Embassy of the United States

Speech

CCJ English-training Awards Ceremony

I am delighted to be here today to recognize nineteen journalists for completing a special English-language course sponsored by the U.S. Embassy and conducted by our English Language Fellow Christopher Meyer with the cooperation of the Club of Cambodian Journalists.  Journalists have a notoriously difficult schedule - balancing press conferences and coverage of breaking events with tight deadlines - and the dedication of these nineteen journalists in making time to attend daily classes for eight weeks attests to the important role that English plays in the professional development of today's journalists.

To use an English expression, "here's some food for thought."  Many experts agree that English will become a near-universal basic skill within the next decade or so.  All over the world -- from China to Chile, from Japan to Thailand -- governments are investing significant amounts of money to encourage their citizens to learn English.  Currently there are more than 500 million native English-speaking people in the world, and within a decade, two billion more people will be able to speak English as a second language, making English the most widely spoken language in the world, more than Chinese or any other language.

Obviously, if you want to succeed in the world, English will be an important tool.  It is the language of commerce, of technology and of the Internet.  For Cambodia, a country that has suffered isolation, English language is a tool that will help open doors for this nation and its people.  It will help Cambodia join the main stream of economic activity, grow more prosperous and succeed.

One example that I like to use when talking about the importance of English education is the Philippines.  In the past, most Filipinos spoke English well and the country had a strong English education program.  The economy flourished and international trade grew.  Over the past few decades, however, the Philippines has not placed a high priority on English training, and now the Philippine economy is in the doldrums.  You can contrast this to Singapore, which devotes large resources to English education and where nearly every citizen speaks excellent English.  Consequently, Singapore has been able to develop a very robust economy with one of the highest living standards in the world.

As my Deputy Chief of Mission stressed at the recent CamTESOL conference for English teachers, Americans are not excessively proud about the role of English in the world today.  Like Australia, the United States is Anglophone almost by accident.  When our country was founded over 200 years ago, many people in what is now the United States spoke German or French or other languages.  It is a bit of a coincidence that English became our national language.  And I think many British citizens might tell you that we Americans still have not learned how to speak English very well.

The point is that there is nothing unpatriotic about Cambodians learning English.  Cambodians do not learn English because they want to be like Americans or British or Australians.  They learn English as a tool that will permit them to speak with people from other countries, to learn, to participate in academic exchanges, and to grow.  English will make Cambodia stronger so that it can defend its own cultural heritage and so that Cambodians can teach others about Cambodian culture and history and art.  For journalists, a strong command of English will enable them to keep Cambodia's citizens abreast of important international events and to tell Cambodia's story to the world.

We at the U.S. Embassy are proud of the support we are giving to English education in Cambodia.  The fact sheet we provided to you outlines our diverse programs, which include not only training for journalists, but scholarships for high school students to study English; training, materials, and support for English teachers; and experts assisting with curriculum design at the university level.

To conclude, I would like to extend my thanks to Mr. PEN Samitthy, the President of CCJ, and to Mr. NGUON Serath, CCJ's Office Manager, for all of their cooperation in making this English training possible.  I would also like to thank Christopher Meyers for his enthusiasm in teaching this course and for all his efforts to identify special teaching materials relevant for journalists.  And finally I would like to offer my congratulations to the journalists who successfully completed this course.  I sincerely hope that the training will help you be more productive in your work.

Thank you.