Learning Khmer

Before coming to Cambodia I’d had almost no exposure to any language besides English; I took three years of Spanish and can say ‘halbo un poco.’ I figured most people would speak English here and I was right.

I can survive without speaking a word of Khmer so long as I point a lot.

However, I’m living in a suite in Jim’s private clinic, Chenda. Chenda has four suites for guests and a large room where some of the doctors and nurses sleep. Besides an elderly Australian couple, all of my housemates are Khmer.

After several weeks, sitting in silence as Dr Chuang and Sokney spoke rapidly in another language I realized that I wanted to understand them.

Everyone at Chenda has made an effort to include me. But the surgeons studied in France and speak French better than they speak English. Some of the nurses speak good English but others know only a few words.

And no one speaks English as you and I know it. The Khmer speak with different sound than we do and use a different part of their mouths to make these sounds. Also, the Khmer just insert English words in a Khmer sentence structure.

For example: I would say: “We’re talking about whether we should go to it.”

A Khmer would say. “We talk whether we should go it.”

The first weeks I had to concentrate very hard to understand what people were trying to tell me. By night I was completely exhausted from the effort of communicating.

I practiced speaking the words, but  couldn’t pronounce them very well for the same reasons Khmer have trouble pronouncing English. But, in the evenings I had nothing better to do so I practiced anyway.

One night, two weeks ago, I went on a long walk. I repeated all the words I knew over and over. I tried to make the sounds a Khmer makes. I started to use the back of my tongue to make sounds and it sounded right. I spoke to a motto driver in Khmer and he actually understood.

I was so excited that when I got home to Chenda, I ran upstairs, woke Dr. Theara and began reciting every Khmer word I knew. He laughed at me and told me I was clever and that he needed to go to sleep. I was still excited so I waited for Dr. Chuang to come home to talk to him.

I ran around singing ‘Knyom ban neyou! Knyom ban neyou!”

I can speak! I can speak!

Dr. Chuang laughed to.

“Yes, can!” he said in English.

It was like I’d been living in the dark and I’d gotten a glimpse of daylight. I started practicing Khmer as much as possible, which means I practice a lot. I spend a few hours a day speaking with patients as they wait for treatment.

CSC’s IT manager Rathana teaches me new words and phrases. If I’m speaking to someone and don’t know a word I run to Rathana and write the word in English and he writes it in Khmer. Then I run back and practice more.

Last week I could only say simple sentences. Now I can hold simple conversations. It’s easier to speak than it is to understand what is said to me. But I can understand the gist of what people tell me even without knowing every word.

It feels like I’m learning very slowly because I still can’t say everything I want or understand as well as I’d like. But yesterday, when I met a French man on the street, we discovered we could speak to each other in Khmer easier than in English.

It’s been a good experience to be immersed in another language. Khmer is a relatively simple language compared to English, and I have a lot of respect for the people who come to America and learn. Perhaps they don’t always speak clearly and they don’t use the same sentence structure you use, but I think we have to appreciate that they’re trying to understand.