Record a family oral history

An oral history (ប្រវត្តិផ្ទាល់មាត់) is a recorded conversation in which a person tells their own life in their own words. Many Khmer families have parents and grandparents whose memories of village life, the Khmer Rouge period, the refugee camps and starting over have never been written down. A phone, a quiet room and an hour are enough to begin. This guide sets out what to ask, how to ask it with care and how to keep the recording safe.

The work comes in three stages, and each has a printable checklist: before the interview, on the day and after the interview. Most of it happens before you press record and after you stop. The checklists, the question sheet and the permission note are in the printable kit (PDF); the question sheet and the permission note are also on KhmerConnection:Family oral history question sheet and permission note.

Before the interview

Talk first, a week or more before

  • Visit or call, without recording. Tell your relative why you want to record their stories and who will hear them. It can be the family only, or a library or archive. It can also be the public online.[1][2][3]
  • Ask which language they would like to speak. If your Khmer is not strong, ask a relative who speaks it well to come with you.[2][4]
  • Give them the question sheet. Ask which topics they would rather leave out, and leave them out.[5][6][7]
  • Tell them they can skip any question, take a break or stop at any time. Let them know that talking about the past can bring strong feelings, a racing heart or a headache, during the talk or in the days after, and that this is normal.[6][8][9]

Plan the visit

  • Let them choose the day, the time of day when they feel best and the place.[6][4]
  • Plan for less than an hour. A life does not fit in one sitting; come back for more.[10][1]
  • Ask them to bring out photos, letters or objects they treasure. They help memories come back.[1][11]
  • Decide who else will be in the room, and ask your relative if that is all right.

Get yourself ready

  • Choose 5 to 10 questions for the visit. Leave the hard years for your relative to raise.[10]
  • Learn the names you expect to hear, such as family members, villages and provinces, and how they are written in Khmer.[11]
  • Find someone your relative can talk to afterwards, and where to find a doctor, counselor or trusted monk.[6][4][9]
  • Think about how you feel. These stories can weigh on the listener too; have someone to talk to yourself.[8][9]

Try the equipment, the day before

  • Record two minutes with the phone's own recorder and play it back. Check there is space for an hour or more.
  • Charge the phone and pack the charger. Print the question sheet, two copies of the permission note and the topics list.[9]

On the day: setting up

  • Choose a quiet room. Turn off the television, fans and anything that hums. Put your own phone on silent.[12][1][2]
  • Use the recorder that comes with the phone: Voice Memos on an iPhone, Recorder or Voice Recorder on an Android phone. No extra app is needed.[13][14]
  • Put the recording phone in airplane mode so calls do not interrupt, and place it close to the speaker. A small plug-in microphone helps if you have one.[3][15][9]
  • Some phones name a recording after the place it was made. Rename the file so it does not show your relative's home address.[13]
  • Record a short test and play it back before you begin.
  • Start the recording by saying who is speaking, who is asking, the date and the city. Do not say the home address.[1][11][2]
  • Record the whole conversation without stopping and starting.[11][1]

Asking questions

Follow the order of a life. Start with easy ground, keep the hardest years for the middle and end on what lasts.[5][11][3][6]

  1. Roots: Names in Khmer script, birthplace, parents and grandparents
  2. Growing up: Home, food, school, work, music, festivals at the Wat
  3. The hard years: Only if they choose: the Khmer Rouge period, separation, how they got through
  4. Starting over: Camps, arrival, first jobs, marriage, raising children
  5. What lasts: A song, a recipe, a saying, advice for the grandchildren[16][9]
  • Ask open questions that begin with how, what or why, one at a time. Follow up with "Can you tell me more about that?"[1][9]
  • Let silences sit. Your relative may be remembering.[1][8][9]
  • Hold up a photo or an object and ask who or what it is, and name the people in photos on the recording.[1][11][5]
  • Ask a few questions well rather than many quickly.[16]

Caring for the speaker

  • Any question can be skipped. Say so at the start, and mean it.[6][7][8]
  • Offer breaks. Stop when they are tired and finish another day.[1][6][7]
  • Do not push for more than they want to say, and ask before raising the death of someone they loved.[6]
  • Do not correct a date or a detail during the interview. Memories can be checked later, gently.[8]
  • Ask about strength and joy as well as loss: what made them laugh, and, after the hard years, what helped them get through.[6][7][9]
  • If they become overwhelmed, pause. Offer water and a few slow breaths, and ask whether they would like a break or to stop. Help them back to the present: ask where they are and what they can see and hear around them.[9]
  • Afterwards, stay a while and talk about something light. Check in again the next day, and call or visit about two weeks later to ask how they are.[6][9]
  • If old memories stay painful, a doctor, a counselor or a trusted monk can help. Hearing these stories can weigh on the listener too, so talk with someone yourself. If you are not in a good place that day, put the interview off.[4][8][9]

Names, dates and language

  • Interview in the language your relative speaks best. If you need help, bring a relative who speaks it well.[2][4]
  • Ask them to say and spell their full name, any childhood or nicknames and how each is written in Khmer. Write the Khmer spelling in your notes.[11]
  • Ask the province, district, commune and village where they were born.[11]
  • Many birth papers were lost in the 1970s, and some elders know their birth year by its animal sign rather than a date. Write down the year as they give it.[11][4]

Permission

  • Never record without your relative knowing. At the start, ask on the recording: "Is it all right if I record this?"[1][11]
  • At the end, fill in the permission note together. It says who may hear the recording and lets them keep parts private, or use another name or no name, for anything shared outside the family.[2][1][6][9]
  • Before anything is shared outside the family, play or read it back to them and ask again.[9][7]
  • Your relative can change their mind before the recording is shared outside the family. Make only the promises you can keep.[8][6][9][12]
  • Make two copies of the note: one for them, one with the recording.[12][3]
  • If you record a child, a parent or guardian signs for them.[1]

After the interview

The same day

  • Copy the file off the phone without changing it. Name it with the speaker's name, the date and a few words on the topic, and keep the signed permission note with it.[1][12][9][17]
  • Keep at least two copies in two different places, such as a computer and a cloud account or a drive kept at another relative's home.[18][2][17]
  • Write a few notes while the visit is fresh: names, places, anything to ask about next time.[1][12]

Within a week

  • Listen back and fill in the topics and times list. Mark the parts worth typing out or translating (see Typing it out).[1][12][17]
  • Give your relative a copy, with a thank-you.[1][11]

About two weeks later

  • Call or visit to ask how they are, whether they want to add anything and whether they have changed their mind about anything on the permission note.[9][4]

Later

  • Before anything is shared outside the family, play or read it back to them and ask again.[9][7]
  • Once a year, open each copy to check it still plays.[18]
  • Before sending a recording to a library or archive, ask them first what they accept and in what format. Archives that hold Khmer oral histories are listed under "Find a collection" on Oral histories.[12]

Typing it out

  • Start with a short list of what was talked about, with rough times. It makes a long recording easy to use, and you may only need to type out the parts you want to quote. Typing a whole interview by hand can take ten hours or more for each hour recorded.[1][17][9]
  • In English, the phone can make a first draft for you. On an iPhone 12 or later, Voice Memos shows a transcript. On a Pixel phone, Recorder does the same. A free program that runs on your own computer can do it too.[19][14][20][21]
  • A computer transcript is only a draft. Listen through and correct it before you share it. Computers miss names, places, laughter and pauses, and they sometimes make up words.[22][23]
  • In Khmer, no automatic tool is reliable yet. Recorder on a Pixel phone and some online services accept Khmer, but expect a rough draft that a Khmer reader corrects line by line. Often it is easier for a Khmer reader to type the parts you want, then add an English translation next to the Khmer.[24][25][14][26][27][28]
  • Free online transcription services may keep the audio. Do not upload a recording with private or painful memories without asking your relative first.[22][23][29]

An example from a study

In a 2023 study of music and memory, Justin Kdep interviewed ten survivors of the Khmer Rouge, aged 50 to 80, through the United Cambodian Development Association in the northwestern United States. Each person received a consent form and the questions before the interview day. The interviews ran 30 to 40 minutes and followed each life from childhood to the present, and each ended by asking for the one song that mattered most. Many answered with songs by Sinn Sisamouth.[5]

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Folklife and Oral History Interviewing Guide (2012)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Oral History Association, Principles and Best Practices (2025)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Densho, Guide to Conducting Oral History Interviews (2025)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, Cambodian American Oral History of the 1.5 Generation, final summary (2023)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Kdep, J. (2023). "The resilience of Cambodia's music through darkness." The Young Researcher 7(1), 152-165, pp. 157, 164-165
  6. ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 6.11 Voice of Witness, trauma-informed storytelling practices
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 National Public Housing Museum, trauma-informed care for narrators and oral historians
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 USC Shoah Foundation, interviewer guidelines (2021)
  9. ↑ 9.00 9.01 9.02 9.03 9.04 9.05 9.06 9.07 9.08 9.09 9.10 9.11 9.12 9.13 9.14 9.15 9.16 9.17 9.18 Kdei Karuna Organization, Oral History Collection manual (2024)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 StoryCorps, suggested questions for an interview
  11. ↑ 11.00 11.01 11.02 11.03 11.04 11.05 11.06 11.07 11.08 11.09 11.10 Brigham Young University, Cambodian Oral History Project, interview procedures
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 12.6 Library of Congress, American Folklife Center, Folklife and Fieldwork (2016)
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Apple, Voice Memos recording on iPhone
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Google, Pixel Recorder transcriptions
  15. ↑ Oral History Society, equipment advice
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 StoryCorps, Great Questions
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 Baylor University Institute for Oral History, Introduction to Oral History (2016)
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Library of Congress, personal digital archiving, audio
  19. ↑ Apple, Voice Memos transcription on iPhone
  20. ↑ noScribe, free transcription on your own computer
  21. ↑ Buzz, free transcription on your own computer
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Oral History Society, oral history and automatic transcription (2025)
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 University of Pittsburgh GAINS, oral history and automatic transcription, part 2 (2025)
  24. ↑ Radford et al., Whisper speech recognition paper (2022), appendices D.2.4 and E
  25. ↑ Whisper base fine-tuned for Khmer, community model
  26. ↑ Google Cloud, Speech-to-Text languages
  27. ↑ Microsoft Azure, speech language support
  28. ↑ Amazon Transcribe, supported languages
  29. ↑ Microsoft, Word Transcribe
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This page was last edited on 10 November 2026, at 06:54.