Some of you might have noticed that I started to write in English. In a way it's a shame and perhaps a lost for my Finnish audiences since I'm far better expressing myself in Finnish. And for you native speakers my language might come across as a bit dull. But it's such a great for the people I have met on the trip to follow my adventures (well...) that I decided to give it a go.
On this trip I have received tons of compliments for my English, made a lot of weird mistakes and formed a few very meaningful relationships in English. One odd thing is that I haven't noticed it developing that much. I haven't learned that many new words or anything. I still have my bad days when my sentences are two-word long ones.
And I still have an American accent, though I never even been to the States and I think I will continue saying pants, not trousers for the rest of my life. I will never get the spelling right either, but neither do the native speakers!
I also have come to fully appreciate subtitles since they are the sole reason why my English is close to fluent. I have met a lot of, for example Germans, whose English has been worse than my German!
Where ever you travel in Asia, you see adds looking for English teachers. In China, native speaking is required and the teachers are usually paid something. Here just good English would be enough but you probably work in different conditions than in China. Any ways, everywhere people are eager to learn English since they are very eager to get jobs in some other field than in farming. At first that sounds a bit rough but on the other hand, I have nothing against the idea that as many people as possible are able to communicate with one language. I don't see being bilingual as a thread to cultures.
When talking about this subject some wise-asses have brought up the fact that there are more mandarin Chinese speakers in the world that there are English speakers. True. But if you count the people who have English as a second language... And one thing you can not ignore is that the world already has a huge English teaching system, it's called the American entertainment industry. The down side of course is that too much of it is shit, brain washing people to admire American way of living and adapt the twisted morality behind it all...
Well, anyways. Enough of that. I'm here in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia (I came here via Kep, a small coastal town). So it must the time to say the words every traveler coming here says. I can't believe that people who are so poor and have suffered so much, can seem so happy!
A few days ago I went to Suol Sleng museum. It's former high school which the Khmer Rouge turned to a prison. Now it's full of mugshot pictures of the people held there. Most of them got brutally murdered after torture. Everybody has some one in their family, who got killed during Pol Pot regime. And they have 20 psychiatrist in the whole country. I hope religion or some thing like that is helping the people cope with that.
Cambodians take great pride in their history and culture. After all, they build Angkor Wat! And it's the biggest thing around. They remind me of Mongolians, to who Chinngis Khaan is still everything. If a country is poor and has a suffered a lot, I guess it's a good thing they have something like that, even in the distant past.
All in all, this is a nice place. The food is good - I think better than Thai, weather is hot and views beautiful. If I could delete the moto drivers, the land mines and the possibility of buying an AK-47 for couple of bucks, I could see myself living here!
On this trip I have received tons of compliments for my English, made a lot of weird mistakes and formed a few very meaningful relationships in English. One odd thing is that I haven't noticed it developing that much. I haven't learned that many new words or anything. I still have my bad days when my sentences are two-word long ones.
And I still have an American accent, though I never even been to the States and I think I will continue saying pants, not trousers for the rest of my life. I will never get the spelling right either, but neither do the native speakers!
I also have come to fully appreciate subtitles since they are the sole reason why my English is close to fluent. I have met a lot of, for example Germans, whose English has been worse than my German!
Where ever you travel in Asia, you see adds looking for English teachers. In China, native speaking is required and the teachers are usually paid something. Here just good English would be enough but you probably work in different conditions than in China. Any ways, everywhere people are eager to learn English since they are very eager to get jobs in some other field than in farming. At first that sounds a bit rough but on the other hand, I have nothing against the idea that as many people as possible are able to communicate with one language. I don't see being bilingual as a thread to cultures.
When talking about this subject some wise-asses have brought up the fact that there are more mandarin Chinese speakers in the world that there are English speakers. True. But if you count the people who have English as a second language... And one thing you can not ignore is that the world already has a huge English teaching system, it's called the American entertainment industry. The down side of course is that too much of it is shit, brain washing people to admire American way of living and adapt the twisted morality behind it all...
Well, anyways. Enough of that. I'm here in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia (I came here via Kep, a small coastal town). So it must the time to say the words every traveler coming here says. I can't believe that people who are so poor and have suffered so much, can seem so happy!
A few days ago I went to Suol Sleng museum. It's former high school which the Khmer Rouge turned to a prison. Now it's full of mugshot pictures of the people held there. Most of them got brutally murdered after torture. Everybody has some one in their family, who got killed during Pol Pot regime. And they have 20 psychiatrist in the whole country. I hope religion or some thing like that is helping the people cope with that.
Cambodians take great pride in their history and culture. After all, they build Angkor Wat! And it's the biggest thing around. They remind me of Mongolians, to who Chinngis Khaan is still everything. If a country is poor and has a suffered a lot, I guess it's a good thing they have something like that, even in the distant past.
All in all, this is a nice place. The food is good - I think better than Thai, weather is hot and views beautiful. If I could delete the moto drivers, the land mines and the possibility of buying an AK-47 for couple of bucks, I could see myself living here!
1 comment:
Hyvä vaan etttä kirjoitat englanniksi niin saan mäkin vähän hyvää harjoitusta. Täällä kun ei edes telkkarin avulla pysty pitämään yllä "kuulokorvaa" (kaikki ohjelmat italiaksi) ja puhumaan pääsee vaan jos eksynyt turisti sattuu kysymään tietä.. Pusuja Italiasta!
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