"For me, Khmer is no less important than Vietnamese": Chau Bunh Khuon, writer of Vietnamese-Khmer dictionary software

Creative skills: Chau Bunh Khuon is using his IT skills to write programs which enable others to easily follow the Khmer language. — Photos courtesy of Chau Bunh Khuon
Translating: An electronic Khmer-Vietnamese Dictionary, created by Chau Bunh Khuon, will be used widely after trials.

IT buff invents Khmer language program

07-06-2009
VNS (Hanoi)

Chau Bunh Khuon is a computer engineer, despite never graduating from a university or taking a professional training course.

Nevertheless, he is known and loved for his inventions, creativity in IT field and for the help his work has given countless users.

He’s become known more recently for a piece of software, CTK-2005, which allow users to type, read and publish texts in the Khmer language.

Khmer is one of a group of languages in Viet Nam (Viet – Muong, Tay – Thai, Mong – Dao, Han and Mon – Khmer); and many ethnic groups in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta speak Khmer as their mother tongue, including the Khmer, Ta Oi, Ba Na and Xinh Mun peoples.

Before Khuon invented CTK-2005, people speaking Khmer had to use Cambodian software. Now, for the first time, Viet Nam ethnic peoples can use a tool made in Viet Nam on their computers.

IT aptitude

The first thing Khuon does in the morning is turn on his computer. Then he tidies up and when he returns, the computer is ready to use.

"I own a very old, slow computer, so I have my morning ritual as a way to save time," he says.

His life and his work are strongly linked to his use of computers. The PC is an integral device for him and he can’t spend a day away from it.

Unlike other youth, Khuon prefers studying on his computer to visiting a coffee shop. Going out is a waste of time and money, he says.

Khuon showed his technological aptitude when he was studying at the Boarding High School for ethnic students in Tri Ton District, in the southern province of An Giang.

In 11th grade, Khuon applied a basic knowledge of physics to create a system of internal telephones, which gained him the respect of his teachers and peers. The 15W system included old chips, electrical wires and loudspeakers bought at open-air markets and collected from children’s toys. Khuon turned the simple and rudimentary devices into a means of communications for six rooms in the boarding school area.

After high school, poverty kept Khuon from further studies. He was employed with the Department of Region III, in the southern city of Can Tho, as a security guard cum engineer in 2000. With his passion for technology, Khuon often mended machines and computers for poor students, friends, colleagues and neighbours, free of charge, with the aim to practise and improve his skills.

He saved little by little from his salary until he could afford an old computer to study on.

"Using such an old computer, I know the primary source of its techniques, and it’s good for studying," he says.

Gradually, three years later, he had a thorough grasp on the basic knowledge of computers, local area networks and of programming languages such as PASCAL, C and C++.

Before creating CTK-2005, Khuon spent two years studying and learning from English materials such as Keyman Developer and Font Creator. He also asked others about the Khmer language in order to build the software as perfect as possible.

Useful applications

Working at the Department of Region III, Khuon typed in Khmer everyday.

The complicated software used to type Khmer often made his work difficult and time consuming. He began thinking of a piece of software that could help users type in Khmer following only one united standard. Users would be able to type Khmer in different fonts using only one universal method.

CTK-2005 is now widely used at his office, the Khmer language version of the Can Tho newspaper and at the Voice of Viet Nam in the Mekong Delta.

Previously, the different organisations had used Cambodian software like ABC, Limons and Battambang, says Thach Thi, who in charge of IT and translation between Vietnamese and Khmer at the Can Tho Newspaper.

Khmer is used more regularly in Cambodia so therefore software supporting it was invented there earlier than in Viet Nam. The Cambodian software was never easy to use, he says. "Khmer has 33 consonants and 40 vowels, but there are only 26 letters on a keyboard.

"The Khmer language consists of 80 typefaces. It’s difficult to remember, so we often check the code table to make sure we aren’t making mistakes."

When Thi experimented with CTK-2005, he realised it was superior to the old software programmes. It allowed users to type quickly, because it was built with Khmer grammar in mind.

That meant that CTK-2005 could predict the word the user wanted to type after the first few letters.

Thi and other technicians at media and communications agencies use Khuon’s CTK-2005 software fluently. They feel confident and proud when using the Vietnamese application to service Vietnamese ethnic peoples, who speak and write in Khmer.

Khuon has also invented two other programmes: a self-study of Khmer and a Vietnamese–Khmer Dictionary that includes 3,000 words.

He hopes the applications will be showcased and installed this year.

"Sometimes my friends joke that I waste my time studying Khmer. They ask, what will my software will be used for," Khuon says.

"I just smile. For me, Khmer is no less important than Vietnamese. Many ethnic people living in mountainous and remote regions speak Khmer, not Vietnamese.

"They are still an integral part of the Vietnamese community. Doing something to serve them makes me happy."