Well KS has finally finished his marking from semester 1, which is a good thing as semester 2 has already started! The assignments he was marking were full note sermons, so he had to know the each of the passages well enough to be able to mark the sermons.

I've been finding it hard to balance everything, I do bits and pieces here and there so everyday is different and sometime I feel like I've spent too much time on one thing, or not enough time. This week I've been reassessing my language study, taking a step back to see where I'm going. Also PNB seems to be taking up more time, but it's not a constant thing so hard to plan ahead.

Wet and Vet

The other day at school the teacher got me to help teach the pronunciation of wet and vet. The 'w' and 'v' sound are really hard to say for Khmer people. In Khmer there is one sound that is similar to both, so its hard for them to distinguish between the two. And when I'm speaking Khmer I have the same trouble with some sounds. In English we have a "d" sound and a 't' sound, but in Khmer there are four different sounds. I've been told I often say "tight"when I mean to say "know".

Understand all the words but still confused

I often understand all the words in a sentence but I don't understand the meaning of the whole sentence. An example from today:
When I arrived at church one of the youth said these words "look don't know confused". I thought he meant I looked confused and didn't know where to go. I rode my bike to church for the first time, usually I sit in the car and Soeun drives. So I was a bit confused, I couldn't remember which house the church was in, they all look the same.
But he actually meant that we was confused when he looked at me. He thought he didn't know me because I looked different. I was wearing my bike helmet and mask to keep off the sun and dust.

Bushfire vocab

About 2 weeks ago I was trying to explain to some Khmer people what was happening in Victoria, Australia. They ended up laughing and laughing because I made so many mistakes. Instead of saying there was a big fire in the bush I said there was a big rain (similar sound, very different meaning!). Instead of saying lots of houses got burnt, i said lots of houses smelt like the toilet. Anyway, so I went home and learnt the words I need to talk about it.
Flames is literally "tongues of fire", and I don't think there is a word for arson. Since I took the photo above, I also learnt the word for victim "person who bears disaster."

Yesterday we went to church and Soeun preached. As usual his sermon illustrations were to do with his wife. Two years ago I used to go to church with him and whenever he preached he would tell stories that made everyone look at me and laugh. I couldn't understand why! But yesterday I could understand enough to get it!

We have been going to this church since the start of the year, I'm just starting to get to know people. Its hard as I always feel so tired after a Khmer service, plus I always seem to have a cold or something.

Don't speak Khmer!

I've recently discovered I think I think in Khmer more than I thought. Let me explain. At the school I help at I have to speak English. I'm there to help the Khmer teachers with their English and teaching. They teach in English and everything in the classroom in the morning is totally in English. I'm finding I have to stop myself from speaking Khmer. When I go to say something I need to search in my head for the English! Once I said something in Khmer and the kids laughed and ran to tell some other kids that the teacher spoke Khmer.

UPDATE: I wrote that last week. Today I couldn't do much to help at school as I've lost my voice. Well, I can talk a bit but it sounds so funny the kids didn't understand, and adults (esp Soeun) seem to find it funny. It does sound pretty funny. I learnt how to say "I lost my voice", lit: speaking can't come out.

On Saturdays we..

A while ago Saturdays was when Soeun wrote sermons, as he was preaching about twice a month. Since two others joined the preaching roster he has been able to do other things. He and a few friends usually spend Saturday mornings playing music together. They are using some books and cds to teach themselves.

While he does that I usually watch a cooking show on CTN. I already know heaps of food words so between the words I know and the actions I can see its gives me heaps of context to guess some more words. I used to think the show was called "Lose food, lose life" but once I watched it with a Khmer person and they told me it is actually "Real Food, Real Life". (The word for real/true and lose sound similar).

Then in the afternoons he had youth group at church. I tagged along sometimes and tried to join in the singing, and follow as they read the Bible. Afterwards sometimes they ate snails, but if I was there we ate fried noodles, pictured here. This meal cost about 50 US cents.

But now the youth have class in the afternoons. (School here is 6 days a week either in the afternoon or the morning, it changes every few months for some, every few weeks for others. So for two months you could be going to school every morning, (7/7.30-lunchtime), then it swaps to the afternoons for a few months.)

So hopefully now he'll have time to teach me to drive... although the next two Saturdays he'll be at church getting ready for Christmas Sunday.

That new word again

Well the other day I wrote about a new word I learnt in class that is used when talking about fish getting stuck in a net. Then I heard it the next day when the school guard was commenting that i was stuck outside the gate. I just found it again! I'm reading Phil 1.7 and it uses it twice.Firstly when Paul is saying the people are in his heart, then again as part of ""in chains". Its fun learning new words then hearing them in different contexts to learn how they are used and the different types of meaning they convey.

A new word...and again

With my language helper I'm reading some simple Bible stories. Yesterday I came across a new word used to talk about fish getting caught/stuck in a net. It sounds something like djoo-op. My helper told me some other uses of it as well, such as when you are stuck outside a house if the door is locked. This morning when I came back from the market the school gate was closed and I couldn't open it. I called out to the guard. He commented on my situation using the word I just learnt yesterday! It was exciting to hear the word in real life after just learning it in class. If I had heard the same sentence before I learnt it in class I won't have taken much notice of the word, but now I can understand it. And that should help me remember it too, hearing it just after I learnt it.

Figures of Speech in Translation (How do use a Hebrew essay to learn Khmer)

When I was at uni I did an essay for Hebrew called “How can figures of speech be effectively translated?”. (I wrote a similar one for a Linguistics subject but can only find my Hebrew one.)

Figures of speech (FOS) include similes , metaphors, idioms.

“…(FOS) present problems for translators because their meaning is context dependent. Just knowing the language is not enough to understand the authors intended meaning.

As well as decoding the language audiences need to have knowledge of the context that the metaphor was created in. If there is little or no knowledge of the context the image may be unknown.” (I’m quoting my own essay, do I have to reference formally?)

For example a Western may know “break a leg” means someone is wishing you good luck. But if you translate it literally into another language I’m pretty sure they won’t get the meaning!

Christians read the Bible which was originally written in other languages, and in other times to people of other cultures, so how did the translators of our English Bibles translate figures of speech?

“ problematic to translate FOS into another language and culture. The Psalms have been translated into many different languages. They were originally written in Hebrew in Israel. They were written from 1440- 586 BCE. As well as being written in a language other than English they were written by and to people of another time and place.

How have these ancient Hebrew figures of speech been translated into the English spoken today? What did they mean in their original context? If translated literally is there a difference between what they meant to their original audience and what they mean to contemporary English speakers ? Assuming the intention is to express the original meaning, how has this issue been dealt with? How can this problem be overcome?”

In my essay I looked at a few examples from Psalms in the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament. I looked at different English translations, and asked my peers what they thought the literal translation meant. Now I’m looking at the 2 main Khmer translations of the Bible as well, as a fun way to do my language study. Who knew a Hebrew essay could help me learn Khmer?

Here I’ll share with you one example.
“An example of where a figure of speech is usually not translated into English literally is in Psalm 12 verse 2. If it were to be literally translated from Hebrew, it would read ‘with heart and heart they speak’.

It seems this is an almost meaningless phrase to English speakers. When forced to guess a meaning most people said it may mean talking openly, from the heart, with emotion. According to English translations , and in the context of the Psalm it actually means the opposite of that.

‘They utter lies to each other; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak’ New Revised Standard(NRSV)

‘All of them lie to one another; they deceive each other with flattery’ Good News (GNB)

‘Everyone talks in lie language; Lies slide off their oily lips. They doubletalk with forked tongues.’ The Message (MSG)

Everyone deceives and flatters and lies. There is no sincerity left. The Living Bible(TLB)

Everyone lies to his neighbour; their flattering lips speak with deception. New International(NIV)

insincere heart NJB

It seems some of these completely reworded the verse to get across the meaning (TLB, NIV, GNB) while others tried to keep the form of the words (NRSV, MSG). This example is representative of how these different editions translate the Bible. The NRSV is known for being close to the form of the original languages. Whereas editions like the GNB can be called a paraphrase. They do not try to translate word for word, rather they concentrate on conveying the meaning, even if this means compromising the form of the language.

As shown by the survey results, the phrase ‘heart and heart’ does not give the intended meaning in English. Although correct interpretation is possible from the immediate context the paraphrase editions certainly seem to make the meaning clearer.

There is a variety of ways in which the Psalms have been translated into English. In the translation of poetry there is often elements lost, changed, or even added. In trying to be faithful to the text there is a struggle to adhere to the form of the language and to translate in a way which expresses the author’s intended meaning. Some editions of the Bible are more successful than others, however, all translation are just translations and translations are always different from the original.”

So that was my essay, what about the Khmer Bibles? The old version of the Khmer Bible is literally something like this:
“They all speak deception to their neighbours. They speak with flattering lips and with double heart.”
One of the new translations is something like this:
“Everyone only thinks/says bad things (malign) to each other. They say only flattering things , their hearts aren’t upright/honest.”

So this verse the old version seems to be like the NRSV, keeping some of the form with the “double”. The new version doesn’t say anything about double, I guess the translates chose to just go with the meaning.
If you want to look at multiple translations online see BibleGateway.

Khmer Karaoke and the plethora of pronouns (or more than one way to say “I love you” to your husband)

“What does “mom” mean?”
“What does “golup” mean?”

Lately I have been watching Khmer Karaoke at home while poor Soeun is trying to concentrate on playing his computer game.

As the singers sing the words move on the screen so you can tell where they are up to. I try to read along to improve my language skills. When I see a word repeated that I don’t know I ask Soeun. It turns out that there are even more ways of saying “I” and “you” in Khmer language than I thought.

Usually when I say “I” or “me” I use the word “kynom”, but if I speak to my husband I use a different word “oeun”. In the language of songs/poetry I would use “golup” or “mom”. And for “you” when I’m talking to Soeun I usually say “bong”, but in poetry language it’s “reamra” or “preah ream bong”.

“Snaiha” also comes up a lot, its another word for “srolynm” which means love.

The students have been laughing at me, as I practise my new words. I’ve been calling Soeun “Reamra” , as it is only used in poetry it sounds funny to use it in everyday speech.