Cambodia Internship: now it’s over, how do we feel?

George & Lauren have come to the end of their Cambodia TEFL internship. Looking back, here’s their thoughts on TEFL as a couple.

Leeds couple George and Lauren took the exciting Cambodia TEFL Internship – 2 months’ hands-on teaching and living in the local community of Phnom Penh.

George’s Experience

At times it was very tough, in terms of adapting to such a different environment, a different world. Honestly though, I don’t regret it one bit. Lauren and I had been thinking ‘shall we teach overseas or not?’ for the past three years and I now regret not doing it earlier on. If you’re sceptical about getting out here, then that’s completely normal. Leading up to the internship once we’d booked on I wasn’t looking forward to it at all. Probably because I never thought teaching would be my thing. Once you get into it and you meet everyone out here you’ll have an unforgettable time. You experience ridiculous things and you do seriously appreciate the small things in life once you’ve taught in Cambodia. Even if you’re certain teaching will never be your ‘career’ that really shouldn’t stop you from giving it a go. I really felt like I was making even a small amount of difference to the student’s lives and after knowing about what the Khmer have gone through in recent years, I feel that everyone should want to help in some way with the rebuilding of the country. Personally, it is great for your CV, challenges you beyond anything that you could expect, you meet inspiring people whom you’d most likely never come across back home and it gives you more confidence to push further out of your comfort zone. Stop contemplating and just book on!

Lauren’s Experience

I don’t think that any amount of extensive researching and planning can quite prepare you for the culture shock of living and working in a developing country that has had such a recent traumatic past as the Khmer have had. Cambodia is thoroughly a country that with the strength of the Khmer character is trying its absolute best to rebuild. Therefore, as a westerner it is a complete paradox of living compared to the UK. The best piece of advice that we were given in our induction was to ‘expect the unexpected’ and this was true to the core whilst navigating the sometimes illogical way that the city and Cambodia in general function. Each time any of the interns had set any sort of expectation, we would watch them be shattered into a million pieces and through humour just shook our head and explained it away by stating ‘that’s Cambodia!’. One example would be when one day in our accommodation the water suddenly stopped working, one day completely fine and the next not one drop of water from the taps and the shower. After enquiring about this we were told that this was a long term problem that occurred regularly. For the following week we were showering by using bottles of water from the shop and was so ridiculous it became comical. One of the most unsurprising things that occurred for me was how emotionally invested in the school I was by the end of the internship and also all of the Khmer people that we had built friendships with.

I can honestly say that I have never and will never come across more genuinely kind hearted people that have such an openness and are filled with such an insurmountable amount of love. Teaching was a challenge at times and required persistence and patience within the classroom but when the bell rang for break all of the students just wanted to be around us and ask us questions like ‘Is teacher George your husband or your brother?’. At times we craved home comforts such as an assortment of chocolates to choose from, quick and reliable transport and the ease of being able to walk around but when I look back all the bartering and sometimes arguing with the tuk tuk drivers, it was a challenge and when I look at supermarkets in the UK now I can’t believe the amount of greed. The experience has changed me and makes me even more passionate about helping to develop Cambodia and the internship was definitely just the beginning of our relationship with an amazing country.