This is hardly an inspiring sign, but at least it's fairly clear to everyone, whether or not they read Khmer, what's on offer 50m to the left.
A wee bit down the same street, we see this sign. What's more, it's not the only one of its kind in the city -- when I was visiting PP with Vinca a few years ago, we saw at least one other just like it, and possibly more.
I ask you: Does this sign make you want to see the dentist? Doesn't it suggest to you that he'll be putting your crown or cap or bridge into place with a Phillips-head screwdriver, novocaine optional? The dentists of Cambodia desperately need help with a re-branding exercise. The owner of an eco-lodge in Koh Kong once told me that one of her staff refused to get treatment for an abscessed tooth until he was too ill to work. With signage like this, is it any wonder Cambodians live in terror of dentistry?
I arrived at LEC and went up to the third floor, where rattan partitions separate each student-tutor pair. My M-W teacher, Srey Rath (pronounced Ru-aht) is 24, recently married, and o-so-cheerful. In our hour today, we covered forms of address (dependent upon the person's age relative to ours and gender), greetings, a few pronouns, and a handful of common questions/answers. She's a good teacher! She held up a series of photos of Cambodians of varying ages and both genders, cycling through them until I could get all the addresses right. We practiced a few dialogues. We went downstairs, and she had other teachers practice greetings and salutations with me.
I walked home, talking to myself in bad Khmer the whole way, and once home fell onto the sofa in a fog of nausea and despair. I couldn't even remember how to ask someone's age! I kept confusing Khmer and Malay forms of address. In Khmer, Paun Srai is the address for a younger woman, but I persisted in saying Puan Sri, which is how one addresses a titled lady in Malay.
I have done this all my life. I am absurdly quick to panic and despair, and I hate that about myself. Wailing to the cats that I'll never master this horrid language after my first 1-hour lesson is just the latest example. (Mind you, I didn't give myself any points for telling Srey Rath that I am 52 years old in Khmer, having learnt the numbers on my own from a book.) There's nothing for it but perseverance. I just have to loosen up, laugh at my mistakes and persist.
It could be worse. I could be the owner of this Toyota SUV. I hope no one was in it when the roof caved in.
Wow, the dentists in Cambodia get quite literal with their signboards, don't they? Still, I think it would be most useful for someone who can't read. So what sign would a clinic and surgery put up, then? A giant syringe next to a blood-soaked bandage?
ReplyDeleteYou really need to stop being so hard on yourself when it comes to mastering Khmer. You've only been there 2 weeks. I, on the other hand, have been exposed to Penang Hokkien since infancy and still can't speak it!