Learning Khmer Words and Greetings with Mony
My name is Mony. I am originally from Battambang. I have been a guide at Soksabike for four years. I graduated from a university in Battambang in 2013. My major was Khmer literature. I have shared some Khmer words with all my guests who come on tour with Soksabike. Here I would like to share some Khmer words with you too. I encourage you to try to speak some Khmer when you are visiting Cambodia. There is no stress at all to practice the local language with locals; they are very friendly, and this might end with you having more fun on your holiday.
When I first started my English class, I was completely unable to read. One of my classmates was able to read it. I asked myself, how come? It was only drawing for me. After I had started for a while, I got some of the spelling. I tried to speak, but it was not the correct pronunciation. We call this learning stage of speaking K-english. K-english is English-Khmer pronunciation. You might not understand K-english even though you are a native English speaker. After having a lot of practice and by practicing with foreigners, my English is now very good. So there is no reason to be shy about speaking the local language when you are on holiday. My fellow tour guides and I have all gone through the process and would love to help you learn. It is not about right or wrong, it is about experiencing. It will be more fun with those mistakes and the connections you make with locals.
Now I will share some simple words and phrases that might be useful for you to use when you are in Cambodia.
Hello and Goodbye
Cambodian people have a strong cultural heritage, and some of this is represented in the language through greetings. They love what they have been practicing and keep passing these traditions on to new generations. For example, the way to greet each other is different depending on the ages and ranks of the people in society.
We can say Hello and Goodbye in two ways: Su S'dey or Chumreap Su, and Lea hey or Chumreap Lea.
Su S'dey is normally used between friends to say hello in Cambodia. When people say this word, they do not do any gesture. It is used like Hello or Hi. Lea Hey is also used in this situation for saying goodbye. These words are not formal ways of greeting in Cambodia. When people visit someone's house or meet people older than them, a teacher, or an officer, they would never use the word Su S'dey. They would use the word Chumreap Su instead.
Chumreap Su is the formal word for Cambodian greeting. When people say this word, they always do hand-gestures at the same time. The greeting gesture is called Som Peah. Som Peah is putting your left and right palms face to face together. The Som Peah is put higher and higher depending on the ages and ranks of people when they say Chumreap Su. They put Som Peah on their chest for greeting people who are younger or their friends, on the mouth for elders, on the nose for parents and masters, in between their eyebrows for monks, and the last one is on the forehead for praying. Chumreap Lea is the formal way to say goodbye. It is used in the same situations as Chumreap Su.
Orkun / Thank You
We say Orkun for thank you. Sometimes, people say Orkun Jren to express their feeling that they are really thankful for an offering or help. It also shows how important the offering is.
Soksaby / How Are You?
Soksaby is a common greeting used before getting into the real conversation. Soksaby is the short cut of the sentence "How Are You?" in Khmer. The full sentence is Teu Neak Soksaby Te? To make it easier, people just say Soksaby? Soksaby has three different meanings: "How are you?", "I am fine", and "Have a good day with blessings." So a common response to someone asking you Soksaby is Soksaby. When you are here, you might hear kids say hello to you using Soksaby. For this situation, you can use Soksaby instead of saying hello back to them. They will appreciate that.
It is my pleasure to share with you these Khmer words. I hope it could be a part of helping you get more fun and a great experience on your holiday. I will share more words in the next post to be continued.
