What are the most common English mistakes that Khmers make?
- vladimir
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Damn, forgot the pronouns thing. andy is right.
One sentence sums it up.
What did you do yesterday?
Yesterday I go market buy eye.
One sentence sums it up.
What did you do yesterday?
Yesterday I go market buy eye.
ירי ילדים והפצצת אזרחים דורש אומץ, כמו גם הטרדה מינית של עובדי ההוראה.
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- I Have Not Been Outside Today
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Good post. Vladimir also talks about the "I go market yesterday" problem, which is because very few Asian languages inflect the verb to signify a change in tense; most just use time markers instead.andyinasia wrote:You touched on the main 2: the final consonant sounds and especially 's sounds being cut, and the non-conjugation of verbs. Another one might be use of pronouns. I never became adequately conversant in Khmer, but I learned enough to see from the perspective of an English teacher what the causes are.
Cambodians of course learn their native tongue in their mothers' arms, and thereby learn habits that run exceedingly deep. Pronouncing words is one of those habits. Khmer in general cuts final consonant sounds, and the Phnom Penh dialect takes it a degree further. I find that the most highly educated Khmers I know, including those with legitimate overseas PhDs still fall into the trap unless consciously making the effort.
Think about this linguistic analysis: English and other Aryan-family languages focus on consonants.You've seen exercises where all the vowels are removed from a passage yet it's still comprehensible. Furthermore, when you look deeply into different regional and national English accents, you'll see it's the vowel sounds that differ; consonants are fairly constant.
In East Asian languages the opposite is true - people can cut the consonant sounds and still be mutually comprehensible so long as the vowel sounds are articulated clearly. There are more vowel sounds than we Westerners are used to; hence, we get flustered when we think we've pronounced a Khmer phrase perfectly clearly and are met with blank looks. The consonants were fine, and the vowels sounded fine to our ears, but were a bit off to a Khmer and so our pronunciation was actually too awful to be understood.
With my lower level students I do a lot of listening work and it is interesting (if frustrating) to note how they just don't HEAR the 's' sound in a plural. I can replay a phrase a dozen times and they just don't hear it! As I say, at the highest levels they hear and they know, but the sound just doesn't emanate from their mouths. What I'm saying is that this is exactly the same with some of the subtle vowel sounds Khmer has that English doesn't have when we are speaking Khmer.
Then there are verbs. Verb tenses do exist in Khmer but colloquially they're not used so much and most students I've known admit to being hopeless at Khmer grammar. People perfectly adequately get by with 'I go', 'I go already', 'I go tomorrow'. Therefore, thinking about appropriate tenses doesn't come naturally and even at the highest levels I constantly find uncertainty over whether to use present simple, past simple or present perfect. I'm not even talking about getting the forms correct - just the right decision over which tense to choose.
Finally, I mention pronouns, which is a wholly different logic. When a Khmer says 'bong'- do they mean you or me? Same with 'oan'. There's this whole hierarchical/formal/familial logic to engage with. So if they're transliterating the Khmer logic to English, it will go awry.
This was essential reading on the CELTA course many moons ago (it probably still is) and covers both Vietnamese and Thai problems, but not Khmer: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Learner-English ... 0521779391
This is very useful info to know, for everyone. First time i went to BKK i could never work out why cabbies never seemed to understand "World Trade Centre" It's a big place, lots of farangs go there, it's central. I would have to repeat it 4-5 times taking great efforts to pronounce it perfectly (no i didn't say it increasingly slowly or at higher volume just clearly) Then someone told me just ask for "wurl trey" Bingo they understand
Still is and like a total knob for my CELTA "Focus on the learner" assignment i chose an Albanian student as the topic. Like Khmer also not coverederictheking wrote: This was essential reading on the CELTA course many moons ago (it probably still is)
- vladimir
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scobienz et al who can afford the wine and cheese night:
Don't ask for InterContinental Hotel.
Ask for Tay Bun Rong (owner's name)
As Dire Straits would say, Money Talks.
Thank you, you fecking Chinks.
Don't ask for InterContinental Hotel.
Ask for Tay Bun Rong (owner's name)
As Dire Straits would say, Money Talks.
Thank you, you fecking Chinks.
ירי ילדים והפצצת אזרחים דורש אומץ, כמו גם הטרדה מינית של עובדי ההוראה.
- Barang_doa_slae
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You forgot speaking about Jackie Chan, it will only draw blank stares. Speak about chalong... Bingovladimir wrote:scobienz et al who can afford the wine and cheese night:
Don't ask for InterContinental Hotel.
Ask for Tay Bun Rong (owner's name)
As Dire Straits would say, Money Talks.
Thank you, you fecking Chinks.
- Petrol Head
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' I go first'.
' staffs'
'Equipments'
Grrrrr!
' staffs'
'Equipments'
Grrrrr!
Haha - my money’s on Playboy
- Starving Pelican
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Sounds like Singaporean English. There's a radio show here in which the (local) presenters discuss the most common errors locals make, and plural usage comes up surprisingly often. Also:Petrol Head wrote:' I go first'.
' staffs'
'Equipments'
Grrrrr!
"Ok for you?"
"Traffic light, turn left" (vs. Turn left at the traffic light)
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Definitely this one. And they also use "I am" when they should use "I have/had". I even saw a Khmer teacher of English write "I'm sore throat" on a sick leave form.gavinmac wrote: Another once I've noticed, especially in text messages/Facebook chat, is that they overuse "I'm" when they should just say "I." Like "I'm can't go to the store now."
I've also heard someone say "I'm diarrhea".
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I had the same problem myself when I lived in Bangkok. After about 50 cab rides to Central Plaza, I figured it out.ziggy1001 wrote:This is very useful info to know, for everyone. First time i went to BKK i could never work out why cabbies never seemed to understand "World Trade Centre" It's a big place, lots of farangs go there, it's central. I would have to repeat it 4-5 times taking great efforts to pronounce it perfectly (no i didn't say it increasingly slowly or at higher volume just clearly) Then someone told me just ask for "wurl trey" Bingo they understand
Thais pronounce the final L of any English word like an N. This is something that I think comes from the Thai language.
Therefore Center sounds something like "centen". Michael sounds like Miken.
Sp-r-r-r-ry = Sprite
Cock = Coke
Cock = Coke
Meum est propositum in taberna mori,
ut sint Guinness proxima morientis ori.
tunc cantabunt letius angelorum chori:
"Sit Deus propitius huic potatori."
ut sint Guinness proxima morientis ori.
tunc cantabunt letius angelorum chori:
"Sit Deus propitius huic potatori."
- vladimir
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Once they've learnt the word 'moreover', you can NOT stop them from using it in their writing.
'I go to shopping'.
Khmer is far more economical/practical than English.
'I go to shopping'.
Khmer is far more economical/practical than English.
ירי ילדים והפצצת אזרחים דורש אומץ, כמו גם הטרדה מינית של עובדי ההוראה.
- Felgerkarb
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The chopping off the end of words with the voiced S is common because in Khmer there is no final voiced S sound.
====================
Why are the gods such vicious cunts?
Where is the god of tits and wine?
Why are the gods such vicious cunts?
Where is the god of tits and wine?
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