“Incy wincy spider
went up the water spout,”…
I didn’t think about
it before having children, but as soon as I had a baby I started singing and
reading to him. I grew up with
countless nursery rhymes, many with actions. It just seemed to happen naturally, singing
to the baby, and now he’s a bit older he and I sing to the new baby. And I’m
still finding I have more songs to teach him, even though I’m not a musical
person at all. Since I was pregnant we have been acquiring children’s books.
Board books at first, now ones for older kids. They come to us from others whose
kids have grown up, new ones as gifts, some we buy.
I keep expecting to
hear and see the Cambodian version of all of this. My husband is Cambodian
and we live in his country. So far I haven’t really observed anything
equivalent to our nursery rhyme tradition. Whereas as some adults from my
own cultural background seem to burst into song when left to play with kids; I
haven’t noticed this with Cambodians.
Whenever I mention to
other expat or Aussie friends that its hard to find Khmer kids books they often
suggest making them, or tell me where I can buy some. Literacy doesn’t have
such a big place in Cambodia. We’ve tried to make some books, we’ve
bought a few after much hunting. But our Khmer book collection will never be of
the same volume and quality as our English collection. . Even though our kids
haven’t lived in an English speaking country we have quite a collection of
books- filled with animals, numbers, shapes, letters, thing to touch, interesting
stories.
I keep trying to find
reasons why it seems there is a gap where I expect something. Was it lost
during the war? Did it not have a chance to develop because of poverty and
domestic violence? Is it that people don’t pay much attention to children? Is that
the flip of respect for the elderly that Asian culture is known for? Is because
we live in a tourist town so the level of English is high? Or is it that I’ve
had limited experience and I just haven’t had a chance to learn about it yet? Or
maybe I’m looking at it in the wrong way?
After singing “Old MacDonald
had a farm” and “Twinkle twinkle little star” with our son and some Khmer
adults I feel like it’s time for a Khmer song.
“Now sing one in
Khmer.” I demand.
So far it hasn’t
produced the results I was hoping for. Sometimes I look things up on youtube, but
that also hasn’t led to any Khmer nursery rhyme discovery either. Maybe I haven’t
worked out how to ask.
I feel like I’m often
trying to encourage Khmer adults in the family and at church to sing and read
to my kids in Khmer. So far it mainly feels like I’m forcing something on them
that they wouldn’t normally do.
Songs and books are such natural part of fun
and learning for me, every day we read and sing with our children but mostly in
English. The only Khmer songs we sing are Christian hymns, which is great but
it feels so limited.
Without me even
thinking about it our son knew the alphabet song and was able to recognize some
letters before he was two years old. I certainly didn’t set out to make that
happen, it just occurred naturally. I assume that will help him when it comes
time to read. We are hoping to bring the
kids up bilingual so I just assume Cambodian songs and books will be part of
their childhood as equally as English ones are. But maybe their Cambodian language
is going to develop differently?
