Jay and Neang Ruot

Jay and Neang Ruot

            The story of Jay and Neang Tout is very popular in the countryside of Takeo Province where I spent the first twenty years of my life. The main character, Jay, is a stupid fellow and the story is told order to teach young people not to be like him. This tale, then, is one of the means by which village people, in their easy, informal way, educate their children to practice commonsense in everyday life, and this is how it goes.

            Two young village people called Jay and Neang Ruot, were engaged to be married. One afternoon, as Jay was looking after cattle in the fields, Neang Ruot walked up to him and they began to chat. Soon the young man said, ‘The sun is setting. We must go home before dark.’ His fiancée looked at him very boldly. ‘I want to see you again,’ she said.’ Tonight at my place.’ Jay was taken aback. Very few girls would dare suggest such a meeting because Cambodian society is strict and young people cannot spend a lot of time together before they are married and especially not at night. He stuttered, ‘How can I go to your place? You father sleeps near the door and if he hears me go up the stairs and into the house he’ll kill me. ‘Neang Ruot replied, ‘I’ll tie a rope to a basket and lower it from the window. If you t in the basket. I’ll pull you up to my room. Tonight, keep touching your ear. When it feels cold then it will be time for you to come to me.’

            That night, as soon as his ear felt cold, Jay went to his fiancée’s house and sat in the basket beneath her window. But Neang Ruot was not strong enough to pull him more than a few centimeters from the ground. Then the rope broke and he basket thumped down in the hard earth. Jay groaned at the shaking he got and the dog, woken by the noise, started to nark. Neang Ruot’s father, fearing that thieves were stealing his cattle, rushed downstairs with an axe. He struck at the human form lying on the ground and just missed the head. As he bent to try again he was amazed to recognize his future son-in law. ‘What are you doing here at this time of night?! He gasped. ‘I’ve come to see your daughter.’ the father was both shocked and angry. ‘How dare you. Whose idea was this?’ Jay hung his head.  ‘Your daughter’s.’ ‘Neang Ruot, come here,’ called the father. ‘Is it true that this was your idea?’ ‘Yes father.’ The father frowned. What a shameless girl you are.’ From that moment Neang Ruot’s parents decided to marry the couple immediately before anything should happen to disgrace their family.

            The next morning Neang Ruot’s father said to Jay, ‘I think you and mu daughter should marry within a day or two. Please go and buy some ducks for the wedding feast.’ He gave Jay some money and sent him off to a nearby village famous for its fat ducks for the wedding feast.’ He gave Jay some money and sent him off to a nearby village famous for its fat ducks.

            Close to the village Jay saw many ducks swimming on a large pond. He asked a small boy playing nearby, ‘Do those ducks belong to you?’ the child was amazed that a grown man could think that a mere lad might own a whole flock of ducks. He hesitated, and then said, ‘Yes. Why?’ ‘I’m going to be married my boy,’ said Jay, ‘and I ducks for my wedding feast. Will you sell me some?’ ‘Certainly,’ replied the child. ‘You can have all of them for three hundred riels, but you will have to catch them yourself.’ ‘That’s a very good bargain,’ said Jay and he paid the boy, who ran off as fast as his legs could carry him. The cunning child well knew that the birds on the pond were not fat farm ducks, whose wings were clipped, but lean wild ducks. As Jay went into the water to catch them they flew off. He watched as they rose higher and higher into the sky. ‘They must be going to heaven,’ he thought.

            By now, evening was falling and it began to rain. Jay took shelter under a newly-built house on the edge of the village. It belonged to a couple who had just married and were spending their first night together. ‘When I am with you my dear,’ said the husband to his young wife, ‘I feel that I’m going to heaven.’ When Jay heard this he could not contain himself. ‘If you’re going to heaven,’ he yelled, ‘please catch some ducks for me.’ ‘Who’s that?’ said the husband. ‘We’re supposed to be alone.’ He grabbed a stick, rushed downstairs and laid into Jay, who fled for home in the rain and dark without money and without ducks. Neang Ruot’s father shook his head sadly when Jay told him what had happened and the next day went himself to buy food for the wedding feast.

            A few days after the wedding Jay’s father-in-law told him, 'We need oxen to plough our fields. Go and buy a pair for me. Here is the money.’ Then he added, ‘Remember, we are not rich, so please buy a pair of small animals. The smallest possible.’

            Jay took the money and went to a farmer who had oxen for sale. The man showed him the cattle but Jay hesitated. ‘I wonder if these are what my father-in-law wants. He asked me to buy a pair of very small animals, the smallest possible.’ The farmer, who was quick-witted and cunning said, ‘Just a moment. I may have something to suit you.’ He showed Jay a pair of beetles. ‘You see,’ he said, ‘these are very small animals indeed.’ Jay gave a shout of joy. ‘Just the thing. That must be exactly what Dad meant. Thank you so much.’ And he paid the farmer and ran home.

            ‘Where are the animals?’ asked his father-in-law. ‘Watch out Dad, you’ll stand on them,’ said foolish Jay. ‘They’re just what you wanted, the smallest possible,’ and he pointed to the beetles. ‘What a stupid, stupid, fellow you are,’ said his father-in-law sadly.

One day a little later Neang Ruot said to Jay, ‘You’d better go to the lake and bathe before dinner. After you’ve had a good dip, take a mud bath too, just like the water buffaloes do. It’s very good for your skin. ‘Yes dear,’ said Jay obediently and did exactly as she suggested. But the foolish fellow didn’t sash off the mud and came home plastered in brown, sticky earth which began to harden. ‘I don’t feel comfortable, I’ll have to get this off,’ he said and started to wipe himself with an old pillow. The mud was so dry by now that the pillow case tore and he got covered in the feathers that fell out of it.  ‘if  Neang Ruot sees me like this she’ll scold me,’ he thought, so he went to hide in the loft where the rice was stored.

When Neang Ruot came in she noticed a strange figure in at the feathery figure half hidden in the shadows and said, ‘It must be the rice grain god. Quickly, burn some incense and call your mother to come so that we can all kneel and welcome the rice grain god to our home. We are honoured to have you here, God from the East,’ he began respectfully. ‘Which direction is east, Dad?’ came a familiar voice from the loft. ‘Oh, not you again you stupid fellow,’ said the father in exasperation. His wife and daughter laughed at the queer brown and white figure and ordered Jay back to the lake to wash off the mud and feathers.

In time, the couple had a child. One day Neang Rout asked Jay, ‘Will look after the baby for me while I go to the fields to work?’ ‘Certainly,’ said her husband. Soon after Neang Ruot left the house the baby began to cry. Jay rocked it in its tiny hammock made out of a towel tied at both ends with string and fastened between two posts, but the child cried on and on. ‘I must see if there is anything wrong with it,’ he thought. He examined the child thoroughly from the toes up. When he reached the top of its head he noticed the pulse beating where the two parts of the skull bone had not yet joined together. ‘Look at that beating pulse. It must be a boil. No wonder the baby’s crying. I’d better get a knife and lance the boil,’ he said to himself. He found a sharp knife and cut into the baby’s head. Blood poured out and, as its life ebbed away, the baby gradually stopped crying.

When Neang Ruot came home Jay announced proudly, ‘You don’t know how to look after our child. No wonder it cried. Didn’t you know it had a boil that needed lancing? Now that I’ve attended to the boil the baby doesn’t cry anymore.’ Neang Ruot rushed to where the baby lay in the blood soaked hammock. ‘You’ve killed our child,’ she gasped, horrified. Stupid Jay didn’t know what to say.

When the first feeling of shock had left her Neang Ruot said to Jay, ‘You had better take our child’s body and bury it.’ Jay wrapped the tiny form in a mat, then carrying it under one arm, and with tools under the other, he went off to dig a little grave. He was so upset and in such a daze that he didn’t notice when the dead baby slipped from the mat under his arm and fell onto the road. He dug the grave, placed the mat in it, covered it with earth and walked back home. On the way, he came across the tiny body by the roadside. He took one look at it then rushed to his wife. ‘Neang Ruot,’ he said, ‘other babies have died too. I have just buried our child but there’s another one lying dead beside the road. Perhaps there’s a sickness going around.’ Neang Ruot went to see what had happened and as soon as she drew near to the child on the road she buried only the mat. How could you?’ she cried. This time she carried the baby’s body to the grave and stayed with her foolish husband to make sure that their child was properly buried.

Neang Ruot left home very early in the morning to visit a husband, ‘When the sun comes up put some rice out to dry, not much, just enough for us tonight. Put it on some cloth or a mat, any old thing will do, even a skin. Leave it in the heat all day. I’ll cook it when I come home.’

Jay could not find a piece of colt or a mat. ‘She said something about skin,’ he thought. ‘Perhaps mu skin will do. So he picked up two fistfuls of rice and stood outside all day, his hands, full of rice, outstretched to the sun. when Neang Ruot came home she found the rice fine and dry and her husband so sunburnt that she could hardly recognize him. ‘What a foolish man!’ she sighed. ‘That’s not fair,’ objected Jay. ‘I do everything you ask you never praise me.’ ‘That’s because you can’t do anything right,’ replied Neang Ruot. ‘And so she did, for Jay and Neang Ruot lived together until a ripe old age.

I’ve heard that story so often I can’t remember where I heard it first. Everyone in my province knows it; it’s told by grandparents, parents, at social gatherings, on the radio. Boys learn to have commonsense by laughing at foolish Jay and thinking for themselves, ‘I’d never do such sill things. I’d know the difference between wild ducks and farm ducks. I wouldn’t kill my own child.’ Parents refer to this story again and again. If a does something foolish, they’ll tease him by calling him Jay. If a girl is cheeky they’ll say, ‘Your name should be Neang Ruot.’

I am the only person in my family to receive a formal education beyond primary school. I know that a university education gives you a lot of information but it doesn’t necessarily make you any wiser than the village people you grew up with. I have a strong admiration for the simple and pleasant way in which village people educate their children in everyday life by using stories like ‘Jay and Neang Ruot’.

Told by

Mr. Sraloeung

Mekala and Riem Esau

Mekala and Riem Esau

            Most Cambodians know the traditional stories of our country because, when they were children, they listened to grown-ups, at home and at school, telling the familiar and well-loved tales. I know many stories but I didn’t learn a single one of them by listening to story-tellers. I learnt them by dancing. For half my life I was a member of the Royal Cambodian Ballet. I learnt to dance the stories of our culture and, through the dance, to pass ten on to others.

            When I was seven years old, my aunt, who was a dancer of the Royal Ballet in Phnom Penh, visited our family in Siem Riep province. She told us that the Ballet was looking for girls to train as dancers and asked if she could take me back with her to the capital. Fortunately for me my parents agreed. I spent the next year at the Royal Palace studying the classical dance of Cambodia.

            There were ten of us recruits in the class, all from Siem Riep province. I was one of the youngest and the oldest would have been about fifteen. I loved my lessons. We did no normal school work at all; our entire day was taken up with dancing. We’d start early in the morning with gymnastics to warm us up and then we’d set about learning some of the one hundred and sixty basic movements of the dance, going through the steps and gestures again and again until we were perfect. After we’d mastered the first one hundred movements we were allowed to learn some of the less important roles for the dance dramas. It took us a whole year, working up to six hours each day, to master the basics.

            When we graduated we were told that Prince Sihanouk wanted to start a branch of the Royal Ballet in Siem Riep at the Angkor Wat, the ancient and famous city of temples. The new ballet company would dance there for tourists and other visitors to Cambodia. The ten of us and two teachers from Phnom Penh would recruit another twenty girls from Siem Riep and teach them. We would be the new company

            After I left for Phnom Penh with my aunt I never lived at home again. At Angkor Wat the whole ballet company lived and worked together in a hotel. One a month I rode a bicycle the seven kilometers to my village to see my parents and brothers and sisters, but to tell the truth, after a while I felt a bit awkward with my family. I had such bright, lively company all day at Angkor Wat that the ballet group than I did at home.

            Until I was twelve or thirteen I went to school in the nearby town of Muk Neak and fitted in dancing practice before and after school. His meant that I could play only minor roles in the dances. Our company had thirty dancers but only fifteen would dance at a performance. In this way we could take it in turns to play different roles and there was always a replacement available if someone was sick. In the classical dance of Cambodia, of course, all the dancers are female and we have to learn to play and dace the roles of men, giants and monkeys, as well as the roles of women and girls.

            After I left school I danced full-time. We’d begin at six o’clock in the morning and for one hour we’d practice only the movements of the hands and legs. Then, after a light breakfast, we’d go through the dance until twelve o’clock. On four nights a week we gave a public performance which lased an hour from nine to ten. On those nights we started to dress for the performance at three o’clock. It took us six hours to dress because each time we performed we had to be sewn into our costumes. They were so tight we couldn’t eat a thing and only take a few sips of drink. After we’d danced for an hour, it took at least another hour to get out of our costumes again. We had our second meal for the day then, between eleven and twelve at night. You know, it’s funny, but when we were sewn into our costumes we never felt hungry or thirsty. As soon as we’d undressed though we were absolutely starving and couldn’t wait to eat. Looking back now, I don’t think it was healthy to have such tight costumes and eat at strange hours. A lot of girls suffered from stomach aches, including me. I haven’t had them since I stopped dancing.

            We always danced at night on a big carpet in a floodlit courtyard of the Angkor Wat. The temple walls had beautiful carvings of dancers from long ago and all of us in the ballet wanted to prove that we could kook just as graceful as those performers frozen in the stone. I lived just to dance. While you were dancing you were in another world, you were someone else for the moment. I became the character I was dancing. If I was a woman I was gentle and graceful. If I was a man I felt powerful and strong.

            In our group our ages varied from eight years old to twenty-two. Everyone knew several. Roles but a star dancer had to know every single one. In the end, I was a star, and I would like to tell you the story of one of the dances I loved best – Mekala and Riem Esau. To tell the story only takes a few minutes, but to dance it takes half an hour. A story that is spoken leaves something to the listener’s imagination. But in the dance you try to show the watcher everything that happened – how the characters looked, how they felt. There’s more detail in a dance. I wish I had my friends here so we could perform it for you.

            Riem Esau was a young giant and Mekala was a beautiful girl. Both of them went to study with a famous magician. Their teacher promised that if they completed their studies successfully he would give them two very special objects – an axe of unusual wood and metal and a crystal ball. Both objects had great magical qualities but the crystal ball was the more powerful of the two.

            Both the boy and the girl studied hard and were outstanding students. When they had learned all they could their delighted teacher called hem to him and said, ‘You have both become fine magicians and I am going to reward you as I promised. I am going to give the axe to Riem Esau, are big and strong, so the axe, a symbol of strength, suits you well, while you, Mekala. I have two reasons for making this choice. The first one is that you, Riem Esau, are

Big and strong, so the axe, a symbol of strength, suits you well, while you, Mekala, are a pure and beautiful girl and the clear, bright ball, a symbol of light, suits you. Secondly, you well, while you, Mekala, are a pure and beautiful girl and the clear, bright ball, a symbol of light, suit you. Secondly, you, Riem Esau, are very, very powerful so the axe will be enough for you. But you, Mekala, are not as strong as Riem Esau so you will need the extra power the crystal ball will give you. Now, take my gifts and return to your homes.’

            Riem Esau felt very unhappy with the magician’s decision. Why should Mekala, already so beautiful, have the more beautiful object? And why should she, whose magic was not as strong as his, be given extra power so that she could me his equal? Riem Esau was jealous and resentful. He decided that, if the opportunity arose, he would steal the ball from Mekala and leave her his axe in its place.

            After the two students left the magician to return to their homes, Riem Esau tried to persuade Mekala to give the ball to him. She refused. When he tried to take it from her she ran into the forest to hide. When he found her there she flew o the heavens to look for safety among the gods and goddesses. Riem Esau followed her and when he discovered where she was hiding he threw his axe at her to kill her so that he could put an end to the chasing and get the ball for himself once and for all. To defend herself Mekala hurled her bright, beautiful and powerful crystal ball towards the flying axe. The two objects hit each other with a great clash and sparks of light streaked everywhere. That noise and light are what we know as thunder and lightning.

Riem Esau wasn’t able to take the crystal ball from Mekala and although he tried many times he was never successful. Whenever you hear thunder and see lightning you will know that he is trying once again.

            I loved dancing and I miss. Dancing was my whole life. I started so young, I knew all the dances and I wanted nothing more than to share what I knew with everyone. I haven’t danced for a long time but I know that if only I could hear the music I could dance again. I hope that one day you will be able to see unfold in gesture and movement the story that I have told to you in words.

Told by

Mrs. Sovandeth

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Personal Information (3) Presentation

 For English starter

Dear Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

In this happy occasion, I have the honor to inform about my personal information as below:

My name is …………….…….... I was born in …………………………………….………..……………. in …………………………village, …………..………………commune, ……………………….. district, ………………………..……province, in Cambodia. Nowadays I live in …………………………….…… with…………….……….. I have …… siblings, ……. brother(s) and ….. sister(s). There are.……….…… members in my family. I am the ….. child in family. My oldest brother’s / sister’s name is ………..……. He/ She is ……. years old. And my youngest brother’s / sister’s name is…. …………..…….. His / Her age is …. .. My father’s name is………………………… He is a ………………………..… and my mother’s name is a …………………………….He is a ……………………………………………………

I study English at …………………………………………………………….. I study …………….. book from teacher ……………………… In my classroom has ………. students. I go to school at ………..o’clock by …….......... every evening.  I have studied English for …… years. I want to study English because …………………………………………………...……………………………………….. ……………………………………...……………………………………………..…………………………I can speaks …….. languages, Khmer, …………………………………………………………………… In the future I want to be a ……………………………………. because ………………………………….. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………......

That’s my personal information. Thanks you a lot for paying attention. Goodbye! See you.

Answer these questions

1.      What’s your name?

2.      When were you born?

3.      Where were you born?

4.      Where do you live nowadays?

5.      Who do you live with?

6.      How many siblings do you have?

7.      How many brothers and sisters do you have?

8.      How many people are there in your family?

9.      What position are you in the family?

10.  What’s your eldest sibling’s name?

11.  What is his/ her age?

12.  What is your youngest sibling’s name?

13.  What is his/ her age?

14.  What are your parents’ jobs?

15.  Where do you study?

16.  What book do you study?

17.  Who do you study from?

18.  How many students are there in your class?

19.  What time do you go to school?

20.  How do you go to school?

21.  How long have you studied English?

22.  Why do you want to study English?

23.  How many languages can you speak?

24.  What do you want to be in the future? Why?

Personal Information (2)

Personal Information (2)

Personal Information (2)

 For English Starter

Hello lady and gentlemen are present here

My name is …………….…….... My nick name is ……………………. I come from ………..……..…… I am Cambodian / Khmer.  My age is ………. Now I live in ………………… with…………….……….. I have ……. brother(s) and ….. sister(s). I have …… siblings. There are ……………people in my family. I am the ….. child in family. My eldest brother’s / sister’s name is ……………….….He/ She is ……. years old. And my youngest brother’s / sister’s name is…. …………..…….. His / Her age is ….. .. My father’s job is a ………………………..… and my mother is a ……………………………...……

I study English at ……………………………………………………………... I study …………….. book from teacher ……………………… My class has ………. students. I go to school at ………..o’clock by …….......... everyday.  I have studied English for …… years. I want to study English because …………………………………………………...…………………………………………………………………………………………………...……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…... I can speaks …….. languages, Khmer, …………………………………………………………………… In the future I want to be a ……………………………………. because ………………………………….. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………......

That’s my personal information. Thanks you a lot for paying attention. Goodbye! See you.

Answer these questions

1.      What’s your name?

2.      Where do you come from?

3.      What is your nationality?

4.      What is your age?

5.      Where do you live now?

6.      Who do you live with?

7.      How many brothers and sisters do you have?

8.      How many siblings do you have?

9.      How many people are there in your family?

10.  What position are you in the family?

11.  What’s your eldest sibling’s name?

12.  What is his/ her age?

13.  What is your youngest sibling’s name?

14.  What is his/ her age?

15.  What are your parents’ jobs?

16.  Where do you study?

17.  What book do you study?

18.  Who do you study from?

19.  How many students are there in your class?

20.  What time do you go to school?

21.  How do you go to school?

22.  How long have you studied English?

23.  Why do you want to study English?

24.  How many languages can you speak?

25.  What do you want to be in the future? Why?

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