Favourite sayings or expressions too get a response?
Re: Favourite sayings or expressions too get a response?
Anyone got an Aspirin?explorer wrote: ↑Sun Nov 17, 2019 11:17 pm 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.
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Re: Favourite sayings or expressions too get a response?
explorer wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 12:24 am 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.
Mean Dtuk Mean Trey, Mean Loy Mean Srey - Have water Have fish, Have money Have girls
Mean Dtuk Mean Trei, Mean Loy Mean Srey
Punchy McShortstacks School of Hard Knocks
Punchy McShortstacks School of Hard Knocks
Re: Favourite sayings or expressions too get a response?
This is a saying commonly used by foreigners, and some Cambodians now.Jamie_Lambo wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 5:34 pm Mean Dtuk Mean Trey, Mean Loy Mean Srey - Have water Have fish, Have money Have girls
In the good old days, the Cambodians used to say:
Mian dtuk mian trai, mian srai mian pro.
Which means:
Where you have water you have fish, where you have girls you have boys.
Those with a British accent can go by Jamie's spelling. Those with an Australian accent can go by mine. Neither are right or wrong.
## I thought I knew all the answers, but they changed all the questions. ##
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