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Another Cambodian course in the public domain

Printed From: FSI Language Courses
Category: Language Courses
Forum Name: Member Contributions
Forum Discription: If you have course materials and are planning to contribute them to the website, this is the place to let everyone know.
URL: http://fsi-language-courses.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=554
Printed Date: 16 January 2009 at 3:03am


Topic: Another Cambodian course in the public domain
Posted By: unzum
Subject: Another Cambodian course in the public domain
Date Posted: 19 February 2008 at 9:59am
There's a course called 'Modern Spoken Cambodian' which is apparently really good, it has a format similar to FSI and all the materials are now in public domain. The author kept the copyright for 5 years after the books were published but released it to the public domain after that.

The author also wrote another book, 'Cambodian system of writing' which was also released into the public domain. A downloadable copy is available here as well as info on the copyright:
http://pratyeka.org/csw/ - http://pratyeka.org/csw/

Modern Spoken Cambodian can be viewed in its entirety at Googlebooks but not downloaded.
http://books.google.com/books?id=_IlVolzGkbsC - http://books.google.com/books?id=_IlVolzGkbsC
Someone is attempting to type up the book on the internet here:
http://spokencambodian.110mb.com/ - http://spokencambodian.110mb.com/
but it looks like work is going pretty slowly and it is only possible to view the text, not to download it.

You can also download the audio from Yale university:
http://www.cls.yale.edu/cambodian/ - http://www.cls.yale.edu/cambodian/

I think 'Modern Spoken Cambodian' and 'Cambodian system of writing' are perfect candidates to put on this website, as a lot of the work is already done and the copyright status is pretty clear about it being in the public domain. Also, all the resources are quite spread-out over the internet and I think it would be good to put them all in one place, such as here.

All we need to do is get 'Modern Spoken Cambodian' scanned and put the pdfs of both books and the audio on this website.

This person is learning Cambodian and has the book for Modern Spoken Cambodian but doesn't have access to a scanner. Is there anyone who could volunteer for the job of scanning it?
http://khmaesuolhien.wordpress.com/ - http://khmaesuolhien.wordpress.com/





Replies:
Posted By: whatl2004
Date Posted: 19 February 2008 at 6:49pm
    I have both FSIi and Huffman's books and complete sets of the tapes.  They are essentially the same.  Neither is better than the other. Huffman's book seems to be constructed with the primary purpose of not copying the FSI material and not with creating a better learning experience.   Only the sequence of the material is different  Very little else.
    The book for the writing system as presented on the link is incomplete. It provides the first half of the book - the rules for writing (excellently presented by the way) - and not the exercises.  I have not found a complete copy on the web. There are no tapes available for this book.
     Although there are advanced tapes for sale from Yale, they do not appear to be related to any published material (online or otherwise) and apparently were used with material provided only in the classroom.
    If someone has a serious interest in Khmer, I strongly recommend the web based version of the University of Hawaii/Manoa class conducted by Chhany Sak-Humphry.  The class and teacher are both first rate.  It is not cheap, but no more expensive than a normal college language class.  It provides excellent feedback on both your verbal and writing skills and there are multiple levels of instruction. You can google her or the class or email her at sak@hawaii.edu
    Frank Smith's studykhmer.com is also first rate - lots of online material and you don't need a text book.


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whatl2004


Posted By: unzum
Date Posted: 20 February 2008 at 6:23am
I've checked the audio available from Yale's website and it seems to correspond with the book 'Modern Spoken Cambodian' from google books. They had the audio for the dialogue and the audio for the drills. Could you check it with your tapes to see if they are the same?

Although the books may be similar I don't believe this means that Huffman's book is entirely worthless. After all, we have both Spanish basic and Spanish programmatic on this site.
Surely if someone was studying Cambodian seriously they could find worth from following both books, or completing one after the other? Surely the two books must contain different vocabulary?

Although the Cambodian writing system book is incomplete I still believe it could be useful for someone. The exercises with the books are being posted here:
http://cambodian.tiddlyspot.com/ - http://cambodian.tiddlyspot.com/
And the reading selections are being posted here:
http://cambodian-reader.tiddlyspot.com/ - http://cambodian-reader.tiddlyspot.com/
However, the pdf download on those sites doesn't seem to work.

As we already have most of the material available for these two books it seems a bit pointless not to take advantage of this opportunity and add them to this site.



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