Shadowing Practice: Geography Now! Cambodia - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hey Geograpeeps, so this episode is gonna have some bad audio because I'm currently in my parents basement filming this, not at the YouTube space.
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And the microphone we typically use doesn't fit into the audio jack in my camera.
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So, um, just bear with me and we're gonna basically go back to the quality of Afghanistan.
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It's time to learn geography now!
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Hey everybody, I'm your host Barbie.
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This is our first country with the letter C, Cambodia
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and basically Cambodia had a relatively normal life until four really messed up years kinda ruined everything for them.
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But before we talk about that, let's dissect the flag.
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The flag is pretty simple and conveniently symbolic.
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There are three bands, two blue on the top and bottom, and red in the middle.
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In the center you have a picture of the Temple of Angkor Wat, the symbolic country defining icon of Cambodia.
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Blue is a traditional color of royalty and red represents the Cambodian people.
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The white of Angkor Wat symbolizes the spirituality of Cambodia as it is a heavily Buddhist nation.
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Keep in mind, this was actually the original flag from 1948 before a lot of crazy stuff happened.
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A bunch of other flags ensued until they finally came back to this one.
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Alright, now let's talk about all that craziness, shall we?
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Eh, no clever anecdote.
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Let's jump into it this time.
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Cambodia is located in Southeast Asia, bordered by Thailand to the west, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east,
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and the Bay of Thailand to the south.
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The country is divided into 25 provinces and the capital is Phnom Penh.
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That's right people, it's pronounced Phnom Penh, not Phnom or Nam Penh.
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Phnom Penh, formerly named Chakdomewk, is actually very conveniently located in the country because it's where the Mekong, the Lower Mekong, the Basak,
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and Sop rivers all converge into one point.
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This is also where the royal family lives and is a bustling city overtaken by mopeds,
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bicycles, and roads with no stop signs making traffic a free -for -all.
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Should I say no?
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Should I say no?
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Wait, who cares?
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Good luck everybody else!
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Off the coasts, without including the small islets and rocks, Cambodia has over 80 main islands that they have sovereignty over,
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most of which are close to the coast, easily accessible.
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Some you can even see from beaches like
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Snake Island, visible from the interestingly named Hawaii Beach.
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The furthest of these islands and the southernmost point of Cambodia is the Kōpō Luwai Islands, which were originally just used for military bases,
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but are now open to the public for tourists.
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Now, for the longest time, Cambodia was actually split kind of east and west by the Mekong River,
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and the only way to get across was either by ferry or to fly.
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In 2001, they opened their first bridge across the Mekong River, the Kizuna Bridge, funded by the Japanese government,
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and finally, it joined the two parts of Cambodia by road for the first time.
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Since then, three more have been built, and more are projected to come in the future.
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Now, of course, when going to Cambodia, the landmark that pops up into everybody's mind immediately is Angkor Wat, the ancient ruins of the Khmer Empire.
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The town nearby, Singrip, actually has an international airport,
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so you can just fly over there rather than go to Phnom Penh and then take a bus,
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which, by the way, is not really advised because things get a little shady in the rural areas, we'll explain more about that in the demographics.
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Just keep walking, Bob, you didn't see nothing here.
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Now, if you look at Angkor Wat,
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you'll not only notice the stunningly enticing view of botanically dominated temples and pagodas that have trees growing out of them,
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but you'll also notice that it has these perfectly straight geometric moats and reservoirs adjacent to the ruins.
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These were cleverly constructed by the Empire to aid irrigation
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and in return feed an entire city that is speculated to have the largest pre -industrial metropolis in Asia during that time.
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Otherwise, most areas in Cambodia have villages that function in a subtropical developing way, heavily based on the environment.
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Now, let's discuss that environment.
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Now, this is where things get really colorful, because Cambodia is kind of like a landscape marvel.
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The country is generally characterized as having a low -lying central plain with hilly and light mountainous regions in the southwest,
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and especially in the border by Vietnam.
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In this country, rivers are everywhere, and in the top middle corner you can find Tonle Sap,
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which is the largest freshwater lake in all of Southeast Asia.
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Tonle Sap expands dramatically in the wet season and is home to an enormous cluster of biodiversity, including over 200 species of freshwater fish,
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like the giant barb fish, the national fish of Cambodia, that can reach lengths up to 3 meters long.
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In yo face, Japan, with your yellow fish tuna?
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This is how we roll in Cambodia!
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Now, of course, one of the best things about Cambodia would have to be the food.
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The World Rice Conference actually voted Cambodia as having the best rice in the world three years in a row.
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And here's possibly one of the reasons why.
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Like many other third world countries, the good thing is that the food is mostly fresh and organic, partially because most people can't afford pesticides.
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Therefore, almost every time you get a wholesome pure batch of produce.
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Now, although fish is the main source of protein that's consumed, the majority of Cambodians are entomophagous, or people who consume insects in their diet.
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Insects are actually very nutritious, low in fat and carbs,
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and high in protein, and can be sold at same weight for the fraction of the price
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that the mainstream meats would cost for, like beef and chicken.
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Now, despite the fresh food, Cambodia's economy is actually more heavily dependent on textiles and footwear.
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Just look at the tag on your shirt.
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It might just be from Cambodia.
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Not on our watch!
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As well as tourism.
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Hey Janice, I found that ink for - Wah!
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Wah!
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Wah!
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Wah!
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Cambodia still maintains and facilitates elephant sanctuaries for the majestic Asian elephant,
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almost revered in some parts as keepers take great care of them as a source of their livelihood.
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Especially when tourists come and kind of want to ride them.
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Hey Janice, I'm riding an elephant!
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What?
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Now, here's the sad thing.
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Because of its brutal past that we'll discuss in the next section, UNESCO has actually listed Cambodia as the third most landmine country in the world,
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with about 4 million landmines that still need to be cleared out from the area.
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Now, because of this, Cambodia actually has the highest per capita percentage of amputees in the world.
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Each month, there are about 300 to 700 new amputations due to landmine injuries.
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The country is slowly trying to fix this problem, but for the time being, the plausible threat still lingers, especially in rural secluded areas.
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Now let's explain more about how this came to be in...
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Okay, first off, let's distinguish a few confusing nuances that people seem to have with Cambodia's demographical titles.
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Now, it's perfectly acceptable to refer to somebody in Cambodia as a Cambodian,
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and although the term Cambodian is kind of a universally interchangeable term to refer to the Cambodian ethnicity,
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the technically correct term to refer to the Cambodian ethnicity would be Khmer.
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Yeah, that's right, all this time you thought it was Khmer, right?
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No, it's Khmer.
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The R is silent and the E is an I.
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The Cambodian language is also called Khmer as well as the script and the culture.
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Speaking of which, people who speak Khmer can understand a little bit of Thai
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and Lao as the languages have piggybacked off of each other for centuries.
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Most Khmer people can understand about a quarter to a third of the Thai and Lao languages if they listen really hard.
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The problem is, unlike Khmer, Thai and Lao are actually tonal languages whereas Khmer isn't.
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So it can be a little confusing but overall it's like a code game when they talk to each other.
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Vietnamese though is completely unintelligible to them.
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That being said, Cambodia has about 15 .5 million people, the vast majority, around 90 % are ethnically Khmer, about 5 % are Vietnamese,
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1 % Chinese, and the remainder come from various people groups.
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About 95 % of the country is Buddhist, adhering to the Theravada branch of Buddhism, and Islam and Christianity make up about 2 % each,
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with the remaining 1 % being other affiliations.
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Now in order to understand Cambodia, you kind of have to understand where it came from and how it got to where it is today.
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You know how I do things.
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I'm gonna summarize this in the quickest way I can.
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Kingdom, protectorate, occupied, kingdom, republic, really bad dictatorship, Vietnamese puppet, transitional state, and finally monarchy all over again.
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The really bad dictatorship was the Communist Party, the Khmer Rouge.
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They took over in the 70s and killed around one -fifth of Cambodia's population, approximately 1 .5 to 3 million people.
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The victims were mostly educated people that were deemed a threat to the regime, as well as priests and monks,
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as the Marxist -influenced ideologies of Pol Pot instituted and forced a secular state that opposed and outlawed all types of religion.
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Books were burned, temples and churches were ransacked.
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So essentially, that explains why today, about half of the population is about 15 and under.
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The genocide of the 70s effectively cut off an entire generation,
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and those left would eventually have an explosion of children outnumbering themselves within a few decades.
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Speaking of which, Cambodia is the only country in Asia that has a king of part French descent,
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and he's also the only monarch in Asia that speaks Czech fluently.
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Culture -wise, Cambodia really sticks out.
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A lot of the customs are heavily influenced by Theravada Buddhism and traditional Khmer rituals.
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As a classified third -world country, Cambodians live off of an average salary of $2 .60 a day.
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One thing you have to understand is that, like many other countries in Southeast Asia, Cambodians are masters of vocational improvisation.
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Since the economy is highly unregulated, working in Cambodia is kind of like a free -for -all.
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When it comes to money, you can pretty much be and do anything you want.
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This can be a good and a bad thing because it allows Cambodians to innovate on all sorts of hustling.
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For example, you can start your own street corner gas station.
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All you need is a steel drum and an air compressor.
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Heck, you can't even sell gas in used pop bottles.
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And for the record, Geograpeeps, yes, I grew up in the Midwest.
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I call it pop.
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I refuse to call it soda.
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Don't even get soda.
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No, I refuse to call it that.
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However, the downside is that it also opens up the door for a lot of controversial underground corrupt industries.
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Cambodia has some of the highest rates of human trafficking in the world, including the trafficking of.. children.
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It's sad, but it has to be addressed because it's true, and it can't be glossed over.
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For a third world country where poverty is quite rampant, Cambodians may have to hustle, but they are surprisingly thrifty as well.
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After the monarchy was re -established, the government encouraged people to move back to abandoned towns by offering them free homes.
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These are typically used to operate small businesses like grocery stores, restaurants, and moped repair shops, and so on.
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Cambodia has dealt with a lot in the past half century and is trying to grow, and sometimes to grow, you need a little help from.
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Have you ever had a friend that you realized would soon become a really terrible roommate?
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Yeah, that's kind of situation that Cambodia got itself in.
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Although relations are generally okay today, Cambodia does essentially have a little bit of historical beef with its neighbors Thailand and Vietnam.
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Historically, Thailand used to be the arch enemy of Cambodia
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and went through a number of conquests to rule over the entire area.
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To this day, they still have few disputes over the Praia Fihar province.
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I hope I pronounced that right, probably not.
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And about 10 years ago, riots broke out and flags and embassies were burned down as a Thai actress claimed that Angkor Wat belonged to Thailand.
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Vietnam was kind of like the ulterior motive friend who kept saying, Hey, I'll protect you and in return, I'll just kind of control over you.
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Cool?
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France still has relatively good ties with Cambodia and not only has bilateral agreements and embassies, but also helps out with internal development.
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Many schools and universities are funded by the French and are instructed in French as well.
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However, due to the tourism sector, Cambodians are favoring English more as a second language rather than French.
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But they still teach it there.
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In terms of their best friends, however, Cambodia would actually probably say
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China, Japan, and South Korea.
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All three of these countries invest the heaviest in the country's infrastructure, and they have helped build roads, buildings, malls, and business centers all over.
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Large flocks of Koreans and Japanese regularly visit Cambodia for vacation and are welcomed with open arms.
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In conclusion, Cambodia is a very vibrant, colorful nation that had a really bad punch to the gut in the 70s,
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but they didn't throw in the towel just yet, and they're just starting to get their breath back, stand up, and get ready for another round.
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Stay tuned, Cameroon is coming up next.
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Hey Geograpeaves, if you'd like to learn a little bit more about Cambodia, check out Seeker Daily's video.
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Just click on this box right here.
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Here's a little click.
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Cambodia's population is now over 15 million, nearly two -thirds of which are second or third generation from Khmer Rouge survivors.
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With the old and new generations rising up from their history of unrest, what's it like living in Cambodia today?
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Well, first, the aftermath of Khmer Rouge left an obvious imbalance in socioeconomic classes.
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The regime forced many city residents out into the rural areas, leaving only a few still in the city.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Geography Now! Cambodia”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Cambodia, Khmer, Cambodian. This video has 174 sentences and 2389 words to shadow. The speech runs for 11:15. The speaker talks fast, about 212 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 77% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| refer verb | /ɹɪˈfɜː/ | To direct the attention of (someone toward something). |
| ruin noun | /ˈɹuː.ɪn/ | The remains of a destroyed or dilapidated construction, such as a house or castle. |
| elephant noun | /ˈɛlɪfənt/ | A large mammal of the family Elephantidae in the order Proboscidea, having a trunk, and native to Africa and Asia. |
| audio adjective | /ˈɔ.di.oʊ/ | Focused on audible sound, as opposed to sight. |
| temple noun | /ˈtɛm.pl̩/ | A house of worship dedicated to a polytheistic faith. |
| essentially adverb | /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/ | In essence: by nature. |
| refuse verb | /ɹɪˈfjuːz/ | To decline (a request or demand). |
| regime noun | /ɹəˈʒiːm/ | Mode of rule or management. |
| beef noun | /bif/ | The meat from cattle or other bovines; especially, that from adults. |
| tourism noun | /ˈtʊɹɪzəm/ | The act of travelling or sightseeing, particularly away from one's home. |
| embassy noun | /ˈɛmbəsi/ | The function or duty of an ambassador. |
| soda noun | /ˈsoʊdə/ | Sodium bicarbonate. |
| consume verb | /kənˈsum/ | To use up. |
| symbolic adjective | Pertaining to a symbol. | |
| colorful adjective | /ˈkʌl.əɹ.fl̩/ | Possessing prominent and varied colors. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| break out verb | To escape, especially forcefully or defiantly. | |
| burn down verb | To cause (a structure) to burn to nothing. | |
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). | |
| come up verb | To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly. | |
| cut off verb | /ˌkʌt ˈɔf/ [ˌkɐɾ ˈɔf] | To remove by cutting. |
| get across verb | To cross; to move from one side (of something) to the other, literally or figuratively. | |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. | |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Alright, now let's talk about all that craziness, shall we?
- Let's jump into it this time.
- Should I say no?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is located · is divided · was actually split |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have been built · has actually listed · have piggybacked |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | Islands, which were · people who consume · people who speak |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 25 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, can't, gonna. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: ethnicity /ɛθˈnɪsɪti/, southwest /saʊθˈwɛst/, aftermath /ˈæf.tɚˌmæθ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, regime /ɹəˈʒiːm/, dictatorship /ˈdɪkteɪtəɹʃɪp/, freshwater /ˈfɹɛʃˌwɔːtə(ɹ)/, conclusion /kənˈkluːʒən/
- Long words — get the stress right: essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, ethnicity /ɛθˈnɪsɪti/, dictatorship /ˈdɪkteɪtəɹʃɪp/, conveniently /kənˈvinjəntli/, infrastructure /ˈɪnfɹəˌstɹʌkt͡ʃə/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like refer, ruin, elephant.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.