Cambodian Metaphors
Cambodian people have gone through many life experiences. They
have many lessons learned left for the next generations. A form
of lessons learned were expressed in form of a “comparison” of a
certain situation to a basis thing that is well known by the
local people such as local animals, trees, plantation etc. It is
usually a short sentence, but it represents the whole story of a
certain situation. Below are some selected Cambodian metaphors
that still being used:
“Like
pouring the water on the duck’s head”,
meaning that a person cannot absorb learning. Example: A: I
try to explain this concept to you for the whole morning. Do
you finally understand? B just said: Like pouring the
water on duck’s head.
“Like
catching crabs into a flat basket”,
meaning that we cannot manage a group of people to pay attention
to or focus on some thing. The people just don’t listen to each
other and talk out of order. Example: Mr. Sok, a villager, has
attended a meeting on “village development” with other
villagers, conducted by an NGO worker. After returning home, one
of his neighbors, who did not attend the meeting asked: How was
the meeting? Instead of describing what happened in the meeting,
Mr. Sok just said “like catching crab into flat basket”, and
this should capture the most important aspect of a meeting.
“Like
a frog in a well”, meaning
that a person is lack of opportunity to see some thing
holistically or the whole world.
“A
cake is never bigger than
its basket”,
meaning that children are not bigger than parents. It is also
a saying.
It's also a Khmer saying.
“Toad
should not wish to eat goose’s meat”,
meaning that a (poor) unhandsome man should not wish to love
a (rich) pretty girl.
“Toad
sells drugs for
skin disease”,
meaning that a person cannot walk the talk or cannot
practice what s/he preaches.
“Exactly
10”,
meaning that a person is not clever
or idiot.
“Cross
river”,
meaning that a woman is delivering a baby.
“An
elephant dies, and you take a flat basket to cover”,
meaning that if a person has big problem, s/he cannot afford
to hide it easily. Other will hear it some times.
“If
a wound does not hurt you, don’t take a wood to stick it”,
meaning that if a problem or conflict unlikely to happen,
please do not do anything that lead/cause it to happen.
