Say What?!

I have been taking Khmer (Cambodian) language classes for 15 months.  Some people say "Oh, you must be fluent now!"  Ha...if only that were the truth!

Khmer is the third foreign language I have studied (after French and Kiswahili).  However it is the first language I have studied that does not use the Latin alphabet.  I am a visual learner - I have to see it to understand it - so learning to speak a language when I can't read or write the words has been a new experience for me.  To manage, I developed my own phonetic system to write down how each new word sounds.  But it is an imperfect system and I frequently have to go back and change my spelling of a word when I realize I had the pronunciation wrong.  I originally hoped to learn to read and write Khmer, but now I know that will be impossible in my remaining time in Cambodia.  It is a beautiful written language, yet it will remain a series of meaningless squiggles to me!

Written Khmer:  The dinner menu of a wedding I attended

I try to speak Khmer as much as possible.  But usually when I say something in Khmer, the other person responds in English.  Or worse, they respond in Khmer...and I have absolutely no idea what they've said!  Having a conversation in the quiet confines of my classroom with a teacher who speaks slowly and clearly is worlds away from trying to communicate with a shopkeeper who speaks quickly and in slang over the din of the marketplace!

But I will continue to take lessons and continue to try to speak and understand.  For a little bit of fun, you can see and hear me trying to speak Khmer.  The Embassy put together this fun video of American staff saying Khmer tongue twisters.  I'm at minute 0:30.