Having wrapped up end of term exams, we come to another quarterly ritual: having a pow-wow (or whatever the Khmer word for it is) with the parents of our students to discuss their kids’ performance in our classes.

This took place on Saturday, and it’s not at all unusual for teachers to have a work day on Saturday. In fact, for most teachers it’s mandatory to go to Saturday meetings that consume most of the day. We’ve managed to get out of it most of the time, but this chance to have a conference with parents was something we looked forward to. And dreaded at the same time.

The sessions began at 8:00 in the morning, and supposedly there were 10-minute slots scheduled for each child’s parent(s). But in reality, the parents just came whenever they felt like it, and rambled as much as they wanted to, so the schedule was quite pointless. Some of the teachers were also long-winded

The two of us were in different conference rooms, along with the homeroom teachers for the respective grades we teach. The parent(s) would come in and sit down, and each teacher would provide an oral report about how the student was doing in his or her class  And our report would be last. (We also had to provide a written — or rather handsomely printed — “report card” with detailed commentary about each student.) Then the parents could ask us questions or make any comments they felt we should hear.

Since most of the parents did not speak English, and our Khmer is quite rudimentary, we had to rely on our fellow teachers to translate for us — although we could make out a few words here and there in the remarks the others made. Since Kimberly, who teaches the lower grades, has quite a few more students, her session was longer — six solid hours with just a couple of potty breaks.

Our impression was that these discussions were potentially productive for the most part. (Although one father still refuses to provide glasses for his daughter because he insists that she’s having trouble with her vision only because she stares at screens too much.) There were a few awkward moments as we made frank — but tactful — reports about student misbehavior. It was all the more awkward because the parents were all very cordial.

School Field Trip

The school celebrated completion of the first term with the first field trip of the year. In the morning, we piled into some very crowded school vans (at least crowded by American standards) and headed out to spend a day at two destinations.

First was Aeon Mall # 3, which we’ve talked about before. It has a really cool outdoor playground with a splash pad, a zipline, and other recreational equipment. After the kiddos had cavorted there for a while they had a snack, and then we wedged ourselves back into the vans and headed to Factory Phnom Penh.

Factory was once, as the name suggests, an actual factory. But a few years ago, the space was repurposed as an office complex with performance spaces, restaurants and coffee shops, a bookstore, classrooms for yoga and parkour, etc. It’s rather like San Francisco’s Fort Mason, except bigger. So to help workers and visitors get around, there are 50 yellow bikes on the premises, available for anyone to use for free.

But the main draw for us was a trampoline park, where the students (and, well, okay, the teachers too) bounced and cavorted for an hour, and a great time was had by all. Before heading back to the school, we had lunch on the grounds — ours was provided for us, 

We’d like to say that this little adventure wore out all the munchkins, and when we got back to the school they indulged in their customary nap time a couple of hours late. But in fact, many of them were so wired that they want to romp on the playground as soon as we arrived.

Winter Holidays in Cambodia

At about this time we also put up holiday decorations at the school Yes, Virginia, Santa does occasionally find his way to Phnom Penh. But he carries a very light sled, because there are no presents on it. Cambodian kiddies don’t get holiday gifts, but they do join in some of the yuletide festivities.

At our school, there were essentially the same Christmas decorations you’d find in an American school (though none, of course, were of a religious nature, since Cambodians are mostly Buddhists). We provided some paper so the students could decorate paper stockings, which were hung in the hallway. We bought candy canes, which we distributed to the kids. And the children love certain songs of the holiday season, especially “Jingle Bells” and “Frosty the Snowman”. They sing along to videos of them with great gusto. And Kimberly choreographed a dance for them to learn in PE class to “Frosty”, which they also loved doing.

The Kindergartners in Kimberly’s English program learned about Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and made letter R reindeer.

In the city itself, you’ll also find plenty of commemorations of the holiday season, including decorations in stores, and Christmas carols. And you can see and hear these observations beginning around October — almost as early as in the States.

Of course, this may be largely for the benefit of the many westerners (mostly Australians) living here. But the natives also seem to get into holiday cheer and revelry.

Although there was no Christmas celebration as such at Krou Yeung School, there was a holiday celebration to commemorate both Christmas and New Year’s. The students were allowed to wear civilian clothes rather than their customary uniforms, and some of them went very festive on the holiday garb.

With both our own branch of the school and the upstairs branch involved, it ended up lasting all day, with morning and afternoon sessions. Thus, there were no classes and we had most of the day free to catch up on some class planning.

Meanwhile, the kids had a long party in the auditorium, with songs and dances (some of the kids performed, as Kimberly had taught them, to “Frosty the Snowman” and “Jingle Bells”,) and there was a movie showing in both the morning and the afternoon. The morning film was a Mutant Ninja movie, while the afternoon offering was something in Khmer that we didn’t recognize. During both screenings, the students were able to munch on popcorn and other snacks they’d brought from home.

Also in December, we were able to move back into our old apartment — the one just below the one we’d been occupying since our return. Which meant that we’d be on the third floor instead of the fourth; of course, in Cambodia and certain other countries, the ground floor doesn’t count; so it was actually the fourth floor instead of the third. In any event, we had one fewer flight of stairs to schlep up.

When we arrived in August, that apartment was occupied by another English teacher, a pleasant woman from Pakistan, and her family. But they finally moved out, largely because there were persistent problems with the Internet. (We later learned how to reset it when it was derelict, which required not only restarting our own router out in the hall — which required standing on a chair — but also the one on the floor below us). After they moved out, we had to wait a couple of days to move in. We later heard that the landlord had claimed it took a lot of time to clean the place, because the occupants, being from Pakistan, were dirty. Which just goes to show that racism and prejudice are still in the lineup no matter what culture you’re in.

Anyway, we were back in “our” place. And then 2023 came tumbling to a halt; and, having completed our second full year as ex-pats, we were eager to launch into the third.

December 2023