Category: Khmer (17-18)

On Wednesday, May 23rd, all the senior students were all dressed up real professional. We were about to attend our whole day for the Model United Nation (MUN) that will be done all it Khmer. It was the first ever Khmer MUN for high school students in Cambodia. I was nervous and excited at the same time. It was my first MUN. The topics for the discussion are the hot topics for the country I was supposed to represent; Bangladesh. The topics were, feeding the world growing billions and air quality control and pollution. I knew have to talk a lot and prepare to answer questions as the delegate of Bangladesh. I did as much research I could, and was prepared to be a delegate.  

At first, giving the opening speech was scary to me. I practiced my speech a couple of times the night before and managed to keep it under one minute. When the chair banged the gong to tell me that I was halfway through my speech duration (30 seconds), I panicked. I wasn’t sure if I could finish my speech, but when I looked at my written speech, I realized I had only had two short paragraphs to go. I was glad. I went through my speech as confident and smooth as I can be and made it all the way through. After my opening speech,  I gained some confidence. I started raising my country flag to question other delegate and made speeches against points are against my country’ position or view. At the end of the day, I felt really proud of myself. All the effort I put into researching was worth it, although I didn‘t use some of the information from my research. I was really fun. I like the idea of being a representative of a country and make for it. I also liked seeing my friends dressing up really professional.

In Khmer class this year, one of our focus is poem and songwriting. In Khmer, poems have their own special rhyme structures, therefore we had to conduct a little research on Khmer poem structure and choose one that we would like to use. I wrote two poems, one using the commonly used structure, the seven syllable structure where every line of the poem has a consistent of seven-syllable. The second poem I wrote was with the ladder structure, where every line in a stanza increase by one syllable. Below is one of my poems written in Khmer and English translation underneath it. 

សំរាមកំសត់

បទពាក្យប្រាំពីរ

អាសូរសំរាមតាមដងផ្លូវ                                  គ្មានទីលំនៅ រឺ បងប្អន      

រសាត់រសល់ប្រៀបដូចក្បូន                                  ក្លិនស្អុយស្ទើរសូនជាដរាប។    

 

សំរាមបានត្រឹមជាសំណល់                                  ដែលគេបន្សល់នៅតាមផ្សារ

             ទីធ្លាទូទៅគ្រប់បណ្តា                                 ឥតពិចារណាទុកជាមុន។       

 

សំរាមត្រូវមានកន្លែងត្រឹមត្រូវ                                  ដែលអាចរស់នៅតាមការគួរ     

កន្លែងនោះជាអ្វីសូមកុំសួរ                                  ចូរអ្នកសាកសួរខ្លួនអ្នក។     

 

Tragic Trash

Seven-syllable structure

I feel the sympathy for the trash on the streets,

they have no home or relatives                                   

rather, they drift around like a raft                              

 carrying a stench for their remaining days.              

         

Trash can be nothing, but waste                                  

    they the ones people leave in the market,                 

    and in public spaces of all sort                                          

          without taking any consideration before doing so.      

 

Trash should have the right place,                               

where they can live in as they should                          

“What is the place?” please do not ask                       

I love would you to ask this to yourself.