Kenyon and I continue to struggle through learning Khmae (pronounced: K-my). Featured in this photo is our language teacher Panha. We have lanugage class three times a week. We are taking a conversational language course and have made it through basic greetings, giving and receiving directions, and shopping at the market. We have moved on to getting to know one another.
I am slowly remembering more and more words and the more I learn the easier it is to live here. I can now comfortably hop on the back of any moto and feel confident enough that I can tell the driver where to go (assuming I know the direction, there are still times I have to ask him to "please stop" so I can pull out my city map and make sure we are going the right way). Recently in the grocery store I was able to ask one of the clerks who did not speak good English if the fruit I wanted was ripe. She helped me pick a good one and I was proud of myself for achieving that level of conversation.
There is one area in my language learning that I am really stuck and struggling. Numbers. Numbers are going to be my demise. They are confusing on so many levels. I recently wrote an email on this topic to friends and family on my distribution list. One of my friends said on the phone the other day that she and her husband were laughing out loud when they read that part. They have lived overseas before and totally related to my experience. For those who read this blog, but don't get the emails, here is what I wrote:
The numbers are confusing. They don't have a number of 9 - instead they say 5-4 (pram boan). it goes on like that. So when you are saying something costs 14,539 riel, which is possible since it is approximately 4,000 reil for every dollar. So, that number would be the equivalent of about $3.64. the way it is said is 10,000-4,000-500-30-5-4 (dop mien-boan poen-pram roy-sam sup-pram-boan). By the time they get to 500 I am lost. I can't keep track of all the numbers. I just hand over some money, hope it's enough and hope they give me the right change in return.
Last week I discovered a new problem with language - time. I have found a regular moto driver to take me to and from work. He hangs out in front of my gate in the morning and I hop on the back of his moto. We'd been doing this a few days when I got the bright idea to ask him to come pick me up after work. He is a safe driver and I like that. He doesn't speak any English and I am still at the novice stage of learning Khmae. Seems like a relatively easy thing to do to say, "come back at 5:00 pm." This is when I made my mistake.
To say 5:00pm you would say "moan pram."
However, if you say "pram moan," that means 5 hours. If I told him to come back in 5 hours that wouldn't have been right. He would have been outside my office at 12:30 and I would have been at lunch.
I couldn't remember which one it was. We fumbled our way through and eventually figured it out and he was outside my office at 5:00pm.
The same trouble happens with weeks, months or years.
If I wanted to say I have been here for two months, I would say "pii khae." However, if I turn that around and say "khae pii" that means 2nd month which is also the same as February, but I haven't been here since February so I would have miscommunicated.
If I wanted to say I went to the Philippines two weeks ago, I would say "pii atit," but if I said it the other way "atit pii" I would be telling them I am going to the Philippines in two weeks. Such an easy mistake to make and yet so important when trying to communicate!
Have I mentioned that numbers are confusing? Will I ever learn this?
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