From DJ Tales 3.4 (April 2012)
It’s like leading a cow to watch a movie. That’s the Khmer idiom to describe my (Jess) recent haircut experience.
The hairdresser I went to 2 months ago was busy, so I went to another salon instead. There were 3 girls, presumably all hairdressers. Not understanding what I wanted with my hair cut, the girl that I spoke to initially got frustrated & called for another girl to attend to me instead. The 2nd girl started asking questions but I couldn’t understand her either!
It was rather discouraging, even more so as I had received assurance from my teacher the week before that I was progressing very well & understanding a lot. What made it difficult was the wide use of ‘slang’ words & expressions, so I couldn’t understand as they sounded so different! (e.g. ‘gonna’ vs ‘going to’ in English).
I tried chatting with the girl cutting my hair, but each time I asked a question, the other 2 girls added in many comments & made jokes, all which I couldn’t understand. They also mixed in some English words, but they sounded so unclear that I thought they were speaking Khmer!
This was the conversation after the hairdresser (Hd) was done.
Hd: Nih ban eh?
(Is this OK?)
Me: Urm…
<hesitating>
Hd: Nih K’chood! K’chood!
(It’s k’chood (?!)
Me: Urm… k’chood? K’chood ay gey?
(What does k’chood mean?)
Hd: K’chood! S’at!
(K’chood! Beautiful!)
Me: K’chood mien ney ta s’at?
(Does k’chood mean beautiful?)
Hd: K’chood! K’chood!
<bewildered look, repeats more intensely with the other 2 girls joining in>
I made a mental note of that word & asked my teacher the next day. To my surprise, she said, “K’chood? It’s an English word! It means beautiful.” After wrecking my brains, I now know what it is:
“CUTE”!
<Cow bangs head on the TV set…>
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