I believe it was on another thread where a poster inquired if Cambodians understood sarcasm. I just heard a couple of expressions recently which to my way of thinking shows that they can excel at it if the right circumstances exist.

The first expression I heard expresses the impossibility to stamp out corruption which was the subject of an ongoing discussion when someone added, "Nau srok khmer sombai trey ngiet chhleat pong. Which i translate as, In Cambodia even sun dried salted fish will spawn. (note to grammarians, I know there is no future tense here. Further, I tried to translate it into colloquial English)

The second example happened when I was in a taxi to Suong. Some cowboy driver whizzed past us just missing our vehicle by a couple of inches and proceeded to continue driving in a reckless manner. Our driver swore and said, "koat pregnap choul wat" Which means he was in a hurry to get to the wat, not for religious services but to be cremated. i.e. he was driving to recklessly that he was going to his own funeral.

Hehe...

Wow, how come i didn't see this thread. This is a great thread and an example to help expats to understand that Cambodians also have sarcasm and irony. We do understand it. Please next time don't use an excuse, Because they don't understand irony.

I thought sarcasm was when you say one thing but mean the opposite. Like when I see GONK and say "That sideways hat looks really good on you."

Some Cambodians and luckily my in laws included have a 2nd degree humor referred as ngay doeu.
Could samouth or small salary explain more about it ?

Cam Nivag wrote:I thought sarcasm was when you say one thing but mean the opposite. Like when I see GONK and say "That sideways hat looks really good on you."

yeah i think they understand it when ever the girls are sat outside the bars heckling passers by with the "ohhhh, Handsome Man" when the guy they are saying it too are far from "handsome"

They always called me handsome, but hey....I am handsome !!!!

Barang_doa_slae wrote:Some Cambodians and luckily my in laws included have a 2nd degree humor referred as ngay doeu.
Could samouth or small salary explain more about it ?

I actually didn't get the first word. sorry.

I think the second word might be this one

1. ឌឺ ( adj ) [dɨɨ] - detail »
to be obstinate.

2. ឌឺ ( v ) [dɨɨ] - detail »
to persist; to oppose, resist; to defame, abuse, use bad language, curse

http://dictionary.tovnah.com/?q=%E1%9E% ... eria=start

Samouth wrote:

Barang_doa_slae wrote:Some Cambodians and luckily my in laws included have a 2nd degree humor referred as ngay doeu.
Could samouth or small salary explain more about it ?

I actually didn't get the first word. sorry.

I think the second word might be this one

1. ឌឺ ( adj ) [dɨɨ] - detail »
to be obstinate.

2. ឌឺ ( v ) [dɨɨ] - detail »
to persist; to oppose, resist; to defame, abuse, use bad language, curse

http://dictionary.tovnah.com/?q=%E1%9E% ... eria=start

Damn and I haven't got khmer script on my tablet... Even if I had I could make some mistake writing it anyway. Will check with my wife and come back to you with a picture of the word next week.

Maybe it is bad language, defamation etc... But I am under the impression that it is understood as 2nd degree, ironic way of talking