Posts from Tales from a parallel world. Auto-translated

English is becoming easier, surprisingly. I caught myself mixing words while talking with Russian speakers. On the forum, there's time to find the right Russian word, but in real life, I can't always do it quickly now.

But in general, you should be doing quite well now; besides English, you don't really have much of a choice when communicating with the locals, so you'll learn it out of necessity.

Yes, the English-speaking environment is motivating. Although, in reality, there is a choice – you can also communicate with the locals in Khmer, French (hello to the French colonizers), Thai, and Chinese... I don't even know, it's all so interesting.

After learning that in Chinese, the meaning of a word depends on the intonation, I started to fear it; I constantly misplace the stress in Russian words as well.

Cambodia, Siem Reap

A café attached to a laundromat. While your laundry is being washed and dried, you can sit at a table with snacks and Wi-Fi.
In the foreground, a motorcycle passing by happened to get into the frame.

A Happy Childhood.
(India, Nepal, Cambodia)

As is well known, labor ennobles. And in Asia, people start getting involved in work early on. At least in these three countries.

Although the caste system was officially abolished last century, it seems that the population of India and Nepal were not informed about this. Therefore, children and teenagers usually work for their family clan, learning the intricacies of a traditional profession or simply performing the role of "errand boys" for older members.
In India, the milkman who brought us milk every morning was about eight years old, and he already wore his school uniform while walking to school. It's easy to find workers aged 14-15 in cafes, hotels, shops, and markets. They don't always have great mental math skills – you often have to double-check and correct them, but they are good at bargaining :D
In Nepal, I especially remember the guys from the hotel where we survived an earthquake. The cook at the hotel was only about 18 years old, the room cleaners were even younger, and the hotel manager was 25. By the way, during the earthquake, the manager showed that the family clan had entrusted him with the hotel for a reason - he is a very competent guy who understands what power he has and how to use it correctly.
The older generation usually deals with management :) As well as planning and distributing financial flows.

In Cambodia, family clans are also quite strong, although here people tend to start working a little later - around 17-18 years old.
But sometimes things happen like today: we went into a mini-market to buy soda, and there was only a nine-year-old girl. While we were choosing drinks and looking at the store's assortment, no adults appeared. However, the girl easily scanned our order, entered the amount in the program, and gave us change. We pretended not to be surprised at all :).

It's a shame that they don't hold Lian dance competitions in Cambodia; you can only see this dance at local shows. But it turns out that competitions are interesting.
Isn't she cute? :)



Added 9 minutes later
training
impressive

I remember being a little surprised in Novorossiysk that most of the souvenir shops were run by children aged 11-14. They were polite, by the way.

Cambodia, Siem Reap.


A couple of days ago, they built a small pavilion across from our house – the kind they make for weddings here. I was especially pleased with the "gold" and "silver" coconuts and the loudspeaker on top. I already know that this means several days of festivities, prayers, and loud music coming from the "sound system."
So today, at five in the morning, I wasn't surprised to be woken up early by Buddhist chants. And I enjoyed the pretty good sound throughout the entire morning – lively chanting accompanied by Buddhist drums, interspersed with inspired sermons (or maybe not sermons; unfortunately, I don't know Khmer) without music for about an hour. I really did enjoy it, and I mean that literally; I have no problem with such background noise. By lunchtime, the sound changed, and until nightfall, the wedding entertained those around with live music in the style of rock, reggae, and some rap performed by invited singers. It was well-executed, with good voices and people who clearly had a good ear for music. The Khmers are wonderful after all.

Ecuador, earthquake No, this doesn't affect me. Except that I was in a similar situation in Nepal a year ago. I'm keeping it for comparison.

they live here with their mother their whole life :) More precisely, not with their mother, but with their family clan, unless you are an activist and an excellent student, the hope of the clan, who is sent to study at the most prestigious university in the country/state/region and then put in charge of some family business.

As a rule, language teaching is entrusted not to a philologist with a good knowledge of both Japanese and a foreign language, but to a foreigner with zero or low knowledge of Japanese.

I didn't know that this was also the case in Japan.
In Nepal and Cambodia, a crowd of volunteers and "obsessed" foreigners (mainly Americans, but there are exceptions) teach English using the same principle, knowing only "hello" and "goodbye" in the local language.

I always stop and stare whenever I pass by this graffiti.
Look at these Buddhists, they even write strange things on fences! :D

There was graffiti in my city that said, "We both have nerves of steel," written in a stark, no-frills font and in black. I can't imagine a more fitting phrase for the commute to and from work, and my route happened to pass right by it.

In Asia, gray walls are rare. Houses are usually painted in bright colors – pink, yellow, green. For example, here’s a typical Indian house:

What's that, some kind of fascist star?

Mortulus, that's how the locals understand and represent grace.

Here are some photos of Angkor - the center of the Khmer Empire, which flourished from the 9th to the 15th century.
The photos are not mine; I go there to relax and experience the culture, not to take pictures.







Added 1 minute ago

local waterfalls
there are paid "chests" for storing items and changing rooms on the shore.