交換日記：頂你

旅程的第三晚，Sophearum 教我們玩柬埔寨的鋤大Dee ，名叫「頂你」(teang len) ，是越南傳來的。遊戲規則與港式有些微差別，如同花順只要四隻，俘虜的牌號需要相連，三條叫「三」，也有三隻牌的同花，四隻牌的蛇，而六隻牌的蛇叫「屌」。

不知道是哪個廣東或香港移民引進此遊戲，才把「Tien Le」翻成頂你，當時他人在異鄉，在賭枱上騙膚色偏黑的高棉人說那些粵語髒話，背後懷著的是怎樣的鄉愁？又或是，跟我們教柬埔寨同學打招呼時可以說：「屌你」，平時又總是「你係傻仔」的溝通一樣，因著言語抽離了意義，再冒犯的髒話就成了無傷大雅的玩笑。

Sophearum

而Sophearum 說他慣了早睡，十一時多便叮囑我要回房入睡。我們各自趟在床上，湊近兩張床中間的插頭，又開展了對談。他說起他的家在金邊市郊的小鎮（commune），那裡沒有衛星電視，也沒有互聯網。平常下課回到家就只有緩慢的手機接通世界。他除了想像哥哥一樣成為考古學家，在柬埔寨東奔西跑外，還想希望未來能拿獎學金出國留學。雖然中國有錢但認中文字太難，至於英語也在欠缺資源下學不好。我又跟他說起我家的事，說我是多麼幸運的孻仔，少時家貧等到兩位哥哥工作後又迅速改善家庭經濟處境。從前英語很爛，現今英語仍然不好，混得過去。那時我天天讀兩三篇 the guardian 的報導來學英語⋯⋯

老師在旅途中經常刻意強調我們的 cultural shock ，也許是她廿年前首次到來時的感受吧！如今全球化影響下，我們手中都是 iPhone 了，只是不同版本而已。雖然我們的條件每有落差，不過差距也並非那麼大，同一個網絡下聽的也有歐美最新的 pop song。更重要的是，人和人之間，差別又有多大？

Sophearum 和我都廿五歲，也在各自的國度搖擺於讀書和工作，一樣希望社會的政治環境改變，一樣希望成家，也一樣為各自的理想打拚，我看到他的真誠和用功，我也看到自己。在這個房間裡，我們之間的 cultural shock 又能多大呢？

Causal translation:

Teang Len

In the third night of the trip, Sophearum taught us to play Cambodian and Vietnamese poker card game named “Teang Len”, in Cantonese means fuck you. The game is similar to Big Two, but the rule is slightly different. For example, their “Straight Flush” only need 4 cards, “Full House” need the linking numbers card. And they can give out 6 linked order cards, and it called “diu”, which means fuck in Cantonese.

The game should be introduced by some Cantonese immigrants. They made Khmer, which had darker skin colour, to speak Cantonese foul languages in a game Can we imagine how they felt nostalgia in abroad at that time?  Or else, it should be similar to us when our classmates make jokes with them, likes greeting words are “diu ne (fuck you)”, or always told them “you are a fool” in Cantonese. When the sound is spoken without significance, every offensive foul language would become a silly jokes.

Sophearum said he used to sleep early. We then went to our room at 11pm. When we lied on our bed separately, we started to talk about ourselves. His home was in the commune that was near Phnom Penh. There were no satellite tv, internet, but only a slow network of mobile. He did not only want to become an archeologist like his brother that could travel around Cambodia, but also want to get a scholarship and study in foreign university. Although China gave a lot of money and chance to them, Chinese characters were too difficult for him. English, however, was not easy to be learned in his limited condition. And I told my fortunate story also, about the financial condition of my family changed after my brothers went to work. My English was suck, and had still been bad, I had tried my best to read the guardian every day.

Our teacher always emphasised the cultural shock of Hong Kong students in Cambodia, it may be come from her own experience in 20 years before. Influenced by globalisation, both of Hong Kong and Cambodia students used iPhone but different generation. Although our financial backgrounds were different, but the difference was not too big. We shared same western pop songs from the internet. And the most important thing should be, how big would be the difference between human and human?

Sophearum and I were 25. Both of us were studying hard and work hard. We hoped for the change of the political environment of our respective countries. We would like to have our own families. We fought for our goals. I can see his sincerity and hard-working, and I can see myself too. In this small hotel room, what the difference of us in this sense?