▶️ Watch on 3Speak
I've been speaking Khmer as my primary language for more than 7 years, and it's certainly had a significant impact on my brain and thinking process.
For Better Or Worse
There are many situations I get into with native English speakers where my brain just can't compute an English vocabulary word that I need in the moment. It is a very weird feeling to lose somewhat basic vocabulary words in your own language simply for lack of not uttering them for 11+ years.
I arrived in Cambodia in early 2010, and within two years I was I speaking the language with great confidence. In my daily life most of my friends and co-workers were non-native English speakers, and mostly Cambodian. Due to this, even though I didn't speak Khmer fluently yet, any chance to speak English was always a very basic conversation with simple words.
During the 10 years I lived in Cambodia, I traveled to the USA a few times and experienced being surrounded by my native language, and it always takes me about three days to start feeling comfortable with expressing myself, via a wide range of vocabulary words. Strangely enough I've learned living abroad that it's actually most difficult to explain concepts and ideas with the least and most simple words.
At this point in my life I have a Cambodian family, and we only began speaking a bit of English with each other a few years ago, Khmer being our main language for the first years we were together. Now I think in Khmer and sometimes even translate my Khmer thoughts to English when presented an opportunity to speak my native tongue for a few minutes.
What I've learned is that it takes several days surrounded by native English speakers before my brain allows me to use 100% of the vocab locked away in the the far reaches of my brain.
In this video I give some insight into how I sometimes make a fool of myself when speaking English, saying things such as "tree mining" instead of "logging," and "fence" instead of "wall." It's safe to say I've been rewired, and I certainly notice a difference in my thinking process, because living and thinking in a language disconnected from my own is more mind-altering than any drug, natural or synthetic, that I've ever taken.
🙏 THANKS FOR READING/WATCHING 🙏
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