Language World

Cambodia

Platform: Mac OS, Windows 95 / 98 / Me
Media: CD-ROM
Features:

• Khmer language learning software
• Study vocabulary, phrases, culture, and more
• Recording tool lets you practice with native speakers
• Games and challenging quizzes make learning fun
• On-screen help available in more than 70 languages

This unconventional language-learning series offers games and quizzes that make the learning process fun, relaxing, and, as such, more successful. Ideal for beginners, Talk Now! Khmer includes such topics as vocabulary, phrases, culture, and more. A handy print and picture dictionary produces entries with both text and pictorial references. This interactive software title also features a recording tool, so you can compare your pronunciation to that of native speakers (microphone required). Quizzes and a challenging memory game let you test your newly acquired skills. You can also track your scores and print awards to celebrate. Best of all, you can change Talk Now! Khmer's onscreen help and menus to the language of your choice. With more than 70 languages from which to choose, this software makes learning Khmer accessible to everyone.

Or Buy in: UK or Canada

Native Cambodian speakers teach the pronunciation and cadences of their language.

Reader Review: Useful for me, May 20, 2002
Reviewer: alexander janums from Kingston, New York United States
This book and CD set were my introduction to Khmer. I went through the first 7 chapters before my trip to Cambodia. I was able to say a few things to people with good results.

Click UK or Canada to check for price and availability in those countries.

This, like the others, in the series are brilliant, April 21, 2000
Reviewer: A reader from New Zealand
I have used the Cambodian-English picture dictionary for teaching both English to Khmer speakers and Khmer to English speakers. As a tool for building vocabulary and provoking free conversation on a one-to-one basis, there can be few better. As a self teaching tool it is also invaluable. Above all it is clear, accurate and attractive to work with.

Click UK or Canada to check for price and availability in those countries.

Good quick reference, April 7, 2000
Reviewer: Joseph H Sexton (see more about me) from USA
The Tuttle Practical Cambodian Dictionary is a good quick reference guide. Pocket sized and easy to carry, it isn't designed to be comprehensive, but has most of the essential words and phrases one is likely to encounter in everyday usage. I have some minor quibbles on pronunciation of a few words, but, spoken Khmer is often at variance with the written form of the words. For technical translation, a more comprehensive dictionary is a must, but for travelers and translation of simple documents, this is a fine tool.

Click UK or Canada to check for price and availability in those countries.

Practical working glossary for field work in Cambodia, November 2, 1999
Reviewer: Richard Arant from Indiana
A thorough glossary of the wide-ranging material covered in the long-time standard Foreign Service Institute Khmer language course. Prepared by a widely loved and admired instructor who has prepared a generation of foreign service officers to assume their duties in Cambodia.

Click UK or Canada to check for price and availability in those countries.

This topic-based picture dictionary for young learners has colour illustrations designed to stimulate children's interest. It can be used as a basis for both oral and written work. Each topic introduces a maximum of 15 new words which are listed in an alphabetical index at the back of the book.

Click UK or Canada to check for price and availability in those countries.

Huffman - comprehensive, but how do you say that?!, August 19, 2001 Reviewer: treddy_au from Phnom Penh, Cambodia I'm a big fan of this book, with one reservation (see below).

It's best for use with an experienced Khmer teacher. However, working with it alone, it's extremely comprehensive in sequentially introducing Khmer grammar, useful vocabulary and common structures. It has a lot of repetitive drills which reinforce each grammar point and I really like the organisation, where it introduces vocab throughout a set of dialogues, then follows up with exercises to help it sink in and with specific grammar notes - which you can use if you're interested in or ignore if you just want to learn the key phrases and vocab. The book also has a pretty comprehensive set of indices for English and Khmer vocab (glossary) and for the key words and grammar points.

The one real downside for me is the choice of transliteration (I think that's what you call it!). Huffman uses some transliteration which looks a bit like Internaitonal Phonetic Alphabet, but isn't. I have searched the book for a table or reference to how each symbol (and combination thereof) should be pronounced. I thought once I found a reference to another book where they are explained, but now I cannot find it again. Perhaps I imagined it! The result is, when you work with a teacher who knows the book well, you can learn the pronunciation by repetition. But when you go back to the book yourself to practise, it's very difficult to reconstruct the pronunciation. One example is the use of an 'i' chracter with a line through it. On page 44, min and tiw (both with lines through the i that I can't reproduce here) are clearly pronounced differently in Khmer and are different vowels in Khmer script. Even my Khmer teacher says he has to stop and think sometimes, what word is being used in the book.

The book by David Smyth [ed. Colloquial Cambodian: A Complete Language Course] is much better at guiding you through the sounds, though it also simplifies a fair bit and describes different vowels as having the same pronunciation. In summary, if you want to comprehensively learn Khmer and understand its grammar, AND you have a teacher or other guide to pronunciation, this book is great. If you're working alone and wnat to go out each day and speak to Khmers, perhaps David Smyth's book (with tapes) is better.

Click UK or Canada to check for price and availability in those countries.

The absolute best resource for learning to read Khmer., January 24, 2001
Reviewer: toun (see more about me) from Lanesville, Indiana USA
First published in 1970, this text stands alone as the best source for those learning to read Khmer. Part One is a thorough but easily-followed analysis of the Cambodian system of writing. Part Two is a programmed text so well thought-out that one cannot help but quickly grasp the material. Part Three is a beginning reader. What Mary Haas did for a generation of students of Thai script, Franklin E. Huffman has matched and perhaps even surpassed for students of the strikingly beautiful Khmer system of writing.

Click UK or Canada to check for price and availability in those countries.

Click UK or Canada to check for price and availability in those countries.

by Franklin E. Huffman (Editor), Im Proum (Editor)

Click UK or Canada to check for price and availability in those countries.