Khmer language school / teachers in PP?
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Khmer language school / teachers in PP?
Hi, I'm planning to spend a week or two later this year working on my Khmer in Phnom Penh. I've been already studying for a bit on my own, I'm probably at an intermediate level. Can anybody recommend a language school or teacher? I'm looking at taking about 3-4 private lessons per day. Thanks
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if you say youve only already been studying on your own for a bit, i find it hard to believe you would be at an intermediate level yet, Khmer is a complex language, i guess some people pick it up easier than others, good luck anyway, ill be keeping an eye on this thread as ill be looking for a teacher to give help me advance even more if i move up to PPtangerinemogul wrote:Hi, I'm planning to spend a week or two later this year working on my Khmer in Phnom Penh. I've been already studying for a bit on my own, I'm probably at an intermediate level. Can anybody recommend a language school or teacher? I'm looking at taking about 3-4 private lessons per day. Thanks
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Khmer definitely isn't complex by any means. Grammar is almost non-existent so can be picked up quickly by anyone who has studied other languages in the past. Pronunciation poses the biggest problem for most foreigners, but Khmers will typically understand you unless you really mess up a word. Not sure if the OP lived in Cambodia or not though. Are you in the countryside somewhere, or are you still in your home country?
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Yeah, I agree. I think it's difficult rather than complex (but I think any language would be difficult for me - not sure how difficult it would be for an accomplished linguist).LexusSchmexus wrote:Khmer definitely isn't complex by any means. Grammar is almost non-existent so can be picked up quickly by anyone who has studied other languages in the past. Pronunciation poses the biggest problem for most foreigners, but Khmers will typically understand you unless you really mess up a word. Not sure if the OP lived in Cambodia or not though. Are you in the countryside somewhere, or are you still in your home country?
Difficult (for me) due to the different script and range of 'new' sounds. Difficult also due to the lack of teachers with good teaching skills and resources.
Learning Khmer outside Cambodia is a mistake in my view (unless you have access to a Khmer Community). I would have made so many pronunciation mistakes without a local to correct me & I think it would have been very difficult to 'unlearn' some of those mistakes,
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Thanks for the responses so far. I'm currently in my home country, and ok, maybe I'm still a beginner
I've seen khmerfriends before but they are Christian. I would prefer to find a school which isn't religious.
A Google search turns up a few schools, but firsthand recommendations are often better, so that's why I was asking here.
I've seen khmerfriends before but they are Christian. I would prefer to find a school which isn't religious.
A Google search turns up a few schools, but firsthand recommendations are often better, so that's why I was asking here.
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how is a language with 33 consonants, Sub consonants + 23 dependent vowels and 13 independent vowels not considered complex? if it wasnt complex then why isnt there a direct romanization of the language? that is one reason why its a difficult language to learnKhmerhamster wrote:Yeah, I agree. I think it's difficult rather than complex (but I think any language would be difficult for me - not sure how difficult it would be for an accomplished linguist).LexusSchmexus wrote:Khmer definitely isn't complex by any means. Grammar is almost non-existent so can be picked up quickly by anyone who has studied other languages in the past. Pronunciation poses the biggest problem for most foreigners, but Khmers will typically understand you unless you really mess up a word. Not sure if the OP lived in Cambodia or not though. Are you in the countryside somewhere, or are you still in your home country?
Difficult (for me) due to the different script and range of 'new' sounds. Difficult also due to the lack of teachers with good teaching skills and resources.
Learning Khmer outside Cambodia is a mistake in my view (unless you have access to a Khmer Community). I would have made so many pronunciation mistakes without a local to correct me & I think it would have been very difficult to 'unlearn' some of those mistakes,
and as mentioned you do need to be in a khmer environment in order to learn the sounds/pronunciations correct
@OP, haha yeah, when you start to learn more/dig deeper, you will open up so many cans of worms, but it is a fun language to learn, especially once youve got the hang of it, the response you get from the locals
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Compare Khmer grammar with English grammar. It is simple in comparison.Jamie_Lambo wrote:how is a language with 33 consonants, Sub consonants + 23 dependent vowels and 13 independent vowels not considered complex? :Khmerhamster wrote:Yeah, I agree. I think it's difficult rather than complex (but I think any language would be difficult for me - not sure how difficult it would be for an accomplished linguist).LexusSchmexus wrote:Khmer definitely isn't complex by any means. Grammar is almost non-existent so can be picked up quickly by anyone who has studied other languages in the past. Pronunciation poses the biggest problem for most foreigners, but Khmers will typically understand you unless you really mess up a word. Not sure if the OP lived in Cambodia or not though. Are you in the countryside somewhere, or are you still in your home country?
Difficult (for me) due to the different script and range of 'new' sounds. Difficult also due to the lack of teachers with good teaching skills and resources.
Learning Khmer outside Cambodia is a mistake in my view (unless you have access to a Khmer Community). I would have made so many pronunciation mistakes without a local to correct me & I think it would have been very difficult to 'unlearn' some of those mistakes,
Look at exceptions in English - eg different sounds for same letters, 'ch' chemistry or church.
Khmer has few exceptions.
I didn't say it was easy... But once you have learned the alphabet you can pronounce pretty much any word. Unlike English.
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I wouldn't necessarily agree with that, and I think that there are a lot of exceptions. There are so many borrowed words from Pali and Sanskrit that make it very difficult to properly pronounce what you read. There are also several words that are spoken differently than they appear; an easy example is a two character word, មក, "to come." That looks like it should be "moke", but is "mook", however people usually say "mao".Khmerhamster wrote: Compare Khmer grammar with English grammar. It is simple in comparison.
Look at exceptions in English - eg different sounds for same letters, 'ch' chemistry or church.
Khmer has few exceptions.
I didn't say it was easy... But once you have learned the alphabet you can pronounce pretty much any word. Unlike English.
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Yes there are exceptions - but compared to English???? Surely it follows rules better than English.Miguelito wrote:I wouldn't necessarily agree with that, and I think that there are a lot of exceptions. There are so many borrowed words from Pali and Sanskrit that make it very difficult to properly pronounce what you read. There are also several words that are spoken differently than they appear; an easy example is a two character word, មក, "to come." That looks like it should be "moke", but is "mook", however people usually say "mao".Khmerhamster wrote: Compare Khmer grammar with English grammar. It is simple in comparison.
Look at exceptions in English - eg different sounds for same letters, 'ch' chemistry or church.
Khmer has few exceptions.
I didn't say it was easy... But once you have learned the alphabet you can pronounce pretty much any word. Unlike English.
The word 'to come' I'm not sure but are you not just contrasting dialects, accents and slang? Is that a language difference or exception?
You are right in what you say but I am contrasting the relative complexity with English. Just my opinion....
Also compare the number of words in the Khmer vocabulary with the English vocabulary. I don't have the facts to hand but I'd guess Khmer has a fraction of the number of English words.
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I wouldn't be surprised if there were more words in Khmer than English - just think about how many ways they have to say "to eat." They have such different levels of speaking based on formalities, I feel like whenever I'm learning a word, I need to learn two that mean the same thing.Khmerhamster wrote:You are right in what you say but I am contrasting the relative complexity with English. Just my opinion....
Also compare the number of words in the Khmer vocabulary with the English vocabulary. I don't have the facts to hand but I'd guess Khmer has a fraction of the number of English words.
English does have a lot of exceptions, I certainly give you that, but I find it a lot easier to grasp than German or Russian (I've never studied Chinese or Japanese but I would presume those aren't easy either). I think every language has its own challenges, for that neither Khmer nor English is unique.
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Fair enough - I'm admittedly out of my depth here as I can't contrast to other languages. I can only compare to English.Miguelito wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if there were more words in Khmer than English - just think about how many ways they have to say "to eat." They have such different levels of speaking based on formalities, I feel like whenever I'm learning a word, I need to learn two that mean the same thing.Khmerhamster wrote:You are right in what you say but I am contrasting the relative complexity with English. Just my opinion....
Also compare the number of words in the Khmer vocabulary with the English vocabulary. I don't have the facts to hand but I'd guess Khmer has a fraction of the number of English words.
English does have a lot of exceptions, I certainly give you that, but I find it a lot easier to grasp than German or Russian (I've never studied Chinese or Japanese but I would presume those aren't easy either). I think every language has its own challenges, for that neither Khmer nor English is unique.
I think I read somewhere that the number of words in Khmer is much lower than English. I'll see if I can dig it out. Just think of the number of compound words eg ambulance & toilet.
I could be wrong - I was once before (in 1985 I think it was)
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yep thats exactly what i meant earlier when i said "opening cans of worms"Miguelito wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if there were more words in Khmer than English - just think about how many ways they have to say "to eat." They have such different levels of speaking based on formalities, I feel like whenever I'm learning a word, I need to learn two that mean the same thing.Khmerhamster wrote:You are right in what you say but I am contrasting the relative complexity with English. Just my opinion....
Also compare the number of words in the Khmer vocabulary with the English vocabulary. I don't have the facts to hand but I'd guess Khmer has a fraction of the number of English words.
eg.
you learn the word "to know",
in English there is just one word...."Know" but in Khmer there is at least 3
Dung - ដឹង - To know (about something/knowledge of)
Jeh - ចេះ - To know (how to do something)
Skoal - ស្គាល់ - To know (someone)
the example regards to the sounds chemistry/church isnt much either, you know the word for Dimond in Khmer?... ពេជ្រ - Pich - pronounced Pik
in khmer
the B consonant often changes its sound to a P sound
the S consonant changes to a H sound if at the end of the word
the CH Consonant often changes to a K sound
etc
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