School with no grades or tests?

School with no grades or tests? SIGN ME UP! That is basically a summary of language school.  Right now, I am going two hours per day, five days per week.  Starting next week, I will be up to 3 or 4 hours/day.  Basically, I want to get as much as I can because I want to be able to communicate, connect, and not just be another dumb foreigner who comes and expects the local people to be able to speak English.  When in Rome, speak Roman?

  

I thought it would be fitting to take a first day of school picture (yahoo AWEA shirt) - stole this idea from Ashley and Michael in Tanzania.  Notice my sweet new bag - it is made out of a recycled cement bag.  It is from the Portland Cement Company (seems fitting on so many levels).  It had my many books (including one made of Elephant Poo). 

 

So, how is language learning going, you may ask.  Well, Cambodia has a completely different script - based on Sanskrit, so it basically looks like a bunch of beautiful, sgwiggly lines to me.  My teachers have been teaching me through the phonetics so I can speak some very basic Khmer.  Prior to coming, I was advised to start learning the script ASAP because the phonetics are not like Chinses Pinyin - they are not universal phonetics for the language, thus are relatively useless beyond personal studying for speaking.  I have learned two consonants and one vowel (there are 33 and 23 respectively, each has two sounds).  Thus, slowly, I am learning.

This experience has really made me thankful for a number of things:

1) My college French teacher who spent time on phonetics (painful at the time).  That at times is coming back to me and helping immensely.

2) I am very good at laughing at myself and will desperately attempt to communicate despite my inability to do so...

3) Having studied languages before, I am employing every means I can think of to practice.  I have MP3s from one friend in Khmer, a CD from our program, watch some TV in Khmer, have been attempting my terrible pronunciation with as many folks as possible.  I have on a number of occasions said, "WAIT, I can say that in Khmer. *Insert terrible butchering of a beautiful language here*.   I also have been practicing saying, I don't understand Khmer and I speak a little Khmer.  I also have my dazed and confused look down for when words don't come :)  As you can see, studying is a full room activity:

 

Note the many flashcards for my 250ish words and phrases, phonetically written and memorized.  I am skipping class today due to an unplanned-free cleanse (I heard all the celebrities are doing it) so you will notice clear liquids and plain tortillas litter my study area.

 

This is a bit of what my face looks like as I try to say things like wake-up which involves exhaling while making a "p" sound, followed by an n"~", than there is an AAAH, K.  Then, a hard "P", Then something that sounds similar to Kang.  Needless to say, I am attempting to learn to speak from every part of my face and just because I remember the word DOES NOT mean it will come out of my mouth the same way it sounds in my brain.  I like to think of it as my "Oregonian Accent."

 

This is another of my memorization techniques.  These are the numbers (1-9) in Khmer.  I made myself a mini memory game to attempt to memorize the script and numbers.  I can often be found walking the streets counting to myself, just to practice.  I also enjoy going to the market to practice and though I can't say the names of the veggies and fruit, I have gotten decent at saying, this how much?  that how much? I need two of these, etc.  And, I usually understand the numbers.  Though, in Khmer, they have this great thing they do where they shorten many of the numbers or moosh them together so six can be said 'correctly' about six different ways.

 

 Other than just practicing writing the phonetics and reading them out loud to practice speaking, I have drawn a number of these little conversation strips or location labeled pictures in an attempt to better remember words.  Many of them also involve hand motions (some American Sign Language, some Karen Sign language, and some musical to help me to remember to close my mouth, open my mouth, intonation, etc).  I hope my roommate is not filming me studying, though, it would be a great candid camera episode I am sure...