The Cambodian alphabet is completely different than the English alphabet, and the way the consonants and vowels and their symbols work is also very alien. Cambodian has consonant pairs that are very hard for an English speaker to hear and pronounce, and some of the vowel sounds are so similar to one another that to the untrained ear, i.e. mine, they sound exactly the same.
And, as hard as the sound and pronunciation of the language is, the script is going to be even harder to learn. Each letter has two forms, and each form has no relation to the other (unlike English capital and lowercase letters).
But before I give you the impression that Cambodian is completely impossible, let's talk about Cambodian grammar. There are no verb conjugations, there are no cases, and there is no verb "to be". All the grammar is basically pulled from the context of the conversation, which makes life in language learning land much easier. The lack of the "to be" verb means that the sentences "He is skinny" and "He skinny" mean the exact same thing.
In actuality, I am very impatient to really start learning this language, despite, or maybe because of, the challenges it presents. I am excited to be working on something academic again, and the difficulties of this language are just like an added bonus. It will be something I actually have to work at, instead of just breeze through. Because let's face it: French was a bit of a challenge, but compared to learning a new alphabet, it was nothing.
No comments:
Post a Comment