“They Will Confuse You More than Required”

My French teacher referring to the textbook.
We could all do with a little confusion sometimes.

Working my way through conjugating verbs with a little help from Centre Culturel Francais’ massive selection of comics. Athonk “learned his English from Rock and Roll”, I’m learning my French via bande dessinée.

“a suivre” (Early May)

4:30 PM, Café Centre Culturel Francais: it’s time to see the results of the workshop !

I arrive, one of the students arrives, but the others take a little prodding. Piseth gives me some help once again. Some are not finished with their art and I call a few on the list: come! You might get a surprise!

Séra is back from the exhibition launch in Siem Reap, and seems to be in a good mood as he views the growing number of pages placed on the table for judging. The students don’t know many of the foreigners who are there: Guy Issanjou, the Director of CCF, Pierre Andryc, the Mediatheque’s director, Jean-Jacques Donard of VALEASE, a project to promote reading and writing in Southeast Asia, and Oliver Jeandel of Carnets d’Asie, the CCF bookshop.

Lim Santapheap has done quite an assemblage of simple and funny strips, in French and Khmer. While she is not a trained artist, she has editing skills and knows some important basics for scenario writing. I also like the style of Nhek Sophaleap and Chan Nawath, as well as Tek Tevin. Many of the students are quite skilled at design though employing it for comics is a little new for them.

After the last students have trickled in, each is invited to explain their comic.
After some discussion and finally a conclusion is reached: Nhek Sophaleap’s watercolour comic is good enough to earn him a trip to Angouleme comics festival in France, courtesy of the assembled organizations. (We have to explain to him what ‘Angouleme’ is. Time for him to begin studying French!) And they will also seek to publish the class results, which will be announced by CCF in the near future. There will also be a small exhibition of the artwork at Café CCF.

Small ‘diplomas’ have been printed by CCF which are given to each class member.
The class gathers around Séra as he critiques each page in detail. Some students have just finished their pages. I wish I had a group photo of the assembled creators but it will have to wait until the next class!

After the announcement some refreshments are brought out and we discuss the class. Many students would like to discuss doing more comics, and Santepheap and I remind them of the upcoming meeting of the Book Sector Federation. As dinner time approaches we take our leave.
The class may be over, but the story does not end here! – “a suivre” – to be continued!

We watch ‘Chun King Express’ and ink like crazy. Many students are hurrying to finish their strips. Struggling with brush and nib pen. More art soon!