Many schoolchildren in Phnom Penh are finding it hard to speak Khmer correctly after going to English-language schools, some parents said.

Their proficiency in a foreign language should give them a leg up in future careers, but for some it also hints at a troubling trend: Surrounded by YouTube videos and social media sites in English, a generation could be drifting away from Cambodia’s national language.

Chan Sarem, who has three daughters, said her youngest 12-year-old doesn’t like using Khmer, and when she speaks the language her pronunciation is unclear and sounds like a foreigner.

“She calls me ‘mom’ instead of the Khmer style” of using the word Mae, Sarem said. “Sometimes, she speaks English with her sisters when they don’t want me to understand. It makes me feel left out.”

Her older daughters, who are 22 and 24, don’t have the same problem.

But the youngest, who started at an English school when she was 6, is growing up preferring to use English over Khmer, she said.

La Vannsotheavuth said his 5-year-old son started at an English kindergarten when he was 3, and, surrounded by friends who speak English and YouTube videos also in the foreign language, he was having some difficulty pronouncing Khmer.

Vannsotheavuth therefore needed to make an extra effort to teach Khmer at home, he said.

He would have preferred that his son attend a Khmer school, but he knew that learning English would help his son get a better job in the future, so reluctantly sent him to the English kindergarten, he said.

He saw the same situation happening to many children around him, he said. “I often see many parents speak English to their children, even though they are Cambodian. The children cannot use the Khmer language correctly.”

Vannsotheavuth said he found the situation concerning. “For me, I am a patriotic person so I think about the future of our culture and language, how it can affect the value of our history, the loss of a sense of belonging, the usage of the Khmer language — especially, the possible disappearance of this language.”

Another parent, Thun Navy, a sales manager with two young children, said his eldest, a 3-year-old girl, learns only English and Chinese at kindergarten, and always mixes Khmer and English when she speaks.

“My child uses English mixed with Khmer, but it’s not my intention to make my child speak English better than Khmer,” he said.

However, the best schools, especially for younger children, teach in foreign languages, so he sent her to a private school rather than a public Khmer school, he said.

“It’s because there are not many public schools that accept kids under 4 years old, and private schools have more programs for students,” he said.

Chry Pengchhy, part-owner of an English school in Pur Senchey district, acknowledged that it was a common trend for many children to become better at foreign languages than Khmer.

Some parents even prefer to speak foreign languages with their children at home, he said.

“Today’s use of the Khmer language has really changed, from my observations of each family. Most parents speak foreign languages to their children based on [the parents’ own] ability,” Pengchhy said.

He agreed that Khmer writing, speaking and listening skills were declining among the new generation, and the government and parents should step in to improve the situation.

“Firstly, the state must limit the age when students can start to study a foreign language and should prioritize the national language first. Secondly, parents need to use and teach their children Khmer more.”

Education Ministry spokesman Ros Soveacha would say only that parents were free to choose where to send their children, and the ministry was working to improve education at all levels, from kindergarten through to the university level.

English lessons were added to the Khmer public school curriculum in 1996 starting from Grade 7, and were expanded to start at Grade 4 from 2017, according to the Phnom Penh Post.

Khmer Literature scholars said the trend among schoolchildren was concerning for the future of the Khmer language.

Chhin Seyha, a member of the language commission at the Royal Academy of Cambodia and a Khmer Literature trainer at Pannasastra University, said many Cambodians already do not use the Khmer language well, as they seem to value foreign languages more than Khmer.

“I see that using foreign languages rather than the Khmer language leads to a deficit in the Khmer language, leads to a lack of a lot of words in use, leads to the loss of identity, leads to younger generations having a crisis of writing,” Seyha said.

He suggested a variety of policies to promote Khmer, including prioritizing Khmer at schools, establishing a national independent authority on the language, and even penalizing people who write Khmer incorrectly.

Choub Sokleab, a 29-year-old fourth-year student majoring in Khmer Literature at Preah Sihanouk Raja Buddhist University, said that incorrect Khmer grammar and spelling was becoming more common, especially online.

“In our society nowadays, on Facebook and other media, children in Phnom Penh and the provinces use Khmer language in a limited way. Their usage of the Khmer language is wrong according to Khmer rules; they do not write well, and are wrong in both grammar and spelling,” Sokleab said.

He said it was even possible that the Khmer language would become a second language for some Khmer youths, who already write Khmer using the Latin alphabet when communicating with each other digitally.

“I think that if we continue to urge children to learn foreign languages much more than our Khmer language, it will become a second language,” he said. “New generations in the 21st century are likely to mostly use foreign languages.”

During his first year of university, Chhai Yorn started to vomit in the mornings and struggled to sleep. He had developed stomach ulcers from skipping meals and eating junk food all the time, he said.

Yorn said he had trouble remembering his lessons while he was sick, which deepened his stress and made his ailments even worse.

Like Yorn, many Cambodian university students are facing health issues because of the pressure they are under: The difficulty of balancing studies with work is leading to unhealthy lifestyles and eating habits, students and nurses said.

The problem is particularly common among students who have just begun living away from home, they said.

“This is my first time living alone, away from my family,” Yorn said.

He shares a room with three friends, and the transition has been challenging, the second-year Pannasastra University business student said.

He had no time to prepare proper meals, and usually ate instant noodles during class.

“I knew it was not good for my health, but I had no choice so I recklessly ignored it until it got worse,” he said.

To reduce the financial burden on his family in Oddar Meanchey province caused by his university studies, Yorn was earning some money through full-time, paid volunteering at the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which archives records from the Khmer Rouge. But it left him little time to take care of himself.

“Rushing to school, I didn’t have enough time to cook for myself; therefore, I usually found easy ways to have a meal like noodles, potatoes and fried eggs several times per week,” he said. “I did not realize that I had a stomach problem because I think all students are experiencing the same conditions like me during their studies.”

But his condition gradually got worse, he said.

“It was not easy,” he said. He felt like vomiting in the mornings, and his breath was smelling worse, he said.

Several other students — even those who are not working — said they faced a similar situation.

Cheng Ratanak Sombo, a sophomore majoring in teaching English as a second language, also at Pannasastra, said she developed stomach problems in grade 12 while studying hard to pass her diploma, and it got worse during her first year of university.

“I normally studied at home alone until I forgot to eat dinner. Instead of having rice, I had an energy drink to help me stay awake to study longer. In the past, I drank one or two cans every single day,” Ratanak Sombo said.

She continued this routine until one day she suddenly fainted in the middle of class. Her teacher had to get her medical help.

A doctor told her to stop eating junk food and eat more regularly. However, she found it hard to maintain an appetite, she said.

“The doctor did not allow me to eat any kind of spicy food, and [said] I should eat healthy food every day,” she said. “But my favorite snack is mango with spicy salt and energy drinks. I’m always dying to eat these things. It’s hard to blame anyone as I cannot maintain my self-control.”

A recent survey of more than 1,300 Cambodian university students found that rates of inactive lifestyles and unhealthy food consumption were “concerning.”

“Public policy and universities should promote healthy behaviors among the students,” said the study, conducted by researchers from the Khana Center for Population Health Research and the Royal University of Phnom Penh.

About 10 percent of respondents said they had eaten no fruits or vegetables in the past seven days.

More than 83 percent of respondents drank at least one glass of soft drink or sweet tea a day, and about 40 percent ate fast food at least once a week, according to the study.

The research, posted online last year, also looked at sleeping habits and found that more than 50 percent had moderate or severe problems sleeping, with a further 33 percent having mild troubles.

According to Man Kanda, a nurse who specializes in internal medicine, health issues due to poor diets are a noticeable and growing concern among university students.

Young people tend to pay little attention to what they consume, she said.

“When people don’t have proper and substantial meals, it can bring many disadvantages to their health,” Kanda said. Symptoms could include stomach problems, weak immune systems and mental problems, she said.

Kanda said that for students, eating regularly and getting enough vitamins were a must, no matter how busy they were.

She recommended getting to sleep before midnight, eating breakfast before 9 a.m., having lunch every day, and taking dinner at least four hours before going to sleep. Students should also drink milk and exercise regularly, she said.

Yorn, the Pannasastra student who suffered from stomach ulcers, said he was now making an effort to be healthier.

“Now I know that I need to take care of my health first; otherwise, I cannot concentrate on my studies or my work,” he said. “It stressed me out and affected my mood whenever I was not feeling well. Plus, my mom was very concerned about me. I felt bad for causing this trouble for myself and others.”