High-Context, Low-Context

One of the most troubling things about being a foreigner in Cambodia is the respect that is afforded to one. Sometimes this is just simply respect that is put on as a way to attract business--and I understand and appreciate why this is important when only a few dollars a day is a liveable wage. Sometimes the respect comes out of genuine interest in what I'm doing here, for instance when I ask questions of the masters about their music. But the respect that is troubling to me is less tangible and harder to locate. I get respected just because I am a foreigner, and I have a certain place in the hierarchy of Cambodian society. Khmer society and language are bth can be described as "high-context", which means that how people interact with each other and what kind of language they use is highly dependent on the hierarchical relationship present. One of the difficult things about the Khmer language is that there different forms of almost every word to be used in differents contexts or with different people. For example, there is a special vocabulary to be used when talking to monks, and another set of words to be used when talking to royalty. There are also a baffling number of pronouns in frequent use that define the context of a particular conversation and the relationship between the affected parties. These traits are of course present in other neighboring Asian languages, but it seems that Khmer takes it to a higher degree.

Well, to get back to the question of respect, I notice that Khmer people use pretty respectful language around me, which defines the context of our relationship. I'm pretty used to our American "low-context" society, where we use about the same language with everybody and how we act is often based more on our individual disposition than the particular context we are in. So it is occasionally frustrating that it is nearly impossible to have "normal" social relationships with other Cambodians--that is, it is hard to be on equal terms with them. And because I am almost always in the dominant position of power, it can be hard for me realize the societal context that I'm in.

Of course, I have a lot of "power" in American society, but I was not made aware of it until coming here. And I can hardly complain about it, both because I want to respect the culture I'm living in and because I can appreciate what it's like to be on the other side of the hierarchy. Yet I realize that my American habits and inability to understand the "high-context" nature of Cambodian society will be an ever-present source of learning and frustration.

After I finished that paragraph, a young boy came up to me and asked me if he could shine my shoes. He explained that tomorrow he needed money to go to school. Whether or not this was true, it saddens me greatly to see children having to work or beg all hours of the day. But to express hope at the end of this post, I visited a gallery opening today of probably the first arts school in Cambodia (Reyum Arts School, www.reyum.org) that encourages creative expression through painting, drawing, and other media. Because schools are so overcrowded in Cambodia, kids can only go to either in the morning or the afternoon, and Reyum gives kids not only a safe environment so they don't have be unstructured and unsupervised on the street for much of the day, but also a chance to create and learn with their peers and prepare for a future vocation and a lifelong love of art. It makes me truly happy to see such positive action and the beautiful results of such action.