Evaluating Intercultural Behavior

For a city dweller like me, stepping into a rural area in Cambodia was truly an eye-opening experience. I went on a Youth Expedition Project trip last December along with 21 of my friends. The villagers were extremely welcoming but I will like to share about something that occurred outside of our village.

During the three week stay, my friends and I visited a small church in town. Most of us are not religious, but we were keen to see how Christmas was celebrated in this country. We sat through most of it rather uncomfortably due to the language difference. The church prepared dinner and after everyone ate, the crowd started to disperse. A few guys around our age picked up their instruments and started to play. The girls brought us to the middle of the church where all the chairs were cleared to create a dance floor. Turned out that they have a practice of social dancing during parties and gatherings and they were encouraging us to join in!

According to Wikipedia, the two most common dances are the Romvong and Romkbach. The girls taught us both dances which involve elegant hand gestures and simple foot work. It was definitely fun trying to learn those dances but after a while, it got repetitive. The music changed but the dances were essentially the same. Hence, most of us ended up either simply moving to the beat or sitting in a corner, exhausted.

I initially wanted to share a photo from the day itself, but I could not find one that really illustrate how the Romkbach is like. So here is a textbook drawing instead:

Only only my Vietnamese friend persisted in dancing with them. She just started learning Latin dancing in NUS, but in my own opinion, she is rather talented. My friend spent the entire evening dancing and laughing with the girls, while the rest of us watched them in awe. It was really amazing how well she fitted in despite the lack of a common language. A bond was made simply because they shared the same love for dance. She showed them some of her own Latin dance moves and the girls looked  really impressed. When we had to leave, my friend was rather reluctant and she shared a long embrace with the girls.

I found it rather endearing, that they seemed to have forged a genuine friendship in that few short hours. It did not seem to matter to anyone that they came from different backgrounds and spoke different languages. They interacted and bonded without the need for a spoken conversation. I did wondered why none of the Singaporeans got close to these girls. Perhaps it was apparent that my friend truly appreciated their dances, hence the girls enjoyed spending time with her. We should have been quite honored that they treated us with such hospitality. Maybe there is a significance to social dancing that we could not quite grasp? In retrospect, I guess the rest of us could have tried harder to get to join in rather than having fun on our own. I was particularly wary of some of my peers who were sat out as they were not interested in dancing. I honestly hoped we did not leave a bad impression on them! Regardless, it was one of my many memorable experiences in Cambodia and I was grateful to get a glimpse of their lifestyle and culture.  

And here is a short video of the Romkbach, take a look :)

Jump to 1:30 if you want to learn the Romvong.