Topic suggested by @KhonFaring from Twitter.

My parents were born in the provinces in the northeast of Thailand near the Cambodia border. They met in Bangkok, got married, and have been living in the Charoen Krung area since before I was born.

They can both speak Northern Khmer (which I’ll just call Khmer here). I can only understand it, though. The reason is simple: whenever they wanted to gossip about neighbors or have a private conversation, they switched to Khmer. They never taught me directly, but I somehow picked it up just by listening. Maybe I just have a gift for languages.

Whenever I visited my parents’ hometowns, people would often ask me questions in Khmer, but I always replied in Thai. They kept asking why I couldn’t speak it. The truth is, I was shy. I didn’t want to make mistakes and have people laugh at me. At the same time, I felt like my parents didn’t want me to use the language, since they never taught me. lol

Still, it can be pretty useful when someone is gossiping about you in Khmer. One time, while leaving Asok BTS, two ladyboys were staring at me and chatting. Then one of them came up and asked, “My friend would like to know if your hair is real.” I told her that it was. Her friend, who was too shy to say anything, started walking away. That’s when the one talking to me shouted in Khmer, telling her to come back and look more closely. It felt so good to understand exactly what they were saying.

Another time, just a few weeks ago, my co-worker asked me to translate a comment her boyfriend’s friend had left on her Facebook photo. It was in Khmer, and I was able to tell her what it meant. See? Useful!

These days, though, I’ve forgotten most of it. Since I don’t live at home anymore, I don’t hear my parents speaking Khmer often enough to keep it fresh in my mind.