We've had 'Extreme' sports, 'Extreme' wrestling, even 'Extreme' potato chips. Now get ready for -
Khmer language teacher Frank Smith, take the microphone: Greetings--And now for something totally different: what's possibly the first video podcast ever in Khmer!! "Extreme Khmer" (khmae kray leeng) will present a new episode every month (from September to May), and feature our crack team of wacky reporters traipsing the highways and byways of Southeast Asia bringing the crazy world of Khmer language and culture into your living room. Or something like that. Note that the podcast is totally in Khmer, and is intended for Khmer students who have at least completed Beginning level. If you don't speak Khmer, aw, c'mon, watch it anyway...you can still appreciate some of the sheer silliness of it.The first episode was taped right here in rainy Bangkok, and it's about Surin Khmers (and Surin Khmer dialect/language) in Thailand. Next month's episode will feature guest host nek kruu Sokhary and focus on Wat Phnom and the history of Phnom Penh.Unfortunately, I haven't quite figured out the whole RSS thing yet so it's not a "proper podcast" (that is, you can't subscribe to it on iTunes just yet), but you can access it in two ways:1. Watch the widescreen, high-res version here...warning, the file is really big (around 300 Mb), so only attempt this from a fast connection, or you may hurt yourself:http://www.studykhmer.comJust use the controls to play the video after it finishes loading. And yes, I know, the control bar at the bottom of the video gets cut off in Mozilla Firefox (though it displays fine in Explorer), I'm working on solving that problem. But it is usable right now.2. or, if you have a video iPod and want to download the iPod-sized version, go here:http://www.studykhmer.com/podcast...and right-click on the "Podcast" icon to download the file. That file is much smaller than the high-res version (about 32 Mb).The show is about 6 minutes long. Let me know what you think! Later this week I'll try to put up some supplementary material to go with the episode (for all you lifelong Khmer students out there), including video of an interview that didn't make the final cut.Enjoy!Frankps Nothing else on the website studykhmer.com exists just yet, but I hope to have the textbook section set up by the end of this month or so...so just keep checking back. In the "assorted goodies" section, I'll be putting up various videos and other documents about Khmer language.Tags: Cambodia,khmer
The translation of "Extreme Khmer" sounds not familiar to me. The word KrayLaeng is always used as adverb, not adjective. We can say "Sahao Kraylaeng" (extremely brutal),...
yes, technically you're correct, but that translation--like the title itself--is meant as tongue-in-cheek, because actually I hate that whole marketing strategy (and let's face it, that's what it is) of "Extrrrreeeeme Sports!!!" and all that, a la MTV, etc.
relatedly, my students and I sometimes have fun translating American hip hop slang literally into Khmer, in other words, a word-for-word translation, with no attempt to convert the meaning accurately into Khmer (which is of course the goal of serious translation). for example "peak ler" ('word up') or "khmae niw pteah" ('khmers in da house')...
