We, the Cambodians, always say that we are so fortunate to have been born as a Khmer. We are so glad that our ancestors have left us priceless wonders of the world and impress us and also the rest of the world. We love to imagine or tell foreigners of our ancestors' glorious days. Time has passed,we have fallen from one of the most powerful empire to a small, weak country anyone has hardly ever heard of. What have we done to impress our ancestors since the minute they passed away?Have we done enough to amaze the whole world?Will we be able to do so with the next generation?We might not know what they think, we might not hear what they say ,but by looking at what we have done and what we are doing, we may just guess what the answers are.
As teenagers lead the country's future, their problems are the ones to be concerned. Many Cambodian youths now address themselves with Korean or American names rather than Khmer names which is also a part of culture losing issue.Taking in too much of foreign influence also consequently leads to tradition being taken for granted.It is also known that, nowadays people are having contacts with alcohol, sexual images and videos and love at a very young age which often result in educational distraction. Moreover, as a consequence of more possible Internet access, more and more students tend to spend more time surfing than they do for studying.Therefore, when it comes to exams, bribery and cheating come along and this problem causes trust and interest losses in Cambodian educational system. Furthermore, most of youths today also seem to be quite violent. News of students' fighting and even killing are now published on media more frequently than ever before.
I believe that we sometimes think that this is the society we are living in and we have to adjust ourselves into it. Nonetheless, when is it going to be ended? We are the next generation to run Cambodia. Even if we are still teenagers, we can do something to prevent this tragedy from going even further. It is not too late, the Earth is still spinning, and it is time for recoveries for what have made us suffer and it is also the minute we acted if our aim is to impress the spirits of our ancestors and the next generation and especially, ourselves.As mentioned, our country is going up or down depends on us. So, we can together lead our country to a higher level if each of us turn back to our books and focus on studying as soon as you finish reading this post. Please consider everything you do, and think"Am I doing the right thing for Cambodia?"
P.S Remember, we are the original owners of Khmer culture but we are not the only ones who share it.
P.2
I believe that we sometimes think that this is the society we are living in and we have to adjust ourselves into it. Nonetheless, when is it going to be ended? We are the next generation to run Cambodia. Even if we are still teenagers, we can do something to prevent this tragedy from going even further. It is not too late, the Earth is still spinning, and it is time for recoveries for what have made us suffer and it is also the minute we acted if our aim is to impress the spirits of our ancestors and the next generation and especially, ourselves.As mentioned, our country is going up or down depends on us. So, we can together lead our country to a higher level if each of us turn back to our books and focus on studying as soon as you finish reading this post. Please consider everything you do, and think"Am I doing the right thing for Cambodia?"
P.S Remember, we are the original owners of Khmer culture but we are not the only ones who share it.
P.2
Hi P.2, I've thought about this post over the last few days. Why? Well, its well-structured and well-written but that's not the reason. Rather, here's a sentence that stopped me dead: 'When it comes to exams, bribery comes along.'
ReplyDeleteI hear this all the time from my YL10's and it breaks my heart that young students have to put up with this. So, any ideas on how to get your generation to buy into the idea of 'doing the right thing for Cambodia' by putting the brakes on corruption?
What about studying ethics and critical thinking- do you do much of that in Khmer school?
Great post, Pitou. I think you ask some good questions - and very challenging questions! I wonder what your peers think?
ReplyDeleteAnd... what do you want to see in Cambodia? Do you think education will solve the problems?
This seems like the beginning of a very interesting discussion. I appreciate that you are willing to ask hard questions and take a stand for something you believe in.
I also like Phillip's questions!
Kathleen
That's one problem but I always wonder about this one... Our teenagers who are highly educated, mostly immigrate to another country - live there and work there. As a result we are losing human resource because only teenagers who don't have high degree, stays in the country. So how could we get those intelligent people back to our country?
ReplyDeleteMonineath
Great post, and great ideas! I'm just speechless now, you are a kid with alot of imagination. Please, keep it up, and...no one will realise anything unless they face the problem themselves.
ReplyDeleteMickey
Hi p.2 I think that now that we have internet access young teenagers don't study their lessons much but instead, they learn about the world around us. There's an old saying "a frog in a well knows nothing about the outside world" and we shouldn't act like a frog in a well. We should find out more about our own and other countries so that we can develop our country faster. However, I agree that our culture is slowly dispersing because many young teenage Cambodians nowadays like to imitate others who they think are "cool" so that they look better. I think this is bad because if we lose our culture, what else do we have left to remember our ancestors?
ReplyDelete-rotha
I like this writing, the meaning is very special for teenagers in Cambodia to think, what are they doing now,it is right or wrong?
ReplyDeleteSreylen
Good writing! But Do u think that camdodia teenage now try to protect our culture? No! they just try to destroy it like Cambodia song Old Fashion cambodia song? No! they like korean USA and the special thing in camdodia now is drug. But Do they think that the thing they do is right?
ReplyDeleteBeautiful and thought post,you have. But i have some points to disagree with you.Internet is bad or good,depends on the users. If we use it for good purposes,it's good. If not,it's bad.I know that Khmer now is not the same as Khmer before. But there are some better and worse points.Anyway what i want to say is that We should not forget who we are,we should be proud of what we have and try to preserve them ,not leaving them behind and if we do,one day when we asked who are,we won't be able to answer that.
ReplyDelete-EniX-
Hello, thanks to everyone for comments, questions and suggestions.
ReplyDelete-First of all. Mickey. Thanks anyway. But, you think that I'm still a kid?
_Well, Rotha. I don't blame entirely to the internet at all.The matter is that we are using it in a negative way. I agree that we have to understand the outside world as much as we can ,but why not do it without any effects on our study?
_Thanks, Sreylen. I said " just some of us" are doing wrong.
_Thanks, Monineath for your questions.We'll have to think here why is this happening? Coz the Gov.isn't taking enough care of them? Leaving the country doesn't always mean that they don't do the right thing.It is us who have to treat them right if we want benefit from them.
I don't think this is a writing I desired at all. It is just too short or whatever.But i will always welcome all of your debates or wondering.
P.2
Lolzzz, sorry P2, I didn't mean to hurt you or anything but I just mean you study in middle school but have a lot of ideas, got it?
ReplyDeleteMickey
Yes i partly agree with you"nameless".Some have tried to protect our culture but some just have not done enough. I wanna encourage them to continue to do the right things. Songs and names are no big deal as we are starting to be modern and globalized. but it is part of who we are. I don't mean to force all of you to like khmer modern songs( I also hate some of the copied and badly written songs) but forgive me if I forgot to say that I meant traditional songs.
ReplyDelete_I want you guys to simply answer the question of the tittle by looking at our surrounding+how fast does our country develop and how are we going to change it?
P.2
P2 - This surprised me:
ReplyDelete"I don't think this is a writing I desired at all. It is just too short or whatever."
This sounds like you are putting down your writing, or saying that you really don't believe what you are saying, or don't really care about it. Is that what you intend to communicate?
p.s. small grammatical note: In your title, "but are they" could mean "are they proud of themselves?" To fix this, you can just write "but are they proud of us?"
ReplyDeleteI'm really sorry that I've been so long far way from the blog. This is the 4th internet shop I have been in the last 1 week, and thank God this computer didn't reveal the sign"The site you are going in is not trusted. Please go back!"
ReplyDeleteEnough of this anyway,I'm so sorry for leaving your question unanswered for a pretty long period.
Actually, we have to get rid of those bribery accepting first. Sometime it is because the testers are too kind and let the students do whatever they want. Secondly, we've got to get students to understand the serious effects of their ignorance to their study lives. Stricter rules have to be permitted to make they think that it is useless to try, we will certainly be caught.We also can do it by encouraging them to do it.
Thank you, teacher Kathleen for telling me my mistakes, I 'll try my best to edit them.
P.2
Ha, I didn't know our blog site was so...dangerous!
ReplyDeleteThanks for being persistent and sorry it was such a hassle for you to get to the blog outside of class.
I appreciate hearing more of your opinions about this. It sounds like all sides have to do their part to stop the corruption. I agree that teachers/testers have a professional and ethical responsibility to not accept bribes.