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. ...
