Post
by Ot Mean Loi » Sun May 13, 2018 12:57 pm
I should, perhaps, have added that the majority, but certainly not all, of Vietnamese also speak Khmer fluently, having grown up in Cambodia, but mostly speak Vietnamese among themselves as befits their cultural heritage. A Vietnamese will seldom identify him/herself as Vietnamese except to another fluent Vietnamese speaker within Cambodia.
Fortunately, Australia being a very diverse society, has very many Australians of Vietnamese ethnicity heritage who are at least bilingual and in some cases multi-lingual, who are now at the forefront of many Australian medical disciplines who, completely unsung, work with other Australians such as myself, in providing pro-bono medical, ophthalmic/optometry, dental and pharmacy etc. assistance to Cambodians in need, regardless of ethnicity or linguistic or religion. We treat the impoverished needy not the greedy.
The Vietnamese in Cambodia are all around you. Get out of your expat bars, open your eyes and ears, and start integrating in to the society in which you have chosen to live.
OML