If You were asked by your Cambodian friends to give him or her some suggestions on what foreign languages beside English that she or he should learn, what language would you suggest and why ?

if it was a cambodian friend i would probably say french or something, as there are a lot of french here

What do you think about German or Spanish ?

Samouth wrote:If You were asked by your Cambodian friends to give him or her some suggestions on what foreign languages beside English that she or he should learn, what language would you suggest and why ?

I'd say German. German is the only European language with a high ROI (return on investment) for learning it. Mainly because Germans (like the French and the British) aren't all that keen on learning other languages. Thus... people who learn German have a very good chance at landing a job with German companies seeking to bridge language gaps and German companies generally pay well and have great working conditions, etc.

It's also the only second language to offer a high chance of such employment... mainly because German colonies weren't as prevalent as other European colonies and they were made to hand them all over at the end of the First World War...

Spanish is really useful in business, it lets you connect with Latin America.

Samouth wrote:What do you think about German or Spanish ?

If your friend is a guy I would say Spanish.
The foreign languages I was forced to take were German, English and Latin.
Never got any “mogambo” with Latin. Never!

I always regretted not learning Spanish…oh the missed opportunities!
But Samouth, take this advice with a grain of salt as my mind is always on one thing (actually two things now, I’ve given up on rock n roll).

Question for Khmer and Thai members here.,,,, How easy is it to learn each others language and how many words are the same in both languages. I know some numerals are simular but as both countries were once a part of a large empire there must be a lot of spoken and written words that are the same ??

Duncan wrote:Question for Khmer and Thai members here.,,,, How easy is it to learn each others language and how many words are the same in both languages. I know some numerals are simular but as both countries were once a part of a large empire there must be a lot of spoken and written words that are the same ??

My Thai (now ex-) girlfriend lived here for a year and seemed to have no trouble picking up basic Khmer but I have to be fair, she did seem to be astoundingly good at languages speaking great English and Japanese as well as Thai.

I would suggest he learn Chinese. Their influence in this country/region is huge and second to no one . And its growing bigger day by day.

Chinese, Japanese or Korean. Spanish and French are good for travelling, but not for much else (though French is quite useful here, because of the high number of French businesses and expats). German is a business language more than anything. Given tbst there are relatively few German companies here that I know of, I wouldn't say it's a very useful language for a Cambodian to learn. Russian could potentially be useful if working in the service industry.

Given that most Cambodians will be learning for work rather than pleasure or travel, I would suggest Chinese, Korean or Japanese. What kind of work does your friend do or plan on doing? I think this would affect the language he or she should learn. Either way, I think focusing on Korean or Japanese is the way to go, as there are already tons of sino-khmers who speak fluent Chinese already (so tough competition for a non-native speaker).