US National Jeff Shum wins the "Khmer speaking for foreigners"-contest organized by PUC.

[Loy9]

Phnom Penh

Mr. Jeff Shum, who's an American national, scored the highest rank in the Khmer speaking test. The program titled "Khmer Language Contest for Foreigners" was held at Pannasastra University of Cambodia (PUC) in the afternoon of August 6 2016.

Mr. Jeff was very excited that he scored the highest place in the Khmer speaking competition. Mr.Jeff expressed his gratitude and respect towards PUC, including its partners, who organized this program which offered an opportunity to all foreigners who are living in the Kingdom of Cambodia to compete their competence regarding the use of the Khmer language.
He expressed his feeling with a smile saying: "I'm really happy to pass with the highest rank."

A strange thing is that Mr.Jeff, who lives in the Kingdom since more than 2 years already, can't read and write Khmer. The American national claimed that the reason why he learned speaking Khmer in a quick and correct way is because he lived in a Khmer family in Siem Reap for more than 2 years during which he fulfilled a personal/private mission.

Living together with Khmer nationals gave him the opportunity to study Khmer almost all the time. Therefore Mr.Jeff opted for the topic/theme "Living together with a Khmer family" to compete today.

Mr.Somboor Meannara (សំបូរ មា​ណ្ណា​រ៉ា), professor Khmer sciences and history at PUC, and who was one of the 7 members of the evaluation commission said that Mr.Jeff is a candidate who speaks Khmer in a correct way. He added that apart from his use of the Khmer language Mr.Jeff showed the correct attitude by living and dealing/communicating with Khmer nationals by himself. He was also praised for his wise answers on the committee's questions.

The second place went to Ms.Kasumi Nakagava, who's from Japan and the third place went to Mr.Cabisada Mark who's from the Philippines.
There were 2 female competitors and 4 male competitors; a US man, a Filipino man, an Indonesian man, a Frech man and 2 Japanese women.

The program will be organised on a yearly base.

Please note that this is the second time that PUC organized a "Khmer Language Contest for Foreigners" with more than 1000 people taking part, including students from several universities and representatives of various ministries as well as some international guests.
The first edition was organized on June 13 2015.

[Loy9]

[Loy9]