Say what?

Steven has suggested I blog about the language barrier in Cambodia. It sounds like a great idea, and not only because I have absolutely no work to do today. My week here so far has shown me the difference between speaking in English and saying English words. It seems like an unimportant differentiation, and it often is when all you're doing is ordering a meal or saying hello. But whenever any sort of basic comprehension is needed, or anytime you're forced to communicate using less-than-common English words, you're most likely screwed. For example, I needed to find a plug converter so I could use my three-pronged plug in the two-pronged wall sockets that plague this country. I went to a couple stores and had no luck conveying what I meant; I guess "prong" gets spoken less than "dollar" over here. Once I explained what I was looking for to an employee at my hotel (often the best English speakers around) they helped direct me to a computer shop that was able to understand what I was looking for. Also, I had to buy a cell phone and I went to a Nokia store. Let's just say "SIM card", "add minutes", and other phone speak don't translate well. I had no idea what they were trying to tell me; thankfully Pete was with me and was better able to comprehend them.

People at work can speak English to varying degrees. Our IT guy, who had to learn a good bit of English to get his computer science degree, is one of the most fluent people I've met here. Even then, when I asked for bottled water at lunch the other day he apparently asked the waiter to bring me a pot of tea.

I think that this town's English is well-equipped for the average tourist to get by fine with little to no trouble. The problem is I'm not a tourist, I'm an expat NGO worker, so I find myself running into the language barrier from time to time. But it's not a huge barrier, it's just tall enough for me to trip over from time to time. And to be fair the only words I've learned in Cambodian are "hello", "yes", "no", "thank you", and "instant noodle", and all that qualifies me to do is be a tourist or run around like a raving lunatic screaming "Hello instant noodle! Thank you!". The next test will be apartment hunting this weekened with Pete. Maybe I should learn to say "rat"in Cambodian...