Your experience of culture shock in Cambodia

For me, coming to Phnom Penh was less of a culture shock than maybe for most people. Reason being, I lived in Thailand for 5 years.

There were many pleasant surprises.
1. Level of English spoken here. So much better than Thailand.
2. The choice of food. Again much better than Thailand. All at reasonable prices.
3. The poor road management by the authorities. This will only get worse as the city expands. Perhaps it is time an in depth study was done and acted on.
4. Congestion on pavements makes it very unsafe walking in many streets.

I think that will do for now.

Hi,
My comments are I feel quite valid, not harsh.
The lack of clearing rubbish and the unconcerned disposal on streets and even in the city centre.This personifies Cambodia for me.
Spoken English has improved dramatically from 20 years ago.
As a catering consultant the the incredible lack of hygiene in kitchens here. Health threatening.
The improvement of shopping and the selection of goods.
The lack of care for other road users by the people who drive the large 4 wheel drive vehicles. At worst murderous.
Terrible road repair.
Choice of food, repetitive and poorly executed. Said as a caterer.
General dishonesty in tuk-tuk drivers. Expected but still unsettling.
However the average Khmer is a charming and gentle person. I just hope that Cambodia does not descend to the level of some of the surrounding countries in their reactions to expats. Sadly I feel this will happen because of our own actions.

Haha wow Mad max you really have some resentment.  I do understand your feeling after what you have been through.  Hey that's life, and it can be like that everywhere you go. 

On cultural difference, most definitely its way different from western countries but what do you expect?  I had my fare share of culture shock and I still don't understand why they do what they do.  I'm sure that they wonder the same with us.  We probably look just as crazy to them as they do to us.

Just try to understand and be opened minded.  If you still don't understand then just forget about it and brush it off your shoulders.  Enjoy what you can, learn from your mistakes and live life.  There is a lot of beauty in this country if we look past the negatives.

In general, I am treated OK in the markets, etc. But I have heard all to many stories of Farangs being ripped off by unscrupulous sellers of many things. I have been in Central America, South America, and Europe, and never witnessed the total lack of class of some, but certainly not all, Khmer. As a culture, they need to learn to deal fairly with tourist, and not treat them as targets of their greed. My dealing with my Ex's family is one bad example. But I can cite many others, where the total lack of "Culture" shows its ugliest face.

In my experience, overcoming culture shock begins with the attitude you start with when you travel. I adjusted to life in Cambodia fairly easily because I didn't expect it to be like life in Australia or America. The good and bad is closer to the surface here. We're accustomed to shielding ourselves from the worst parts of our societies. It's not that easy here because everything is "in your face." Scratch beneath the surface, though, and you can find a lot to be inspired by. I know expats who hate it here, but that's often because they cling to cultural prejudices and make unfair comparisons based on those prejudices. Ironically, many of them come here because their retirement funds are enough to live well. They're far less happy than their poor Cambodian neighbors, though, because they dwell on what's wrong with the culture in their eyes and don't discover the good things about it.

Example: Don't like the pickpockets or beggars at Ochheuteal Beach? Go to another beach. Simple solution, but many expats act as if Ochheuteal beach is the only beach in town.

Culture shock...there is a lot of superstition and beliefs here.  They live by these superstition and beliefs.  E.g.  If you were to date a Khmer woman/man, more than likely the family will go to see a fortune teller to see if you to are compatible.  If not they would break you two apart.    I've heard its an Asian thing so its not just Khmer.

Hello everyone,

Please note that some off topic posts have been removed from this thread.

Thank you.

better food than Thailand?  I wonder how that could be

I am here a month and a half, no problem. Saturday morning two cops pulled the motor driver of and ask I must give them five dollars for he was not wearing a helmet. I must pay, I turned around and walked into a restaurant. The girl in the restaurant said to me, she said to them I can pay them at the embassy and they disappeared. The evening in Olympic two sex workers demanded 15 dollars and the old ugly one said I must give her 2 dollars to watch. Can you believe this,crazy people

I'm not sure where to start.  As a teacher I'm generally impressed by the number of people, especially young people, who say they are in school.  But, the level of seriousness that people approach school is pretty lax.  My students would come and ask for "permission" which mean to miss class.  They would miss for just about any reason.  University students in the West would never ask for permission.  You are an adult and if you miss, you miss.  You can't really make up missing a class especially on a quiz or exam day.  Somehow, the teacher is not supposed to hold Khmer students accountable for a missed class if they had "permission".  I never really understood this.  And then on exam day I found the level of cheating that goes on to be above and beyond.  I'd see smart students copy off of students that I know were not as prepared as they were.  Cheating is so endemic to Khmer society that people cheat when it's easier to just be honest.  I understand the why of all of this.  My students are the children of Pol Pot regime survivors.  Their parents have mostly taught them that survival depends on cheating and stealing.  In Thailand, if you leave your laptop at a coffee shop or in a hotel room chances are it will be there hours later when you return.  In Cambodia it almost will assuredly not be and not a single soul will say they saw anything.  You don't snitch--ever.  If you see someone do something wrong you never report it. 

It's hard to talk about culture shock without it sounding judgmental.  Behaviors are all functional within the context that they occur.  So, having pointed out these few things, I will say that overall I still love this country.  It's like no other place in the world and for all its weirdness and confusion I will keep coming back.

You should have told her that she should pay you $5 to watch.

As you are a teacher I would like to know your opinion on the  various academic qualifications here in Cambodia?. I started life with qualifications from Balliol but have never really used them. I also hold a degree in hotel management. I have already made a comment re my general opinion about Cambodia but as a catering professional I am aghast at the standards here in Cambodia. I encounter people in the various professions that go to make up the catering industry, I must say they seem to be sub standard, HRs who do not associate with the staff but sit in their office in regal isolation, accountants who come up with prices from the ether and cannot price or balance recipes books or even get cheques right.Chefs who have no comprehension of even the simplest of recipes without using MSG or chicken powder. The list goes on.
So please what are your thoughts?

One thing you have to understand about the Cambodian is they don't like to say No. They would rather nod their head and smile. So when this happens again I just move along and smile back. It's a developing country with no government support so these people are desperate to make that extra dollar a day.

We all don't like getting ripped off. My way to overcome this is be friendly and ask them about their day. After all we are all people trying to survive.

Culture shock--- yep shocking but they are moving and as expats respect that. But in saying that I haven't lived there yet, moving in Oct 2015 as a medical researcher with my family 5yr old girl and 2 yr old son. Will be challenging for sure. But what matters most is learning my culture.

Having worked with Indigenous people in other parts of the world, who have suffered something along the lines of having their cultural fabric ripped apart by war, colonial marginalisation etc, it is easy to recognise that much of the complaints in the comments are not really baout Khmer culture, but the dysfunctional legacies from the Pol Pot era and the suppression and extermination of what was the educated class of people, whether they were practitioners in traditional or contemporary knowledge.  Other aspects of customary behaviour are only diffrent in degree for a westerner, but much the same as in many other older societies. Alliances, on a family or friends level, shift more rapidly than I happen to be used to in the 'west' regarding personal relationships. People are cut out/not spoken to because of how they have acted, but the rifts are also more easily forgiven.
As far as the 'superstitious' explanations for behaviour, there are obviously genuine cultural differences. Cambodia does not a have Judeo-Christian heritage; Khmer spiritual parctices are derived from a mix of Theravada Buddhist, Hindu, and older animistic traditions, as well as Chinese ancestor worship. Reading and asking about the whys and hows can only make one's experience richer.
It's a hard world in Cambodia for the poorer people, but it is the same everywhere in the region and to some extent in the wider world, as incomes gaps become more and more divergent, as many if not all expats realise. Very few things can change rapidly with the disempowerment of the general run of people who have little say in how the their countries are run.
Basic things like traffic control and the enforcement of driving rules cannot change much unless the services involved are paid enough not to have to rip off the public to survive. When some people talk about 'culture', they forget that we also talk about the 'culture' within a corporation or a business sector, understanding that practices can be changed. Some of the issues in the comments may be on this level. Several of the other things that people are not satisfied with may be indicators of business opportunities or things to support, where some agency is already trying to do the work.

Otherwise there are ordinary ways to solve some problems. If you are not just a short term tourist, you can cultivate tuk tuk drivers for example, who speak enough of your language and in turn treat you fairly. Get their phone numbers and use them regularly, as the locals do. Generally speaking, establishing personal relationships with service providers that you are happy with is very worthwhile. It is also useful to let your insurance company, for example, deal with everything including the police if you are invoved in an accident. If you are an expat/economic migrant or whatever longer term resident, it may well be reasonable to find a good dentist/doctor and get to know  people working in government, a lawyer, an accountant and so forth, that is if you are actively involved in work/business. These are only common sense survival strategies to call on in case of difficulties... Open smiling ways often smooth your path in the early stages. I think if one chooses to live in another country for considerable periods, it is worthwhile to consider the merits of hoping and if possible working for the betterment of that place.

Dear Rushy
There are many kinds of people elsewhere. Anyway I hope you'll have a lot of nice and helpful ppl around!

Cheers!

I lived in Sihanoukville for nigh on five years and was, for the most part, very happy there.  The level of 'borrowing' and intrusion on my privacy drove me mad but, apart from that, I got on well with my neighbours.  However, for all the skies were blue and cloudless, the underlying dirt proved the undoing of me (and a few others).  I would take all my fans apart once a month to clean off the oily, black filth, and did the same with my windows.  Keeping the house clean was a daily chore.   My 35 year old Khmer neighbour died from lung cancer, as did my dear -- and very healthy --  friend Carol.  Last year I decided to visit my family in Europe for a couple of months but on arrival fell ill myself, only to discover that I too had contracted terminal lung cancer.  I had no choice but to give up my home, my furniture and personal items to a neighbour (via phone) and await my demise.  I don't know the figures but I would suggest that, because of the lack of street cleaning, coupled with coal fired power sourcing and diesel-powered transport,  the air is not conducive to good health.