The last two months have been uneventful. I've been doing exactly what I was doing two months ago--teaching my two morning classes and taking Khmer lessons in the afternoon. Not that much to report.
About the only noteworthy thing is the classroom rebellion I had to put down after our first exam. My classes didn't score very highly, and apparently banded together insisting that it was all my fault for "speaking too fast, not leaving time for questions, and not being buddy-buddy with the students". The first two charges were bullshit, and I told my supervisor so. The third one is ridiculously true--I am no one's buddy, especially in situations in which I am the responsible adult. Moreover, that has nothing to do with exam scores.
In the end, the students with grievances changed classes. Good riddance. I'm pretty sure this is what happens when you establish a class presidency like I griped about at an earlier date. Everyone plots against everyone else; I know so, because literally every other teacher has had to deal with the same thing this term. The students now have a sense of solidarity; the new management is using it to keep us in check.
I swear, though, this used to be a good place to work! It's been like my favorite job ever--I wish all this piddly shit would go away. I find it ironic in the extreme that I made it through two years of extreme illness, bad temper, and physical inability to work without receiving a single complaint. Now that I'm healthy...well...
In other news, I've nearly finished the first book in my Khmer lessons (there are 5 total). That means I'm almost not a beginner anymore! Isn't that wonderful? After 2 years of ignorance, I'm finally almost not a beginner anymore! I'm really glad I'm taking lessons with a human being (rather than a CD or podcast), because language is pretty easy to learn when you don't have to memorize and hear only limited dialogue. It's also nice to be able to interact rather than being force-fed grammatical rules.
An hour a day isn't much, but at least I can now navigate the city in Khmer, and can kind of understand some of the things people say to me. Sometimes.
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