All the girls who work in the main office have been awesome at helping me practice Khmer. When I did a month of intensive language study, I used to come to school every afternoon and chat with all the Khmer speakers, and these girls were both tons of fun and extremely helpful. I still often chat and joke around with them in Khmer when I'm in the office. But until today, speaking was as far as it went.
My 18 months of intermittently studying the Khmer alphabet (OK, only one hour a week) just began to pay off. Dalis' e-mail to me is the first writing in Khmer script that's ever been addressed directly to me, and I was able to read it!
Here it is:
អរគុណបងឈែលស៊ីដែលបានជួយកែ Wednesday Updateអោយខ្ញុំ!!!
អរគុណច្រើន!!!
ដាលិស
Translated, it says: "Thank you Chelsea for proofreading the Wednesday Update (a weekly school e-mail to families) for me! Thank you very much! Dalis."
Simple? Yes. But it's the product of many laborious hours of staring, copying, sounding out, and memorizing. And it feels like a minor miracle.
Hooray for measurable progress! Happy birthday to me!
