Khmer Language Professor Honored for University Work

Chhany Sak-Humphry is an associate professor in the Department of Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures at UH Manoa. (Photo: Courtesy of Chhany Sak-Humphry)

Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington, DC Monday, 06 September 2010

“If we have made such an effort and they applaud us like this, then we have to continue to do more for others to have the ability to teach our Khmer language in other universities.”

A Cambodian professor in the state of Hawaii has been given a distinguished award for the creation of a Khmer-language program there.

Chhany Sak Humphry was awarded the Regent's Medal for Excellence in Teaching at the University of Hawaii for her work building the language program over nearly 25 years, said John Mayer, director of the Indo-Pacific Department of Languages and Literature at the university.

Humphry, who is 57, had created “the best Cambodian program in the US,” he said, through an online program, text book and CD.

Humphry has lived in Hawaii since the early 1970s, following a scholarship from the East-West Center. She received a PhD in linguistics and now teaches Khmer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Humphry told VOA Khmer the award meant she would “commit more to help our Khmer language move forward.”

“If we have made such an effort and they applaud us like this, then we have to continue to do more for others to have the ability to teach our Khmer language in other universities,” she said.

Her program consists of four levels—in vowels, consonants, writing, listening and speaking—and takes four years to complete. At least 1,000 students have learned the language from her course, either at the university or online, she said.

Her students are like Mariko, a 24-year-old Japanese woman in her first year who said she was interested in Khmer because she wanted to speak to her Cambodian friends

“I want to learn more Khmer, because I want to chat with them, and I also want to work in Cambodia,” she said.

Humphry said she wanted to expand Khmer programs into other universities and sometimes even teaches online free of charge.

“I like teaching, and I want people in general to learn my language, our Khmer language, and to understand the literature and linguistics and our Khmer culture,” she said.

In that way, she said, she helps Cambodia, albeit from a distance.

Congratulations to Prof. Chhany Sak-Humphry, the 2010 recipient of the Regent's Medal of Excellence in Teaching at the U. of Hawai'i, Manoa

Source: http://www.hawaii.edu/about/awards/teaching.php?award=sakhumphry

The Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Teaching is awarded by the Board of Regents as tribute to faculty members who exhibit an extraordinary level of subject mastery and scholarship, teaching effectiveness and creativity and personal values that benefit students. The board also awards the Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research.

Teaching Medal Award Winner

Chhany Sak-Humphry

Manoa Chhany Sak-Humphry is an associate professor in the Department of Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures at UH Manoa. Sak-Humphry believes that the benefit of learning any foreign language is immeasurable.

She began teaching Khmer at UH in 1983 and has single-handedly developed the Khmer language program into the excellent and internationally recognized program that it is today. She also developed and directed the Advanced Study of Khmer Abroad Program which serves students in the United States and abroad.

Sak-Humphry’s approach to teaching has been to integrate outstanding instruction with innovative research on Khmer language, linguistics and literature.

Cambodia focus next weekend at EWC [at the University of Hawai'i]

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Advertiser Staff
The Honolulu Advertiser (Honolulu, Hawai'i)

The University of Hawai'i and the East-West Center will present three days of discussion, lectures and exhibits about Cambodia on Friday, Saturday and Nov. 11 that are free and open to the public.

A Cambodia roundtable symposium will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Friday at the East-West Center's Burns Hall, Room 4005, and will focus on projects related to Cambodia, especially in conservation and cultural revival, by UH faculty, East-West Center fellows and others.

From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, a conference in the UH Korean Studies Center auditorium will focus on past, present and future initiatives in Southeast Asia and Cambodia by UH and Cambodian experts.

From 2 to 4 p.m. next Sunday, the East-West Center Gallery will feature an exhibit by National Geographic photographer Paul Chesley titled "Living Angkor," along with lectures on conservation efforts in Cambodia, with an emphasis on the living culture.