British invasion

Phea asked me if I had any music on my ipod that was good for listening to english.  I said I did and would hook him up tomorrow, but didn't think about it too much. Later in the night we heard a Beatles song.  I asked him if he recognized the song or the band - he'd never heard either before.  Bingo. 

I gave him my ipod the next day with all the Beatles music (and a few others) and discussed their contribution to english rock 'n roll, plus their songs are in clearly spoken english.

That day a line was crossed that can never be reversed.  He sang along for as long as the ipod's batteries lasted, which is a hell of a long time to hold an attention span.  He understood the ones that are understandable (ie. Not "I am the walrus") - hey jude, hello goodbye, let it be, with a little help from your friends, in my life, rain, come together, dozens of others, and of course, revolution 9.  It was like watching magic happen.

I'm aware english culture isn't so pervasive it's everywhere, but it surprised me a 28 year old fairly fluent guy once you get past pronunciation) had never heard of them.  If I was running an english school, of which he went to many, TV and music and sing alongs would be a part of it - little radios and pirated music aren't exactly expensive here.

We decided that Hello, Goodbye was the best song for Cambodia - every little kid already knows it.