Family: The Toughest Language to Learn

Listen to this article

 

Guy works the night shift at a New York hotel and goes to class by day, downing cups of coffee as he tries to navigate oceans of squiggly letters and words with no spaces between them: he’s learning Khmer, the language of his family’s home, Cambodia. He will stumble awkwardly towards fluency. He will embarrass himself and his parents. And he will awaken to parts of his heritage, both beautiful and excruciating, which shine through only in his wildly luminous dreams.

 

KNYUM, written and performed by Vichet Chum, will be performed at the Merrimack Repertory Theatre through Feb. 4