Favourite sayings or expressions too get a response?

Have questions or resources regarding Khmer Culture? This forum is all about the Kingdom of Cambodia's culture. Khmer language, Cambodian weddings, French influence, Cambodian architecture, Cambodian politics, Khmer customs, etc? This is the place. Living in Cambodia can cause you to experience a whole new level of culture shock, so feel free to talk about all things related to the Khmer people, and their traditions. And if you want something in Khmer script translated into English, you will probably find what you need.
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fax
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Re: Favourite sayings or expressions too get a response?

Post by fax »

philip.smith wrote: Sun Nov 17, 2019 4:34 pm just looking for stuff to get any response
Have you tried to say hello? It works pretty good for me. Responses include:

- Ha a u
- Helloooooo
- How long Jew stay Cambodia
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Re: Favourite sayings or expressions too get a response?

Post by Ravensnest »

hunter8 wrote: Sun Nov 17, 2019 4:21 pm K’daw bong reng ha-ei

This one works every time for me, but some missus’es with no sense of humor can give you a negative response. Still better than indifference 😁
okay, lol. my wife and I are laughing right now trying to figure out the "reng" part. My wife feels as though I should pronounce it as "leang"? as in "I cleaned my dick, time for action", is that correct?
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Re: Favourite sayings or expressions too get a response?

Post by hunter8 »

Ravensnest wrote: Sun Nov 17, 2019 6:58 pm
hunter8 wrote: Sun Nov 17, 2019 4:21 pm K’daw bong reng ha-ei

This one works every time for me, but some missus’es with no sense of humor can give you a negative response. Still better than indifference 😁
okay, lol. my wife and I are laughing right now trying to figure out the "reng" part. My wife feels as though I should pronounce it as "leng"? as in "I cleaned my dick", is that correct?
I meant the word “hard”, but there is no letter in english to write that vowel so i wrote “e” there 😀
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Re: Favourite sayings or expressions too get a response?

Post by Ravensnest »

hunter8 wrote: Sun Nov 17, 2019 7:02 pm
Ravensnest wrote: Sun Nov 17, 2019 6:58 pm
hunter8 wrote: Sun Nov 17, 2019 4:21 pm K’daw bong reng ha-ei

This one works every time for me, but some missus’es with no sense of humor can give you a negative response. Still better than indifference 😁
okay, lol. my wife and I are laughing right now trying to figure out the "reng" part. My wife feels as though I should pronounce it as "leng"? as in "I cleaned my dick", is that correct?
I meant the word “hard”, but there is no letter in english to write that vowel so i wrote “e” there 😀
gotcha on the vowel. you know how they like to shower before sex here, my wife got a kick out of what I said to her. An out of the blue- I cleaned my pecker, let's go...
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Re: Favourite sayings or expressions too get a response?

Post by explorer »

I joke with Cambodians a lot, and we normally have a lot of fun. But something which might be funny in one situation, might not be funny in another.

Recently I spent a fair bit of time with two fun loving sisters.

One of the girls asked me a question, where the answer was too difficult to explain.

So I said ពីព្រោះ (pee proo) which means because.

After that, when someone would ask a question, she would say ពីព្រោះ (pee proo).

After that happened a few times, someone asked me a question. I said បីព្រោះ (bai proo).

ពីរ (pee) is 2 (the រ is silent). បី (bai) is 3.

So instead of ពីព្រោះ (pee proo) 2 ព្រោះ (2 proo), it was 3 ព្រោះ (3 proo) (bai proo).

She had a good laugh. After that when someone asked a question she would say 3 ព្រោះ (3 proo) (bai proo).

As I said, in a different situation, it might not be funny.
## I thought I knew all the answers, but they changed all the questions. ##
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Re: Favourite sayings or expressions too get a response?

Post by explorer »

When you joke around, normally around 95% of people may think it is funny, and maybe 5% may not get the joke.

A common Khmer saying is: ចេះ មក ពី រៀន មាន មក ពី រក

Which means: To know how to comes from learning. To have comes from earning.

I sometimes say: ចេះ មក ពី រៀន មិន ចេះ មក ពី ខ្ជិល រៀន

Which means: To know how to comes from learning. To not know how to comes from being lazy to learn.

Occasionally, Cambodians with a sense of humour may say: ចេះ មក ពី រៀន មាន មក ពី បោក

Which means: To know how to comes from learning. To have comes from scamming.

Or: ចេះ មក ពី រៀន មាន មក ពី លួច

Which means: To know how to comes from learning. To have comes from stealing.

Yes, Cambodians know there is a fair bit of scamming and stealing in Cambodia, and some will joke about it.

One I made up, and often tell students: ឆ្លាត មក ពី ខំ រៀន ល្ងង់ មក ពី ខ្ជិល រៀន

Which means: To be intelligent comes from putting a lot of effort into learning. To be dumb comes from being lazy to learn.

On this forum, I often write the sound of Khmer words with English equivalent. But there are some words where you cant get the sound accurate with English letters.
## I thought I knew all the answers, but they changed all the questions. ##
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Re: Favourite sayings or expressions too get a response?

Post by Cooldude »

Mawt doy gerdoi gabai!
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Re: Favourite sayings or expressions too get a response?

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Re: Favourite sayings or expressions too get a response?

Post by Mishmash »

explorer wrote: Mon Nov 18, 2019 12:24 am

On this forum, I often write the sound of Khmer words with English equivalent. But there are some words where you cant get the sound accurate with English letters.
Good point - record the audio or a video and upload please. :beer3:
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Re: Favourite sayings or expressions too get a response?

Post by Phnom Poon »

pretty funny
learn vietnamese, on his own channel:

.

monstra mihi bona!
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