One of the funniest to me is the word "Chuh", which I get called all the time. It's Khmenglish for "teacher": The first syllable is dropped, and the pesky r at the end is too tricky to pronounce.
Then there is the doubling down on certain one syllable words, which is common in the Khmer language. (For example you really can say "chop-chop" for hurry/soon). So in Khmenglish we have small-small instead of small, and same-same instead of same. And of course same-same's ever present cousin "same-same but different". (I think this means similar). If you're a male out on certain streets in the late evening, you may well receive solicitations for "boom-boom."
Another area might be sentiments that when expressed in English (however well spoken) just sound odd. For example, Cambodians sometimes ask, "Last night, did you have a good dream?" along with "Hello, how are you?". I also often find people wishing me good luck out of the blue.
Me: "So you'll be here to pick me up at 5:00, right?"
Motorcycle taxi driver: "Yes, good luck for you! Bye." (Hangs up phone).
This sort of thing leads me to worry whether or not he's actually coming at 5 pm, but it's not intended that way at all. Cambodians also sometimes like to say "See you when you see me" as a goodbye. If you speak enough Khmer this apparently has a humorous double meaning. ("me" is the word for noodles, but I don't get the rest of it).
One of my favorite English-that-isn't episodes took place when Jenny and I were traveling in Vietnam over December. We were visiting a royal tomb outside Hue, and there was a banana vendor along the path from the parking lot to the entrance. A local family's orchard abutted this pathway, and so they had posted one of their daughters to lean over the fence hawking fruit. As I mentioned in an earlier post, despite fluttering hammer and sickle flags on every government building, the Vietnamese are the most doggedly entrepreneurial people on Earth. (God help those lazy fatcats on Wall Street if the Vietnamese ever switch systems of government). The girl spoke no or very little English, but had memorized a single sales pitch "Hello lady you like banana!" It didn't matter if you were a couple, a group of old men, whatever, you were still 'lady'. She had clearly been chanting this pitch for hours upon hours, slowly warping the rhythm, pronunciation and stressed syllables to create a kind of sound poetry. It was really hypnotic and actually kind of beautiful.
