Why Kh-my?

Gambles Newsletter                                    06/23/17                               Volume 3, Issue 5 Serving Cambodia through engineering design and discipleship Curious about the status of our office and to meet some of the others on our team?  Check this out! Is Khmer read left to right, right to left or in circles?  One of our team members put this together to show the answer. ***Starbucks gift card to the first one who responds with the answer*** For Shanthi's birthday we went on a sunset dinner cruise on the Mekong River (15 minutes from our house).  We live in a beautiful city!  Celebrating Shanthi's birthday - Khmer style!  It is amazing what people can do with some food coloring, sugar and cake decorating equipment!   Cambodia played Afganistan in an Asian Cup Qualifing match.  We experienced an important part of Cambodian culture rooting for the home team with 40,000 other people! ****Starbucks gift card for the final game score**** Why Learn Khmer (kh-my)? សួស្ដី  សុខសប្បាយជាទេ បាទ ខ្ញុំសុខសប្បាយ អរគុណ To the vast majority of people on the earth the above is nothing more than odd looking characters, maybe a cryptic message used by foreign intelligence officers or some alien markings from a field in England.  However, to the 16 million people whose heart language is Khmer, this is a typical greeting in their heart language. Many times we get asked the question "Why learn Khmer?  Don't most Cambodian's know English?" Validation As we grow in our language proficiency we are seeing more and more reasons for this critical step.  We are now able to conduct much of our normal shopping in Khmer which means that we get the items we need and the quantity necessary, but the best part is seeing the shopkeeper's eyes light up when we understand them and attempt to speak their language.  It seems like it let's them know that we care about them, their country and language. Connection Some Cambodians living in Phnom Penh do know English while many more of them are learning English.  Our ability to share the struggle of learning a second language gives us an immediate point of connection.  We each can relate to how difficult the other language is, to encourage one another to keep going and that there has already been great progress. Empathy Learning Khmer also gives us great empathy for those communicating in English when it is not their mother tongue.  Many native English speakers may be frustrated when they hear "I...no...understand.  He...(pointing to their daughter)...good...speak...English. This...dollars...how many?"  However, this must be exactly what we sound like in Khmer.  It does not mean that we are stupid or don't know how to ask a question, it just means that we are learning, growing and trying to communicate.   Opportunities We are also getting opportunities to use our Khmer language to teach others.  A few weeks ago, we led a married's couple Bible study which was done in both English and Khmer.  Next week Chad will be teaching our language instructors about using encouraging words, much of this will be in Khmer.  As a part of our school we prepared a presentation on a famous Cambodian person, which was all in Khmer.   Culture Lastly, learning language has given us insight into the culture of Cambodia. "A language is not just words. It's a culture, a tradition, a unification of a community, a whole history that creates what a community is. It's all embodied in a language." -Noam Chomsky  As we learn the language we better understand some of the important aspects of life.  For instance there are at least 4 words for rice (Cambodia makes the best rice in the world and a meal isn't a meal unless you have rice) and there are different words when you talk with people of different social status (honor is very important here and giving honor to someone because of their age and position is expected).  By learning the language we are able to understand how these ideas and topics are woven into the fabric of daily Cambodian life.   Our family will be going to Uganda on July 6th to visit Shanthi's mom, Miriam and Moses maternal grandfather and many other friends.  Pray that this would be an encouraging trip.   We are taking a module off from language school at the recommendation of many others who have learned a second language.  Pray that the words and grammar we have learned will sink deep into our minds and become second nature instead of leaving our minds and making us start over from the beginning!   Last Month Requests: Please pray for our mail to reach us.  We're still missing at least a dozen cards that were mailed in January and February.  We received two letters - one from January and one from February!  Keep praying.  10 more to go! Continue to pray for language acquisition.  Our next EXAM is on Friday, May 12th. Please pray that we would speak well and remember our words. We passed our exam for level 3 & level 4!  Thanks for your prayer! The end of the school year is coming and things are getting hectic for everyone.  And it's HOT.  I mean REALLY HOT.  Please pray that we would have patience and grace with each other. The hot season has passed, the school year is over, but we would appreciate continued prayer for patience and grace!   Miriam's Massages (or was that messages?) You know that kids say the darnedest things.  Here you will get a few funny quotes from our kids. "I don't want to become anything!"  - Miriam (we are working with her for more lofty career goals!) :) "I want a man bun, they are cool!" - Miriam  Moses' Corner Kick My life has settled down a lot now that it is summer. I got out on May 25 so that's really early. My summer looks pretty laid back for here on out which that is good. I applied to soccer academies and lots of them got back to me saying that they would like me like me to come to a trial practice. When I saw that they said that I laughed because I don't live anywhere near there but they said that I could try out for 2018. That's about all, so yeah see ya guys later.