Chinese language study surging in Cambodia
…As China has risen to become the world’s second-largest economy and cemented close political and economic ties with the Kingdom, many people see advantages in speaking the language of their powerful northern benefactor. … From 1994 to 2011, data from the Council for the Development of Cambodia show that investment from China totaled US$8.91 billion, making it the Kingdom’s biggest foreign investor. … In terms of media, Chinese is also booming. There are four Chinese-language newspapers in the country; … But to become a real world language, according to Jeffrey Gil, a lecturer in the Department of Language studies at Australia’s Flinders University, the language will need to become appealing to even more people and be used in an international context in a variety of fields. …
