Rivers of Words

By Ken Wasil

Get ready for an adventure as Ken Wasil takes you on a journey through Asia into Cambodia, an exotic land with a window on the past and an open book on the present. Travel with him as he leaves his life in American to teach English and anthropology to students who speak another language and use a different alphabet altogether.

 

Visit ancient Angkor and Funan temples, traverse wild rivers and tranquil canals, and walk through remote villages and crowded market places to explore an enchanted land and its people. Hear of trials and tribulations and stories that will make your belly shake with laughter

 

Learn about Cambodia today, its gentle people, its fierce politics, and its serene and mystical landscape. Learn the concepts of anthropology that will add to your appreciation and understanding of other peoples and other lands.

 

And most of all, in the "How to Teach English Section", find out how you can trade an unfulfilling job and lifestyle for one of travel, adventure, and employment teaching English in countries around the world."

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ken Wasil
• Release date: May 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201635114

Book preview

RIVERS OF WORDS

A Story of Teaching English in Asia

KEN WASIL

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Published by Portable Press

Boston, Massachusetts 2015

ISBN: 978-0-9802328-6-8

This publication is copyright. All rights reserved.  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any way or form without the author’s permission.  Brief quotations may be used for reviews.

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Copyright by Ken Wasil

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Table of Contents

Preface

Prologue

Siem Reap

The Jewel of South-East Asia

Looking Back

Getting Started in Phnom Penh

The Light of English

M Studios

Rithy

Substitute Teaching

23rd of October Driving School

William

The Assassination of Chea Vechea

Teaching English Full Time

Mystery at the Cha Cha Cheap Cheap Guest House

Orange Saronged Monks

Thirak

Cultural Anthropology

John and John Jr.

Phnom Da

Chinese New Year

Midterms

Mr. D and Takmao

Dances with Wolves

Ratha

What Would You Like

Second Midterms

Narong

The Dragon Daughters9j

A Bowl Full of Cherries

The Rabbit and the Earthquake

Khmer New Year

The Farmer and the Ghost

Final Exams

The First Rain

Return to Cambodia

An Outline of the History of Cambodia

How to Teach English: Getting Started

Secrets of Teaching English as a Second Language

Learning Models or Teaching Styles

Choosing a Country

Bibliography

About the Author

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PART I

Preface

This is my story of teaching English in Asia.  Part IV is a how to section for those readers considering becoming ESL teachers, themselves. The suggested preparation and teaching ideas will help you get started in your new profession.  This Preface will inspire you with how easy it is to find a job and launch a teaching English career overseas.

There are millions of English speakers living and teaching in countries around the world.  Some work in public or private schools, others teach in companies or through volunteer organizations.  And many start their own schools or tutoring businesses.  Unlike the regular tourist who visits a country for a week or two, teachers of English as a foreign language immerse themselves in the culture.  They live, work, eat, sleep, and socialize with the people.  They face the problems, joys and sorrows, rewards and disappointments that the citizens of the country encounter.  I call this

.

If you can speak English, you can teach English.  Schools in many countries such as in Latin America, Africa, and even Asia will hire teachers with no more qualifications than being a native speaker.  Managers and owners are looking for people who can create a lesson plan from a textbook and a CD, stand up in front of a group of students to entertain, lead them in conversation, and teach grammar. 

The more expensive and better paying institutions require a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Cambridge qualification such a TEFL, TESL, TESOL or CELTA Certificate.  (These courses can be taken in two weeks to three months and cost between $350 and a few thousand dollars).  A few countries, however, require a teaching credential or a master’s degree.

How can you find a job?  Some situations are advertised in newspapers or on the internet in English speaking countries.  Agencies that place teachers in Taiwan, China, Korea, and Japan often find instructors in this way.  In addition, volunteer organizations, such as VSO, place teachers in public schools, companies, government, and non-government organizations.  Sometimes they even offer a small stipend and a free room.  However, many of them charge teachers $300 to $12,000 for their service. 

Although it is possible to find a job from your home country, most schools can’t afford to advertise or use an agency and prefer to interview a teacher in person.  That’s why I opt to travel to my chosen nation to look for work.

First, it’s important to research the country, so that you arrive during peak hiring season (Blogs on the Internet will tell you everything you need to know about, schools, pay, visa, schedules.  Just type in your country’s name followed by a comma, then teaching English).  If, for example, you arrive in Vietnam during the New Year celebration in February or in Europe during the summer vacation, you’ll have a long wait before you can even talk to a school manager or owner.  Next, I get a list of the schools in a city from the Internet or the British Council.  Finally I call or put on your best business attire and visit the schools on my list.

These techniques work wonderfully because most schools are in desperate need of native English teachers.  When I enter the lobby, I am met by several well dressed enrollment attendants who speak to me in English.  When they find out I’m a teacher, they immediately take me to the director who interviews me informally.  Several times I’ve been offered a teaching position during this first meeting.

You can also teach and tutor English online from the comfort of your bedroom or living room.  Just Google Teaching English Online. All you need is a computer, webcam, cellphone, and a fast internet connection.  China, in particular has a tremendous need for online English teachers. 

Teaching English, however, comes with a warning.  It’s not always the first city or even country that has the teaching position you’ve been looking for.  As you’ve read in Rivers Of Words, I travel to Taiwan, Hong Kong, RPC China, and Thailand, before I found Pannasastra University and the position I was looking for.  In addition, some schools won’t pay teachers all their money or will break the terms of the teaching contract.  And working conditions are often not up to the standards of Western countries.  Some cultures may not value or respect the individual and may engage in practices that are oppressive or illegal in a teacher’s own country.

The rewards of teaching overseas, however, are as numerous as the countries and cultures on the map—experiencing new people and traditions; traveling to places you’ve always wanted to visit or only imagined in a dream; making new friends and developing valuable skills and careers.  Indeed, you can pay for your travel and save money on an income of as much as $10 to $100 per hour while living on as little as $15 per day.  if you choose to try this exciting form of adventure-travel, look on the Internet or peruse your favorite book store to search for Susan Griffith’s Teaching English Abroad: Talk Your Way Around the World or one of the many books on teaching English and living overseas.

Prologue

I traveled by train towards Poipet, from Bangkok, the city just inside the Cambodian border.  Sitting next to me in the open windowed train were several orange saronged monks.  I had met monks in Bangkok who were from California, my home state.  In fact, each time I’d been near Buddhist Monks, I’d felt a sense of peace and calm and this time was no exception.  One of the men spoke a little English.  We had a brief conversation then we were quiet for a time.  When a vendor came through the car selling water, the monk I’d spoken to bought several bottles—he gave me one and I thanked him graciously.

The next morning I took a motor taxi to the Thai-Cambodian border, where I purchase a twenty-five dollar business visa for forty dollars.  I passed through immigration and walked the two hundred meters into Cambodia. 

I immediately felt different from anywhere I had ever been.  I had entered another time, an enchanted land.  It was as if I had been transported into a far and distant past.  The ground was muddy and unpaved and there were outdoor stalls where people sold fruit, vegetables, cooked food, household items, gifts, and crafts.  It seemed like there were hundreds of horse drawn and man powered carts.  Children were begging, vendors were grabbing at my shirt asking me to buy from them or use their transportation.

This was Poipet, the Cambodia border city.  I later found out it was known for its gambling casinos.  Gambling, you see, was illegal in Thailand at the time, so thousands of Thai citizens and tourists crossed the border for a few hours or a few days of gaming and pleasure.  Gambling has since been legalized in Thailand, which may be the death toll for Poipet.

I found no bus or train stations in the city.  People traveled in the back of pickup trucks or in car taxis.  So I paid three dollars and fifty cents to pile into the bed of one of the trucks with ten Cambodian citizens for the one hundred and fifty kilometer ride to Siem Reap.

The countryside was strikingly poor.  The road to Siem Reap was rough and unpaved.  There were grass and bamboo huts built along the highway and most of them had manmade ponds nearby. Many of these had vegetable gardens and farm yards with chickens, pigs, water buffalo, oxen, and other animals.  And stretching off into the distance behind the thatched huts were the rice fields, the food staple of Cambodia.

Dust spewed forth from a procession of bicycles, horse and oxen drawn carts, motorcycles, cars, and trucks.  Most of the people had their head and face covered with a brightly colored half meter by one-and-one-half meter cloth which the man next to me called a Kromas.  He said that it was used for protection from the heat, dust, wind, and was even used as a towel.  I later found it was unique to Cambodia.

The rainy season had ended in October, and now in late November, the streams, canals, ponds, and lakes were overflowing.  I saw several people wading chest deep in water carrying a large short toothed rakes, attached nets, and a plastic five gallon gas can to keep the net afloat.  One of the passengers told me that the people were raking the ponds and water