Mr Worldwide 🇰🇭

recently my family member got married to a Cambodian girl, so i friend requested her on facebook. it was pretty surprising, i grew up with this guy and he was the first young adult in my close family to get married. but exciting! especially someone out of the country.

a little later, 2 friends of hers send me requests, so i accepted. why not?

we’ve been chatting a bit, and what stands out is their use of pretty much only emojis to respond (besides saying “yes” because its a single simple character). looking into it, Khmer is really complex on a keyboard, so most don’t bother texting with it and use voice message, or in my case, emoji! 

i talked about my cats, showed some of my art (met with 👍🫰👍 must mean it’s EXTRA good)

but at first, being met mostly with 👍 was jarring, given i and many others are most familiar with that emoji (by itself) being seen as passive aggressive. but translating my own messages i could see how intricate this language was, so i was right about it just being not worth it lol

i already have social anxiety and fear of interactions going wrong, so it kind of flipped my rejection sensitivity on its head !

these simple interactions in response to my clunky google translated Khmer, have really opened my eyes and mind to the various tones of text and how it can so easily (to me) come off as cold or uninterested at times, but at the end of the day every individual has their own preferred method of communication. what’s the simplest, most familiar, and convenient. 

even with positive interactions i still get the thoughts of “are they just entertaining me to not come off as rude, while they’re tired of me and want to end the conversation?” im very chatty as well, so im not always the easiest person to talk to in the first place.

but that too is just a part of my personality. i get it from my mom. it’s inconvenient to some, maybe annoying, but it’s me. and i like me. and clearly others do too, and want to keep me around. 

so im more inspired to find friends from around the world. even if it’s all butchered translation, making a connection with someone where theres some sort of barrier, an unfamiliarity, like culture shock. learning something new, and understanding more about the diverse societal expectations when it comes to communicating with one another, and i admire so much how people can express themselves individually. and that you don’t have to change for others. push yourself to exhaustion just to be seen as worthy. 

you just need to be you :) 💯