how to make friends in Cambodia

does is hard to integrate yourself into Cambodian society ?

this might happen to the foreigners that come to work and live in Cambodia or we usually call them the expats. yes i guess expat is the right word to refer to those white guys or Barangs that currently work in Cambodia.

the word Barang is the Cambodian word that means the French guy. To us, Cambodian people, all the white guys are Barang, whatever their nationality. it’s hard to know exactly where you come from, we hardly know if you are French, German, English or American. it’s the same as you can not tell if this guy is a Cambodian or Laos or Thai…

anyway the main topic i want to discuss today is concerned the integration of people who come to work in Cambodia. Do they have any difficulty in integrate themselves into Cambodian society. What are those difficulties?

i got this idea when i watch the TV, there’s a good emission about Antoine Fontaine, a French lawyer that currently live and work in Cambodia for Bun & Associates – Attorney At Law. it’s a very good footage that reflex on Cambodian contemporary society, the job opportunities and few interesting points of view that would be useful for those people who want to make investment in Cambodia.

Does Cambodian people always reserve themselves to the foreigners

maybe some Cambodian people make you feel that way, it might be true in most of the case. it doesn’t mean we don’t like to make friends with the foreigners, but there are few hesitations in our mind and these might be the factor that make you think Cambodian people are reserved.

first of all, we are not come from the same culture, the way we live is completely different. most of the case we still live with our parents and we don’t have a private or proper space to invite foreigners or even Cambodian friends to our house for dinner or for a drink.

sometime we want to invite and improve the relationship, but we are afraid that the restaurant, the food or even the time is not convenient to the foreigners. in fact we care about your own good rather than ours.

please keep this spirit in mind if you want to integrate yourself into Cambodian society. you have to prove to them wherever the place they invite you, whatever the food they order for you, you got no problem with it. this would assure to the Cambodian local to open more space and create more opportunity for you to integrate yourself with the local people.

Assure them even you are invited, you will pay too

it’s a bit of tradition when Cambodian people invite some friends to the restaurant, the one who invited will pay all the bills. thing started to change for the young people, but i am sure many of Cambodian people still keep this in their mind.

so before they invite you to a restaurant or short trip for picnic, they need to save some money or sometime they can’t even offer this due to their low salary that only enough for their living. you might earn much more than the local people, this also a factor that barre the relationship between you and the local people.

if you can, invite them first and maybe pay for the first bill. and from time to time show them that you are willing to share with them for the cost even you are invited. then you might be more invited and go more deeply in our society.

Learning some Khmer language

it happen to every people when you hear the foreigner speak your own language, you are impressed by their effort. it would happen to same thing when you start to learn Khmer language, speak with them whatever you have learned in the class, this would be the first signal to let them know that you want to know about Khmer culture and everything about Cambodian society.

hope this could give you some idea on how to integrate yourself with the local people and into the place where you live and work. Good luck to you and if you have any experiences on this topic, feel free to share here.