mandevu.net

Comment by Jim Shelley

5 March 2007 @ 6:52 pm

I enjoyed getting your emails today with links to all the Tanzania PCV blogs as well as to your fabulous mandevu.net, which I have just taken the great pleasure of reading through. Very entertaining–keep it up! I’ve spent most of the day plotting how to arrange a visit from China down to Cambodia before you leave there. I’ll get back to you on it.

P.S. If your up for the challenge, try to see if you can get me the script for the Khmer phrase seen here: http://thejimshelley.worldzonepro.com/iwanttotaste.html. That would be awesome.

Comment by mandevu

6 March 2007 @ 8:36 am

Thanks for your support, Jim! Come visit anytime! Just let me know when, and I will both welcome you into my home and assist with other logistics as best I can.

And I will work on your translation problem. I am not entirely comfortable with the one on the site. Word choice depends a lot on relationships between the speakers (I bet it is similar with Chinese), so I may have an alternative translation. Plus, there is the taste as a general sensation (like, the taste of that soup is fishy), and taste as in its sampling sense (taste that soup and tell me what you think). Here, those are different words. I am meeting with a friend tonight who will help me with the dirty parts.

Comment by Jim Shelley

8 March 2007 @ 4:58 pm

Thanks for your reply! I am thinking that if I do get a chance to come down to Cambodia while you’re there, it will probably be during the first week of May (our May 1st holiday) or some time in July or August. My wife and I are saving money for our wedding currently (it will be in the first week of August), so she may not be so supportive of such a trip, so I’ll have to work on warming her up to the idea. I’ll be starting a distance-study master’s program in the fall which will probably eliminate any other potential visiting times. Looking at plane ticket prices and the map, it looks like it may be worth considering flying into Bangkok and taking the train eastward, but I guess that depends where you’ll be located around the Tonle Sap. I think I’d also like to visit Angkor Wat while I’m there. Anyway, I’ll keep you posted. If you might not always be checking email, give me your phone number or some other way of contacting you in an email if possible.

Do not feel any obligation to do anything with that phrase if you don’t feel comfortable with it. It’s all for fun–not to be taken seriously and really not so necessary. As you may have noticed in the site philosophy, translation of that phrase requires language knowledge and/or close relations with a foreign speaker, and if you don’t have the latter, I wouldn’t want the phrase to damage any relationships you’re building. The Khmer phrase that is there was given to me by a Cambodian guy I met in a chatroom, and it’s quite possible that he didn’t understand what the phrase meant, so probably there is a more suitable translation. Chinese also has a different word for taste when it means ‘flavor’ and when it means ‘try’. Anyway, you will get credit on the site for any and all contributions you make (real name or alias are both acceptable). Thanks for your assistance in this quest.