First some stuff about me: I am 19 years old now (i know, pretty young...), and I finished high school in Germany about one year ago. In september 2011, I came to Cambodia - to Siem Reap, to be precise - for doing some volunteering (teaching), which I really loved. I did this for 6 months, then I went travelling in the neighbouring countries, and now have been back to Germany for the last couple of weeks. Well, and what I would like to do now, is going back to Cambodia for some more time - maybe a year or so; because I just really really love the country and the people, and because I want to have some more experience with working abroad before I enroll at university.
What I would like to do most is teaching - but I cannot afford more volunteering, so I need to get a salary. I have already looked at some job advertisement on the internet (well, actually I have probably looked at every single Cambodian teaching job advertisement that exists on the internet) and sent some applications, but I have some serious disadvantages:
-I am not a native speaker
-I am young
-I do not have a university degree
-I do not have a lot of experience
-(and i am male, which seems to be the wrong sex at some schools)
-I do not have any connections that could get me a job, all my friends in Siem Reap were either locals students, local employees that work for companies that require their stuff to speak Khmer, or fellow volunteers. And in PP, I hardly know anybody...
on the other hand, I have some advantages, like
-My English is quite good, I am completely fluent and hardly making any mistakes (I am sure there are some slight ones in this post, though
). But a Cambodian would not be able to tell the difference between me and an Englishman.-I am doing a TEFL course right now, which will earn me a certificate after finishing
-I gained some teaching experience in Cambodia, so I know what is going on in the heads of Cambodian students, and how they differ from Europeans
-I know some Khmer - not enough for working in an office or something, but most of the times enough for an everyday conversation (and if I lived there again, I would make an effort to improve continuously, I am a d*mn quick learner when it comes to languages). Understanding Khmer is a big advantage in my opinion - first, because you can have a much better relationship with your students, they all love it when Teacher speaks Khmer, second, it enables you to communicate with your students when you teach beginners, and third, knowing the idioms and structures that appar in their language makes it much easier to react to their mistakes appropriately.
-I am willing to stay a year or so, not only some months
-I am motivated as h*ll,
-I am not picky when it comes to the salary or the location (I don't need to work in Siem Reap, as long as it is Cambodia, or even Southeast Asia in general
)unfortunately, I think most of the schools that i am sending applications to will just see the missing degrees and my age, and cross me off the list...
so, the reason why I am posting this here, is that I am hoping to get some advice from anyone who has some more experience than me. Can you think of any other way of trying to get jobs in Cambodia? Or do you think it would be easier for me to find a job in another sector? Do you know any institution that might employ someone like me? Do you have some hint how I could increace the chance that someone will employ me (except getting a BA and trying again 3 years later^^)?
Any advice is welcome! Thanks a lot in advance!
Michael
