BENTON NATIVE TO TEACH ENGLISH IN CAMBODIA

Cambodia is a long way from home for Benton, Mo., native Darryl Record, but he couldn't pass up the opportunity to go there to teach English and build bridges between Cambodians and Americans along the way.

"It's so awesome to be able to serve somewhere where you can make such a difference in people's lives," said Record, a graduate of Kelly High School. "I'll be able to impact people just by my presence."

Record will begin his two-year assignment in Cambodia at the end of August. He will go there as a member of a non-profit organization that sends Christians to teach English in Asian countries.

Record said this is one of the first times such a group from the United States has been invited to Cambodia, which in the early 1990s began to emerge from three decades of turmoil and has only had full peace since 1998.

Record, who received a bachelor's degree in political science and Spanish from Truman State University, will teach English at a university in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.

"Only about 1 percent of the people in Cambodia go on to higher education, so I'll be teaching the top 1 percent," Record said. "These are the people who will make a big difference in the lives of those around them."

Record has lived in the northern Missouri town of Milan, the last year teaching English to school-age children of Hispanics who went to that area to work at the corporate pig farms.

Record said he learned a valuable lesson there that he hopes will be true in Cambodia as well.

"When I began that job, I had preconceived ideas of Hispanics, but those ideas changed as I taught them, lived with them, played with them," Record said.

He said chances are Cambodians have preconceived ideas about Americans and their view of us may not be that flattering.

"Views change as you go from being viewed as a group to people to friends," Record said. "I hope the students' views of Americans and Christians will change."

Record said he thinks this is likely, especially because he will be going there as a volunteer.

"There may be a group you don't like, but if one of them shows up on your front lawn raking leaves, you have to second guess what you thought they were like," he said.

Record sees his efforts as touching a lot of people, especially when you multiply the impact he could have by the 150 or more students he will teach and the people his students have contact with.

Record is conversational in Spanish, which helped at his job in Milan. However, he doesn't speak Khmer, the language of Cambodia.

He doesn't foresee this being a problem.

"Most of the people I will teach have had several years of English. They just need help in becoming conversational," Record said.

Also, Record said, he is training in teaching English as a second language, which uses pictures and other techniques to get the language across.

"The idea is to be able to teach to a classroom with five or six different languages, even if you don't know any of those languages" he said. He compared it to teaching language to infants.

"You don't have to talk baby talk. You just hold up an object and say, Ball," Record said.

Record said there are some risks involved in travel to the Southeast Asian country, but the government has been stable for the past two years.

"We are going in at the invitation of the government, so I think they'll do what they can to protect us," he said.

Record said the initial response of his parents, Roger and Constance Record of Benton, was that he was crazy to give up a good job in a town he liked to travel half way around the world for a non-profit group in which he has to find his own sponsors.

When you put it that way, Record said, it does sound kind of crazy. But after he explained the program and the impact he could have on people and the opportunity being presented, Record said his parents have been very supportive.

This summer, Record has been working to find sponsors and raise donations to cover the $22,000 to $24,000 per year it will cost for him to live in Cambodia. He has raised most of the $6,000 he needs to begin the assignment and has about one-third of the monthly pledges he needs.

For more information or to learn how to make a donation, contact Record by calling (660) 265-5003, e-mailing darrylrecord@yahoo.com or writing 309 E. Sixth St., Milan, Mo. 63556.