For ESL teachers in the world I’m sure you can empathise with my predicament. I am a Senior ESL Teacher in charge of hiring and supporting foreign teachers at a kindergarten to secondary level school here in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The trouble is not with supporting teachers once they’re hired, I am a hot chilli in that department. No, the problem lies simply in getting the teachers to accept offers.

In Cambodia, it is easy to get a teaching position however it’s extremely difficult to get a good one.

Who Owns What?

All the major schools in Cambodia are owned by four people, two of whom are brothers-in-law, and all are social club buddies. It’s safe to assume that if a teacher wrongs one school they will have no idea what other schools this same corporation owns, which means your reputation is very easily tarnished.

Levels & Teaching Requirements Vary Greatly

Just because your school has the same owner doesn’t mean they operate in the same way. They all have different principals who all have different experience/ qualifications, methods and plans for their school. Most will be given the direction: bums on seats = money = ultimate goal. ESL in Cambodia is business-first and has very little to do with the standard of education being provided.

Because ESL here, like most countries, is a private industry with no regulatory body policing its standards it very rarely has any at all. Providing they teach English a school can go about that method however they choose. Most, fortunately, do care about what they’re teaching but the output of language ability is very rarely up-to-par with international English language standards.

This is because the schools are business-first and forced to attend to the fragile egos of parents whose children do not pass a level adequately. Parents will often threaten to remove their child from the school if they don’t pass the level, whether they have the competency or not. In my case, I have level 10B students who have a level 7 reading & writing competency but level 4 – 5 listening & speaking competency.

This means that local teachers assist students to cheat in order to pass them and school administration fudge test scores to illustrate that their school has a high-pass average. For the ESL teacher this makes it extremely hard because they find themselves with a mish-mash of abilities.

Add to the mix that some schools have different requirements for their teachers. My school wants teachers to concentrate solely on listening & speaking and very little reading & writing, others have set subjects to be taught in English, like geography, maths, and science. Some schools want ESL teachers to teach practical grammar, or direct from ESL textbooks, lesson by lesson and some give no direction at all.

There is no Living Support

The first shock I received after moving to Cambodia was that the living support I received in China was non-existent here. In China, most companies are desperate for foreigners so they’ll provide you a visa, set you up in an apartment, pay the rent for you, install the Internet, some even pay your amenity bills but I am yet to find a school here that does any of these things.

In my first interview, I asked about my visa and was told to take care of it myself and when I asked about  an apartment and was told to search Google or walk around the streets and look for ‘for rent’ signs.

Visas are easy to get. You can pay a small charge and a travel agent will do it for you, or you can go to the immigration office yourself.

Getting an apartment really is an Internet search or walking around. For our first apartment we were desperate and I took the first nice, affordable one I could find online but I wasn’t making that mistake again. For our present apartment, my husband trudged block by block for three days (bless him!) but it paid off because now we pay the same rent ($200/month) for a much nicer, larger, cleaner and more owner-respectful apartment.

ESL teachers come to Cambodia thinking they’ll enjoy the same royalties of other countries and are sorely mistaken. The foreigner’s on their own here in every way and it makes working here a very unattractive prospect.

As far a foreign countries go, Phnom Penh is a relatively easy city to live in. There is a lot of English spoken and if you can navigate a Google search you can find information readily. The difficulties lie in how to know if you’re being ripped off (which happens at absolutely every opportunity) and how to figure out the systems. Unless you know someone who can hold your hand through it all it can be an expensive mine field.

Cambodia is not a country to accept an ESL job from without being here. What is written in an advert is very rarely what is delivered. This can be a costly lesson to learn especially because of who owns what!

The Wage Varies

Some elite schools/ universities pay a salary up to $1500/mth for ESL teachers (you have to have the qualifications to match); others pay $600 for half-days. Most schools though pay around $9-12 per teaching hour. This means if you’re sick or if there are holidays (& Cambodia has a lot of them!) then you’re not paid.

If you want to work here do everything you can to arrange a per month salary that guarantees you income because many schools will ring and tell teachers that there classes are cancelled even when they’re not just so they can cheat the teachers wage.

There is a large variance in what foreigners and local Khmer English teachers are paid. I am paid more than the school principal and I am still under-paid and over-worked. Many argue that it is possible to live well in Cambodia on the wage provided and for the most part this is true, however do not expect to save any money. Cambodia is still expensive for foreigners because the cost of living here is roughly 3 – 4 times more expensive than for a local. The primary reason for this is because Cambodia is a tourism Mecca so when a local sees a foreigner their eyes become dollar signs as they attempt to blatantly rip off a foreigner for as much as possible.

The wages here do not account for this and most Khmer fail to empathise with how expensive it is to live as a traveller. They view all foreigners as wealthy simply because they can afford to live outside of their own countries. They view foreigners as the commodities they need to substantiate their businesses but do not pay them accordingly.

Cambodia is a corrupt country who looks for every opportunity to take advantage of its people, their money and their good will. Do not be fooled into the poor-me mentality because of the Khmer rouge regime. That era is passed and there is a lot of money here now, the only thing is the rich get richer while the poor continue to beg. The poor however are not all as grateful as you’d think so be careful being charitable here because they’ll still try to steal from you. You’re still rich in their eyes; you can afford to lose.

Remember, those top four owners didn’t get to be the top four by playing fair.

A Traveller’s Occupation

The problems do not rest only on the schools shoulders. ESL teachers can be qualified teachers and will genuinely want to be teachers and they can be English speakers posing as teachers to fund their travels.

A school rarely knows how to tell the difference.

In western countries there is an onus on an employee to do the responsible thing by a company. This does not extend to the ESL industry where the source of foreigners comes from a pool of travellers rather than career-orientated, motivated individuals.

ESL teachers are well known for walking out and leaving the school in the lurch. Just after I started one teacher (who didn’t work for me) left on a Friday and didn’t return on Monday, I later found out he had a family emergency and had to fly home. Apparently phones don’t work on the weekend.

Why Bother?

As cliché as this is, the experience of teaching English in Cambodia is really rewarding because of the children and the fact that you’re in Cambodia; despite my cut-through opinion, it’s still an interesting place to live.

The children are unlike western children because they highly respect teachers and most are motivated to learn English to better their lives for their families. To a Khmer child, a

foreigner is exciting. A student will gain a lot of respect if they’re being educated by a foreigner because their education will be considered supreme.

The reality is that many of the points above can be applied to any country. There can be a lot of money and a lot of freedom in the ESL industry and that’s true in Cambodia too however if you want to be an ESL teacher here you have to have a thick skin, patience and be willing to cut through the fat to get to the bone.

Are you an ESL teacher here or in another country? Wanting to be an ESL teacher here but don’t know where to begin? Let’s discuss it in the comments!

Image Credits: Test Score, Currency.