The Significance Of The English Language In Contemporary Cambodia

Everyday we are flooded with news from every corner of the holistic world and most of the news is in English. All kind of material or products are mostly printed in English. Even now, the educational institutes have also built up the English department to encompass and intertwine both the foreign and second language learning and acquisition to be used in many ways in Cambodia.

Firstly, English is definitely the most useful and international language, in the competitive market. Most meetings and international conferences are conducted in English; NGOs and private companies work and trade in English. Most jobs with NGOs or in the private sector require English. It is the main language for job prospects and career choices. Without knowing English, Cambodia have drawn the line in the jobs that they are able to apply for. Besides, even the edition at the faculty of Medicine or any other things such as documentation for doing research, daily communication skills, or other germane materials to do with the tourism industries, and any other fields are in English, especially commuter science, which is used to keep in touch with each other by the internet.

Second, many tourists are coming to Cambodia not merely for their vacations, but also for their investments and their language use is often in English. To rehabilitate and restore the faltering economic crises of the business management institutions, English cannot be turned tail. Furthermore, the international interaction and cooperation between Cambodia and other sponsor countries, always use English for negotiation or settlement. In addition, some of the scholarships have offered to Cambodia such as the Japanese Education Ministry scholarship, the Japanese Grant Aid for Human Resource Development scholarship and the US sponsored Fulbright scholarship are available only to English-speaking Cambodia nationals or students.

To sum up, we always note that English is used widespreadly not only in the cities, but also other countries and the most popular language in Cambodia therefore the English language carries weight in our country.

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Reference :

- Norton University Newsletter, September 2010 / January 2011, Page: 86-87.