(gentle music)
- (Ray speaking in foreign language)
Which means good morning, how are you?
I am teacher Ray.
I'm originally from Bowling Green, Kentucky.
I spent the last seven years in Houston Texas,
and now I'm currently living
and teaching in Battambang, Cambodia.
Now I'm actually in the garden area,
in my house where I live.
So I give you all the quick tour
before we go ahead and get started.
So this is the beautiful garden.
This is the entranceway to my house.
Pretty little cat.
(door creaks)
So as you enter my house, I had this little dining area.
I'm doing a little science experiment
for the kids today in class.
Open area right here,
everything came completely furnished.
I have a washer machine, have a gas stain.
This is my little stove, my little dishes, my kitchen area,
the back door, refrigerator.
This is my second bedroom,
(door creaks)
pretty decent sized king sized bed.
Everything came completely furnished.
(door creaks)
And this right here is going to be one bathroom.
It's a typical kumbaya bathroom and only with cold water.
And then we come over here to my bedroom.
So as he entered and we have the closet,
the shoe closet, the clothes.
So this is my beautiful bed.
I have my teaching supplies and teaching area.
I teach online as well, and this is my bathroom.
So it's gonna be a typical kumbaya bathroom as well.
I have two showers.
I have one hot water and one cold water.
I normally use the cold water 'cause it's so hot here.
So I got my TEFL certification officially, May of 2021.
I packed up my things,
found a job and I moved to Battambang in July.
I left July 27th of this year.
So I've been here about three and a half months now.
I spent two weeks in quarantine in Phnom Penh
before actually moving to Battambang.
I'm gonna post a question box right here.
So if you have any questions,
feel free to ask throughout the takeover today.
All right, so I'm about to head to school
to print out a few papers before our class starts ahead.
Bet you all can see my motor,
she's fully automatic and I call her bae.
So everyone's leaving right now
for the first part of the day.
I just finished printing out some papers.
Here's my classroom, the cleaning lady,
and all my students have their own desk.
Later on, you'll be able to meet my students.
Right now we're at like the city of Battambang.
We're near the river, so you see the rivers over there.
This is where like a lot of people come to hang out.
There's actually a park right here,
along the river with different exercise equipment.
A lot of locals come to use all the time.
So I chose to work and live in Cambodia
for multiple reasons.
One I do not have a bachelor's degree,
two, they have a greater need for teachers here.
And three, it's a really great country.
It's beautiful, has a lot of history,
has a lot of culture as well as it
completely different from Western civilization.
So that's something that I was looking for.
As well as there are trying to,
rediscover themselves after the Khmer Rouge
that happened about 40 years ago.
So it's still fairly new here.
I teach level four,
so I have a classroom of 16 students
ranging from the age of nine up until 13.
I teach only part-time here at the school.
So my hours are.
I teach online, I teach adults (indistinct)
ranging from the age of 23, up until like 57.
I do a lot of group classes.
(children chattering)
I had to have a job offer before I got here.
So I am on a EB business visa
and I got an extended for a whole year.
I found my job absolutely on a Cambodian group,
Cambodian Facebook group, literally.
So Tuesdays and Thursdays are my longest days
because I teach four online classes
as well as teaching in-person here at the school.
My day starts at 5:00 a.m.
I have a classroom, 5:30 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.
And then I teach in person school from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm.
And then I have class from six to 7:00 pm,
7:00 pm to 8:00 pm and then 9:00 pm to 10:00 pm.
So it's a very long day for me.
So for the science experiment today.
Did you all enjoy it, yes or no?
- [Children] Yes.
- I can't hear you.
- [Children] Yes.
- A new experience driving in Cambodia with the motorbike
'cause here they don't really
pay attention to the road signs
and street signs.
For them it's more of a suggestion,
not an actual thing that you do.
But when I first decided to get my TEFL
of November of 2020,
I had a move date set for July 12th, 2021.
And my move date changed July 27th, 2021.
So I've already had this.
(car engine revving)
(indistinct chattering)
(car hooting)
(bike engine revving)
(crowd speaking in foreign language)
(indistinct chattering)
(child laughing)
- Hi everyone, so I was supposed
to have evening class tonight,
but there's been an accident by my house
and he had knocked at my power.
So I've been driving around for the last 20 minutes
to find a quiet place to work,
but can't find nowhere to work.
(speaking in foreign language)
Thank you all for joining me today
in the life of a teacher here in Battambang, Cambodia.
As you can see, this is just a little glimpse
of why I love Cambodia so much.
Feel free to follow me on Instagram.
And then I'll answer.
I'll try to answer a few more questions
before the day's over with here for me.
As well as feel free to DM me,
follow me with any questions.
I'll be happy to help you all.
(gentle music)