Samouth wrote:

StroppyChops wrote:

Samouth wrote:

StroppyChops wrote:

Samouth wrote:He learned khmer even before he came to Cambodia.

That's impressive.

He was a missionary in Cambodia 16 years ago. He needed to study khmer before he came to spread out good news in Cambodia. He studied khmer in the state for 2 years. Then, he came to work as missionary in Cambodia, for the first few years he lived in the provinces and used khmer on daily basis with villagers and churches. He then got a khmer wife. So he could learn khmer even better. I think he could speak and write khmer fluently after lived her for 5 years. Then, he got a job in one of the Christian NGO ( the one i am currently working with) as a country director. He spoke khmer to us most of the time. He just finished the contract with the NGO and went back to the state with his family.

That makes sense. Also, America has many more Khmer-speaking (and writing) people, I assume.

He is not Mormons. Most Mormons missionary speak khmer fluently. I wonder how many Americans here can write and speak decent khmer.

I had a lot of Mormons in my high school. They're weird as fuck, but they're usually excellent students.

I think there are some reasons why they are so good in learning. They might had been taught to behave properly. Mormons is as conservative as Cambodia culture.

I speak fluent Khmer. I'm technically American (I have the passport), though having never lived there, I don't really consider myself American.

BTW, stroppy, the alphabet you learned is likely the "aksoh chra", which means something like "drawn like art". It is a bit confusing as some businesses will use that lettering, others use the more informal writing style. Sometimes there are similarities between the two, while some letters are completely different.

Bitte_Kein_Lexus wrote:I speak fluent Khmer. I'm technically American (I have the passport), though having never lived there, I don't really consider myself American.

BTW, stroppy, the alphabet you learned is likely the "aksoh chra", which means something like "drawn like art". It is a bit confusing as some businesses will use that lettering, others use the more informal writing style. Sometimes there are similarities between the two, while some letters are completely different.

I hope this is not another joke.

who cares if any Barang can read an write Khmer??
most likely 50% of the Locals cant.

not only that but, its a dead language with less than 16 million, only .24% of the worlds population using it

If your going to learn a language for business/travel i suggest;
1. English Spoken by 5.4% of the world
2. Chinese 14%
3. Spanish 6.5%
4. Hindi 4.7%
5, Arabic 4.43%

List of territorial entities where English is an official language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_t ... l_language

Not a joke.

Bitte_Kein_Lexus wrote:BTW, stroppy, the alphabet you learned is likely the "aksoh chra", which means something like "drawn like art".

I've been told that, although we are learning from school texts (which coincidentally are inconsistent). As it turns out, learning written form as we learn vocabulary has not been a good idea, but we knew that going in.

phuketrichard wrote:who cares if any Barang can read an write Khmer?

Those of us that make the effort. If it all possible, stop being a knob.

Bitte_Kein_Lexus wrote:I speak fluent Khmer. I'm technically American (I have the passport), though having never lived there, I don't really consider myself American.

BTW, stroppy, the alphabet you learned is likely the "aksoh chra", which means something like "drawn like art". It is a bit confusing as some businesses will use that lettering, others use the more informal writing style. Sometimes there are similarities between the two, while some letters are completely different.

Is one of your parent from USA? To be honest, i have guessed that you are from OZ, don't know if it is true. Great that you speak khmer. I guess you must have put a lot of effort into it. It ain't easy to learn.

phuketrichard wrote:who cares if any Barang can read an write Khmer??
most likely 50% of the Locals cant.

not only that but, its a dead language with less than 16 million, only .24% of the worlds population using it

If your going to learn a language for business/travel i suggest;
1. English Spoken by 5.4% of the world
2. Chinese 14%
3. Spanish 6.5%
4. Hindi 4.7%
5, Arabic 4.43%

List of territorial entities where English is an official language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_t ... l_language

Thanks for the link. i actually just read that link this morning. I was searching about the spoken languages in the state. I am happy as it also included Khmer/Cambodian. Moreover, i was trying to find out why English become the official language of the United State while there are so many Spanish speakers there and it is also known as the second spoken language in the state. Historically, most white Americans came from European countries and have their own mother tongue.

You are right. There are not so many reasons to spend your time to learn khmer, however since you are living here. It is such a good way to impress that you appreciate the country, people, culture and language. In the future, if i end up living somewhere outside Cambodia, i will learn the official language of that country. Saying so, i am assuming that you don't speak khmer and you have never gotten the feeling that khmer praise you for speaking their language.