American speaking Khmer in Cambodia (part 1) | Phnom Penh

This is me getting camera ready. Hi everyone, I'm Bridget. I'm from the U.S. I love learning languages and I love traveling. And I just arrived in Cambodia for a family trip. So I'm excited to take you guys around with me and also to practice some Khmer, which is the language here. I took a few lessons, which you can see in my previous videos, and I'm looking forward to putting that to the test. I only know very, very basic Khmer, like asking how much things cost or asking people how they are, but I'm still excited to use it. We're here for 10 days, so I imagine we're going to be doing lots of stuff. So, let's go. Our journey from New York to Phnom Penh was rife with delays. After a mechanical issue, which forced the captain to literally turn the plane off and on again, our trajectory ended up being first a 16-hour flight, then a 5-hour layover, then a 7-hour flight, then a 3-hour layover, and then a 2-hour flight. So we arrived in Cambodia quite a bit tired, but still really excited to take in this new place. We arrived at the hotel, took the most needed of showers, and then went to lunch, where I proceeded to film my first Khmer interaction in the most heinous of camera angles. It was pretty exciting. The coffee helped, but we were still a little delusional and going on 34 hours of no sleep. I'm really excited to try out my Khmer with a local. There's one right here. His name is Lionel. Our first dinner in Phnom Penh was trying Cambodian cuisine, or Mahob Khmer, if you want to say it in Khmer, and trying fish amok, Cambodia's signature dish, which is curried fish with traditional spices and coconut milk. I made everybody let me ask for the check so that I could practice. Then, finally, we went to sleep. We've now arrived at the National Museum, and the building is incredible. Maybe someday I'll be able to read this. I was planning to film inside the museum, but then I saw signs saying no cameras. I'll add a link in the video description if you want to learn more about this museum and its collections. It's about 92 degrees right now, which is really hot, but I'm coming from winter in the U.S., so I'm loving it. And also, it feels like the humidity is pretty low, so it's not actually so bad. Next up was coffee, of course. The tuk-tuk just approached offering services, and so I said what I thought was, no, thank you. And then he said, oh, ate. And then I realized it doesn't say no wrong. And I have said a wrong to every tuk-tuk driver who's approached. Welcome to my nightmare. Pigeons everywhere. We're arriving at the Royal Palace. I assume I'll be able to film in there. Sorry, guys. The Royal Palace serves as the official royal residence of the King of Cambodia. There were a number of pavilions and temples and statues. Filming wasn't permitted inside a number of the buildings, but I can still show you these beautiful murals. This is a model of Angkor Wat where we will be going this week. This looks like an African elephant because the ears are so big, but maybe it's still an Asian elephant, which would make sense since we're in Asia. This is showing the different traditional Khmer costumes. It seems that the colors are associated with different days. Sunday, red. Monday, dark yellow. Tuesday, violet. We're going to grab a drink here and I'm going to practice my khet lui. Like, can you give us the bill, khet lui? I ordered a mocktail, which tasted better than it looked. There's no saving this. Nailed it. And then it was dinner time. We're about to head into a market, the Russian market it's called, and I'm going to practice asking how much things are, how much they cost. My sister just got a coconut water outside, and I asked, but didn't tell myself, asking how much it cost. I said, bo man do la, and he said, mu. So I said, how much was it in dollars? And he said, a good one. I was all eight behind. One of my Khmer teachers recommended coming to this market specifically because it's very local and it would give me a chance to practice my Khmer. There's some cute souvenirs here, but I'm only looking. I ended up just asking how much things cost for other people. While I was filming a debrief of my market experience, my family was ordering a tuk-tuk on Grab, which is basically the Uber of Southeast Asia. And while they were looking on the app, a tuk-tuk driver walked up to us and asked if we needed a ride. Phram mui do la. Grab is one. This may seem like a very mundane experience, but it was probably in the top five moments of the trip for me. I negotiated a price in Khmer. How cool is that? Sat mai. Central market. Unfortunately, the tuk-tuk broke down on the way to the market. We're walking the rest of the way to the central market. That was me saying, sorry, thank you. We just tried asking what the material of a shirt is. And obviously, I don't know. I don't know how to say that. Nor do I know any of the material words, so I wouldn't have been able to understand the answer. So I just asked, like, what is that? What is that? Because I'm touching a shirt. Like, what is this? In keeping with the shopping theme, we also went to a night market, but during the evening, not actually at night. I've gotten so good at bo man do la. It just rolls off the tongue. Bo man do la? Bae. Bae do la. Bo man do la. Buon. I've gotten so good at asking what are the prices of things. If the answer is above $10, I will not understand the answer. When you're in a tuk-tuk, your hair goes flying. So, put a little clip in. It's very fun to say bon, which means, like, older sibling, older brother, older sister. People are starting to stare. One kind of interesting thing is that here in Cambodia, they accept U.S. dollars as well as their local currency called riel. But another interesting thing is that they don't accept just any U.S. dollars. They have to be good quality. And my sister just tried to pay for coffee using a $5 bill that had a small, tiny little tear in it, and it got rejected. Weirdly, right after filming about them not accepting money, my sister again tried to pay, this time with a 20, but they didn't take it. Because of that, there's also the tiniest of tears at the bottom. Side note, I found magnetic earrings, which I have been looking for everywhere. So, that's kind of fun for me. When you look up top things to do in Phnom Penh, you will consistently come across two places that might not seem like your typical tourist destination, but which are, in reality, very important to go to. The first is Tual Slang Genocide Museum, which shows the history of a former school which was turned into Security Prison 21, or S21, during the brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. You walk through the different rooms and learn about the families who were torn apart, those who were detained, interrogated, tortured, and sent off to be executed. This is one of the most tragic and moving places I've ever been. The second place you'll see recommended is Cheung Ek Genocidal Center, which was just one of the hundreds of killing fields in Cambodia. Thousands upon thousands of people were killed, and then buried at this site in mass graves as part of the genocide carried out by the Khmer Rouge. Looking around, you can hear all this bird song, and it's beautiful, there's nature everywhere, and it just seems like a really peaceful place, whereas in the 70s, the brutality that occurred here was unimaginable. Listening to all of these stories, it's so traumatic, what the Cambodian people have suffered through. I think it's important to learn about this history. It's always shocking what people can do to each other. We just got back to the hotel room, where we're going to relax for like 20 minutes and then go out to dinner. I've had a lovely time so far. I really like Cambodia more than, not that I thought I would, I just had no expectations going in, and I feel like I'm pleasantly surprised by everything I've seen so far. I really like Phnom Penh, full of life, people out there having a good time, people seem happy, busy, living their lives. There's just so much energy around. Last night, we went out to dinner and then walked around, and there was a lot going on, and it just felt so exciting to be where we were. I feel like all the people have been so kind and welcoming and friendly, and just, yeah, it's been a great experience so far. Okay, see you soon. Bye, here's the transition. Swiss Bay. So she's practicing her Khmer. Can you talk to her in Khmer? Did you ask me back? No. Okay. I simply said my name. Okay. And this one? What's the name? Yes. What's the name? I don't... How do you say, I don't understand? I don't understand. This one? Yes. In Khmer, it's called Krakoon. Krakoon? Yes. Mm, Krakoon. And this one? This one. Yes. Thank you. Be sure to subscribe if you haven't already and stay tuned for my next video where I will be taking you to another place in Cambodia to see some incredible things and practice some more Khmer. Thanks for watching.