The Cambodian Language Rewired My Brain 🤯 Losing Vocabulary

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(Edited)

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I've been speaking Khmer as my primary language for more than 7 years, and it's certainly had a significant impact on my brain and thinking process.

For Better Or Worse

     There are many situations I get into with native English speakers where my brain just can't compute an English vocabulary word that I need in the moment. It is a very weird feeling to lose somewhat basic vocabulary words in your own language simply for lack of not uttering them for 11+ years.

     I arrived in Cambodia in early 2010, and within two years I was I speaking the language with great confidence. In my daily life most of my friends and co-workers were non-native English speakers, and mostly Cambodian. Due to this, even though I didn't speak Khmer fluently yet, any chance to speak English was always a very basic conversation with simple words.

     During the 10 years I lived in Cambodia, I traveled to the USA a few times and experienced being surrounded by my native language, and it always takes me about three days to start feeling comfortable with expressing myself, via a wide range of vocabulary words. Strangely enough I've learned living abroad that it's actually most difficult to explain concepts and ideas with the least and most simple words.

     At this point in my life I have a Cambodian family, and we only began speaking a bit of English with each other a few years ago, Khmer being our main language for the first years we were together. Now I think in Khmer and sometimes even translate my Khmer thoughts to English when presented an opportunity to speak my native tongue for a few minutes.

     What I've learned is that it takes several days surrounded by native English speakers before my brain allows me to use 100% of the vocab locked away in the the far reaches of my brain.

     In this video I give some insight into how I sometimes make a fool of myself when speaking English, saying things such as "tree mining" instead of "logging," and "fence" instead of "wall." It's safe to say I've been rewired, and I certainly notice a difference in my thinking process, because living and thinking in a language disconnected from my own is more mind-altering than any drug, natural or synthetic, that I've ever taken.

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I found your thoughts on this really interesting. It is true how easy it is to forget vocabulary when we don't use it often.
Even in our native tongues, there are cultural differences too. I grew up with American English and people in the UK sometimes either poke fun at the way I speak or have no idea what I'm talking about.
I notice this with my Spanish since I've been back in the UK. Although I must say I've never been fluent in another language, but when I was living in Spain I was able to pick up the language to an intermediate level.

That's amazing that you were able to learn to speak Khmer in such a short amount of time. Do you find being here on Hive is helping you maintain fluency in English?

It's always lovely to learn a little more about you @justinparke.

Lovely post.


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Well, let's not even mention OZ English, because that's a world of its own. Hive is nice for allowing me to see written material, and I listen to lots of podcasts, but I never verbalize anything complex in English, and it starts to develop into a pattern. Even with my own kids I struggle not to speak Asian English to them, and I use bad grammar, reinforcing bad habits they already have. Shame is I am technically an ESL teacher.

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Hey @JustinParke, I think it's brilliant that you learned a foreign language in such a short space of time!
I find language fascinating, would love to learn more languages but one has to speak it regularly otherwise you lose it, as you're even finding with your mother tongue.
I'm Afrikaans speaking, a language only spoken in South Africa, hubby English speaking, so our kids grew up speaking both languages, but will only address me in my mother tongue and Dad in English! Some think it's strange especially at the dinner table as we naturally switch between languages, but like you say when you speak, your thoughts are in the language you're speaking at the time. Our brains are amazing indeed! I learned German at school as a third language but sadly lost it as I never got to speak it again!
Interesting topic indeed!

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That is cool you grew up in a multilingual home, and I assume your Afrikaans allows you to understand some Dutch as well. The list of languages which I got somewhat conversational in and then totally gave up is very long, so I am glad I came out with a language on the other side, although not an internationally useful language outside of Cambodia and Long Beach, California.

Thanks for stopping by.

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Afrikaans is a Germanic language and is closer to Flemish but I do understand some Dutch if spoken slowly. It also helped me a little with understanding some German words when learning it at school.
Something else that fascinates me us pronunciation especially of the English language in different parts of the world, same here with Afrikaans with pronunciation varying hugely.

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It happens with me all the time. But the key here is to swiftly find a replacement or change the conversation direction without the other person noticing.

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That sounds like a creative way to handle such situations. Much better than "uh...uh.....uh...." I'll keep this mind. Thanks for stopping by.

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Wow, that's incredible. What also is amazing is that I am of one of your few fellow Americans that can relate. I left the USA for Asia at age 20 and that was a while ago now. For couple years, I was in Ecuador and all I spoke was Spanish. Ecuadorian girlfriend everything. I almost went all the way like you in Cambodia. Then things fell apart and I started moving around from country to country again. But yeah, near the end of that time I started feeling like my brain was getting rewired too. I'd talk over the phone to my dad in Florida and I'd have a hard time thinking of some English vocab, as I was so used to saying the Spanish word. Crazy. But that's how it goes.

I found you.....I mean you found me through @Asaen.hive giving me engagement tokens for commenting on @gooddream's recent blog post.

I check out the @asean.hive account and found that I'd fit right in, and delegated you 500hp.

Then I found your page here. Very cool. You are doing a great job with everything here on Hive. I'm impressed. Well done.

I have a friend in Cambodia right now. He likes Phnom Phen. For me I prefer somewhere more like Kampot or maybe even Siam Reap. I hear there is an island that has gotten some notoriety in recent years, but I've never been to it.

I got into Thailand booking an emergency flight from Vietnam back in March of 2020. I knew I was gonna get stuck somewhere, I ended up getting on one of the last flights from Danang to Bangkok. Lucky me. Thailand has been a great spot to lay low while the world is up-side down. Cambodia is pretty good to to my understanding.

Have you spent much time in Thailand?

Right now I'm in Ko Phagnan, in the gulf. Very nice here.

Anyway, sorry for writing so much, just trying to give you some English practice. haha

Have a great day,

-Dan

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Very cool to link up and learn a little bit about you. Big thanks for the delegation by the way. I realize the ASEAN Hive Community will be a slow grow, and there's no whale support because the community is considered too general. Shame is there is a lack of places for SE Asian content on Hive, so I wanted to make the community for that reason, and also for ASEAN citizens to learn from each other and share knowledge.

So you're in Thailand, okay. I have been there 5 times but really only traveled to the Cambodian border. I Something never felt quite right in Thailand to me, so I skipped it for Cambodia, definitely not a place for all, it has its problems too. The latest news is that Cambodia is preventing province to province travel, and a mandatory vaccination program has rolled out, and this has foreign residents on edge.

Things are tough, we'd love to go back, but it seems the world isn't ready for that to happen just yet. Funny you mentioned Kampot, that's where he had a restaurant and school for several years, and I also ran a school in Kep too. Even lived in Siem Reap many years and some brief stints in Phnom Penh. If we can get back we'd love to open a blogging school, and starting getting Cambodians into Hive.

Nice to link up, I'll give you a follow. Also, I assume you already know, but ASEAN Hive is not just for ASEAN citizens, so feel free to share any content from your life there with us.

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You are very welcome for the delegation. I'm sure it will be put to good use. My buddy who prefers Cambodia also, I asked him why.....he says cause he likes to root for the underdog! haha I thought that was funny. Yes, he is freaking out about the vaccine and travel restrictions in Cambodia and wants to get out of the country and now come to Thailand where there will be less restriction and no forced vaccination. My Thai girlfriend works at public school. She just learned that the school is offering the vaccine to those who want it, but not making it mandatory. Most the teachers are refusing to take it.

That's too bad that the big whales don't want to support your efforts here. Maybe they will if the group gets larger, and I think you are doing a good job at growing it. I'll certainly be posting in here now.

I must admit being with a local and making a family here may not be a bad idea. Seems like the happiest looking men I see here in Thailand have a Thai wife and one or two children. Couldn't help but notice that. I think you are on the right track my friend.

Have a good day brother

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It is certainly the underdog, and I kind of agree with that thinking. This is why I've lived in Albania, Ecuador, and Suriname too. Thanks for the kind words. For now I try to make up for whale support with helping reward commenters and folks engaged in the community. I think one barrier to Hivers with low HP is that they can't break the 3 cent line to reward their commenters.

I try and take care of that for you with the @ASEAN.Hive account, so all you they have to do is reply and conserve their HP for voting on posts.

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I remember when I started out here, theres been some long stretches of time when I couldn't break the 3 cent barriers either. So that is great what you are doing with the account. Certainly happy to support your efforts.

Right, the underdog. That is cool you were in Ecuador too. Albania, I was gonna go there last summer, but.....ya know.

Anyway, keep up the great work!

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