Why Learn Khmer?
Why learn languages?
Though it’s true a second language can help us find jobs, let’s also focus on the other reasons for learning a language. We spend so much of our lives having to serve the interests of an economy that doesn’t care about people or the world. It’s high time we were able to put the interests of each other ahead of those of CEOs and tax havens. Learning a language, in a variety of ways, can help us do this.
Society often funnels us down a career-path. Before we’ve had the chance to discover where our passions reside, we find ourselves scrambling from paycheck to paycheck on low or minimum wages. Worse still, the labour we provide either leaves us starved of inspiration, or in some cases even robs us of time to pursue our interests - all of which has damaging implications for our mental and physical health.
Learning a language can provide some relief, and even an escape, from these pressures. It can’t stop us worrying about bills or rent, but it can help us find other lines of work. Aside from potential career benefits, the process itself is rewarding, and a lot more fun than traditional methods have led us to believe. Far from being an unwelcome burden on our daily routines, learning a language can become an enjoyable distraction from life’s pressures. As well as helping our immediate mental health, it is also thought to aid cognitive function, and could delay the symptoms of dementia.
Learning a language may even help us tackle the problems facing the world. If we can communicate with and learn from each other, we stand a better chance of organising against issues as global as climate breakdown.
Get to Know Khmer
Khmer is the official and national language of Cambodia, where it is spoken as a first language by around 13 million people. It is also spoken as a second language by minority groups in the country.
The total number of speakers of Khmer is thought to be around 18 million, as there are significant communities of speakers in neighbouring Thailand and Vietnam, as well as a much smaller number in Laos.
Though an Austroasiatic (Mon-Khmer) language, Khmer has been influenced by Sanskrit and Pali through the popularity of Hinduism and Buddhism. In contrast to other languages of the region like Vietnamese, Lao, Thai, and Burmese, Khmer is not a tonal language.
Old Khmer is the earliest recorded language of the Mon-Khmer family, written and spoken during the Chenla (6th to 9th century CE) and Angkor (9th to 15th century CE) empires. Khmer is written in the Khmer script, an abugida derived from the the Brahmi script. ភាសាខ្មែរ (Phéasa Khmêr) means ‘Khmer language’ in Khmer.
Why learn Khmer?
Although speaking a new language does not revolutionise how you see the world, the people and cultures it takes you to will. It's almost like discovering the world again as a child, just in a different tongue. It refreshes the mind and can fill you with the impetus to experience different cultures and meet new people. This could be as conveniently as watching Khmer films or reading a Khmer novel in the evening. It could be an experience as spontaneous as chatting with people at a bar in Sihanoukville, or before a football match in Phnom Penh. It could even be a whole new life in Cambodia.
After learning any language, the prospect of learning others suddenly feels much more feasible, and this is especially true for languages that share similarities. After learning Khmer, you’ll find it easier to learn other Mon-Khmer languages, such as Vietnamese, Mon, and Wa.
Chances are that if you’re reading this, you already have an idea of why you’d like to learn Khmer. Whether it’s for professional reasons or pure curiosity, I hope these paragraphs have given you a brief sense of the benefits learning Khmer, or indeed any language, can bring.
If you're interested in learning Khmer, more information and resources can be found on its Get to Know page here on the How to Learn Languages website :