Khmer 101

At the market. (Photo credit: Ely S.)

I always wondered what it would be like to know another language. I figured it would be pretty awesome - you could have "secret" conversations with people and do all sorts of neat stuff. A year of Spanish taught me a bunch of things about how other people speak, but I still never felt like I could really hold a conversation with anyone in a second language. Learning another language for real was ever after on my bucket list!

At Adventist Frontier Mission's summer training last year, I spent a week finding out how to learn and become fluent in a second language. It was fascinating! I learned all sorts of things that have been valuable to me here as I try to learn how to understand the jibberish that people speak all around me. :)

It is quite an experience to plant yourself in the middle of people who speak a totally different language (and often very little or no English at all). It is humbling, to say the least; it is quite lonely at times; and it can be fascinating to learn little words here and there until you can start understanding at least the gist of what a conversation is about.

I have a long way to go before I can even hope to be mostly fluent in Khmer. But it's been neat to use the limited vocabulary I have to go to the market and speak with the sellers there, figuring out how to find things and get what I need. I learned important classroom words that often were of more effect with my 6th-graders than any English words would be. I got to visit with some little seller girls at Angkor Wat earlier this year, and that was definitely a brain-testing experience! (I wrote about the experience; you can read it here.) Listening to the Khmer church service and Sabbath School are also great language-learning opportunities, where I can try to look up Bible verses, sing songs, and figure out what the people are talking about.

With that, I will give you a short Khmer vocabulary lesson...

For starters, the French phonetics the Khmer use to spell out words in English are different than what we're normally used to. My student names are good examples of this (Sophall is So PALL; Thy is Tee; Punhah is Pbun YA; Chek is Jake; Pov is Pauw; etc). Everyone seems to have different English spellings for Khmer words. If you're trying to learn new words, spell them the way you think they sound! But of course, the best way to actually pronounce the words right is to know the Khmer spelling. That really adds a lot of understanding, as I've been discovering, while learning the consonants and vowels.

So, when I spell the following Khmer words for you, it's probably not going to be the same as someone else's spelling at all (and I'm exaggerating the spelling even more than how I normally do, so you can pronounce it better). But hopefully it'll give you the right idea!

Formal "hello/welcome" greeting - Jim reap sua (with your palms together in front of you).
How are you? - Sok sabay ot?
Thank you! - Akun!
You're welcome. - Min ay te.
Where did you come from? - Dtouw nek mo bi na? (or just "mo bi na?" for short; less proper)
I'm really scared. - Knyoum clayt (ay = eye) nah.

I like mangos. - Knyoum joljet svay.

What are you doing? - Dtouw nek twer avway?

Happy Sabbath! - Recreeay tngay borisot!

God bless you. - Som Preah pra tiempo dal nek.

Boa - color

Preah vihear - church (building)

Ba aym - sweet (tasting)

Loy - cool, awesome, neat!

Sa at - pretty, clean

Mut payek - friend

Ji moto - motorbike

La ah - good

Daik - sleep

Chngayn - delicious, yummy

Muay - one

Pbee - two

Pbai - three

Pbuen - four

Pbram - five

Pbram muay - six

Pbram pbee / pbram pbaul - seven

Pbram pbai - eight

Pbram buen - nine

Dopb - ten

Ma pbay - twenty

Sam sap - thirty

Sai sap - forty

Hau sap - fifty

Hok sap - sixty

Jet sap - seventy

Bet sap - eighty

Gau sap - ninety

Roy - one hundred

Boen - one thousand

I enjoyed spending time with the girls at Angkor Wat.
(Photo credit: Dan Serns)

Pathfinder leadership campout - a week of
re-culture-shock when I was surrounded by almost only Khmer.
(It helped me to understand more, though.)

Catchup (of Facebook and Instagram)

Two days ago marked seven months to the day that I arrived. I still remember that first day, those first months... a lot has happened and I've grown so much. God surely knew what He was doing when He put me here.

A good friend once told me that if you find yourself busy in one place, you can expect to be busy wherever you go. There's no escaping it. I think that's pretty accurate! I can't help but get involved in many things, and as a result I've had plenty to do. So much, in fact, that my inbox and blog have gone rather neglected. I feel bad, but at the same time, I recognize that life (and especially life in God's service) is about more than the digital world. Unfortunately, people who are busy can't always keep everyone adequately up to date. But I also know that it is important for those at home to know I'm alive, well, and still doing what I said I'd be doing. :) Therefore, this post. Though other ports of access have not generated many responses, I've kept fairly recent on Facebook and Instagram. They only require short blips to let people know what I'm up to! But for those who haven't seen some or any of those updates, I decided I'd make a post just for you. Following is an abbreviated chronicle of my life from October 2013 through March 2014. :)

October

My crazy but absolutely lovable kids.

November

(It arrived safely!)

One of my faithful in-classroom translators, Nak.
We have a great time figuring stuff out!

To this day, it's been my only time driving a motorbike.
I plan to change that during Khmer New Year
when I have time to practice!!

December

Christmas program, Karen style. :)

Having fun with these little guys on holiday!

January

We visited a nearby mountain with old temple ruins on top.

My violin enthusiast, Sann.
(someone recently donated a half-size violin and he loves it!!)

If you'd like to watch this, you can here.

February

They definitely figured out how to put a smile on my face. :)

A very awesome collage a fellow volunteer made for me on my birthday!

I adore these grade-6-ers...

March

Practicing my Khmer... although I forgot a character. :P
Someday I'll get this language learned. :) (It's supposed to say
knoum sraulein neak - I love you)

Two sweet boys on top of "Mount Everest"
which is actually a termite mound.

I very much enjoyed spending time with some
real genuine American kids!

(I'm also having a terrible time with the month subheaders so please forgive me for just sticking this up even though they're not perfect!)