The Phnom Penh Post - ENGLISH: “Don't understand about this” plus 9 more

Now, I don't understand about this 'independent' word. Who is to put a score on it? Who is independent? Is the NGO or the foreign NGO?

Cambodian English students often complain that their English pronunciation doesn't actually sound like English. But at least for smartphone users with bad pronunciation there is now less need to worry about being understood because they can boost their skills with the IELTS Speaking Practice – and study for the IELTS exams at the same time.

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The application – available for iOs and Android – contains more than 10 topics and over 200 questions which are often used in the IELTS tests. A;hough these are informal, they can help you answer questions in the test.

How it works: You record and play your answer and the app tells you if you pronounced it correctly.

If you keep practising regularly, it may be enough for you to pass an IELTS Speaking Test.

Singapore and Cambodia will soon embark on a strategic tennis development partnership that will not only boost the game's appeal in the two countries, but will also shine a light on the Southeast Asian region as a whole.

The broad outlines of a tennis-dominant alliance that opens up avenues at various levels for budding talent at both ends emerged during hectic parleys yesterday between the visiting Chief Executive Officer of the Singapore Sports Council Lim Teck Yin and the Tennis Federation of Cambodia top brass including President Cham Prasidh, secretary general Tep Rithivit and technical director Braen Aneiros.

Another prominent player in these series of productive meetings and discussions which spread out during the day was Robert Davis, who has 22 years of experience as a professional tennis coach and served as technical director and national coach for Peru, Panama, Thailand, Indonesia and now Myanmar. A long time resident of Cambodia, Davis has been representing Tennis Cambodia and its worthy causes around the world.

"We have a lot to learn from Cambodian tennis. It is an inspirational story. The federation has raised the profile of tennis in the world," Lim Teck Yin, who took a break from the ongoing SEA Games in Myanmar to make this short trip, told the Post yesterday.

Tep Rithivit said the alliance with Singapore was "very important" for the TFC. "We would like to learn from others but at the same time we would like to share with others our recipe for success, he said.

Cham Prasidh, meanwhile, said: "I feel this partnership will create exciting possibilities for young players in both countries."

Later in an exclusive interview with the Post, Lim Teck Yin spoke about the city state's major initiatives to promote sports harmony in the South Asian region as a whole to counter balance the dominance of sports giants like China and Japan.

"We are creating a mega sports hub at a cost of US$1.3 billion to be completed next year. To go with it we want to bring world events to Singapore and at the same time focus on training and development," he said.
"We will stage the WTA season

finale in October next year involving the world's top eight women's singles players and doubles pairs. We will also have an event for the legends and one for the rising stars," added Kim, hinting that Singapore could also be the first country to host an Indian Premier League cricket franchise.

"For me, the most exciting prospect would be to see Singapore schools bringing tennis teams over to Cambodia. Exchange of tennis camps will be beneficial to both sides," he said.

If the alliance as envisaged by both Singapore and Cambodia take the desired shape, the next generation of players in both countries would be heading for a great future.

The Thansur Bokor International Half Marathon and Bike Race will return to the renowned Bokor mountain of Kampot province next year, organisers told reporters during a press conference at Sokha Club hotel on Monday evening.

The inaugural event, held on October 26-27 along the mountain's newly constructed road, attracted 577 runners and 104 cyclists with participation slated to increase ten-fold, according to organisers.

A total of US$4,000 raised from entry fees has been donated to Kantha Bopha Children's Hospital, confirmed Thansur Bokor Resort general manager Michael Brabsche.

Football can be cruel at times, none more so than in the case of 27th SEA Games hosts Myanmar, whose U23 team were knocked out of the men's competition after a 1-0 loss to Indonesia on Monday night despite holding a better goal difference with both ending the group phase on seven points.

A 36th minute penalty by Alfin Tuasalamony at Yangon's Thuwunna YTC Stadium was all that stood between the sides, as Indonesia progressed to tomorrow's semi-finals along with Group B toppers Thailand due to their superior head-to-head record over Myanmar.

The result sparked a riot in the former capital, with dozens of local football fans clashing with police late into the night.

Cambodia triumphantly passed the gold mark set at the previous SEA Games in Indonesia, with petanque legend Ke Leng topping the podium in women's shooting yesterday in Myanmar.

The Kampong Chhnang native, whose glittering career includes two silvers and two bronzes at past SEA Games tournaments as well as three successive golds in women's shooting at the Asian Championships and victory in this year's Women's World Championships, was in blistering form in the pits of Naypyidaw.

She dispatched Vietnam's Nguyen Thi Thi 36-13 with balls to spare in the semi-finals before steamrolling Potjanaseni Pawinee of Thailand 36-16 in the final.

Ke Leng's team-mate Dy Sopanha grabbed bronze in men's shooting yesterday to move the Kingdom's overall total to five golds, seven silvers and 13 bronzes.

At time of print, Thailand had everyone in their wake with a tally of 64 golds, compared to second-placed Vietnam on 47 and Indonesia on 44. Hosts Myanmar had dropped to fourth with 42 event titles.

Across town at the Wunna Theikdi Stadium, both of Cambodia's athletics representatives at last year's London Olympics fell short in their races.

Sprinter Chan Seyha finished fifth out of six in her women's 100m heat with a time of 12.75 seconds, nearly a second slower than winner Neeranuch Klomdee of Thailand.

Middle-distance runner Kieng Samorn was similarly outclassed in the men's 800m, crossing the line in 1:55:17 to come seventh out of nine. It was exactly two seconds slower than his personal best achieved two years ago at the SEA Games in Palembang.

Cambodia ended an arduous group phase of the men's volleyball competition with a 3-1 loss to Malaysia. The result saw them finish bottom of Group A, having lost both of their earlier games 3-0 to Thailand and Myanmar at the Zaya Thiri Indoor Stadium in Naypyidaw.

Thailand advanced as group winners and will face either Vietnam or Laos, who play each other in a crucial concluding Group B clash today, in Friday's semi-finals. Myanmar and Indonesia will contest the other semi-final, with bronze medal match and grand final slated for Saturday.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CHHORN NORN

Religion is obviously one of the important structures in Cambodian society. It has played a key role in leadership and nation building for a thousand years.

Throughout the history of religion in Cambodia, Khmer people have built thousands of temples under the leadership of the King. Apart from his royal duties and privileges, the King was also the nation's religious leader. Often, he was considered a god or a god-king. That made the King very powerful both in religious and leadership aspects.

However, religion can also destroy a country when there is a conflict between faiths. In the Angkor period, there was a conflict between Hinduism and Buddhism. This not only destroyed the country but also the different cultures.

Nowadays, religion still holds a key place in Cambodian identity. Nearly everyone in Cambodia is Buddhist. Also, the three words in the country's motto - Nation, Religion, King - describe Cambodian priorities well.

The Cambodian constitution guarantees freedom of religion. The government assures us that this right is respected. Furthermore, it is not only the right to believe what one chooses that is guaranteed by the government but also the right to practise this freely.

Besides Buddhism, which is the state religion of Cambodia, there are also some Muslims and a small number of Christians in the country as well.

Muslims in Cambodia (Khmer-Islam or Cham) are allowed to practise their religion as they wish. There is no discrimination against them. The Chams also enjoy democratic rights like all the Khmer citizens, with the right to vote for and be elected as politicians.

The same freedoms apply to the practising Western religions in the country. You may well have seen missionaries around your city. The number of Cambodians converting to Christianity has been growing quite quickly in the Kingdom.

Many missionaries work every day. The Mormon church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) is one of many sects of Christianity that has found a place in Cambodia. The number of Mormon missionaries is increasing at a fast pace.

Currently in Cambodia there are 155 Mormon missionaries. There are six Mormon churches (districts) in Phnom Penh with 11,469 members, according to a one church in the capital.

It is easy to spot Mormon missionaries making their way around the city - you might have seen them yourself. They usually ride a bike and wear a helmet, white shirt and black trousers, and always carry with them notebooks or the Bible. They are always smiling and they can speak Khmer.

Because Buddhism does send out missionaries to convert people, I found it interesting to get to know more about Mormon missionaries. I followed them to their places of worship and around the community, speaking to them as well as to their converts.

The most striking thing about the Mormons as a group is that they are incredibly friendly, pious, decent and helpful people. However, sometimes it arouses my suspicion when people are too friendly.

Of course, a few days of keen research is too short a time to get to know everything about the Mormons, but one of the things that really surprised me was the fact that their members pay contributions to the church (one-tenth of their income, according to a family I asked). The family pays $25 to $30 per month. They described it as a "donation" or "gift" to God so that they would be blessed by Him. If it is true and the average member pays $20 a month, then considering there are 11,469 members – that is a lot of donations. According to the website Mormon.org, this major source of revenue is based on the ancient law of the tithe (one out of 10), which means people are expected to pay 10 per cent of their income to move forward the work of the church.

Giving donations is standard in every religion. Buddhists also do it. To me, donations are good when they come from the willingness of the givers, without force or a set rule. But people have a right to choose, anyway.

I am not against religion, be it Christianity, Mormonism, Islam or Buddhism. I believe that the idea of these religions as a moral guidance is good per se. Religion helps to teach people to be good. I respect people who do good things by not harming anyone else, regardless of which religion they follow.

"When I was seven, I dreamt that I could predict future events correctly. I woke up and then tried to predict what was going to happen to my neighbours and they appreciated my accuracy. I started holding their hands to help me see their future," said the fortune teller from Takeo province, who has over 20 years of experience.

Are you superstitious? Do you believe that fortune tellers can predict future events? Some people say fortune tellers just like to cheat people out of their money, while others believe that fortune tellers can be a great life guide and give you motivation. There are usually both pros and cons about everything in life. With nearly 21 years as a fortune teller under her belt, 49-year-old Chhit Mom told LIFT that on a slow day she might have five customers while on a busy day she could have up to 20. A widow, Mom is raising her six children with her fortune-teller career.

Mom says she has met some customers who said they have nothing to live for and asked why should they continue on in this world, telling her they wanted to commit suicide. Even though she is just a fortune teller, she is proud of her career because she has used it to save people's lives.

"I told them that life is always this way; most people face the same problems as you, but they can confront them and deal with them. This is what we call life. Therefore, you have to be strong and confront your problems. Death is not a solution for sadness and despair. You can deal with these problems as long as you are alive."

There are several methods for people to select from through which they can supposedly foresee their future fortune and future wife or husband. Methods include looking at a client's palm, birth year, date of birth and facial expression. The most popular method, however, is through cards.

"Some people don't believe in fortune telling and so they don't trust me; still, I am proud to say that I have never cheated anybody out of their money. Whether somebody believes in my skills is up to him or her."

In front of the district building of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the Church of Mormon, opposite Hun Sen Library LIFT meets Elder Sat and Elder Duffy, both 19, from the US. The two elders (missionaries in the Mormon faith) are on a two-year mission in Cambodia to convert Cambodians to Mormonism.

Since the church was legally accepted in Cambodia in 1994, about 11,500 Cambodians joined and six church buildings, called districts, have been built in the country, three of them in Phnom Penh alone.

"This [the two years of mission] is the best time of our lives." Elder Duffy says. "I know what I do is the right thing and I know it helps people."

Both young men are exceptionally friendly, open and helpful.

Today LIFT is allowed to join the pair on their mission to help people.

We visit Vanny and Dara. Dara has been a member for 12 years but stayed away from the church for five years. Her husband Vanny joined about a year ago.

To strengthen the converts' faith and dedication to the church, Sat and Duffy visit them once a week and teach them the principles of Mormonism.

Elder Duffy gives us a handy-sized pamphlet with Jesus on the cover, which contains today's lesson: The Plan of Salvation.

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We enter Dara's and Vanny's business, a dark and smoky Internet café packed with truants in school uniform playing online computer games.

Seemingly unaware of the students' screams when they make a kill in their ego shooter game, the two elders and two converts open their lesson with a prayer.

Sat and Duffy read from both the Book of Mormon and the Bible in fluent Khmer. Young missionaries are thoroughly prepared for their missions abroad in one of 15 training centres worldwide.

Before they ever set foot into a country they have to read and speak the local language fluently.

To simplify the doctrine of salvation Duffy earlier drew a map that features the three different kingdoms people will go to in the afterlife, according to Mormon beliefs.

Those who die without accepting the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Mormon Church will not enjoy the full glory of God.

To make sure Vanny and Dara understand, the elders set them a reading assignment in the Book of Mormon.

Vanny is very concerned about the afterlife. He himself feels safe because he accepts the faith, doesn't drink and smoke, and goes to church every Sunday.

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"I want to go to the Celestial Kingdom [the highest possible form of eternal being in the Mormon afterlife]," he explains.

"But I want my whole family to come and I worry about my father very much. If he wasn't Buddhist but Mormon he could stop drinking."

Tobacco, coffee, drugs and alcohol are strictly prohibited.

But as there is no church house (or district) in Vanny's father's home province chances for his father to dry up and become Mormon, as Vanny would wish him to, are small – though they may increase.

According to Richard Verhaaren, spokesperson for the Mormon mission in Cambodia, the church follows an expansion strategy and Cambodia has the fastest-growing Mormon community in Asia.

The mission is paid for by the church members who give 10 per cent of their income to the "mission of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ", as it states on the church's website mormonnewsroom.org.

Dara and Vanny also donate 10 per cent of their earnings from the online gaming Internet café; $20 to $30 a month.

"The church asks us for the money so they can build more church houses." Vanny explains.

Although voluntarily according to the church website, paying so-called tithes is not a practice welcome or affordable by everyone.

"I know some people who stopped going to church because they don't have enough money," Vanny says.

Dara adds: "I know there are some people who quit believing in the church because they pray to God for help and God does not help at all when they have problems. They are disappointed."

Vanny and Dara however, seem to place most of their hopes in the afterlife.

Their concern is to save enough money to travel to the big Mormon temple in Hong Kong to complete a ritual called "celestial marriage" that qualifies them for a god-like life in the afterlife.

"Together with my husband I plan to go to Hong Kong to register our names to be transferred to heaven after we die. We expect to see each other there," Dara explains.

Elder Duffy and Elder Sat seem to do a good job of convincing people of their own faith.

Next week they will come back with a new lesson and check if Dara and Vanny completed their reading assignment that should further strengthen their faith.

In the 1950s Khmer rock music started to blossom. Initially influenced by Western rock and pop culture, Cambodian musicians created a unique sound by mixing Western melodies with Khmer lyrics. The upbeat sound with the high-pitched voices of Pan Ron, Ros Sereysothea, Yous Aularang, Em Yeang, Sos Mat, Meas Samon, and the "King of Cambodian Music" Sin Sisamouth created the legendary Golden Age of modern Cambodian music.

When the Khmer Rouge murdered the Golden Age singers, Cambodian rock almost died with it. Many recordings of the time only survived in the luggage of refuges.

For a few years now Cambodian rock has made a comeback, starting from a group of rock music lovers from Phnom Penh who gather for headbanging and share their music, which is completely different from the sounds of the Golden Age.

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The history of Cambo headbangers
Prom Veasna, Buth Puthea Roth and Chhuth Sen Propey – the three founders of the Cambodian rock and metal society – have got together Cambodian teenagers who are passionate about rock music. The group was established in 2010 under the name of Cambo Headbangers on Facebook.

"In the past, Cambodian teenagers thought they were the only ones who loved rock music. Everything started individually. They did not know that there were some other Cambodians who listened to rock music, too. After they joined our group, they started to realise that they were not alone," said Cambo Headbanger founder Veasna, 27.

Happy to have found like-minded people and a common music taste, the Cambodian rockers have grown in numbers dramatically. They get together and encourage each other to enjoy rock music by sharing common music and goals.

The young rock lovers and musicians, aged from 15 to 27, take their inspiration from Western rock bands like the Golden Age singers. Yet, their sound is unequally hard, with bands representing the deathcore and metal genre and they mostly sing (or scream) in English.

The annual Cambo Headbanger festivals are the nucleus of new bands. The Anti-fate – considered the first punk rock band – and Sliten6ix – the first blast Cambodian deathcore band – are the first two bands that were formed in the 2010s. Because there is no music industry apart from the pop mainstream in Cambodia, the punk and deathcore pioneers keep their unique style underground. Relatively few people understand the purpose and quality of their sometimes violent sounds.

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"People think that we are monsters – even the musicians and the listeners. They said why do you play this kind of music? It is useless. It doesn't earn you any money," said Veasna, the lead guitarist of deathcore band Sliten6ix.

"If we try to create something new, people think we're crazy," said Propey, the 24 year-old frontman of Anti-fate. "But if we make it work, it is not crazy anymore – they instead follow us."

Challenges of creating a unique sound
Creating an individual style in contemporary rock music has become more challenging over the decades.

During the 1950s rock came to Cambodia through wealthy families who travelled to Europe and came back with Western modern music and guitars.

The sound of the Golden Age resembled a psychedelic garage rock sound which was popular during the mid-60s. The lyrics often describe love and the free spirit of being an adolescent, which reflects the real aspect of Cambodian society at that time.

Many rock sounds of the 2010s are loud and heavy, however, with offensive and inappropriate lyrics full of social criticism and taboos. Drugs, sex, violence and corruption are omnipresent themes in the songs.

While the softer sounds of the 1950s and 1960s with their harmless lyrics were compatible with Cambodian ears, language and morals the new Cambodian rock bands find it hard to develop today's Western sounds into a style of their own. The tone of Khmer language is unsuitable for deathcore scream-singing. Cambodian traditions are hardly compatible with intrusive and offensive addressing of social problems.

"Making rock music is different from designing clothes," explained Veasna. "Music is made from our brain – what we have in mind will appear like what we want it to be. If Cambodians tried to make their own rock sound, it should sound more like Thai rock because we have a similar language tone and traditions.

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"In Khmer language it is quite difficult to go more hardcore – not only in rock, even in some other genres such as hip-hop or rap. And we can't have offensive words in our lyrics due to our traditions."

Propey added: "Cambodian traditions are humble and polite. We are not born aggressive."

Despite the difficulties in composing original lyrics and melodies that fit into the harder genres, the young rock musicians do not lose hope to add heavy Khmer rock to the Cambodian music scene. Instead, they believe that eventually rock music will become a popular genre in Cambodian society.

"People need more time to get familiar with new things," Propey said.

"In the 1990s and early 2000s, not many people picked up a guitar to play. Now you see a lot of teenagers playing guitars everywhere – wait and see what happens over the next 10 years."