My Personal Experience in Cambodia

Everyday I teach kids ages 7-13 at an orphanage. Some kids we teach live at the orphanage and some of the kids come from the surrounding area. Everyday I ride in a Tuk Tuk to the orphanage and back. A Tuk Tuk is a motorcycle pulling a little carriage with four seats. Here in Cambodia, Tuk Tuks are like taxis in New York City because everyone takes them, there are so many of them, and they are all over the streets. The streets are very crowded. There are Tuk Tuks, cars, bikes, motorcycles, and pedestrians, but to my surprise, everyone is coordinated. Riding to the orphanage in crowded and trash-filled streets reminds me of the grim condition the children live in. Seeing the them run barefoot and half-naked through the streets reminds me of how little they have, but the smiles on their faces and willingness to learn touches my heart.

The only subject that I am teaching is English. I have two sessions, one in the morning from 8 to 10, and one in the afternoon, from 2 to 4. In between, I have lunch and do my homework.

My Cambodian Family
PINK SHIRT-Sia, GREEN SHIRT-Mama, and DOG-Mien Mien

For lunch I have a lot of rice and some vegetables to accompany it. After my afternoon session of teaching, I go back to the house and there I have around 2 hours of free-time when I read and do any homework that I didn’t get to finish before. At 6:00 it is time to go to dinner. Dinner is basically the same thing that I had for lunch, a lot of rice and vegetable but since we are eating with our Cambodian family, we have some protein such as chicken or meat.We also have a variety of soups such as chicken or vegetable, which are often spicy.

At the orphanage, we divide the children into two groups, the younger and the older. In the older group, we are teaching them the phonetic alphabet. We were also introducing them to the concepts of verbs and nouns. Some of them are still struggling to read and write while some are writing beautifully and are beginning to read very short books.


In the younger group, we are focusing on the phonetic alphabet, the sound of each letter (Phonetic Alphabet Song That We Use). We are also introducing the numbers 1-10. In the last 20 minutes of class, we jump-rope (counting or singing the A, B, C) in the dirt or draw and color. We play a lot of games to keep them interested like hangman with three-letter words. The most challenging part of my day is keeping the students’ attention. They are always speaking to each other in Khmer (the language they speak in Cambodia). Sometimes it seems like they are talking and laughing about us, but we see them improving. I will never again judge a teacher for telling students to be quiet; I know how difficult it is.

Everything is different, the language, the smells, the foods, and the people but the only thing that is the same is that the girls want to learn and the boys just want to have fun :).

Me teaching the older group:
left-Liza, to the right of Liza-Li Li, to the right of Li Li-David, right-Cham