Cambodia Expats Online: Forum | News | Information | Blog

When a speaker tires of repeating something that the listeners. doggedly refuse to understand the speaker may say, " Yo ach trachiat cheng." That is " Get the shit out of your ears."

"Ach" is commonly used to refer to earwax or the "sleep" you rub from your eyes, "ach pnek."
Is it polite? Assuredly not, but they're human and it is used. Second idiom in a while.

There's some real earthy idioms around.
Did you see the book written by that French guy Alain Fressanges? A collection of idioms translated to English, French, and German.


Some greats including, "dol trawee, sawee goout."

When you reach the bank, you show your bottom. I think it can be interpreted in several ways.

"Kerñ domray juh, gom juh dam domray"

Understand how the elephant defecates, but don't defecate like an elephant.

Sent from my SM-J700F using Tapatalk

The second one Freud would really have enjoyed.
It is " chus ach kdab." I.e. to squeeze fistfuls of shit (tightly.) It is used for people who are cheap.

Ex: Nyom deung barangse mian, tai koat chus
ach kdab.

Trans: I know the foreigner is rich, but he's tightfisted.

I have been told that akun maka ploo means shit in your/ the front garden.
Used as a jovial / ironic way of saying thanks a lot.
I'm sure someone can tell me if this is correct or not.

Rick, thanks for that, for the time being the pickings are plentiful in my village. The first one was a bit hard to suss out but the local chas chas understood it as an expression of ingratitude. The second one presents no problems.

taabarang wrote: ↑Wed Jun 28, 2017 10:20 am When a speaker tires of repeating something that the listeners. doggedly refuse to understand the speaker may say, " Yo ach trachiat cheng." That is " Get the shit out of your ears."

"Ach" is commonly used to refer to earwax or the "sleep" you rub from your eyes, "ach pnek."
Is it polite? Assuredly not, but they're human and it is used. Second idiom in a while.

យកអាមច៍ត្រចៀកចេញ - Yok Ach Trachiat Chenh - Get/take earwax out

yeah and as you mention អាមច៍ - "Ach" means 'excrement, feces; waste products'

so yeah might be worth remembering this one hahaha

Hey if you get to Surin be sure to write about their Khmer.

taabarang wrote: ↑Wed Jun 28, 2017 12:54 pm Hey if you get to Surin be sure to write about their Khmer.

my Ex-Girlfriend is from Surin
got a lot of friends from South Isaan, some of their Khmer is actually really good

"some of their Khmer is actually really good."

So give a few examples of the "not so good" Khmer if you can. I'm totally ignorant about variations thereof, except for a bit I learned in SR.

taabarang wrote: ↑Wed Jun 28, 2017 4:39 pm "some of their Khmer is actually really good."

So give a few examples of the "not so good" Khmer if you can. I'm totally ignorant about variations thereof, except for a bit I learned in SR.

erm, they tend not to use the word 'Oun' but use 'Neang' instead, so for example they would say Bong srolanh neang, neang srolanh bong