Growing popularity of China’s official language, Mandarin

A company employee pores over a Chinese-language newspaper.

Intro: More and more Cambodians are learning Mandarin, China’s official language, to get a head start in life.

According to the Khmer Chinese Association, around 40 thousand Cambodians have enrolled in Chinese language schools across the country.

Story: During the French colonial period, the language of Cambodia’s elite was French. After that, English was seen as the needed language.

Currently, millions of dollars worth of investment have poured in to Cambodia from China.

As a result, it seems, more and more parents are seen sending their children to Chinese schools.

The parents who send their children to schools such as Tuon Fa Chinese School in Phnom Penh say it's an investment in the future of their children.

"I think Mandarin is so important these days especially for business and in the future China will become the world's number one economy."

Tuon Fa Chinese School first opened its doors in 1992 with 1,700 students ranging from grade 1 to 12. Now, there are nearly 6,000 students.

Sok Leang is the deputy director of Tuon Fa Chinese School.

He says the lure of future jobs in Chinese firms is what is bringing students to the school.

"I noticed that in the last 20 years, there are a lot of investors from China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore etc. and most of all of them speak Mandarin. So if students can speak Mandarin then it is easier for them to get jobs."

For those who can't go to Chinese school full time, there are still plenty of language tuition options.

This street in Phnom Penh used to be known for its English tuition classes. The shop houses were choc-a-block with schools offering language lessons.

English was popular, especially, for people aspiring to work for NGOs, businesses on in the ever-expanding tourist industry.

But now, most of these academies have switched their main language on offer to Mandarin.

"I am studying finance at university and I think that many banks need staff who can speak Mandarin and also the China economy is going to become number one in the world so I think that by studying Mandarin I have better chance to get a job," says 20-year-old university student Van Sorida.

Official data shows Chinese investment in Cambodia was 1.9 billion U.S. dollars last year

That is more than double the combined amount of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries and 10 times more than the United States.

Around 70 percent of the 330 factories manufacturing garments are Chinese-owned.

This TV story was aired on CNC's This Is Cambodia earlier this week. 

Congratulations to you, Mr. Obama – Cambodians deserve more from you

Recently, Cambodia has sent its congratulations to United States President Barack Obama for his election victory. President Obama was re-elected for a second four year term. 

Local paper front-pages featured Obama's re-election Nov 8, 2012.

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen joined the ranks of world leaders who sent congratulatory messages to the re-elected head of state.

As a Cambodian citizen, I would also like to congratulate Mr. Obama for his reelection. However, my message would be a bit different. Here it goes:

When I was at young age, my grandfather frequently told me about his big house along the Mekong River in Kampong Cham province being destroyed by the US’s B-52 bombs – though no-one was injured or killed.

My grandparents’ family was just one of the many thousands of Cambodian victims of the US bombing campaign against Cambodia before it fell into the hands of the Khmer Rouge.

To my knowledge, Cambodia at that time was neither a declared enemy of the US nor it did harm to the American people like the Taliban or Al Qaida in Afghanistan. Yet, lives and properties of innocent Cambodians were lost to the bombing. This tragedy should not necessarily have happened to the Cambodian people.

The US has never officially admitted the mistake it did to the Cambodian people during that time. And, I think, it is now time for the US government to do something humanitarian to reduce or eliminate the negative memory of the bombing.

One of the examples can be the construction of infrastructure such as roads, bridges, village ponds, schools etc. by the US government with the signboard reading “Aid from the American People” in any locations it had bombed. These infrastructures will help Cambodians of the next generations remember the generosity of the Americans, thus gradually forgetting the suffering their older generations suffered from the American bombing.

The “Great Giant China” – a book by a veteran Cambodian journalist

You may have read many books written by Cambodian authors on general topics.

But this one entitled –The ‘Great Giant China’ – an English equivalent for its Khmer title - is perhaps a book with a difference.

Its format is different, so is its topic.

The book – written in Khmer – is in fact a sort of compilation of analytical articles by a veteran Cambodian journalist – focusing on China as well as its geopolitics.

Jean-François Tain – who is now Khmer Service director of Radio France International – is the author.

“I think this book provides some knowledge to Cambodians who do not have access to or cannot afford to read books in foreign languages in order to understand about China and its geopolitical complexity as well as what international relations mean. And this is my contribution to the Cambodian society,” Mr. Jean-François Tain said.

The book has 128 pages and contains a total of 38 articles – all about China.

It interestingly ends with an article entitled, “China is an indisputable world superpower.”

So, if you want to find out more about China, you may want to grab a copy of the book from bookshops or newsstands around town. It costs you around 4 dollars. SOURCE: CNC TV

My interest in journalism: how did it begin?

Today’s post is about how I became interested in journalism and how it started.

It was the reading of the English-languaged newspaper with a view to learning the language that inspired me to enter the journalism world – of course, unknowingly.

In September 1996, I first set my foot in Phnom Penh after I left high school in my home district of Koh Sautin.

In the same month, I began my English classes one hour a day in Preah Yukunthor high school – starting with a book called Headway Elementary. About three months later, I started reading the English-languaged newspaper, The Cambodia Daily, although I could read and understand just a few sentences in the entire paper.

I entered the classroom every day with The Cambodia Daily in my hand, but I had no idea what the day’s coverage was about. I consulted with the dictionary for almost every word in the headlines.

I always admired the authors of the articles and thought one day I would be able to write just like them. After three years I read The Cambodia Daily with more confidence and better understanding of the content. I often memorized some articles of my personal interest so that I could converse with my foreign teacher. By that time, I not only read but also critiqued every article in the paper. I followed articles by certain reporters to find out that some passages or quotes they put in the stories were biased.

In January 2001, I got my first full-time job as a translator at a company, which was commissioned by the country’s leading mobile phone company to create the first bilingual Internet portal – everyday.com.kh.

There, I was fortunate to work under the supervision of a veteran journalist - Mr. Ouk Kimseng, who is now an adviser to the ministry of information and deputy director general of Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP). At that time, he was helping the company to create Khmer and English news content for the portal. First, he assigned me to translate news articles from English to Khmer and vice versa. Sometimes, he asked me to rewrite stories based on local newspaper articles. I must say he was my first journalism instructor. He taught me how to write a news story. I learned it with enthusiasm. Later on, another journalist joined the team – Mr. Khiev Phirum who now works for the Phnom Penh Post Khmer. That’s when I started to get involved in journalism.

In 2002, I applied for a scholarship for a three-month advanced journalism course, which was advertised in The Cambodia Daily. The course was intended for working journalists from Cambodia, Loas, Myanmar (I like to call it Burma, anyway) and Vietnam.

I did not really meet the selection criteria – applicants must be either working journalist or someone with basic journalism training – but I was selected for the scholarship – as I found out later – because of my knowledge of Internet. The instructor thought I would be helpful to other participants when it comes to Internet and email use.

The course was organized at the Royal University of Phnom Penh and the instructors were Jeff Hodson and Peter Starr as well as Bonnie Huang (I am not sure if I spell her name correctly here). The course was very useful for me and it did help me improve my journalism knowledge.

In mid-2003, during the national election time, I quit my job at the company maintaining the everyday.com.kh web portal and took a position as information consultant at The Asia Foundation. I was part of a team responsible for the creation of an election Website – bohchnout.info. (For some reason, the site is no longer on the world wide web now).

In November 2005, I left The Asia Foundation to join Radio Free Asia’s Phnom Penh-based bureau as a web editor. This time I was involved with online journalism. I was sent to the United States twice for trainings on how to use content management system (CMS), online journalism and multimedia. Again, these short-term trainings further improved my journalism skills.

Late last year, I decided to join a PR company, Quantum Publicity (www.quantumpublicity.asia). The company was run by Mr. Glen Felgate, former General Manager of CTN, the country’s number one TV channel. He is also former BBC and Reuters journalist. Besides doing PR work for our clients, I am currently responsible for the production of daily 30-minute English news bulletin for the new 24-hour news channel CNC under the supervision of my boss Glen Felgate.

He has trained me in camerawork, story writing, editing, and news presentation. Officially, I am now a TV news producer and sometimes a presenter. 

And that’s it. Hope you enjoy reading my post. Have a nice weekend!

Becoming a TV producer--out of the blue

This is a sample clip of The This Is Cambodia program - aired on CNC at 8:30pm from Mondays to Fridays.

I was trained in journalism back in 2002. And ten years later, I have the chance to use this skill - unexpectedly.