First Lieutenant Dam Xuan Thang (Team Leader of the Administrative Control Team, Phu Hoi Border Guard Station), originally from the North, has only been working at the An Giang Provincial Border Guard for the past four years. During those four years, he was completely unfamiliar with the southwestern border region of the country, encountering the customs, traditions, and languages of the ethnic minority communities, especially the Khmer people. His unique job gave him many opportunities to meet and converse with the local people. However, the language barrier meant he could only understand their meaning through interpreters. This caused many inconveniences, wasting time and effort in dialogue, persuasion, and propaganda. Despite diligently learning by observation, he still felt very "clueless" about the new language.
“When my unit sent me to attend the 2024 basic Khmer language skills training course, I felt very excited and determined that this was an important task to complete. All 30 members of the class arranged their work at the unit and their household chores to participate in intensive training for over three consecutive months at the Training and Mobile Battalion. Outside of class hours, I tried to practice and improve my pronunciation, writing, and syllable blending in the evenings. The most interesting thing was that the teachers shared knowledge about the culture, customs, traditions, and festivals of the Khmer ethnic minority in general, and An Giang province in particular. Furthermore, we learned how to communicate at parties and learned lively and meaningful songs in Khmer. These skills will help officers be more confident in performing their duties, especially when communicating and meeting with the border guards of the Kingdom of Cambodia,” said Lieutenant Thang.
The teacher hones the basic skills for the group of students.
As a class administrator, Thang worked hard to become one of the 14 students who achieved excellent grades at the end of the course, capable of basic communication. On the closing day of the training course, he surprised everyone by being able to read a speech of over two A4 pages in Khmer. As the class teacher, Mr. Chau Men (An Giang Ethnic Boarding School) closely monitored the class from the beginning. He shared: “The unique characteristics of the Khmer language require students to have a talent for foreign languages. At the beginning of the course, the subject teachers conducted a preliminary assessment to understand the current abilities and levels of each student. From there, they implemented appropriate support and teaching methods based on the actual situation. All students actively engaged in communication, group learning, and conversations with teachers and other students. In addition, they proactively learned how to type Khmer characters on mobile phones and specialized vocabulary related to border guard duties… Through the final exam, 100% of the students achieved a score of at least 'good'.”
For nearly 20 years, such training courses have been regularly maintained within the Border Guard Command of the province. According to Colonel Le Hoang Viet, Deputy Political Commissar of the Border Guard Command of the province, learning the Khmer ethnic minority language stems from the requirements and tasks of the Border Guard in the new situation. Along the An Giang border, the lives of the ethnic minority people still face many difficulties and shortages, both material and spiritual, especially knowledge about socio-economics , national defense and security. Meanwhile, the work of mobilizing the masses and controlling immigration and emigration by the border guard force is becoming increasingly demanding. If border guard officers and soldiers can master the four skills of the Khmer language, it will be more convenient in carrying out their duties and further strengthen the bond between the military and the people.
“Therefore, the Party Committee and the Provincial Border Guard Command regularly organize Khmer language training courses for the force, urging trainees to review and achieve high results in the national certification exam. Upon returning to their units, with the knowledge and skills they have learned, each officer must constantly uphold the spirit of self-study, learning from their Khmer ethnic minority comrades… and apply it to their professional work. Only when they can listen to and speak the language of the people, understand their customs and traditions, will propaganda and mobilization work be effective. At that point, it is necessary to delve deeper into propagating and mobilizing the people to strictly abide by the Party's guidelines and policies, the State's laws and regulations, local regulations; the Border Guard's border management and protection work; and issues related to socio-economic development and poverty reduction in border areas,” Colonel Le Hoang Viet emphasized.
Highly appreciating the learning spirit of the military trainees, Mr. Lam Huynh Manh Dong (Director of the Provincial Continuing Education Center) added: “We continue to select and coordinate with the Victory Center - Tra Vinh University (an institution authorized by the Ministry of Education and Training to issue national Khmer language certificates) to help trainees review and participate in the certificate exam. We hope that this will be valuable preparation for trainees to apply in their practical work, contributing to strengthening the confidence of the Khmer ethnic minority people in the Party and State's policies, and contributing to creating unity and working together to build the homeland.”
Mr. Chau Mô Ni Sóc Kha (former Principal of Tri Tôn Ethnic Boarding Junior High School) said that the Khmer language is difficult in terms of its writing system and syllable structure, while sentence construction is similar to Vietnamese. Therefore, one must master the principles of syllable combination and know the consonants and vowels to construct sentences. Since 2002, he has been teaching Khmer to Border Guard officers, helping students to communicate and manage the border and border gates more effectively. |
Source: https://baoangiang.com.vn/an-giang-24-gio/thoi-su/can-bo-bien-phong-hoc-tieng-khmer-a414002.html
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