Last month in celebration of International Mother Language Day, my son's daycare asked us to how to say "hello" and "good bye" in our mother language to include into their program. So in the spirit of parental participation, I responded with "suosdei" and "leahaey" for the greetings in Khmer (Cambodian).
To my surprise and delight, the centre actually ended up choosing Cambodia for their culture studies and have been teaching and exposing the babies with snippets of Cambodian culture for the past month. From saying the greetings to learning the national flower, flag painting and even a bit of Cambodian cooking (adapted to make it more healthier and baby appropriate). I was even asked to bring in some traditional clothing so that the babies could have a look.
I didn't realise how much seeing our culture being shared with all the children would mean to me.
“The feeling of cultural inclusion was so heartwarming, a sense of acceptance and belonging, even if my son was too young to really understand it.”
Growing up in southwestern Sydney, it was rare enough to have another Asian in your class, let alone another Cambodian. We are such a minority culture with very little exposure, many would never even know that the country existed.
Being a first-generation Australian-Cambodian had its own struggles, it is only as I have grown older than I have grown more appreciative of my heritage. It plays such a huge part in who I am that now, with my own child, I want to be able to share that with him as well. My language level in Khmer is pretty fundamental. I can have basic conversations but I would not consider myself a confident speaker. However, after having my extended relatives compliment me on how much I know and how well I speak, and after impressing the locals on my recent trip to Cambodia, I'm pretty proud of how much I have been able to retain.
With D, The Hubs and I had decided that we would like to expose him to both our mother languages in hopes that he would be tri-lingual. Ever since he was a baby I have been trying my best to speak to him in Khmer. It may be broken at times when I don't know the Khmer word for things, but for the general happenings of the day-to-day, the Khmer is there. It makes me pretty pleased that as he's getting older and starting to speak, he is actually saying quite a few Khmer words, with a bit of English and apparently Vietnamese thrown in (of which I wouldn't know but the in-law say that he is).
In most sense, The Hubs and I are very much Australian, but it is my hope that through language D will be able to identify and appreciate some parts of his Cambodian-Vietnamese heritage.
