Really useful video. It might be worth detailing work permits in one of your blogs as they began enforcing these in a lot of SR schools. No-one had them in 2003 when I started teaching there [there was nowhere in town to get one]. They clamped down hard in 2015 and back-dated fines to the earliest visa in your passport [$100/year for each year without a work permit]. I'd dedicated 12 years of my life to teaching out there and missed only one class in my first 10 years - the morning we buried my late father in law. I was so pissed off by the Stazi treatment [there were threats of deportation] that I called it quits and left the country as soon as the term was over. Broke my heart, and the Principal cried when I handed in my notice. I really miss the job: Khmer students are the best. One day Cambodia will learn to take care of its friends.
Very cool video. I'm a teacher in Luang Prabang. Pretty much everything you said is true for Lao as well. But salary can be low here, visas are expensive, and there are some outdated laws that often cause foreigners trouble here, particular the one where it is illegal to have sexual relations with a Lao citizen. I hope to visit Cambodia again and see some old places I haven't seen in a few years !! (:
We're moving to Phnom Penh to teach next month, so even though it's a different city it's go to see some of the city! We did end up getting a job without being in person
Interesting. I am considering it, due to my lack of college degree and an interest in East and Southeast Asian cultures. (I'm doing the ITA course now, I'm on week 10!)
@manoharkuram942 I have my TEFL, did 2 years of college, and about to do 2 years of University. But that means going after my biggest love- Japan. But I plan to visit Thailand along the way. As for Cambodia, I dunno if I'd go there or not anymore.
Hi Charles! International TEFL Academy provides lifetime job search guidance when you enroll in our TEFL certificate course. We also offer guaranteed job placement in Cambodia - you can learn more here: www.internationalteflacademy.com/teach-abroad-program-in-cambodia
I just moved to Siem Reap about 2 weeks ago. I have a BA in Nutrition and Fitness and a TEFL certificate. I dropped off my CV at several schools yesterday, do you have any suggestions or recommendations of which schools I should try to apply for?
If I rent that awesome Siem Reap apartment I found on Khmer24 right now... would I be able to then just walk around and leave my application dossiers at the various schools (and centers?) and reliably get hired? I'm a Canadian teacher with a TEFL and four years of experience in Vietnam. I am, however, very low on funds.
I'm in a very similar boat as you, although home for me is California. I visited Thailand & Cambodia before. If I can ask, why not go back to Vietnam with all that experience?
@@Kn1ghtMan Painful ending to a dead-end relationship with a wonderful Vietnamese lady. Increasingly irritating government there. An industry which I believe is souring at an increasing rate. It's time for something new, and for more respect toward work/life balance... perhaps learning some new skills or pursuing online money. I hope to teach part-time and, if I can, I'll choose quality of situation above pay rate. For now I've acquired a cheap room rental situation here in Phnom Penh and I'll see where my end up, working while rediscovering myself and a different path in life
Hey all the best to you! Takes guts to just head out there and wing it. Sorry to hear about the women troubles, it happens, but you just have to carry on as you're doing. I'd be interested to know how the gov encroaches on day to day life in Vietnam. Honestly it's somewhere I'm thinking about just because of the returns on the labor you put in teaching English.
@@Kn1ghtMan It was either stay to save a bit more and have her continue to expect to marry me (she was in the middle of a difficult marriage application process), increasing the damage done to her, and start a new school year knowing that I'm not in a stable enough of a situation to be relied on by students or coworkers... or yeah, just trust in the third-hand information out there about what it's like and do the Hail Mary. I don't have a degree. Even so, work over there apparently pays about twice as much as here, and the cost of living, if you know what you're doing, actually seems to cost less than Phnom Penh while more "luxuries" are available. You can still get much more lucrative situations and the attitude generally involves crossing bridges as you get to them, often with financial greasing... but it is all through appeal to those in charge or those with important friends. If you have experience, a TESOL/TEFL, and fit the image of what they expect (young, healthy, cosmopolitan, Western, etc) you can find work. Interference sometimes comes directly from the government in areas where you want to get work or stay anywhere. What bothered me most were the executive decisions taken at the drop of a hat... schools opening when the government says they can, selective enforcement of laws... it makes life in Vietnam unpleasant if you actually want to try to do business or imagine any kind of a future there. Bank accounts are unpredictable and trusting them is frustrating at best while quite often being dangerous. Lots of things like that happen from the top down and from the resulting chaos from different organizations scrambling to appease those forces while making sweeping promises in bad faith to everyone else. Of course there are wonderful things about it as well. Vietnamese can be fun when they aren't scurrying to appease their authoritarian situation. Usually a very safe and worthwhile experience (as long as you don't make obvious rookie mistakes)
So not true. Look the part, be energetic and be ULTRA SERIOUS about teaching and you are in. They are starting to realize that the majority of young teachers are there for a paycheck so they can party and travel. Most of them do not even finish out their contracts. I haven't even been to Cambo yet and I've gotten several job offers and I am 50 years old. They will be pleasantly surprised when I show up because I look and act much younger than I am.
Totally wrong. I taught at Pannasastra University in SR for 7 years, and at two other schools before that. The majority of the long-term foreign staff were over 50. There's quite a lot of respect for age in Cambodia, and it's certainly not a barrier to getting work.
