to each other like, 'this is our new home' and 'we now live here' and it feels kinda unreal.
Of course, it's only a couple of months we'll be here but consensus was (from a random survey) that we can say we have 'lived' here.
Anyway, it's all very different.
Especially the smells... i've always been big on smells and often find myself remembering something purely from a smell. Cambodia is an aggressive sensory experience. Especially living (there's that word again) here in the centre of it all. The open drains, the street side cooking, the open fronted workshops, the rows and rows of fruit at the market, the motos furiously going past...Just making it across the main street calls some type of special extra sense that they all seem to have which leaves them swerving in the right direction every time to just miss eachother.
The plane flight was uneventful, the night in the hotel in Malaysia was refreshing and the customs and immigration was all pretty straight forward. Thanks to detailed instructions from friends. We are here on a business visa for educational purposes'.
I'm still not exactly sure what i'll be doing each day. Monday is typically the day off here so everyone is pretty relaxed and there's no visitors.
Tomorrow begins at with a 5:30 rise and a packed program.
Gotta run, it's dinner time!
p.s. ít's pretty hot here as well!
We keep saying phrases to each other like, 'this is our new home' and 'we now live here' and it feels kinda unreal.
Of course, it's only a couple of months we'll be here but consensus was (from a random survey) that we can say we have 'lived' here.
Anyway, it's all very different.
Especially the smells... i've always been big on smells and often find myself remembering something purely from a smell. Cambodia is an aggressive sensory experience. Especially living (there's that word again) here in the centre of it all. The open drains, the street side cooking, the open fronted workshops, the rows and rows of fruit at the market, the motos furiously going past...Just making it across the main street calls some type of special extra sense that they all seem to have which leaves them swerving in the right direction every time to just miss eachother.
The plane flight was uneventful, the night in the hotel in Malaysia was refreshing and the customs and immigration was all pretty straight forward. Thanks to detailed instructions from friends. We are here on a business visa for educational purposes'.
I'm still not exactly sure what i'll be doing each day. Monday is typically the day off here so everyone is pretty relaxed and there's no visitors.
Tomorrow begins at with a 5:30 rise and a packed program.
Gotta run, it's dinner time!
p.s. ít's pretty hot here as well!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
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