Beginning Assignments for Week Seven

The things we cover in class this week may seem like a bit of a mixed bag, but you need to trust your teachers, haha, we’ve been doing this for a long time and there really is a method to our madness.

Also, while some of the material–a folk song, a pop song, a folk tale–may not strike you as “serious” or relevant to your specific purposes for studying Khmer, they really do all contain content related to discussing emotional states, describing common everyday physical actions, relating the concepts of Buddhist belief to everyday events, and more…hang in there, you’ll thank us for all of this one day!!

Besides the “obvious” topics of health/illness and Buddhism this week (just so you know, “health” will dominate), we’ll learn how to more finely and subtly express some basic emotions in Khmer, including how to talk about emotional “hurt,” how to describe less-than-ideal/negative events, and how to better listen to the specific ways Khmer words are pronounced in songs (essential to decoding the meanings in songs that you hear).

One of the ways we’ll learn the above is via the aforementioned folk song, which is also simply good to know in its own right.  Remember the importance of how what you know after studying Khmer reflects back on your teachers?  Well, if you don’t know how to sing at least one folk song, it reflects badly on us–and you don’t want that, do you?!  Plus it gets you “points” with people you meet in Cambodia, haha.

You’ll even be exposed to a bit of Khmer literature, both via the performance on Friday by the Intermediate class based on the Khmer novel they’re currently reading (which we’ll give you an

overview of in class before Friday) and the Khmer classic ទុំ​ទាវ,

the major themes and traditional verse performance of which we’ll preview in class and the movie version of which we’ll watch in “Culture Hour” on Friday.

To prepare for all of this, you can listen to all of the audio tracks for Chapter Seven, and read the Culture and Grammar notes, with the understanding that we will only focus on (and expect you to retain) a subset of that mass of new vocabulary.  As far as grammar goes, I’ll spend an hour discussing in detail the rather unique (compared to what we’ve come to see as the “regular” subject-verb-object structure of Khmer) ways that states of illness, accidents, etc. are discussed in Khmer.

Intermediate Week Seven Assignments

The topic for this week is simple: សូផាត​ សូផាត​ សូផាត!!!  There’s

one kinda tough part to it, and it gets much more pleasant–I think!–after that.

The tough part is that you really, really need to read both Chapters 6 and 7 for Monday.  This is necessary so that we can start planning the play on Monday (that’s the pleasant part–trust me!).  We’re also going to read Chapter 8 next week, but since that won’t be covered in the play, that comes later.

But don’t fret, there’s help.  Here’s what I’m offering.  First of all, we’re going to cover Chapter 6 in class on Monday, but just in one hour.  There will also be only one hour, on Tuesday, devoted to Chapter 7.  But if you would like to get together in the afternoon on Monday–for me that means after office hours end at 4, so, say, 5?–and I’ll read Chapter 7 to you out loud (and we can discuss it a little), I’m willing.  I suggest doing this at the Union.

And there’s one other thing you need to do this weekend: read the pages in Chapter Seven in your textbook on traditional literature, including the three types of poetic meters we’re going to study.  You’re not expected to “memorize” the meters or be able to recite in them by Monday or anything like that, but please read the descriptions of them, listen to them on your audio tracks, following along with the diagrams and the text in the textbook, at least twice for each one, so you start to get a feel for them.  Don’t worry, we will be covering them in class as well…but the only way to start to “feel” them is to listen to them over and over.  They’re really quite clever and beautiful if you give them a chance!

Starting on Monday, we’ll be planning the សូផាត play in class…in

fact, that will form the vast majority of what we do in class this week.  I’m sure you’ll want to do some planning–and rehearsing–outside of class as well in preparation for the big performance on Friday, but we will be spending lots of time helping you on this during class hours as well.

Here’s what’s involved: on Monday, you’ll try to come up with what will be covered in each scene of the play; that is, extract from the written text those events you think are absolutely essential to telling the story in 20-25 minutes in a performance.  You can also start to talk about who will play which role(s).  There are no right and wrong choices for essential scenes from the novel to adapt to the stage, of course…but there are of course “better” or “worse” choices.

On Tuesday, you’ll tackle the question of how you’ll express each scene: traditional verse (you have to use some of it!), spoken dialog, song.  And I strongly suggest that at that point you form “committees” or groups to divide up the work of planning the play from that point on: say, one group to compose the verses in traditional meter (and yes, we will give you lots of help on that!), one group to compose the spoken dialog and songs, and maybe one group to choreograph the action and come up with props.  I also strongly suggest that you choose one member of your class to direct the play, to oversee the whole process and keep track of the “larger picture”.

Starting Tuesday afternoon/evening, outside of class, you’ll need to start composing everything that will make up the play: verse, dialog, song.  You’ll continue to do this on Wednesday–including spending time on it in class–and then, start practicing!  You’ll have Wednesday evening, Thursday in class, and Thursday night to do that.  By the way, whether ពូ​រេត comes in to conduct a workshop on Wednesday or not, on

Wednesday we will go over some of the basics of movement on stage consistent with ល្ខោន​បាសាក់​ style (that’s

the theater style we saw an example of in class on video today).  I know, I’m a poor substitute for a true Khmer theater expert, but I can give you some guidelines.

Also on Wednesday, I’m offering another សូផាត reading in the

afternoon, this one for Chapter 8.  While Chapter 8 will not be included in the subject matter of your play, we need to keep up with our reading schedule, so we’ll have only chapters 9-11 left for next week.  We will spend one hour in class on Thursday covering Chapter 8.

On Friday, you’ll have hour 1 to do a final, dress rehearsal in the performance space (206 Ingraham Hall, the room directly across from the SEASSI office).  Then at about 9:15, your audience (the Begining class and a few esteemed guests) will file into the room, and from 9:30-10 am you’ll perform សូផាត for them.

One last note: some of you (you know who you are) are falling behind on the work schedule for your Independent Study Project which you specified in your timeline.  Don’t let this get out of hand.  Yes, we will give you extra time to finish up your project in Week Eight (basically, we will not have class on Monday or Tuesday, though we will on Wednesday, and your presentations will all take place on Thursday), but if you think you can throw together a presentation in two days and have it equal in depth and quality what you would have produced if you had been following your timeline all along, that’s just not gonna fly, and it will be reflected in your grade.  That will be my last reminder on the subject.

Typos in your សូផាត Book, Part 2

Here are the mistakes for Chapter Five (we didn’t find any in Chapter Four).  Remember to check the previous post on mistakes in Chapters One to Three since I added some since I first put it up.  And stay tuned for more for this week’s chapters, the week is young!

Chapter Five

paragraph 7: first line on the top of page 64: about halfway through the line, it should read “មិន​ដឹង​ជា​រសាត់​ (the way it is now, the រ is missing)

paragraph 14: last word in the third line from the bottom should be​​ ឱ

Beginning Assignments for Week Six

This week we’ll focus on the language of work, or as I call it in the Textbook, “getting things done in Cambodia”.  You’ll learn some language related to politics as well, since you’ll need that to be informed voters in this year’s SEASSI Khmer election: on Friday of Week Six, you will cast your votes to elect one of the Intermediate students–they will form two political parties which will field two candidates–as the new ruler of the Khmer program, replacing me.  Beware, though: in past years the teachers (yes, even sweet and innocent អ្នក​គ្រូ​) have come up with devious, underhanded tricks to hold on to their power, despite results of

the election.  But we wouldn’t dream of doing any of that this year…

As part of the Intermediate students’ campaigning, they will produce pamphlets and flyers and make speeches to you–in Khmer!–to make you aware of their platforms so you can choose wisely.  That campaign literature will make up part of your reading material this week.

In the Textbook, please focus on Audio Tracks 113, 116 and 117, and read all the other material, especially the Grammar Notes.  Also watch the video in Multimedia Lesson 13–it’s a fun and animated one–and read about writing letters on pages 199-205.

We’ll also be doing something a little different this week, in keeping with our focus on work: we’re asking each of you to come up with two terms (they can be either words or phrases, but please, don’t make the phrases too long!) that you’d like to be able to express in Khmer, things which will help you accomplish what you hope to accomplish in Cambodia, be it work, research, whatever.  Please have those ready to hand in on Monday in class, or e-mail them to me at any time.

អ្នក​គ្រូ​​ and I will then translate your terms as best we can into Khmer, and we’ll make a short appointment for

each of you to come to office hours on Monday and Tuesday (half of you each day) to learn how to say your words.  I’ll also e-mail you an mp3 file of អ្នក​គ្រូ​ pronouncing your words, and of course we’ll give you the

Khmer version in written form as well.

The next step–besides learning both terms yourself, of course–is for each of you to choose one of your terms, and prepare to teach it to the rest of the class on Thursday.  The idea is that you’ll explain your chosen term/phrase in Khmer, using drawings, hand motions, a few props maybe, to indicate to the other students what you’re talking about…and they’ll try to figure out what you’re saying and say the original back to you in English.  That way, all of you will gain two terms that are useful to you personally, plus you’ll all learn another 12 from your fellow students.  Sound good?

One more activity we’ll do this week is go over the basics of typing in Khmer Unicode.  So please bring your laptops to class on Wednesday for that.

Intermediate Assignments for Week Six

Okay, it seems like you guys are making a great effort at សូផាត, keep it up!  This week’s reading in the adventures of our young hero involves three chapters, two fairly short and the last one a bit long.  So make sure you work your way through Chapter 3 a few times this weekend, and then jump right into 4 as the week begins; aim on having 4 done (which means at least reading it twice all the way through, once in a group and once by yourself…more times if you can hack it!) by Tuesday night, so we can devote Wednesday and Thursday to the longer Chapter 5.

Actually, if you’d all like to come to office hours together, say, on Thursday afternoon so we can read through the whole of Chapter 5 together, I’d be up for that.  But that means that all six of you can’t save your “meeting with your adviser” for Thursday, haha, you’ll have to spread that out.  If it’s nice out maybe we could even do it at the Memorial Union Terrace instead.

On the bright side, the action really picks up in this week’s three chapters; there are fights, rock-throwing, and secrets revealed.  Plus we’ll meet all of the major characters of the story, who will be with us through to Chapter 11.  So hang in there, keep up the good work, and try not to fall behind!  As always, office hours are open for extra help.  Though note that we have a teacher’s meeting on Wednesday from 2-3, so we’ll only be in the office from 3:15-4 that day.  Though if there’s demand for our services, we can always stay a little later than 4, too.

But wait, there’s more: we’re also going to try to learn a little about politics and history–especially politics–this week.  Whenever possible, we’ll try to exploit the overlap between vocabulary in សូផាត and the vocab we use to discuss politics…but you will need to do some reading in the textbook.  So by Tuesday, please read pages 263-277.  Don’t worry, it’s all in English, except for a few Khmer words inserted into the “scholarly articles”.  Also, listen to Audio Tracks 32 and 34 (“Audio CD #2”) to familiarize yourself with some basic terms we’ll need to use when discussing politics.

Then comes the fun part: Monday you’ll form political parties, and during the class hours when we’re “taking a break” from សូផាត, you’ll be planning your party’s platform, and plotting how to unseat me from power as supreme ruler of the Khmer program, replacing me with one of your own.  Of course, you’ll want to beware potential trickery on the part of both myself and អ្នក​គ្រូ​ (she’s not as innocent and sweet as she looks!).  But

you never know, this could just be the year that the one of you who wins the election will actually get to rule.  Heheh.

The finished products you produce as the result of your “political work” will not be a lot, and they’ll teach you something useful: how to speak Khmer a little more formally, and how to discuss politics and government a little.

As for those final products: you’ll all take turns making short political speeches as part of your presentations of your party’s platform to the “low-educated masses” (that would be the Beginning class–remember, they hold the most votes, so you’ve gotta win them over!), and you’ll create campaign literature; which will be in the form of an information sheet or small pamphlet that strikes a balance between using some of the political vocabulary you’ve learned and simple Khmer language which is readable by the Beginners.  That written work, a short quiz on your party’s platform, and what you say in your speeches will constitute your mid-term for the second half of the course.  I’ll send more details on all of this in an e-mail.

Typos in your សូផាត Book, Part 1

As any of you who have ever attempted to write a book know too well, it takes a looooong time, and many, many proofreaders (formal and informal) to catch all the mistakes.

Despite one of the teachers last year and myself going over the manuscript of the latest សូផាត edition with a

fine-toothed comb, trusty អ្នក​គ្រូ​សុខារ៉ី​ has managed to find

some new ones, as I’m sure she and I will in every

chapter to come.  So this will be the first in a long line of posts on this topic.

Chapter One:

paragraph 5, second line from the bottom: the word ទុក្ខ​ should instead be written ទុក (the word’s mention in

the footnote to that line is correct)

paragraph 9, second line from the bottom: the word ពី​ should instead be written

ពីរ

Chapter Two:

paragraph 16: fourth word in first line should be បុរស

paragraph 23: second word from the last should be spelled ឡាយ

paragraph 27: in the right half of line #10 of the lullaby, the second-to-last word should be ឥឡូវ​ (as it’s written now it’s missing the independent vowel)

paragraph 41: third line down from the top, second word from

the end, it reads រិន but should be រៀន

paragraph 47: the last word in the third sentence down from the top should be ចិញ្ចៀន

paragraph 48: the third word in the first line should be សំបុត្រ

Chapter Three:

paragraph 55: the term before the name ប៉ក់​ should be កវីវង្សា​ (it’s correct in the footnote)

paragraph 58: fifth line up from the bottom: the first word in the line should be ឱ

paragraph 59 (the blue paragraph number is kind of swallowed up by the last word in the paragraph!): the first word in the second line up from the bottom should be ធានា

paragraph 73 (last paragraph in the chapter): the third word from the right in the second-to-last line should be មនុស្ស

Let me know if you can’t find any of these.  Stay tuned for more typos to come, and please, don’t be shy about letting me know if you think you’ve found one yourself–it happens!

Intermediate: Reminder about your Independent Study Projects

Just a reminder, it’s your responsibility to come to office hours and confer with your adviser AT LEAST once a week from now through the end of Week Seven, to demonstrate that you’re making sufficient progress with your project, as specified in the Timeline in your proposal.

Also, at this point, everyone doing research which involves people in the community should have the necessary contacts set up and appointments made.  Let us know right away if you’re having any problems or hit any snags!

Beginning Assignments, Week Five

This week we’ll be learning about giving and receiving directions, and about transportation in Cambodia.  We’ll also learn some more ways of talking about time, and how to compare things.

Focus on Audio Tracks 92-95 and 97-99 in your textbook, and of course the Culture and Grammar notes for Chapter Five.  Also listen/watch the videos in Multimedia Lessons 8 and 9.

You can review the vowel governance and diacritics material we’ve been covering in class in Chapter Five as well.  In Chapter Six, on pages 194-195, you can review the independent vowels as well.

Also try reading the short folk tale on pages 206-210 (also in Chapter Six), which we’ll go over in class this week.  Finally, since we’ll be talking to monks when we go to the temple next Sunday, listen to the “Talking With Monks” vocabulary and the Buddhist chant on pages 221-2 in Chapter Seven.  We’ll cover all of this in class, but you can start memorizing the Buddhist chant on your own, it’s a good thing to have under your belt when we go to the temple.  We’ll practice it as a group in class, too.

If you’d like to help អ្នក​គ្រូ prepare food to bring to the temple, please coordinate this with her yourselves.

Intermediate Assignments, Week Five

Obviously, the thing you’re going to be the busiest with this week is Sophat.  Make sure you’ve worked your way through Chapter One at least twice by Monday (doing the reading one of those times in a group is highly recommended).  By Wednesday you should have read Chapter One several more times (it gets better each time–really!).  By Thursday, you should have read through Chapter Two up until the lullaby (just skim the lullaby) and past that to the death scene (you’ll know it when you see it).  By Friday, please have the rest of Chapter Two finished.

If you kept up with (and spent enough hours outside of class studying) all of the alphabet basics material in Weeks One through Four, Sophat is going to be hard but doable.  If you didn’t, Sophat will be sheer torture and realize this: you are in serious trouble, and you should seek help during office hours and (mostly) resolve to spend many, many hours this week catching up on your alphabet basics outside of class.

For a break from Sophat, go tot the textbook and look at the song lyrics (and listen to the songs) on pages 222-3 and 230-231 in the textbook.  You may notice the latter song as one sung by Dengue Fever on Saturday.  We’ll go over the lyrics to several pop songs in class this week.  For some listening practice to Khmer speech, if you feel you need that sort of thing, check out Multimedia Lessons 11 and 12.

Finally, make sure you read the sections on Sanskrit roots ( pages 224-228 ) and punctuation (232-234) in the textbook.

Beginning Final Oral Exam Assignments

The rules are: you perform your skit in front of the class, no notes (so I suggest you practice several times, improvising around a basic structure you all agree on, and then improvise on Friday).

Everyone in the group should speak an equal amount of time.  It’s okay to be silly as long as you use appropriate vocabulary and grammatical structures and culturally appropriate behavior.

Please practice several times, at least twice with a clock, don’t go over your allotted time on Friday…if everyone sticks to their time limits, we’re still looking at 34 minutes total!

Paul and Yana:

Yana goes to visit Paul in Phnom Penh, at his home, in the not-too-distant future.  He invites her in and offers her food and drink.  She responds appropriately, etc.  She tells him what she’s doing in Cambodia, and he tells her what’s going on with his family.  5 minutes total.

Jon, Jennie and Bif:

Jennie and Bif are walking around Phnom Penh, several months from now, and they run into Jon.  They quickly catch up on what they’re all up to, and how long they’ve been in (and will be in) Cambodia.  Then they decide on plans for lunch together.  8 minutes total.

Jonathan and Anthony:

Jonathan and Anthony run into each other in Phnom Penh in the not-too-distant future.  They exchange pleasantries and then Jonathan tells Anthony about something he wants to buy in the market before it closes; Anthony agrees to go with him; he notes the time and suggests dinner afterwards.  5 minutes total.

Jennifer, Loc and Matt:

One year from now, Jennifer, Loc and Matt run into each other in the Phnom Penh airport.  Jennifer is on her way into the country, Loc and Matt are leaving.  They all update each other on their respective research and promise to stay in touch.  8 minutes total.

Min, Rob and Anne:

Min and Anne are eating together in a Phnom Penh restaurant, five years in the future.  They see Rob come in, call him over and invite him to join them.  They brief each other on what’s been going on in their respective lives, then they talk about ordering food.   8 minutes total.