John Bingham wrote:It's perhaps understandable due to being stuck in a small area, and the lack of experience or any decent education about anything larger. What I find very disturbing is the lack of zeal for knowledge and the way people don't read much at all. Hopefully this situation will improve with time. With internet becoming more accessible there is some hope, but then again there is the problem that people will just believe any crap on there just because it's on a screen.

prahkeitouj wrote:

Samouth wrote:

prahkeitouj wrote:@ Samouth, I don't know if you only want to get answer from westerners or local too? To me, I just wonder why they seem very privacy?

Both are highly appreciated. You are right, i also feel that foreigners seem to be really private. Speaking from my experiences as i have a bunch of expats friends in Phnom Penh. Some of them are really open and some are not. Some would tell you everything about himself or herself and all the culture stuff back home which i like the most as we both could learn about the culture from each other.

I was asked a lot why do khmer people like taking pictures and post them all on Facebook. They actually just post pretty much everything on Facebook. You could also see that so many Cambodian put their real information on facebook and not to mention, they also check in everywhere they go. Not many foreigners especially westerners do all these things.

Yeah, they posted too much!!! Sometimes some friends ask me if I like their new picture yet? Hehehe...

Jamie_Lambo wrote:yeah one thing i notice with a lot of my cambodian friends, they will upload a selfie with a comment about what they are doing/feeling and then tag a large number of friends and ask them to like and comment on the photo.. usually looks something like this...

"today i happy/today i sad/today i have nothing to say, help lyk an cmt all fri.. With Jamie Lambo and 53 others"

Bitte_Kein_Lexus wrote:

Samouth wrote:Where did you get this statistic ? There are about 600 people in my facebook friend list and i have seen so many of them including my close friends always checked in wherever they go. They also posted pictures just about 10 or 15 minute after they arrived the place. I think it is not really good to always update where you are in. So what if there there are some people who want to harm you.

I should have been more clear: I meant that you and your friends represent a tiny proportion of Cambodians. There are just under 4 million Cambodians aged between 15-30. Of those, probably only 200 000 live in the city, but most Cambodians still don't have regular access to the internet and the country only has about a million and a half Facebook users. So yes, maybe you and your friends Check In to Chatime whenever you go there, but I mean it's not widespread yet to say that "Cambodians" do it.

But like I said, several of my friends in my home country also check in to places, and tons of teenagers back home also do it. Do Cambodian Facebook users do it more? I don't know, it's hard to say. I personally can't be bothered and don't see what the point is. To be honest, I came to Cambodia to get away from all that nonsense, so it's not like I'm going to start doing it now. I have well under a hundred friends on Facebook, and most of those are acquaintances. I remember thinking everything would change a few years ago once Khmers started getting smartphones and the internet, and then people started discovering Facebook. I knew it wouldn't take long before selfies and Checking In would start happening. I just prefer to share my moments with those around me, not over the internet to a bunch of people I barely know. No one needs to know I'm eating fried noodles at ORussei, or bubble tea at TT. I think things might change somewhat, as the internet is still a new technology here, and Checking In to places definitely tapered off in the west. A lot of them used to Check In 8+ years ago, but now very few of them do it. I suspect it's because the novelty of Checking In eventually wore off, but it could also be because my friends are growing older. Hard to say...

Samouth wrote:Asking people for how much they make is really disgrace for westerners and i always avoided not to ask about people's salary. However, it is not a really big deal for Cambodian, just recently when we seemed to be influenced by the west culture. Now people keep their salary as a secret. I am really okay for telling people how much i make. I really don't care for whatever reasons people asked me this question.

It's not really a big deal. I know it's just curiosity, so I brush the question aside and change the subject or tell them it depends on many factors (it doesn't). It doesn't bother me much when some villager in Kompong Thom asks me, but when some guy in Phnom Penh asks, I often think he should know better.

Samouth wrote:I think you met a lot of Cambodians who don't really give a shit discussing in something outside their surrounding which made you to generalise all Cambodians. I have nothing to argue with you as i have raised this issue in another thread. Most of Cambodians don't really know about the world and also their own country.

I don't understand what you mean here. I know I'm generalizing, the thread title says "in general"... I do think my analysis was pretty accurate, and I did say I've met many who were curious and wanted to expand their knowledge. Still, it's kind of hard to explain freezing temperatures, 4000m mountains and pine trees to someone who doesn't have a TV/books or has never felt cold... As John Bingham pointed out, most Cambodians seem totally surprised to learn that we don't grow (or eat) rice where I come from. They don't understand the concept of different temperatures/climates and that different foods are grown/eaten in different areas. I don't think it's laziness, just a lack of education and exposure to the outside world.

Samouth wrote:

Jamie_Lambo wrote:yeah one thing i notice with a lot of my cambodian friends, they will upload a selfie with a comment about what they are doing/feeling and then tag a large number of friends and ask them to like and comment on the photo.. usually looks something like this...

"today i happy/today i sad/today i have nothing to say, help lyk an cmt all fri.. With Jamie Lambo and 53 others"

It is good for you that they write in English otherwise you would be struggling reading khmer.

Samouth wrote:

Jamie_Lambo wrote:yeah one thing i notice with a lot of my cambodian friends, they will upload a selfie with a comment about what they are doing/feeling and then tag a large number of friends and ask them to like and comment on the photo.. usually looks something like this...

"today i happy/today i sad/today i have nothing to say, help lyk an cmt all fri.. With Jamie Lambo and 53 others"

It is good for you that they write in English otherwise you would be struggling reading khmer.

Jamie_Lambo wrote:yeah one thing i notice with a lot of my cambodian friends, they will upload a selfie with a comment about what they are doing/feeling and then tag a large number of friends and ask them to like and comment on the photo.. usually looks something like this...

"today i happy/today i sad/today i have nothing to say, help lyk an cmt all fri.. With Jamie Lambo and 53 others"

prahkeitouj wrote:

Jamie_Lambo wrote:yeah one thing i notice with a lot of my cambodian friends, they will upload a selfie with a comment about what they are doing/feeling and then tag a large number of friends and ask them to like and comment on the photo.. usually looks something like this...

"today i happy/today i sad/today i have nothing to say, help lyk an cmt all fri.. With Jamie Lambo and 53 others"

Hehe... they want to be super stars!!! : p

Jamie_Lambo wrote: "Pos pic with nop 70 mouy na.like n cmt phong — feeling loved with Kim Hean OK and 6 others."