Wednesday, April 29, 2009

KR Trial and the "Telephone" or " Chinese Whispers"


Watching the Khmer Rouge Trial on television makes me think that the dialogues in the KR courtroom, through translators, between different languages, Khmer, French and English, has the same result as the game called the "Telephone" or in some parts of Europe as "the Chinese whispers." It also reminds me about a Khmer folktale known as "K' Aek muoy chea K'aek dobb" (one crow =10 crows) where the errors typically accumulate in the retellings, so the statement announced by the last person differs significantly, and often amusingly, from the one uttered by the first.

Different Khmer Rouge's terminology, Khmer slang and expressions used by Kaing K. Iev or Duch didn't just make it very difficult for Cambodian translators to communicate with foreign judges but they also bewildered some younger generation's Khmer judges and the people in the courtroom and made them feel and look stupid.

Duch's Command in Cambodian language, especially KR's terminology and Khmer expressions also makes Duch, a Khmer Rouge killer, feel and looks far superior to his interrogators.
Is this trial is worth $170 million dollars?

Sathonne New York
Also Posted on Timothychhim.Blogspot.com

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Talk about lost in translation ...

Unknown said...

Talk about lost in translation ...

Unknown said...

Talk about lost in translation ...

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