First Khmer Fluency Competition for Foreigners

Phnom Penh 13th June 2015 –  LINK, the Language Institute of Natural Khmer and Paññāsāstra University of Cambodia organized  the First Khmer Fluency Competition for foreigners. Smart has supported this event.

The main idea behind this event is to promote the Khmer language and to show the Cambodian public that there are many foreigners who are learning Khmer and who are able to achieve high levels of speaking. In doing this, is our goal is to also encourage foreigners living in Cambodia to learn Khmer!

We are certain that this event will generate a lot of interest from all Cambodians! It is the first time such a competition is being organized in this country!

The focus will of course be the content and style when the participants speak, but the humor and delivery will also be important. This means that it will be a fun and entertaining activity for everyone involved – both the foreign contestants and the public!

Around 25 participants will be competing in the event and they will be divided into 3 different levels (Intermediate, Advanced and Expert). They come from 9 different countries: Japan, France, Belgium, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States, there is a wide range of ages and they come from different backgrounds. The ratio between men and women is about 50-50. The participants will speak in Khmer for a maximum of 3 minutes on a topic which has to do with Cambodia out of 3 themes:

• What is the point of learning and speaking Khmer in Cambodia today?
• Talk about one or more expressions in Khmer that you particularly like
• Talk about a memory that you have in Cambodia which means