English as a Special Language

Having lived in Vietnam for a year and a half, I am accustomed to dealing with non-English speakers on a daily basis. The biggest change my friends and family have noticed in me is my new-found ability to start up a whirlwind of action with my hands as I speak. As I talk of something large, my hands spring out and up in an effort to really show how big it is. When I talk of something exciting, my hands tend to flap around and my fingers flick in all directions. My action for a menu or book is an opening and closing of the palms, my action for "I'm a vegetarian" is pinching my flesh and signaling NO with a cross of the arms. I'm only half aware of it although the recent jokes that my animated hand movements have spawned have shown me how much I flap around while speaking.

Since arriving in Cambodia, I've been extremely surprised and impressed by the level and amount of English that most Khmers have. In Vietnam the language and awareness of its benefits is spreading rapidly but it is still a rarity to find a street vendor or xe om driver who can put an English sentence together. In Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, however, we've been amazed by the pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary that local street-food vendors, internet cafe owners, waiters, security guards, etc. etc. have demonstrated. These aren't all people who need English for their chosen careers, even bus drivers and fruit-juice-blenders have displayed a strong use of the language.

This is surprising to me for a number of reasons, one of which is the decided lack of English language schools that I have seen. Of course, one could always attend the 'English as a Special Language' School in Siem Reap or the 'Foreign of the Language School' in Phnom Penh but, as the titles suggest, I can't imagine how much English one would learn there. Jokes aside, the standard of English tends to be higher in Cambodia than in Vietnam and perhaps will allow me to decrease the flurry of activity that accompanies even my most basic sentence.