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Posted

Not sure this is the good place to post that.

Well, do you know any school or institute teaching Khmer in Bangkok?

Writing and reading.

For Thai or foreigners.

Posted
Not sure this is the good place to post that.

Well, do you know any school or institute teaching Khmer in Bangkok?

Writing and reading.

For Thai or foreigners.

I don't know of any language schools that teach Khmer in Thailand (I'm not in Thailand at the moment, so I won't bother searching online since I'm sure you've already done that). However, Paiboon Publishing has a decent Khmer language textbook called Cambodian for Beginners (by Richard K. Gilbert and Sovandy Hang) that I have used, which teaches reading/writing/speaking/listening. I found it to be pretty good, and given the similarity between the Thai and Khmer scripts, knowing one will make it quite a bit easier to learn the other.

Since you are close to Cambodia, you can more easily visit there to practice speaking it. I am fortunate to have Cambodian friends over here that have helped me a lot, but it isn't enough to keep me from getting really rusty lately.

Best of luck.

Posted
Not sure this is the good place to post that.

Well, do you know any school or institute teaching Khmer in Bangkok?

Writing and reading.

For Thai or foreigners.

I don't know of any language schools that teach Khmer in Thailand (I'm not in Thailand at the moment, so I won't bother searching online since I'm sure you've already done that). However, Paiboon Publishing has a decent Khmer language textbook called Cambodian for Beginners (by Richard K. Gilbert and Sovandy Hang) that I have used, which teaches reading/writing/speaking/listening. I found it to be pretty good, and given the similarity between the Thai and Khmer scripts, knowing one will make it quite a bit easier to learn the other.

Since you are close to Cambodia, you can more easily visit there to practice speaking it. I am fortunate to have Cambodian friends over here that have helped me a lot, but it isn't enough to keep me from getting really rusty lately.

Best of luck.

I speak Khmer already.

The point is that my Cambodian kids (daughters of my Khmer GF) stay with us in Thailand.

They speak Khmer but cannot write or read. They are more Thai than Khmer BUT it's important for them to be able to read / write their own language.

I could "import" a Khmer teacher to Thailand.

I would like to help this teacher to have more hours of teaching / day.

Maybe I'll open a Khmer language school...

Posted
Not sure this is the good place to post that.

Well, do you know any school or institute teaching Khmer in Bangkok?

Writing and reading.

For Thai or foreigners.

Khmer is taught at Chulalongkorn University...though depending on their age, that may not help your kids. Instruction is very much geared toward Thai speakers, including teaching in transliteration using Thai (a big mistake in my opinion, but my colleague, who teaches it, has her style and I have mine!).

You didn't mention this in your post, but are your kids very motivated to learn Khmer themselves? Were they born in/grew up in Cambodia? Do they speak fluently, and communicate with somebody in Khmer on a regular basis? Do you plan to return to Cambodia to live at some point? The point of these questions is, if their social reality does not include a significant Khmer component, and if they don't see living there as a part of their future, their motivation may be quite low/non-existent, in which case all your efforts may be futile...

Posted
Not sure this is the good place to post that.

Well, do you know any school or institute teaching Khmer in Bangkok?

Writing and reading.

For Thai or foreigners.

Khmer is taught at Chulalongkorn University...though depending on their age, that may not help your kids. Instruction is very much geared toward Thai speakers, including teaching in transliteration using Thai (a big mistake in my opinion, but my colleague, who teaches it, has her style and I have mine!).

You didn't mention this in your post, but are your kids very motivated to learn Khmer themselves? Were they born in/grew up in Cambodia? Do they speak fluently, and communicate with somebody in Khmer on a regular basis? Do you plan to return to Cambodia to live at some point? The point of these questions is, if their social reality does not include a significant Khmer component, and if they don't see living there as a part of their future, their motivation may be quite low/non-existent, in which case all your efforts may be futile...

The girls are 10 and 11 years old.

Not yet the time to go to University. But why not later?

The kids are not able to learn Khmer themselves and even when their mother teaches, it's kind of useless.

They were born in Cambodia and spent 3 / 4 years there.

They speak Khmer fluently and every day. Thai as well (Thai people do not believe they are not Thai).

To return to live in Cambodia is an option.

You are right, their motivation is not very high. They do not like Cambodia. BUT we cannot guess the future: I could die suddenly, some crazy Thai people could lead a war against Cambodia, I could have an interesting job in Cambodia, etc.

By the way, they ARE Khmer and it's important they can read / write their own language.

Motivated or not...

:-)

Posted
Not sure this is the good place to post that.

Well, do you know any school or institute teaching Khmer in Bangkok?

Writing and reading.

For Thai or foreigners.

Khmer is taught at Chulalongkorn University...though depending on their age, that may not help your kids. Instruction is very much geared toward Thai speakers, including teaching in transliteration using Thai (a big mistake in my opinion, but my colleague, who teaches it, has her style and I have mine!).

You didn't mention this in your post, but are your kids very motivated to learn Khmer themselves? Were they born in/grew up in Cambodia? Do they speak fluently, and communicate with somebody in Khmer on a regular basis? Do you plan to return to Cambodia to live at some point? The point of these questions is, if their social reality does not include a significant Khmer component, and if they don't see living there as a part of their future, their motivation may be quite low/non-existent, in which case all your efforts may be futile...

The girls are 10 and 11 years old.

Not yet the time to go to University. But why not later?

The kids are not able to learn Khmer themselves and even when their mother teaches, it's kind of useless.

They were born in Cambodia and spent 3 / 4 years there.

They speak Khmer fluently and every day. Thai as well (Thai people do not believe they are not Thai).

To return to live in Cambodia is an option.

You are right, their motivation is not very high. They do not like Cambodia. BUT we cannot guess the future: I could die suddenly, some crazy Thai people could lead a war against Cambodia, I could have an interesting job in Cambodia, etc.

By the way, they ARE Khmer and it's important they can read / write their own language.

Motivated or not...

:-)

Hmm, you aren't American by any chance are you? haha

At any rate, motivation is 80% of language learning. If people don't want to learn (and that includes kids...maybe especially kids!) you can't make them. Your aims are noble on some level, I guess, but you have to be realistic and at least try to see the world from your kids' perspective. For kids, social reality and conditions are everything.

Just 2 cents from someone who's taught Khmer for close to two decades to lots of different types of students.

Posted
Not sure this is the good place to post that.

Well, do you know any school or institute teaching Khmer in Bangkok?

Writing and reading.

For Thai or foreigners.

Khmer is taught at Chulalongkorn University...though depending on their age, that may not help your kids. Instruction is very much geared toward Thai speakers, including teaching in transliteration using Thai (a big mistake in my opinion, but my colleague, who teaches it, has her style and I have mine!).

You didn't mention this in your post, but are your kids very motivated to learn Khmer themselves? Were they born in/grew up in Cambodia? Do they speak fluently, and communicate with somebody in Khmer on a regular basis? Do you plan to return to Cambodia to live at some point? The point of these questions is, if their social reality does not include a significant Khmer component, and if they don't see living there as a part of their future, their motivation may be quite low/non-existent, in which case all your efforts may be futile...

The girls are 10 and 11 years old.

Not yet the time to go to University. But why not later?

The kids are not able to learn Khmer themselves and even when their mother teaches, it's kind of useless.

They were born in Cambodia and spent 3 / 4 years there.

They speak Khmer fluently and every day. Thai as well (Thai people do not believe they are not Thai).

To return to live in Cambodia is an option.

You are right, their motivation is not very high. They do not like Cambodia. BUT we cannot guess the future: I could die suddenly, some crazy Thai people could lead a war against Cambodia, I could have an interesting job in Cambodia, etc.

By the way, they ARE Khmer and it's important they can read / write their own language.

Motivated or not...

:-)

Hmm, you aren't American by any chance are you? haha

At any rate, motivation is 80% of language learning. If people don't want to learn (and that includes kids...maybe especially kids!) you can't make them. Your aims are noble on some level, I guess, but you have to be realistic and at least try to see the world from your kids' perspective. For kids, social reality and conditions are everything.

Just 2 cents from someone who's taught Khmer for close to two decades to lots of different types of students.

I'm not American.

Nobody's perfect.

Motivation. You are right but "l'appétit vient en mangeant", as we say in French.

:-)

We have newspapers in Khmer, TV in Khmer, Internet in Khmer at home. Anything they'll learn will be immediately useful.

It's not as I suggested Croatian language.

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