Money Talks
In a Competitive Market, Job-seekers Turn to Language Classes
by Botumroath Lebun

Students at the French Culture Center in Phnom Penh await the start of class. Photo: Botumroath Lebun/The Cambodia Daily

English
The rule of thumb in today’s business world is: “No Eng-lish, no good jobs,” said Kieng Rotana, dean of Pannasastra University of Cambodia’s Insti-tute of Foreign Languages. “The private sector basic language requirement for employment is English,” he said.

English is a universal language and many meetings and international conferences are conducted in English, said Kieng Rotana. And while most accountant and management textbooks are written in English, very few are written in Khmer language, he added.

Louise FitzGerald, director of the Australian Center for Edu-cation Cambodia (ACE) agreed.
“English is key to business and education,” she said. “English is a good language to know for job prospects and career paths.”

Of course Cambodians can find work without knowing English, FitzGerald said, but jobs are often low-paying.
“Higher paying jobs with NGOs and the private sector require English language,” she said.

Another reason for the popularity of English-language training is the scholarship opportunities, said .

Some of the largest scholarships offered to Cambodians, such as the US-sponsored Ful-bright scholarship, the Japanese Education Ministry scholarship and the Japanese Grant Aid for Human Resource Development scholarship, are available only to English-speaking Cambodian nationals, Kieng Rotana said.

In the past two years, Fitz-Gerald said she has observed that the level of Cambodian English-speakers has increased. But there is a general need for improvement in reading and writing skills, she said.

“Many Cambodians...speak well, but their level of reading and writing are low,” she said.

As English training has taken off here, Kieng Rotana warned that many schools hire unqualified teachers who lack experience to keep up with demand. “Some English teachers may know grammar well, but the majority cannot speak English fluently,” he said.

FitzGerald added: “It is hard for Cambodians to teach [at a] high level because many may not have the level themselves.”

However, “competition of Eng-lish schools is good,” Kieng Rotana said, as competition creates a higher academic standard.

An employee for a Chinese import/export company, Sok-monin Pin, 25, said that being a hard worker is not enough to succeed. To meet the demands of her job, she must improve her spoken and written English, she said.

“I conduct my work in English with clients,” said Sokmonin Pin, who studies English in the evenings at Newton Thilay Institute. “Most of the documents that I prepared for clients are written in English.”

French
From his observations at the university, few students are studying French, said Im Lim of the Faculty of Fine Arts.

But studying the language in Phnom Penh could work toward students’ advantage, he said.

“If a student asks what is the best language to learn, I suggest French first and then English,” Im Lim said. “The French left behind their writings in the fields of medicine, law, arts and sciences.”

But Guy Issanjou, director of Phnom Penh’s French Culture Center (CFF), disagreed.

“[To] study English is better. They can work for the Americans and Australians,” Issanjou said. “There aren’t enough French companies investing in Cam-bodia.”

However, Issanjou said that learning French could be beneficial for those who want a more worldly education.
“Learning French is about opening the mind and spirit,” he said. “It’s about understanding the two civilizations—Cambodia and French.”

CFF has had a presence in Cambodia for 14 years.

The center opened its doors in 1990 as a French language school under the name Alliance Francaise.
CCF employs 150 French-speaking Khmer instructors that currently offer three-month sessions at $25 per term to 6,000 Cambodian students.

For expatriates, a three-month French class taught by a native French speaker costs $130.

For some students, studying French is a matter of tradition, said Issanjou.

“Their grandparents still have the nostalgia from the old days when France was in Cambodia for 100 years,” he said.

In addition, the majority of government officials between the ages of 40 and 65 know French very well and may influence younger officials to learn the language. The language is also very helpful to students pursuing medical studies, Issanjou said.

One student at the French Cultural Center, Sitha Roath, 19, said she is seeking extra help in her French for her studies to become a doctor.

“There are medical documents that are written in French,” said Sitha Roath, a second year student at the University of Health and Science.

“Many medical terminologies are written in French because the medicines are imported from France,” she said.

Chinese
Wat Koh high school student Nenchan Meta, 17, said he be-lieves that studying Chinese will help land him a job after he graduates. The tall and lanky student has attended Chim Sung Chinese school in Phnom Penh for the past six years.

“There are many Chinese companies in Cambodia, and learning Chinese could be useful to me if I want to find a job,” he said.

With a growing influence of Chinese businesses and diplomatic ties between Cambodia and China, Chinese language—particularly the Cantonese and Mandarin dialects—is fast becoming one of the most popular second languages in the country.

Nechan Meta said he hopes to eventually find a job as a translator at a Chinese garment factory.

Japanese
Hin Kimheng, 24, said no other language besides Japanese can offer him employment in banking and finance.
It’s hard work learning Japanese, said Hin Kimheng, who takes Japanese classes at the Foreign Languages department at the Royal University of Law and Economics.

Unlike the single English alphabet, there are three sets of Japanese characters he must learn: Hirakana, Katakana and Kanji.

Striving to be a top student is no longer the final goal for many students, who are looking beyond graduation to a prosperous job, Hin Kimheng said. The pay at a Japanese firm can be double that at a Chinese company, he said.

“The job market is competitive even for those who can write and speak English fluently,” he said.
Having diligently practiced Japanese for more than four years, Hin Kimheng hopes to obtain a scholarship to study in Japan.

Student Sok Phally, 22, said Japanese is easier to learn than French and English.

“All my life, I’ve studied Chinese and I was able to pick up Japanese quickly,” said Sok Phally. “But the pronunciation is quite difficult.”

Being surrounded by Khmer friends who teach Japanese provided Sok Phally practice opportunities.

Besides being impressed by Japanese who show respect and speak “sweetly” to the local people, Sok Phally said he is also aware that the Japanese government has been one of the largest contributors of aid and development work in Cambodia.

But interviews with several students made clear that learning foreign languages is no longer a luxury, but a necessity in an increasingly competitive job market.

The increase of affordable English schools in the city means that most people his age can speak English, Hin Kimheng said, so he needed a skill to set him apart from the crowd.

“I need to know another language besides English,” he said.