New Mandala

Previously I used to think that to address a man in his own language is invariably the best method of approach if you can speak it fluently, but French was more appropriate for high Cambodian officials, who liked speaking a European language.  On the way down from the frontier through villages, knowledge of the Cambodian language had been of the utmost help … Khmer, the Cambodian language, is not difficult to learn, since it has no tones like Chinese or Viet-Namese.  Written Khmer is the same basically as it was in the time of Angkor … It has changed less than English since Chaucer, but in spite of this, few Cambodians can read the ancient version of their own language.  Some have learned it specially…

…It turned out the Governor of Stung-Treng had an inadequate knowledge of his own language when it came to writing me a letter of recommendation in Khmer.  He scratched his head, tore up his half-written draft, and calld in a secretary to finish it. He made up for this deficiency by speaking fluent Viet-Namese, and–something important for a governor of a province near Laos–he knew Lao.

- Extracted from Chistopher Pym, The Road to Angkor, London: The Travel Book Club, 1959, pp.121-122.