Last Language Lesson

Today we came one step closer to the end of ICT (In-Country Training) by having our last language lesson. Despite the normal frustrations one faces when learning a new language, lacking confidence and pure inability on my part to do self-study, I am quite impressed with how much I have learnt. I entered the country, able to count to 10 in the Khmer language and now, not even 8 weeks later, I can say so much! I know about 100 verbs, loads more nouns and adjectives, the numbers up to 100 and beyond, how to ask different questions, give directions, describe my family, tell the time and say what colour hat I am wearing! I can speak in the simple present, past and future tense too! How exciting!!

It hasn’t been easy, especially sharing a class with some very intelligent students who like to nit-pick apart every sentence construction we’ve been taught (not my preferred learning style at all unfortunately!) and I’m quite glad it has come to an end as I think my brain is completely full to bursting! The next problem is being understood in my placement when I try all this newly acquired language out on unsuspecting members of the public. Not that I haven’t already been doing that here in Kampong Cham of course! I have regularly spoken Khmer to the internet shop man, the bread sellers and market stall traders and the family who sell me coconuts, but as we are in the third largest city in Cambodia at the moment, all these people are more used to helping out the barangs with their pathetic attempts to use the language. I’m not sure my neighbours and colleagues in Phnom Srok will be as patient!! Fingers crossed!

We have had great fun with our language teacher too and driven him crazy with our weird and whacky sentences such as ‘Please could I buy 2 carrots’ and ‘there are no dragons here’ and ‘it is what it is’ – you probably had to be there – so we presented Mr Khamdy with a selection of goodies which reminded us of him and also created a card/book of all our favourite quotes! He loved it and was really chuffed and told us we were his best class in the 2 years he has taught for VSO. We were chuffed too by his comments as we had heard that in Cambodia you usually have to pay to get comments like that! VSO are very considerate about our needs as language learners and are giving us an allowance to find a language teacher in our placements if we so wish as well as bringing us back together in Kampong Cham in January for another 2 weeks training! Although I’m sure by then I’ll be fluent!