What I Love/Hate About Cambodian Culture.
07 November 2016 [link youtube]
Youtube Automatic Transcription
okay so without a question here on live
chat how do I really feel about Cambodian culture and I just made a lengthy set of declarations that I don't want to make a video about all the things I dislike about Cambodian culture I'm not saying hey I'm saying dislike I don't want to make a video but all the reasons why I never wake up in the morning and wish I was back in Cambodia I never want to go back in yellow dia I regret that I ever moved to Cambodia I regret that I ever lived in Cambodia I regret that I never studied the Cambodian languages regret regret regret never want to go back don't like anything about it bla bla bla bla bla but this also inspires me to try to say one nice thing about Cambodia in Cambodian culture um if you're seriously interested in social science research in studying social problems culture politics anything Cambodians are the greatest people in the world for sharing with you the kind of information that in other cultures you can't get out of people you get you things you cannot learn by asking questions in other cultures like I was doing research in Cambodia and you you go up to people and ask like oh hey um I'm researching problems in the healthcare system here you know we hear there are some problems with the local hospital and they cover up some of the problems you know what do you know but that kind of oh yeah yeah they murdered my son let me tell you the story like straight up no hesitation no I could self-confidence they'll sit down and talk you through the story of how this [ __ ] hospital how incompetent people at the hospital murdered their son and covered it up after her for social science research it's mind blowing you can't like in England you can't walk into a town in Scotland or England and just ask people that question and verbally get this kind of information you'd have to spend hours and hours getting the people to trust you you'd probably have to sign legal forms you pro have to make promises to them and say okay don't worry this is going to be anonymous we're gonna use this for the study we're gonna invest you'd have to reassure people the most sensitive most dangerous most useful information imaginable people sit down and really lay it on the table with you and like when you've just met them you they don't trust you they don't know you I remember once and I had already discussed this with my wife who's now my ex-wife in case you haven't heard were we're divorced walked into a shop where there was a Cambodian woman and she was in the tourism business she was in the making arrangements for tourism business and she never met me before she'd never met my wife before but I already explained to my wife because my wife was an anthropologist so anthropologists rely on this type of interview this type of social science research talking to people and I said look you know this culture it's unbelievable for exactly what you have to poll just do walking in the shop and like yeah yeah yeah you know um this is what I study this is my background this is my wife she has a PhD in anthropology we've been thinking about getting more involved with this university here but you know here it's corrupt we hear there's corruption you know its financial corruption inside the university and you know this other university I'm not sure if it's better or worse you know what do you what do you think about that and woman sat there just for a couple sections looking I said oh well you know um I don't have any opinion about that if you were to ask me what I think about financial corruption inside the university I would say to you I don't know anything about that that's dangerous to talk about I can't talk about that I don't anything but that but because you've asked me my opinion here's what I'm gonna tell you and then she laid into it look after that completely surreal caveat if anyone asks what I know about corruption inside the university I don't know anything i have no opinion it's dangerous talk with that but now here's what I have to tell you and she laid into it it's like this is better information like I honestly think if you work with the police in America or England you could get people to provide you this information it's the nature of information it's secret and it's sensitive and it's complex it's difficult to explain it takes time to unpack to say ok this is the problem these people pay bribes to these people this is what's going on you know get the whole [ __ ] story laid out free with passion and immediacy and this is in English in this case in most of the research I did was through translators you know it was in in the Cambodian language we're talking this was the [ __ ] you know this is what you're doing and you know my wife she walked out of that conversation I don't know let's say we got like a 20-minute lecture from this woman we just met about financial corruption and how the universities were organized good luck in Canada anywhere else getting desks and she was like wow like I see what you talking about like this blows my mind like wow this is such an exciting place to do research at any kind of social science question but me anything like that like racism but I mean medical science like I mentioned with the hospital you know but obviously like Party politics like what's going on within government all kinds of stuff you can't research anywhere else the Cambodians were so upfront and in-your-face and forthcoming with it and it was inspiring it made you want to be more of an honest person you know it made you its courage it's really it's courageous it's having the courage to speak the truth when it matters right that's that's what Cambodians have but unfortunately what it's linked to is arrogance and one of the reasons why they'll say that to you is their extreme arrogance and like I gave a lecture I was a scholar of Buddhism I had so many years of studying Buddhism in Pali and I remember there was one guy who came in he was Cambodian guy but he spoke in English my lecture was in English was in Cambodia I give this lecture and it's fisken complex and he was just waiting for his turn to talk and when I stopped giving lecture he stood up and he just starts giving his own lecture I had the eyes as nothing to do with what I did and it's very obvious to me immediately he knows nothing about Buddhism he's not a scholar he hasn't read any these texts and so on and I just stopped as I'm sorry what do you why are you doing this and I also pointed out that actually a couple of things you said already he wanted to talk for an hour I stuck them in for you like I'm sorry that's textually wrong that's historically wrong that text is from five hundred years later than this text when you know your stuff in Buddhism you just destroy amateur opinions with Buddhism but it said why you my real question is why you saying this why did you come to my lecture on Buddhism but that's part of the same thing right that's the same culture of arrogance this guy woke up in the morning and thought oh some foreign scholar of Buddhism is giving a lecture on on Buddhist philosophy I'm gonna go and wait for my chance to give my own lecture to tell them a thing or two because because they're so [ __ ] arrogant they're so self-confident they have that same that same desire to speak the truth of it matters even when they don't know what they're talking about even when they're speaking at a total total ignorance that I mean you know there's a self-righteous undercurrent to it but yeah for social science research that's so thrilling and I loved it and with every project I could not believe the type of data and the type of eyewitness information you get from people just just by asking so sure that's a wonderful redeeming quality the Cambodian people have and I wish I wish Canadians could learn from it but I say again I never want to go back to Cambodia I never wake up and wish I was in Cambodia and I'll regret for the rest of my life that I ever studied the Cambodian language that I ever moved to Cambodia that I ever had anything to do with that country in other ways it's that bad it's I believe me that it's really that bad
chat how do I really feel about Cambodian culture and I just made a lengthy set of declarations that I don't want to make a video about all the things I dislike about Cambodian culture I'm not saying hey I'm saying dislike I don't want to make a video but all the reasons why I never wake up in the morning and wish I was back in Cambodia I never want to go back in yellow dia I regret that I ever moved to Cambodia I regret that I ever lived in Cambodia I regret that I never studied the Cambodian languages regret regret regret never want to go back don't like anything about it bla bla bla bla bla but this also inspires me to try to say one nice thing about Cambodia in Cambodian culture um if you're seriously interested in social science research in studying social problems culture politics anything Cambodians are the greatest people in the world for sharing with you the kind of information that in other cultures you can't get out of people you get you things you cannot learn by asking questions in other cultures like I was doing research in Cambodia and you you go up to people and ask like oh hey um I'm researching problems in the healthcare system here you know we hear there are some problems with the local hospital and they cover up some of the problems you know what do you know but that kind of oh yeah yeah they murdered my son let me tell you the story like straight up no hesitation no I could self-confidence they'll sit down and talk you through the story of how this [ __ ] hospital how incompetent people at the hospital murdered their son and covered it up after her for social science research it's mind blowing you can't like in England you can't walk into a town in Scotland or England and just ask people that question and verbally get this kind of information you'd have to spend hours and hours getting the people to trust you you'd probably have to sign legal forms you pro have to make promises to them and say okay don't worry this is going to be anonymous we're gonna use this for the study we're gonna invest you'd have to reassure people the most sensitive most dangerous most useful information imaginable people sit down and really lay it on the table with you and like when you've just met them you they don't trust you they don't know you I remember once and I had already discussed this with my wife who's now my ex-wife in case you haven't heard were we're divorced walked into a shop where there was a Cambodian woman and she was in the tourism business she was in the making arrangements for tourism business and she never met me before she'd never met my wife before but I already explained to my wife because my wife was an anthropologist so anthropologists rely on this type of interview this type of social science research talking to people and I said look you know this culture it's unbelievable for exactly what you have to poll just do walking in the shop and like yeah yeah yeah you know um this is what I study this is my background this is my wife she has a PhD in anthropology we've been thinking about getting more involved with this university here but you know here it's corrupt we hear there's corruption you know its financial corruption inside the university and you know this other university I'm not sure if it's better or worse you know what do you what do you think about that and woman sat there just for a couple sections looking I said oh well you know um I don't have any opinion about that if you were to ask me what I think about financial corruption inside the university I would say to you I don't know anything about that that's dangerous to talk about I can't talk about that I don't anything but that but because you've asked me my opinion here's what I'm gonna tell you and then she laid into it look after that completely surreal caveat if anyone asks what I know about corruption inside the university I don't know anything i have no opinion it's dangerous talk with that but now here's what I have to tell you and she laid into it it's like this is better information like I honestly think if you work with the police in America or England you could get people to provide you this information it's the nature of information it's secret and it's sensitive and it's complex it's difficult to explain it takes time to unpack to say ok this is the problem these people pay bribes to these people this is what's going on you know get the whole [ __ ] story laid out free with passion and immediacy and this is in English in this case in most of the research I did was through translators you know it was in in the Cambodian language we're talking this was the [ __ ] you know this is what you're doing and you know my wife she walked out of that conversation I don't know let's say we got like a 20-minute lecture from this woman we just met about financial corruption and how the universities were organized good luck in Canada anywhere else getting desks and she was like wow like I see what you talking about like this blows my mind like wow this is such an exciting place to do research at any kind of social science question but me anything like that like racism but I mean medical science like I mentioned with the hospital you know but obviously like Party politics like what's going on within government all kinds of stuff you can't research anywhere else the Cambodians were so upfront and in-your-face and forthcoming with it and it was inspiring it made you want to be more of an honest person you know it made you its courage it's really it's courageous it's having the courage to speak the truth when it matters right that's that's what Cambodians have but unfortunately what it's linked to is arrogance and one of the reasons why they'll say that to you is their extreme arrogance and like I gave a lecture I was a scholar of Buddhism I had so many years of studying Buddhism in Pali and I remember there was one guy who came in he was Cambodian guy but he spoke in English my lecture was in English was in Cambodia I give this lecture and it's fisken complex and he was just waiting for his turn to talk and when I stopped giving lecture he stood up and he just starts giving his own lecture I had the eyes as nothing to do with what I did and it's very obvious to me immediately he knows nothing about Buddhism he's not a scholar he hasn't read any these texts and so on and I just stopped as I'm sorry what do you why are you doing this and I also pointed out that actually a couple of things you said already he wanted to talk for an hour I stuck them in for you like I'm sorry that's textually wrong that's historically wrong that text is from five hundred years later than this text when you know your stuff in Buddhism you just destroy amateur opinions with Buddhism but it said why you my real question is why you saying this why did you come to my lecture on Buddhism but that's part of the same thing right that's the same culture of arrogance this guy woke up in the morning and thought oh some foreign scholar of Buddhism is giving a lecture on on Buddhist philosophy I'm gonna go and wait for my chance to give my own lecture to tell them a thing or two because because they're so [ __ ] arrogant they're so self-confident they have that same that same desire to speak the truth of it matters even when they don't know what they're talking about even when they're speaking at a total total ignorance that I mean you know there's a self-righteous undercurrent to it but yeah for social science research that's so thrilling and I loved it and with every project I could not believe the type of data and the type of eyewitness information you get from people just just by asking so sure that's a wonderful redeeming quality the Cambodian people have and I wish I wish Canadians could learn from it but I say again I never want to go back to Cambodia I never wake up and wish I was in Cambodia and I'll regret for the rest of my life that I ever studied the Cambodian language that I ever moved to Cambodia that I ever had anything to do with that country in other ways it's that bad it's I believe me that it's really that bad