Language Choice in a Nation Under Transition: English Language Spread in Cambodia (Language Policy)

LANGUAGE CHOICE IN A NATION UNDER TRANSITION Language Policy VOLUME 5 Series Editors: Bernard Spolsky, Bar-Ilan Univ...

Author: Thomas Clayton

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LANGUAGE CHOICE IN A NATION UNDER TRANSITION

Language Policy VOLUME 5

Series Editors: Bernard Spolsky, Bar-Ilan University, Israel Elana Shohamy, Tel Aviv University, Israel Editorial Board. Claire Kramsch, University of California at Berkeley, USA Georges Liidi, University of Basel, Switzerland Normand Labrie, University of Toronto, Canada Anne Pakir, National University of Singapore, Singapore John Trim, Former Fellow, Selwyn College, Cambridge, UK Guadalupe Valdes, Stanford University, USA

The last half century has witnessed an explosive shift in language diversity not unlike the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel, but involving now a rapid spread of global languages and an associated threat to small languages. The diffusion of global languages, the stampede towards English, the counter-pressures in the form of ethnic efforts to reverse or slow the process, the continued determination of nation-states to assert national identity through language, and, in an opposite direction, the greater tolerance shown to multilingualism and the increasing concern for language rights, all these are working to make the study of the nature and possibilities of language policy and planning a field of swift growth. The series will publish empirical studies of general language policy or of language education policy, or monographs dealing with the theory and general nature of the field. W e welcome detailed accounts of language policy-making - who is involved, what is done, how it develops, why it is attempted. We will publish research dealing with the development of policy under different conditions and the effect of implementation. We will be interested in accounts of policy development by governments and governmental agencies, by large international companies, foundations, and organizations, as well as the efforts of groups attempting to resist or modify governmental policies. W e will also consider empirical studies that are relevant to policy of a general nature, e.g. the local effects of the developing European policy of starting language teaching earlier, the numbers of hours of instruction needed to achieve competence, selection and training of language teachers, the language effects of the Internet. Other possible topics include the legal basis for language policy, the role of social identity in policy development, the influence of political ideology on language policy, the role of economic factors, policy as a reflection of social change. The series is intended for scholars in the field of language policy and others interested in the topic, including sociolinguists, educational and applied linguists, language planners, language educators, sociologists, political scientists, and comparative educationalists.

LANGUAGE CHOICE IN A NATION UNDER TRANSITION English Language Spread in Cambodia

Thomas Clayton University of Kentucky Lexington, KY, USA

Q - Springer

Thomas Clayton, PhD Department of English and Linguistics University of Kentucky 123 1 Patterson Office Tower Lexington, KY 40506

LANGUAGE CHOICE IN A NATION UNDER TRANSITION English Language Spread in Cambodia

Library of Congress Control Number: 2005938060

Printed on acid-free paper.

O 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, Inc., 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of going to press, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Preface Acknowledgements Chapter 1 : Introduction 1. Language Policy Protests at the Technical University 2. Language Choice, the Context for Language Choice, and English Language Spread 3. Cambodia Chapter 2: The Economic Context for Language Choice 1. Economic History 2. Economic Transition, Economic Integration, and Language 3. Trajectories and Correlations in Economy and Language Chapter 3: The Political Context for Language Choice 1 . Political History 2. Political Change and Language 3. Trends and Directions in Politics and Language Chapter 4: The Assistance Context for Language Choice: Employment 1. Assistance History 2. International Assistance, Employment, and Language 3. Trajectories and Correlations in Assistance, Employment, and Language

vii ix

Chapter 5: The Assistance Context for Language Choice: Projects 1. Capacity Building for Technical Assistance 2. Sample of Projects 3. English as Projects 4. English in Projects 5. Trends, Trajectories, and Their Limits in English and Assistance Projects

141

Chapter 6: The Assistance Context for Language Choice: Education 1. Educational History 2. Education in Cambodia 3. French and English in Cambodian Schools and Universities 4. Three Groups in International Assistance

149 149 154 190 204

Chapter 7: Language Choice in a Nation Under Transition 1. The Context for Language Choice 2. Language Choice in Cambodia 3. Trajectories and Correlations in Language Choice

207 207 21 1 235

Chapter 8: English Language Spread 1. Promotion, Choice, Spread 2. The Debate About English Language Spread 3. Linguistic Imperialism 4. Language Choice 5. Language Choice in a Nation Under Transition

24 1 24 1 24 1 243 264 267

Interviews and Personal Communications References Index Author

117 117 118

120 126

Preface

The Language Policy series, now published by Springer Science, started out under the imprint of Kluwer Academic Publishers with a study of language education policy for a minority group in one small country (Israel), went on to a survey of language and language education policy in a large and complex region (the Pacific), and then added two detailed studies of two of the world's major nations (the Soviet Union and China). This fifth volume goes back to a single and relatively small country, but obtains the kind of generality we are seeking by dealing with the puzzling (for some) switch from French colonial hegemony to English global dominance in Cambodia, a nation that continues much of its private, public, and economic life using the Khmer language that most Cambodians speak. By looking in detail at both the historical situation and the economic revolution in recent years, Thomas Clayton is able to analyze Cambodia as a major case for exploring and evaluating the competing explanations for the spread of English globally. He shows how the linguistic imperialism theory needs to be modified to deal with the multitude of external and internal agencies and forces that were at work, while providing a sensitive consideration of the positive and negative effects of economic development and globalization. What is particularly pleasing for us is that, while the book centers on language policy, it is free from the linguicentrism that affects many scholars in the field-it is concerned with economic and social effects, showing how language matters intersect with poverty and development and economic gaps. It makes clear that language policy is and must be an interdisciplinary field. Bernard Spolsky and Elana Shohamy, Series Editors

Acknowledgments

I conducted the majority of research for this book while a Fulbright scholar in Cambodia in 2000. I would like to thank the Fulbright Program for awarding me the grant that enabled this research, as well as the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky for giving me a scholarly leave to undertake it. In Phnom Penh, my family and I benefited greatly from the attentions of the Public Affairs Office of the United States Embassy; I express my particular thanks to Ms. Marrie Schaefer, the public affairs officer at the embassy, and to her deputy, Mr. Chau Sa. In addition, I am grateful to the faculty and staff of the Faculty of Law and Economics for welcoming me as a visiting professor; I extend my sincerest thanks to the dean, Mr. Yuok Ngoy, now rector of the renamed Royal University of Law and Economics. I wrote much of this monograph while on sabbatical in the academic year 2003-2004, and I again thank the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky for support during this period. Finally, I would not have been able to complete this project had hundreds of people in Cambodia not taken the time to talk with me about language and education issues. I thank them all for their invaluable contributions to this volume, while reserving for myself the errors that remain in it.

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

1.

LANGUAGE POLICY PROTESTS AT THE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

During the 1980s, students attending what was then the KampucheaSoviet Friendship Higher Technical Institute in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, received instruction in Russian from Soviet professors. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the cessation of Soviet assistance to Cambodia, and the departure of Russian-speaking instructors from the country, France stepped in with a package of support to the technical university valued at 35 million francs, nearly $7 million (all figures in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted). With the initiation of French assistance delivered through the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie's Association des Universit6s Partiellement ou Entikrement de Langue Franpise (AUPELF), on 10 September 1993 French became the language of instruction at the renamed Institut de Technologie du Cambodge. Many students at the technical university did not agree with the language policy change. It was not that they wanted to continue studying in Russian, or even to shift the instructional medium to Khmer, the first language of 90 percent of the Cambodian population. Rather, they wanted to study in English. In an attempt to make their views known, students staged several protests at the Institut de Technologie du Cambodge. Early on, they expressed their opinion with relative restraint. During a one-day rally in October 1993, for example, one young man marched around the university

2

Chapter I

carrying a sign that applied the recently adopted Cambodian constitution to language policy decision making. "All Powers Belong to the People," he reminded the French government, in imperfect French ("Tous les Pouvoirs Emarnent du Peuple"; Victor, 1993, p. 1). By 1995, civility had vanished. Beginning on 28 April 1995 and continuing for three weeks, one thousand students boycotted classes and burned tires in the university courtyard. Although they threatened to burn the French flag, they ultimately satisfied their pyromaniacal tendencies by setting fire to effigies of French politicians and, in one case, a figure labeled simply "Frenchw-an anthropomorphic representation of the French language itself. When it became obvious that the manifestation was not going to fade away, Cambodian Minister of Education, Youth, and Sport To1 Lah intervened. At first, it seemed that there was no room for compromise on the part of the francophone assistance group. "I asked AUPELF 'Can you teach in English, yes or no,"' the minister later reported. "They said no. They are supposed to teach in French. They say if we force them to do otherwise, they have to withdraw their aid" (cited in Barber, 1995a, p. 2). In the early 1990s, France alone provided support to Cambodia's universities, and the minister realized that no other donor was likely to fill the vacancy opened by AUPELF's departure. Thus, while commenting "I wish we could teach our children English right from primary school," he reluctantly sided with the donor at the technical university (cited in Barber, 1995b, p. 14). "Teaching in French is justified because it is France that is supporting the institute," he explained to students. "If we lose the aid of France, the nation as a whole will suffer" (cited in Chin & Gillette, 1995, pp. 1, 4; all French translations are mine). If student desire could not force the francophone assistance partners away from the use of French as the language of instruction at the technical university, it did affect language policy in another way. In what one Frenchman described as a "compromise" designed to keep students enrolled in the university and in French-language studies, AUPELF agreed to begin offering English-as-a-foreign-language classes (interview with Hubert DCfossez, 2000; see the Interviews and Personal Communications section for biographies of informants). With the promise to open the English Section, which would be coordinated by volunteers from New Zealand's Auckland Institute of Technology but staffed by Cambodian English teachers paid by the French government, students agreed to abandon their protest and return to classes.

I . Introduction

2.

LANGUAGE CHOICE, THE CONTEXT FOR LANGUAGE CHOICE, AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE SPREAD

With their protests at the Institut de Technologie, Cambodian students both expressed and acted upon a particular language choice: They had chosen English as their preferred foreign language, and they were making this choice known to university patrons and the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport. Considerable anecdotal evidence suggests that these students are not alone in Cambodia in embracing English. "The wind is blowing toward English, not French," one Cambodian educational administrator told me in 2000 when I asked about contemporary trends in language choice in the country (interview with Van Buntheth, 2000). Cambodians are "letting French drop in favor of English," explained a British consultant working in a French-language educational assistance project (interview with Richard Webber, 2000). In Cambodia, "The general tendency is a shift away from French, toward English," concluded a French-speaking Japanese program officer at a United Nations agency (interview with Teruo Jinnai, 2000). Indeed, my own observations support these general statements. I first lived in Cambodia in the early 1990s, at which time I directed an English language teaching program for the State University of New York at Buffalo. Among other things in the early 1990s, I acted as a liaison between our local host institution, the Cambodia Development Resource Institute, and our client Cambodian government ministries. When I went into a government office for the first time and needed to introduce myself or ask directions, I would automatically speak French because most people in the civil service spoke French-usually much better than I did. I went back to Cambodia in 2000 as a Fulbright scholar attached to the Faculty of Law and Economics in Phnom Penh. In the course of my research in 2000, I returned to many of the same offices I had visited in 1991. This time, I found myself using English for introductions and directions because most ministry personnel in most offices could now speak this language. In the intervening nine years, they had chosen to learn and use English. One of my goals in this book is to describe language choice in contemporary Cambodia deliberately and comprehensively. Thus, in CHAPTERSEVEN I draw on a variety of data to flesh out-to add both quantitative and general tendencies suggested by anecdotal qualitative dimensions t-the

4

Chapter 1

evidence and personal observation. I collected data during periods of residence or visits to Cambodia in 1991-1992, 1994, 2000, and 2001, at which times I conducted nearly 350 interviews and administered several surveys concerned with language choice issues; I explain relevant research methods in the individual chapters that follow. As we shall see, my own and others' research confirm the ascendancy of English and the decline of French in Cambodia. Additionally, increasing numbers of Cambodians are choosing to learn Chinese; as a very recent commentator notes, "English [is] still preferred" as a foreign language choice for Cambodians, "but Chinese [is] hot on its tail" (Watson, 2004, p. 7). Finally, while Cambodians cannot be said to be choosing their native language per se, various language policy decisions have sought to maintain and extend the use of Khmer in the country. Were I simply to describe the language choices made by Cambodians in recent years, this would be a very slim volume. I would (as indeed I do in Chapter Seven) survey the language policy decisions made by Cambodian administrators for schools and universities, provide statistics illustrating student choices, discuss developments in nonformal education and government ministries, and so on. Another of my goals in this book, however, is to explain language choice in Cambodia. Relative to this latter goal, my data organize themselves naturally around a single theme: the context in which Cambodians are making language decisions. More fully, the process of explanation begins with examination of the transitions Cambodia has undergone (or has been in the process of undergoing) in the last two decades, and it continues with answers to the question posed in the title of a 1994 essay about the country, "Transition to What?" (Curtis, 1994). I engage Cambodia's transitions and the resulting, multidimensional context that is today informing the rise of English, the decline of French, the emergence of Chinese, and the maintenance of Khmer in a series of chapters that composes the largest part of this book. In CHAPTERTWO, I first sketch the history of Cambodia's economic transition and integration. Beginning in the mid-1980s, the Cambodian government started to maneuver the country away from central economic planning-that is, a communist economic orientation-toward the free market. Following the formation of the Kingdom of Cambodia in 1993, integration into larger economic networks began in earnest with an explosion of foreign direct investment and the related establishment in Cambodia of myriad commercial enterprises from around the region, the hemisphere, and the world. After the overview of contemporary economic developments, Chapter Two continues with examination of the language demands introduced for Cambodians by economic change. More specifically, I explore the language requirements for Cambodian employees of the economic enter-

1. Introduction

5

prises that have recently commenced operations in the country, the purposes for which employers expect Cambodians to use preferred languages, and the language education programs that have been developed to train Cambodian employees for the needs of business. CHAPTERTHREE begins with an examination of Cambodia's political transition and integration since the 1980s. The Paris Peace Accords of 1991 set the country on a path away from the single-party communist form of government toward multiparty, liberal democracy. To assist in this transition, the United Nations sent more than 20,000 international personnel to the country; among other things, the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) planned and administered the first democratic election of the modern era, in 1993. Following the election and formation of the new government, Cambodia began to integrate politically in the region and the world, notably by joining the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1999. I continue Chapter Three by considering the language demands for Cambodians of political transition and integration, focusing on the requirements that the two organizations most closely associated with these processes have brought to Cambodia and the tasks for which Cambodians have used preferred languages in UNTAC and ASEAN. With economic and political transition and integration, aid organizations that had previously refused to work in Cambodia began arriving in the country with assistance programs. I introduce the contemporary aid enterprise in the first part of CHAPTER FOUR. Today, hundreds of agencies associated with or based in individual or groups of nations operate in Cambodia, among them bilateral organizations (the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, for example), multilateral agencies (including the United Nations Development Programme), international and regional financial institutions (the World Bank, for instance), and nongovernmental organizations (the Catholic Mission Society of America, among many others). Chapter Four continues with analysis of the employment practices of these agencies. More specifically, I consider the languages that aid organizations demand of and teach to Cambodian staff and government counterparts, as well as the ways these Cambodian employees use preferred languages to contribute to the international aid enterprise. Analysis of international assistance to Cambodia extends into CHAPTER FIVE,which examines the practice of "capacity building." Through a variety of projects, aid organizations including the Australian Agency for International Development, the Cambodia Development Resource Institute, the European Union, and the United Nations Development Programme have sought to increase the knowledge and skills-to build the capacity-of Cambodians in government service. A significant portion of the national civil service has participated in capacity-building ventures since the early

6

Chapter I

1990s; some initiatives prepare civil servants for subsequent work with aid organizations as project counterparts, while others train ministry officials to administer the country independently, including directing the processes of economic and political transition and integration. Chapter Five examines a sample of 12 such projects. In these case studies (and through less comprehensive analyses of several additional capacity-building projects), I focus attention on the language preferences of international aid agencies and, particularly, on the language education programs through which they train Cambodians for various destinations. Exploration of the international aid enterprise concludes with a discussion of education and educational assistance in CHAPTERSIX. Following an overview of the contemporary educational system in Cambodia, I survey the assistance ventures mounted by aid agencies in primary, lower-secondary, and upper-secondary schools; I discuss assistance to each of the country's 11 public universities in separate case studies. At each level of education and at each university, I describe the language teaching and teacher education programs introduced by aid agencies, and I consider the effect that these initiatives have had on educational language policies and, thus, on the language requirements for students. Agencies that are providing or have provided significant aid for language education in Cambodia include the Australian Agency for International Development, the British Department for International Development, Coopkration Fran~aise(the French bilateral aid agency), the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (formerly the Association des Universitks Partiellement ou Entikrement de Langue Franpise, or AUPELF), and the United States Agency for International Development. Chapters Two through Six establish the economic, political, and assistance context (or interrelated contexts) that will allow us to understand the language choices made by Cambodians. Description and explanation of language choice in Chapter Seven do not conclude this volume, however, but anticipate my final goal in this book, which is to apply the Cambodian case study theoretically. Among other things, this book illustrates one instance of what scholars refer to as "English language spread," the everincreasing use of English in ever-multiplying venues around the world. In CHAPTEREIGHT,I draw on the Cambodian experience to engage and critique the substantial theoretical literature on English language spread. Heading the list of conclusions relevant to the linguistic imperialism thesis, the Cambodian case study suggests that English language spread does not lead to colonial-like subordination; contradictions constrain definitive statements about relations in the post- or transnational world. At the same time, the Cambodian study cautions scholars associated with the language choice thesis against minimizing the context-and, more specifically,

I . Introduction

7

against minimizing the roles played by external actors in creating the context-in which language decisions are made.

3.

CAMBODIA

Before describing, explaining, and applying language choice in Cambodia, I begin with a brief introduction to the case study country. Cambodia is a small Southeast Asian nation with a land area of 181,000 square kilometers. Cambodia borders Vietnam on the southeast and east, Laos on the northeast, Thailand on the northwest and west, and the Gulf of Thailand on the southwest. The central three-quarters of Cambodia comprise the floodplains of the Upper and Lower Mekong Rivers, the Tonle Sap River, and the Bassac River. This "tilted saucer" contains most of the county's ricegrowing areas (World Bank, 1992, p. 3). The four great rivers join at the capital, Phnom Penh, where the confluence is known as "les Quatre Bras," or "the Four Arms." During the summer monsoon, the overflow from the Mekong causes the Tonle Sap River to reverse itself and flow back into the great inland lake, the Tonle Sap, filling it to many times its dry-season area. At the end of the monsoon season, in November, the river resumes its normal course, and the Tonle Sap shrinks, filled with rich alluvial silt and fish. The population of Cambodia was estimated at 13.5 million in 2003 (Asian Development Bank, 2 0 0 3 ~ )Approximately . 90 percent of Cambodians are ethnic Khmer and speak Khmer as their native language. Khmer belongs to the Mon-Khmer subfamily of the Austro-Asiatic language family; Vietnamese (in the Vietnamese subfamily) is the only other national language in this family. The Khmer alphabet began to develop in the seventh century and influenced the later development of the Thai writing system, though the two languages are not mutually comprehensible; Khmer itself was influenced by Pali and Sanskrit, and modern Khmer contains many loan words from these Indian languages (Diffloth, 1992; Thel, 1985; Weber, 1989). Minority populations in Cambodia include Cham, Chinese, and Vietnamese, all of which number in the hundreds of thousands (Kosonen, 2004). Somewhat more than 100,000 Cambodians belong to around 30 indigenous ethnic groups living for the most part in the northeast highlands. Members of the relatively isolated Brao, Jarai, Krung, Tampuan, and other communities often do not speak Khmer (Thomas, 2002, 2003). The modern state of Cambodia survives as a remnant of the great Angkor Empire that covered a large part of contemporary Southeast Asia between the ninth and the fifteenth centuries. During the height of Angkor's power, successive kings erected the Angkor Wat temple complex, located near

8

Chapter 1

present-day Siem Reap in the northwest province of the same name. By the fourteenth century, Angkor began to decline relative to Thailand and Vietnam, and it is popularly believed that the independent state would have disappeared had the French not arrived to stabilize relations in Indochina in the 1850s. Cambodia existed as a protectorate of France from 1863 to 1953, during which time the French language enjoyed considerable utility in administration and commerce; France constructed an educational pyramid that channeled the best students from Khmer-language schools into Frenchlanguage education and, ultimately, into the colonial civil service (for more detail, see Clayton, 1995). The French departed Cambodia in 1953, in part as a result of the skillful political campaign mounted by King Norodom Sihanouk and in part to extricate themselves from the escalating, regionwide communist insurgency. Cambodia enjoyed a period of relative peace and prosperity under Sihanouk through most of the 1950s and 1960s. During this time, schools and other government institutions underwent the process of "Khmerization," meaning that French was gradually phased out in favor of the national language; by the early 1970s, French continued to be used only in higher education. Peace and prosperity ended in Cambodia in the late 1960s with the escalation of the war in neighboring Vietnam and the rise of the Cambodian communist movement. Under Pol Pot, the communist Khmer Rouge gained power in Cambodia in 1975. In an attempt to remake the country as an agrarian utopia, the communists relocated urban dwellers to rural areas, where they were forced to work under brutal conditions in agricultural collectives. Hundreds of thousands of Cambodians died between 1975 and 1979, many from disease, exhaustion, and starvation. Educated Cambodians, including those who could speak French or other foreign languages, were purposefully killed by the Khmer Rouge in their attempt to destroy existing social institutions and structures (for a discussion, see Clayton, 1998). The Khmer Rouge's foreign policy centered around the repatriation of Kampuchea Krom, a segment of the Angkor Empire lost to Vietnam in the seventeenth century. After suffering several years of attacks from irredentist Cambodian communists, the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia and, by January 1979, had driven the Khmer Rouge into Thailand. The Vietnamese installed a government in Phnom Penh made up of Cambodian revolutionaries living in Vietnam; some had retreated to North Vietnam after the Geneva Conference ended the First Indochina War in 1954, and others had fled Pol Pot's purges in the 1970s. Like its Vietnamese patron, the newly established People's Republic of Kampuchea followed communist systems and practices, including central economic planning and a single-party political structure. The Vietnamese maintained a significant military presence in Cambodia throughout most of the 1980s, protecting their client government

I . Introduction

9

against the Khmer Rouge and two other Cambodian resistance forces operating from refugee camps just inside the Thai border. The Vietnamese did not impose their language in occupied Cambodia, though both Vietnamese and Russian language policies were implemented in some higher education institutions to facilitate the contributions of professors brought from these countries to replace Cambodian faculty killed by the Khmer Rouge (for more detail, see Clayton, 2000). Vietnam withdrew from Cambodia in 1989, and economic and political change began in earnest. I continue discussion of Cambodian history and, more specifically, of the transitions that have led to the contemporary context in which Cambodians are making language choices, in the following chapters. In each, I begin with history and conclude with language, which is to say that I first sketch the changes that have taken place in Cambodia since the end of the communist period and then consider how these changes are conditioning or informing contemporary language choice.

Chapter 2

THE ECONOMIC CONTEXT FOR LANGUAGE CHOICE

1,

ECONOMIC HISTORY

1.1

The Early 1990s

During the Khmer Rouge regime (1 975-1 979) and the Vietnamese occupation (1979-1989), Cambodia subscribed to communist economic systems and practices. The governments of Democratic Kampuchea and the People's Republic of Kampuchea planned the economy centrally, owned all land, and controlled all industry. During the former period in particular, the country engaged in very little foreign trade; in the latter, Cambodia entered the economic network centered around the Soviet Union, though trade in the 1980s amounted in reality to a system of commodity supports from more prosperous members of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. For at least the first few years after the Vietnamese drove the Khmer Rouge from the country, some Cambodians lived and worked communally, in solidarity groups known as krom samaki (for a good discussion of Cambodia's economy in the 1980s, see Vickery, 1986). Economic change began in Cambodia well before the Vietnamese withdrew from the country in 1989, before the United Nations Transitional Authority arrived in 1991, and before the formation of the Kingdom of Cambodia in 1993. In 1985, the People's Republic of Kampuchea recognized the private sector as a form of economic organization (along with the collective, the state, and the family), and joint ventures between the public and private sector commenced (O'Mahony, 1999). In 1987, the private sector was allowed to begin exporting products legally-though as David

12

Chapter 2

Chandler (1993) points out, illegal trade with Thailand had been taking place since the early 1980s. In 1989, the government of the renamed State of Cambodia directed the country toward a "mixed" planned-market economy with constitutional reforms that allowed the private ownership of land and initiated the privatization of state-owned enterprises (Kannan, 1997). When the Kingdom of Cambodia was formed on the basis of the United Nationssupervised election in 1993, the new government formally announced the economic direction that had been stabilizing for some time. Article Fifty-Six of the constitution states unequivocally that "Cambodia shall adopt [a] market economy system" (cited in Peou, 2000, p. 473). Movement toward the market economy accelerated after the formation of the new government. Pushing beyond the broad strokes of the constitution, the Kingdom of Cambodia stated a more specific economic agenda in 1994 with the National Programme to Rehabilitate and Develop Cambodia (Kingdom of Cambodia, 1994). In this "'wish list' of things to do, to achieve, or to accomplish," Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon included "integration of [the] Cambodian economy in the region and the world economy" (cited in Curtis, 1996, pp. 2-3). This wish list item translated into official objectives in the 1995 document Implementing the National Programme to Rehabilitate and Develop Cambodia (Kingdom of Cambodia, 1995). Here, the six interrelated objectives for the new government to accomplish included "closer integration of the Cambodian economy into the regional and world economies" and "further opening of the country to international trade and private foreign investment" (cited in Curtis, 1996, P 5). What Keat Chhon intended for Cambodia in the 1990s was the commencement of economic ties beyond the collapsing Soviet economic system, and in particular within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN. Such relations became technically possible when ASEAN and Western states dropped the 1980s-era trade embargo in response to Cambodia's acceptance of the United Nations-mandated poll and inauguration of its first democratically elected government in 1993. Equally important, Cambodian leaders moved proactively toward trade and economic integration by passing the Law on Investment in August 1994 ("Investment Law Draft," 1994). The investment law has been characterized as "liberal," providing "very generous . . . incentives to investors compared to other countries" (Curtis, 1996, p. 29; International Monetary Fund, 2003, p. 19). Among other things, the Law on Investment allows 70-year land leases, duty-free imports, and tax holidays of up to eight years for foreign economic enterprises that establish operations in Cambodia. With this law in hand, Cambodian government officials toured regional and Western capitals, courting investment. As Grant Curtis (1996) concludes, "Cambodia was

2. Economic Context for Language Choice

13

'open for business"' (p. 29). The investment law had exactly the effect that Cambodian leaders desired. In the banner years 1995 and 1996, Cambodia entertained trade delegations from Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore, joined the International Finance Corporation (the private sector arm of the World Bank), and approved $2.8 billion in fixed asset foreign direct investment (Kang, 2003). Among other ventures commenced in 1996, the Cambodia Brewery was established with a $46 million dollar investment by Singapore's Tiger Beer, and U.K.-based British-American Tobacco invested $25 million in the Cambodian Tobacco Company ("Cambodia Entering the World Economy," 1996-1997). The British-American Tobacco investment notwithstanding, nearly 80 percent of foreign direct investment in Cambodia came from ASEAN and other Asian countries, with Malaysia, Taiwan, China, Singapore, and Thailand investing significant amounts (Sok et al., 2000). In the two-year period between July 1995 and June 1997, for instance, Cambodia approved $1.6 billion in investment from Malaysia alone. In the same years, the combined approved investment from Europe and North America reached only $208 million (Kang, 2003). During roughly this same period, Cambodia's volume of international trade exploded. Between 1993 and 1996, the country's aggregate international trade (the sum of imports and exports) increased from $754 million to $1.7 billion (Pich, 2001). Illustrating somewhat the same trend suggested by the pattern of foreign direct investment, Cambodia traded primarily with ASEAN countries. According to economists at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute, in 1995 ASEAN members provided 74 percent of Cambodia's imports; in the same year, Cambodia sent 80 percent of its exports to ASEAN countries. At this point in the mid-1990s, very little trade took place beyond the region. Other Asian countries supplied 16 percent of Cambodia's imports and bought 10 percent of the country's exports in 1995; Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong were Cambodia's most significant Asian trading partners. France accounted for only 3.2 and 2.4 percent of imports and exports respectively, while the United States provided only 1.6 percent of the country's imports and bought only 1.2 percent of its exports. The United Kingdom and Australia accounted for very little of Cambodia's imports and exports (Kato, Chan, & Long, 1998). Judging from both the source of investments to Cambodia and the country's direction of trade, it would appear that by the mid-1990s Cambodia was well on its way toward economic integration in the region. In fact, when in 2000 I asked a Cambodian economist how to track the country's economic integration within ASEAN, he replied simply that "the only thing to track is political integration-economic integration has already occurred" (interview with Sok Hach, 2000). Still tiny compared with Indonesia, Japan, or the

14

Chapter 2

United States, whose gross domestic products (GDPs) reach $172.9 billion, $3.9 trillion, and $10.4 trillion, respectively, Cambodia's economy expanded impressively in the mid-1990s (World Bank, 2003b). In the three years leading up to 1997, the country's GDP grew at a rate of 6.5 percent per year, from $2.4 billion in 1994 to $3.1 billion in 1996 ("Economy Watch," 2 0 0 3 ~ ) This . was very close to the government's goal of between 7 and 8 percent annual growth (Sok, Chea, & Sik, 2001).

1.2

The Events of 1997

In 1997, two events occurred that impacted economic development in Cambodia. First, "massive and rapid outflows of . . . capital" from ASEAN countries, particularly Thailand, triggered the Asian economic crisis (Chan et al., 1999, p. 4). At almost the same time, fighting broke out in Cambodia between the forces of Hun Sen and Norodom Ranariddh, the joint prime ministers (I explain this political arrangement in Chapter Three); the events of 5-6 July 1997 ousted Ranariddh and solidified power for Hun Sen (see Ministry of Information, 1997; Peou, 2000; "Reflections," 1997). Between them, these two events significantly retarded investment in Cambodia. On one hand, those countries that had invested most heavily in Cambodia before the regional economic crisis were those most hurt by it; as a result, regional capital available for investment in Cambodia decreased. On the other hand, the civil unrest of July 1997 raised concerns among investors about the stability of the Cambodian government and dampened their enthusiasm for investment in the country (for discussions, see Sok et al., 2000; 2001). From its peak of $2.1 billion in 1995, approved foreign direct investment declined to $729 million in 1997 before rebounding somewhat to $854 million in 1998. Investment has continued to fall ever since, even as the Asian economic crisis has lessened and as political stability returned to Cambodia with the 1998 election that legitimated Hun Sen's position. In 1999, investment slid to $448 million; in 2002, foreign entrepreneurs invested only $237 million in the country (Kang, 2003). According to figures provided recently by an economist at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute, nearly all contemporary investment is from Asia. The total approved foreign direct investment in Cambodia between 1995 and 2002 amounts to $5.5 billion. Of this, Malaysian investors contributed $1.9 billion, or 35 percent. ASEAN countries together account for 67 percent of investment. All Asian countries (ASEAN plus East Asia) made 91 percent of Cambodia's foreign direct investment. The United States and the United Kingdom contributed 4 and 2 percent, respectively, while Canada, Australia, and France each accounted for around 1 percent of the investment total (Kang, 2003).


15

The contemporary paucity of foreign direct investment is a source of concern for the Cambodian government, which has estimated that $500 million per year will be required to provide jobs for new entrants in the labor force (Ministry of Planning, 2000). Despite the decline in investment, however, Cambodia's trade and growth figures have improved in recent years. Total international trade rose steadily throughout the last decade of the twentieth century, moving upward even in 1997. The sum of imports and exports climbed from $1.7 billion in 1996 to $2.2 billion in 1999 and $3.2 billion in 2002 (Kang, 2003; Pich, 2001). Whereas GDP fell from $3.1 billion in 1996 to $2.8 billion in 1998, it has since rebounded, to $3.1 billion in 2000 and $3.6 billion in 2002 ("Economy Watch," 2003b). Economic growth has followed a similar pattern. The growth rate of real GDP fell precipitously in the mid-1990s, from 6.5 percent average annually for the period 1994-1996 to an average of only 1.8 percent yearly growth in 1997 and 1998. More recently, however, this trajectory has been reversed, as Cambodia posted an average annual growth rate of 6.2 percent for the years 1999-2002 ("Economy Watch," 2003b).

1.3

The Garment Industry

Perhaps the most significant reason for Cambodia's "growth without investment" is the explosion of the garment industry. The garment industry in Cambodia was spawned in 1996 as the United States and the European Union granted the country Most Favored Nation status under the General System of Preferences agreement. This status led to normalized trade relationship agreements signed in 1996 (the European Union) and 1997 (the United States) that dramatically decreased the tariffs imposed on goods imported from Cambodia; tariffs on Cambodian products decreased from 17 to 4 percent in the United States, for instance (Arnold, 2001; Sok et al., 2001). As Wayne Arnold (2001) explains in an article originally published in the New York Times, Cambodia's new economic status had a marked effect on both the trajectory of Cambodia's economy and the focus of shrinking foreign direct investment. Notably, the trade agreements "created . . . Cambodia's apparel industry . . . almost overnight. . . . Flights to Phnom Penh soon filled with investors . . . eager to build factories" (p. 4). Garment factories require relatively little investment, and thus it was possible to build a major industry in Cambodia during a period in which foreign capital was less available to the country. Based on interviews with garment factory owners and managers conducted in 2001, the Cambodia Development Resource Institute estimates the fixed costs incurred by a garment factory employing around 500 workers (excluding the cost of land) to be about $700,000 (Sok et al., 2001). Aggregated across the industry, this

16

Chapter 2

means that a total of around $200 million has been invested in Cambodia's garment industry, a relatively small fraction of the $5.5 billion total foreign direct investment in the country between 1995 and 2002 (Kang, 2003; Sok et al., 2001). From 35 factories operating in 1996, the industry grew quickly to 220 in 2000; the number of factories declined to around 200 in 2004 (Grumiau, 2004; International Monetary Fund, 2003; Sok et al., 2001). Most factories are located in the metropolitan Phnom Penh area. Economist Sok Hach and his colleagues (2001) conclude that garment investment follows the pattern of foreign direct investment more generally, as "most . . . investors . . . are from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Singapore, [and] South Korea" (p. 51; also see Arnold, 2001). As Sok Siphana, the secretary of state for the Ministry of Commerce, explained in an interview in 2000, garment investors and their factories are not directly associated with large clothing retailers. "Most factories are owned by particular groups of entrepreneurs, not by big-name companies like Gap and Old Navy," he clarified. Rather, these and other retailers based in the United States and Europe-among them Nike, Levi-Strauss, and Sears, Roebuck (Arnold, 2001)-subcontract to producers operating in Cambodia. They "control quality and take care of distribution and marketing, but they do not own the factories" (interview with Sok Siphana, 2000). Typically, Cambodia's garment factories import fabric from investor countries, and then workers cut, sew, and package apparel for these retailers and the export market. Fabric accounts for 63 percent of costs in Cambodia, with labor (13 percent), bureaucracy (7 percent), and utilities (4 percent) contributing additional costs. The Cambodia Development Resource Institute estimates profits from Cambodia's garment industry at 13 percent, of which about one-quarter remains in the country (Sok et al., 2001). As of 2004, approximately 270,000 Cambodians worked in garment factories. Most are young women (between 85 and 90 percent); it has been estimated that one in five women between the ages of 18 and 25 labors in the garment industry in Cambodia (Grumiau, 2005). Most workers come to garment jobs in Phnom Penh from the provinces where they previously labored in agriculture, having attended only primary school. For their 48hour average week, workers are paid an average of $61 per month. Working conditions in factories are generally good-"we don't have sweatshops in Cambodia," said Sok Siphana of the Ministry of Commerce (interview, 2000). There have been some exceptions to Siphana's rule, however. For instance, 51 workers were found being held against their will in a Chineseowned garment factory in Phnom Penh in 2000, and there have been allegations of child labor in factories (Arnold, 2001; Calvert, 2000; Sainsbury & Chea, 2000). In an extraordinary and unprecedented move, in 1999 the United States agreed to increase imports of Cambodian garments if the


17

country complied with international labor standards (Arnold, 2001). In 2000, the United States did indeed increase imports, though not the full amount promised, a move that indicates room for improvement in garment factory labor practices and conditions (Sok et al., 2001). It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the garment industry in Cambodia. From almost nothing in the mid-1990s, garments have grown to the country's largest single export item, composing 50 percent of all exports in 1999 and 95 percent in 2002 ("Economy Watch," 2003b; Sok et al., 2001). Similarly, it is difficult to overestimate the importance of the U.S. market for Cambodian garments. Importing almost nothing from Cambodia in the mid-1990s, in 1998 the United States bought $298 million of Cambodian garments; this figure accounted for 79 percent of the country's garment exports in that year (Sok et al., 2001). In 2000 and 2002, Cambodia's garment factories shipped apparel worth $751 million and $961 million, respectively, to the United States. In these years, the United States bought 76 percent and 71 percent, respectively, of Cambodia's total garment exports (International Monetary Fund, 2003). Exports to Europe have also increased. In 2000 and 2002, European Union countries bought $221 million and $361 million, or 22 percent and 27 percent, of Cambodia's garments exports, with France, Germany, and the United Kingdom importing significant quantities (International Monetary Fund, 2003; Tech, 2001). Economists at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute characterize the garment industry as the "'engine' for rebuilding Cambodia's . . . economy," and indeed it appears to be the major factor explaining the country's growth during a period of decreasing foreign direct investment (Sok et al., 2001, p. 48). The garment industry also provides a case study of the country's deepening regional and global economic integration. Whereas in 1995 Cambodia drew 74 percent of imports from ASEAN countries, in 2002 the proportion of ASEAN imports had decreased to 66 percent. Meanwhile, other Asian countries (notably Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, and South Korea) contributed 30 percent of the country's imports in 2002, an increase from the 16 percent accounted for by other Asian countries in 1995. Certainly one factor in the relative increase in trade with Asia outside ASEAN is the import of cloth from investor nations for Cambodia's garment industry. Cambodia's imports beyond Asia remained negligible in 2002, with the United States and France providing only 1 percent of imports each; Australia and the United Kingdom supplied almost none of the country's imports in 2002 (for 1995 data, see Kato et al., 1998; for 2002 data, see Kang, 2003). Similarly, Cambodia's export relations broadened in the latter half of the 1990s. Western countries purchased 88 percent of Cambodia's exports in 2002-an astonishing increase over the scant 8 percent reported in 1995.

18

Chapter 2

The United States led the Western states, absorbing 65 percent of Cambodia's exported goods in 2002. Garments account for virtually all of Cambodia's exports to the United States. European Union countries purchased a total of 23 percent of Cambodia's products in 2002; the United Kingdom, Germany, and France bought 9 percent, 8 percent, and 3 percent, respectively. As with the United States, garments account for the lion's share of exports to European countries. Meanwhile, Cambodian exports to ASEAN states have declined both in volume and proportion, from $304 million or 80 percent of exports in 1995, to $95 million or 6 percent of exports in 2002. Exports to other Asian countries have increased, from 10 percent in 1995 to 35 percent in 2002 (for 1995 data, see Kato et al., 1998; for 2002 data, see Kang, 2003; for garment data, see International Monetary Fund, 2003). Today it appears that Sok Hach's conclusion about Cambodia's economic integration within ASEAN can be broadened. Indeed, if "economic integration has already occurred" in Southeast Asia, Cambodia's increased imports from Asia beyond ASEAN and increased exports to the United States and Europe indicate that economic integration has also occurred within the hemisphere (with Asia) and at the global level (with the West; interview with Sok Hach, 2000).

1.4

Urban-Rural Issues

Cambodia's official embrace of the market economy since the formation of the Kingdom of Cambodia in 1993 has had a dramatic effect on the country's foreign direct investment, international trade, and economic integration within ASEAN, Asia, and the world. Most investment and international trading activities-the establishment of garment factories, for instance-have occurred in and around the capital and largest city, Phnom Penh. But "Phnom Penh is not Cambodia," economic geographer Jacqueline Desbarats told me in an interview in 2000 (also see Desbarats, 1995). What Desbarats was arguing is that the changes occurring in Phnom Penh have not occurred in the countryside, and that Cambodians who reside in rural areas live different economic lives than do their urban counterparts. Several researchers have recently attempted to explore this thesis empirically. To what extent, they ask, has Cambodia's countryside followed the urban center toward the market economy, and to what extent has the country's rural periphery integrated into larger economic networks? Despite the number of women flocking to Phnom Penh to work in garment factories, 85 percent of Cambodians continue to live in rural areas. Of these, the vast majority (85 percent) work in agriculture (Chan, 2003; Kim, 2002). The single largest declared occupation among Cambodians is paddy or rice farming (Chan, 2003). Large-scale surveys conducted in Cambodia in


19

the 1990s seem to suggest that most rural Cambodians live today, as they have for hundreds of years, at a subsistence level, generally outside the cash economy and cut off from any economic system larger than the family or the village. Drawing from the Socio-Economic Survey of Cambodia undertaken in the mid-1990s and published at the end of the decade, for instance, Godfrey et al. (2001) conclude that 51 percent of rural Cambodians are engaged in "unpaid work on family farms," and that only 12 percent of those living in rural areas earn wage income (p. 27). These data reinforce Desbarats's segregationist view, conjuring up an image of traditional or precapitalist peasant life in rural Cambodia. But things appear to be changing in Cambodia's rural areas-or, as Chan Sophal, Kim Sedara, and Sarthi Acharya (2003) argue, changes that have been occurring for some time were simply not detected by the methods used in the large-scale surveys of the 1990s. More recent research based on qualitative methods indicates rather significant developments in rural Cambodia in relation to economic transition and integration. First, wage labor appears to be increasing; in fact, as Chan et al. (2003) conclude on the basis of interviews conducted in six villages throughout the country, "wage labour is extensive" in rural Cambodia (p. 3). Veena Krishnamurthy (1999) examines the rise of wage labor in The Impact of Armed Conjlict on Social Capital, which reports on her ethnographic study of two villages in Kampong Speu Province, about 50 kilometers from Phnom Penh. Whereas Cambodian agriculture has traditionally been organized around the concept of provas dei, or communal labor exchange, mutual help arrangements have declined in recent years in favor of wage laboring. Provas dei, Krishnamurthy explains, is "giving way to [labor exchange based on] cash transactions," a shift she attributes in no uncertain terms to "the emergence of the cash [or] market economy" in rural Cambodia (p. v; also see Kim, 2001). John McAndrew (2001) traces more clearly than Krishnamurthy (1999) the extension or "reach" of the market economy into Cambodia's countryside (p. 19). McAndrew's Indigenous Adaptation to a Rapidly Changing Economy explores economic developments in two remote villages in Ratanakiri Province, hundreds of kilometers from Phnom Penh. Until very recently, even the idea of the market was foreign to the ethnic minorities living in these villages, and "neither the making and selling of goods nor the buying and selling of goods enjoy[ed] wide appeal" (p. 30). With the inmigration of ethnic Khmers and their establishment or development of markets near the villages, however, patterns of life have begun to change. McAndrew gives particular attention to land transactions. In the ethnic communities studied, land has traditionally been owned communally by villagers who practice on it swidden, or "slash and burn," agriculture. Whereas residents of one village have turned away migrants eager to buy

20

Chapter 2

land for cash crop production, 35 of 67 households in the other village have sold land to them. McAndrew's study illustrates at the local level a trend discussed more generally by Chan et al. (2003), notably that "market exposure [and] the introduction of a cash oriented economy . . . has made land an exchange commodity" in rural Cambodia (p. 2; also see Chan & Acharya, 2002). The recent commodification of labor and land suggests the "inroads" that the market economy is making in rural Cambodia (McAndrew, 2001, p. 40). At the same time, the beginnings of development in agricultural production hint toward a time when Cambodian farmers will operate economically beyond the local level. With the harvest of 1995-1996, Cambodian farmers produced a rice surplus for the first time in several decades; Cambodia had been a rice-exporting nation in the 1950s and 1960s, with rice accounting for nearly one-half of the country's foreign exchange (Sok et al., 2001). According to Chan et al. (2003), agriculture is beginning to mechanize, particularly in rice-surplus provinces such as Battambang and Prey Veng. At least some farmers are also beginning to use chemical fertilizer and hybrid seeds. These innovations will further increase production and, assuming that the current constraints on the national rice marketing system can be relieved, may usher in a new era of rice exportation and thus facilitate the larger economic integration of the country's agricultural sector (Sik, 2001). Today, Kim (2002) concludes, "agrarian communities in Cambodia exhibit a broad spectrum of [economic] change" (p. 5). Indeed, these changes include the rise of wage laboring, the increase in land sales, and the modernization of agriculture. For Kim (2002), these developments locate rural Cambodia in the "realm of 'quasi-capitalism."' Though "farmers have not yet fully adapted to [the market economy]," there are clear signals that rural Cambodians have begun the economic transition announced by the government in 1993 and already realized in Phnom Penh. At the present time, however, "the agrarian situation and rural livelihoods are still far from integrated in the national [let alone the regional or global] economy" (p. 5). To rephrase Jacqueline Desbarats, then, Cambodia's urban center and rural periphery are still largely separate entities. As the market economy continues to spur both transition and integration in rural Cambodia, however, this distinction may become less and less pronounced.

1.5

Comparative Advantage

Several economists argue that agriculture represents Cambodia's "comparative advantage": It is that thing that Cambodia can do better than other countries and can use to gain advantage in regional and global trade. According to Godfrey et al. (2001), Cambodia has dramatically more


21

cultivable land per capita than any of its neighbors; there are approximately 6 working people per square kilometer of cultivable land in Cambodia, compared with 170 in Thailand or 51 1 in Vietnam. With the relatively large amount of land and the relatively small population, Cambodia should be able to produce agricultural goods for export, and these exports should balance imports from other countries with other comparative advantages (automobiles, oil, steel, and so on). Cambodians have become increasingly concerned about comparative advantage since the country became a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 1999 and joined that group's progression toward regional free trade (I discuss ASEAN accession in Chapter Three). The ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) was initiated in the early 1990s, to a certain extent as a competitive response to North American and European market integration. Fearing that "their shares of the US and European markets [would be] reduced" by the preferences granted to members within the North American Free Trade Agreement and the European Union, ASEAN members decided to provide "markets and investment opportunities at home [that is, within the region] instead of abroad" (Ball, 2002). The AFTA agreement signed by the original six members of ASEAN in 1992 and revised as other Southeast Asian nations have joined the association aims at reducing tariffs on trade among ASEAN countries. The six original ASEAN states have already reduced tariffs to less than 5 percent; all tariffs are to be removed by 2008. The newer ASEAN members have their own deadlines for tariff reduction. Cambodia is to reduce tariffs imposed on imports from other ASEAN states to less than 5 percent by 2010 and to eliminate them completely by 2015 (Ball, 2002; International Monetary Fund, 2003; Pich, 2001). Select sectors can be sheltered somewhat longer under the AFTA agreement, and Cambodia hopes to thus protect agriculture until as late as 2017 (Ball, 2002). Whether agriculture will overcome contemporary constraints and fulfill its promise of comparative advantage remains to be seen; at the moment, the country's weak infrastructure inflates the price of agricultural products, and the relatively poor quality of farm output lessens demand for them (for discussions, see Chan et al., 2003; Sik, 2001). Sok Hach of the Cambodia Development Resource Institute is not sanguine. "The future is dark for Cambodian agriculture," this economist noted. "Though we have comparative advantage in land, production and technology are poor [compared to] Thailand and Vietnam" (interview, 2000). The effects of regional agricultural competition are already being felt, even before the reduction of tariffs. In one market in Phnom Penh, for example, vendors report that customers prefer to buy Vietnamese fruits and vegetables "because [they] have nicer color and are bigger, cheaper and able to last longer than local

22

Chapter 2

ones" (cited in Kimsong & Maeda, 2000, p. 10). It is also possible that industrial labor will provide Cambodia's comparative advantage in the future. That said, many commentators doubt the longevity of the garment industry specifically. Due in part to the success of labor unions and the dictates of the United States, Cambodian garment workers earn more than those in several other nations (Sok et al., 2001). As of 2000, Cambodia enjoyed a cost advantage over these other countries owing to the preferential agreements it had signed with the United States and the European Union. In 2005, however, quota restrictions for garments (the converse of preferential agreements) were scheduled to be phased out among members of the World Trade Organization (WTO). China joined the WTO in 2001, and according to the International Monetary Fund (2003) this country "has considerable potential to expand its garment exports to the U S . after 2005" (p. 48). Meanwhile, Cambodia, whose own imminent entry into the WTO cannot improve its already privileged status, will almost certainly lose market share. As Sok Hach and his colleagues (2001) conclude, unless steps are taken to decrease costs (the International Monetary Fund [2003] suggests reductions of 15 to 20 percent), "Cambodia may lose its current comparative advantage of offering low-cost labour" to the garment industry (p. 55; for a recent, hopeful evaluation, see Becker, 2005). Sok Siphana of the Ministry of Commerce remains optimistic about the competitiveness of Cambodia's manufacturing labor force, even given the difficult future the garment industry faces. For the secretary of state, garment factories have played an important role in what he sees as the beginning of the country's transition from an agricultural to an industrial economy. "Most garment workers are country people, used to living on farms," he began. They decide on a daily basis what they will do. When they work at a garment factory, however, they must follow the regime of the factory. This begins to teach the workers about the expectations for industry and is, I hope, the first step on the way to Cambodian industrialization. (interview with Sok Siphana, 2000) At this point, it is not at all clear what the next manufacturing industry to avail itself of Cambodia's labor may be. Another Ministry of Commerce official suggested food canning (interview with Chheng Saroeun, 2001), and an aid worker wondered about electronics assembly (interview with Luise Ahrens, 2001). Balancing the uncertainties of agriculture and manufacturing, the tourist business has boomed in Cambodia in the last several years. Spurred by the government's 1997 "Open Skies" policy that granted liberal landing rights to scheduled foreign airlines and charters, virtually every economic indicator related to tourism has risen. The number of foreigners visiting Cambodia


23

increased from 213,000 in 1995 to 515,000 in 2000. The number of hotels in the country increased from 146 to 241 during the same period. Significant investment has been directed toward the building or renovation of luxury hotels, notably the Hotel Inter-Continental and Hotel Le Royal in Phnom Penh. According to researchers at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute, foreign entrepreneurs have invested $313 million in hotel development; this amount exceeds the $200 million estimated to have been invested in the entire garment industry. As of the year 2000, 60,000 Cambodians, or 1.1 percent of the country's labor force, were employed in the tourist industry, and tourism brought $271 million, or 8.7 percent of Cambodia's gross domestic product, into the country (Sok et al., 2001). Cambodia's success in tourism appears to derive from two kinds of comparative advantage. First, the Angkor Wat temple complex can be found in Cambodia, and only in Cambodia. According to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Tourism and World Vision in 2000, significant numbers of tourists come to Cambodia specifically to visit these ancient monuments. Cambodia holds a second comparative advantage-both less substantial and less inspiring-in sex tourism. Responses to the survey just mentioned indicate that 22 percent of Cambodia's tourists arrived for the purpose of sex. More specifically, Cambodian tour operators note an increase in child prostitution in the country, with 10 of 22 operators admitting to locating girls for sex with tourists (Nuon, Yit, & Gray, 2000). Researchers at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute note that the rise of sex tourism in Cambodia coincides with its decline in Thailand and the Philippines: When these other countries "make progress in reducing sex tourism, sex-seeking tourists simply travel instead to poorer, less developed countries. Cambodia has now become a target for sex tourists" (Sok et al., 2001, p. 73; also see Poole, 2001).

2.

ECONOMIC TRANSITION, ECONOMIC INTEGRATION, AND LANGUAGE

2.1

The Economic Context for Language Choice

Following small steps toward economic liberalization in the 1980s, Cambodia officially embraced the market economy in 1993 with Article Fifty-Six of the constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia. Since then, the country has undergone enormous economic change. 111 the countryside-even in the most remote villages in the most remote provinces-transition to the market economy has spurred shifts in thinking about work and land. In metropolitan

24

Chapter 2

Phnom Penh, transition has coupled with wider economic integration. Billions of dollars in foreign direct investment have flowed into the country's urban center and surrounding areas, large numbers of foreign enterprises have established operations, and whole industries have arisen. Influenced by these developments, the country's volume and patterns of trade have changed dramatically. Looking across the last 15 years, one can track Cambodia's ever-deepening economic relations within the region, the hemisphere, and the globe. Cambodians make language decisions in particular contexts. What, then, is the economic context for language choice in contemporary Cambodia? That is, what effects have economic transition and integration had on language choice in the country? More specifically, what language demands or requirements have the economic enterprises that have commenced operations in the country since the transition to the market economy brought to Cambodians? In the remainder of this chapter, I consider the economic context for language choice in Cambodia, giving particular attention to how businesses operating in the country are today conditioning Cambodian language decisions. My focus here is on the context, not the decisions; I discuss Cambodian language choices within this and other contexts in Chapter Seven.

2.2

Methods and Data

In describing the economic context for language choice in contemporary Cambodia, I draw on both primary and secondary data collected in a variety of ways. I gained some information about companies operating in and around Phnom Penh through a survey I administered in the spring of 2000 with colleagues at the Faculty of Law and Economics in Phnom Penh, where I was a Fulbright scholar. The faculty's administration was at that time considering changes in its foreign language curriculum to better meet the needs of business, and the survey was intended to provide data for this revision. Beyond asking about company language requirements for Cambodian university recruits (what languages new Cambodian hires were required to know), the survey asked about the specific language tasks Cambodians would be asked to undertake within the company. The survey (in which all questions were provided in English, French, and Khmer) was distributed through the faculty's economics internship program. Eighty student interns carried questionnnaires to various departments in 56 companies identified by the program director, a Cambodian professor who had formerly worked with the Phnom Penh Chamber of Commerce. Unfortunately, this exercise produced only a 12 percent return rate; though low, this rate is not inconsis-


25

tent with the 16 percent returned in Leila Webster and Don Boring's (2000) survey of private manufacturing firms. I supplemented the data collected in the Faculty of Law and Economics survey with information provided by the Buy Vanny, the director of the economics internship program, as well as with the findings of five other recent research projects concerned with the needs of business or private enterprise in Cambodia: Webster and Boring's (2000) survey of private manufacturing firms conducted for the World Bank's International Finance Corporation. These researchers ultimately received information from 63 Cambodianowned manufacturing companies. A survey conducted by Tim Walton (1999) of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Cambodia, of the 30 largest multinational firms operating in Cambodia. Among other things, PricewaterhouseCoopers screens and places graduates of Cambodian universities in private sector positions. Data collected on employer preferences by the Careers Advising Office of the Royal University of Phnom Penh. Part of this research conducted by Careers Advising Office Director Hang Chan Thon and English language teacher Mary O'Mahony was reported in Hang, Goldman, and Hun (n.d.) and O'Mahony (1999). A survey of the needs of private enterprise conducted by the Careers Placement Office of the National Institute of Management under the direction of Iv Thong, the dean of the institute, and Stephen Paterson, an expatriate professor there. Research undertaken by John Marshall, director of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) programs offered in the Australian Centre for Education in Phnom Penh. To assist in the development of RMIT diploma courses in Cambodia, Marshall and his colleagues asked representatives of 25 firms about the skills they desired of Cambodian graduates. Language was not always discussed per se in the published reports of these research projects, so I interviewed researchers individually about the language requirements or demands of private enterprise. Through these interviews and available published documents, I gained access to the findings of these research projects, not the original data upon which findings were based. In addition to primary and secondary survey mechanisms, I gathered information about the economic context for language choice through numerous individual interviews with managers and owners of companies operating in Cambodia, with Cambodians employed in the private sector,

26

Chapter 2

and with administrators in language schools that subcontract to businesses. Finally, I completed my database of language preferences by recording the job requirements announced in company advertisements posted in Englishand French-language newspapers (the Cambodia Daily, the Phnom Penh Post, and Cambodge Soir) and on university bulletin boards during my most recent visits to Cambodia (January-July 2000 and September 2001). Though the data I gathered through these multiple methods provide information about the language preferences of several hundred companies operating in the country, they certainly do not report the preferences of every economic enterprise; because there is no registry of firms operating in Cambodia, neither can I make any claims about the statistical weight of my sample. Nevertheless, these data affirm the more general conclusions offered to me in interviews by a great many Cambodian and expatriate observers and therefore suggest apparently reliable trends and directions in the economic context for language choice in the country.

2.3

Language Demands of the Market Economy for Cambodians

Market transition and integration have brought diverse demands for language skills to Cambodians. In many situations, Cambodians can respond quite well with knowledge of their native Khmer. Nearly all firms operating in Cambodia from bases in other countries, on the other hand, use English as the language of business communication and require knowledge of this language for managerial-level employees. An important segment of these foreign or international companies additionally requires knowledge of Chinese. Very little demand exists for French language skills for business or economic purposes in Cambodia today.

2.3.1

"Most Cambodians Work With Other Cambodians"

Before discussing the increasing importance of English and Chinese for business in Cambodian economic life, it is necessary to note that the reorganization of economic activity in Cambodia since the 1980s has not obliged most Cambodians to learn new languages. Indeed, knowledge of Khmer, the national language spoken natively by more than 90 percent of the country's population, is sufficient for wide participation in the market economy. In the countryside, Khmer can serve as the language of communication among villagers negotiating wage labor relations, even as it did for negotiations of provas dei, or communal labor exchange, in generations past. In Cambodia's urban areas, knowledge of Khmer is again sufficient for working in those companies owned by Cambodians and trading with Cambodian suppliers


and customers. Given the high profile of companies established with foreign direct investment and the high demand for English in them, it is sometimes possible to overlook the usefulness of the Khmer language in other commercial venues. "Of course you are finding jobs calling for English skills" in foreign companies, began Tim Walton of PricewaterhouseCoopers (interview, 2000). But, as Don Boring of the International Finance Corporation continued, "Most Cambodians work with other Cambodians" (interview, 2000). Boring's study with Webster for the International Finance Corporation illustrates the importance of the Khmer language for employment in Cambodian-owned companies. These researchers surveyed 63 small to mediumsized manufacturing firms operating in and around Phnom Penh. Despite the relatively small number of businesses surveyed, the researchers conclude that they "represent a significant share of total qualified target firms and . . . reflect the general state of the private sector" (Webster & Boring, 2000, pp. 3-4). All companies were owned by Cambodians, many of Chinese descent. The firms manufactured diverse products, ranging from bricks and tiles, to garments, to bottled water and other foodstuffs. Three-quarters of the firms surveyed sold products exclusively in Cambodian markets to Cambodian customers, with about one-half selling only in Phnom Penh and about onehalf selling nationally. Most owners reported that they acquired inputs in Cambodia, though about 20 percent bought imported raw materials either directly from foreign suppliers or through foreign trading companies. All firms employed a minimum of 20 employees, with 40 being the median number of workers employed per firm (Webster & Boring, 2000; also see Mekong Project Development Facility, 2003). In an interview, Boring explained that most employees in Cambodianowned firms needed to know only Khmer in their work. It was in response to my query about the value of English that he drew the distinction between foreign companies and those owned by Cambodians. "Cambodian companies won't recognize the importance of English," he replied, "because they work for the most part with other Cambodians" (interview with Don Boring, 2000). While it provides a common language for communication among owners, workers, and customers in Cambodia, Khmer nevertheless cannot facilitate all economic interactions for all Cambodian-owned firms. As one Cambodian business owner explained to me, other languages are typically required for dealings outside the country. As a wholesaler and retailer of construction materials, Duy Chandina imports goods from several ASEAN countries for sale in Cambodia. When negotiating with Vietnamese vendors, this entrepreneur uses Vietnamese, a language he learned as a student at the Economics Institute in the 1980s (interview with Duy Chandina, 2000). Similarly, at least some of the ethnic-Chinese business owners surveyed by

28

Chapter 2

Webster and Boring (2000) would be able to use their heritage language for communication with suppliers and purchasers outside the country. I return to the Chinese language below. The important observation to make at this point is that the Khmer language is used widely for market economic activity within Cambodia. When economic transition leads to integration within regional and wider economic networks, however, the language context and demands shift for Cambodians.

2.3.2

"The Market Demands English"

,When I first began inquiring about the language demands that economic transition and integration have introduced to Cambodia, virtually all Cambodian and expatriate observers responded with reference to the English language. "The market demands English," several people told me simply, in identical language (interviews with Chan Savary, Mike Ratcliffe, Yuok Ngoy, 2000). "English is the language of business," commented two individuals in exactly the same words (interviews with Luise Ahrens, Iv Thong, 2000). "Language choice is market driven, and the market favors English," replied an economist at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute (interview with Toshiyasu Kato, 2000). A review of language preference in the five largest multinational corporations operating in the country can begin an examination of the demand for English suggested anecdotally by these informants. According to economist Sok Hach of the Cambodia Development Resource Institute, these five largest corporations are British-American Tobacco, Caltex, Nestlk, Shell, and Total (interview with Sok Hach, 2001). BRITISH-AMERICANTOBACCO(BAT) established a joint venture with the Cambodian Tobacco Company in 1996, making an initial investment of $25 million ("Cambodia Entering the World Economy," 1996-1997). Headquartered in London, BAT has facilities throughout the world; in Cambodia, BAT produces cigarettes for the local market. According to Richard Demblom, the director of human resources for the company in Cambodia, "English is that language of worldwide communication" in BAT, meaning that English is the language used in the Cambodian office, among BAT offices in Asia and elsewhere in the world, and between the Cambodian office and the head office in London. The company employs 680 Cambodians, of which 61 are managers. Cambodian managers must know English in addition to Khmer. "English is the key," concluded Demblom (interview, 2000). CALTEXis an oil company based in the United States. After an initial investment of $20 million, Caltex commenced operations in Cambodia with the opening of a gas station in Phnom Penh in June 1996; U.S. Ambassador


29

Kenneth Quinn ceremonially serviced his car on this occasion (Fontaine, 1996). Like British-American Tobacco, Caltex is a multinational corporation, running operations in many countries. According to a representative of the company interviewed at the Australian Business Exposition in May 2000, Caltex employs 400 Cambodians, a sizeable number of them working at the 15 retail service stations in the country. For those Cambodians in management positions, "English is required" in addition to Khmer (interview with Caltex representative at the Australian Business Exposition, 2000; Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology survey). NESTLEbegan operations in Cambodia in 1999 as Nest16 Dairy (Cambodia) Ltd. and by 2000 was employing more than 100 people. Nest16 produces food products for local consumption. According to manager Boonthanee Trakulkajornsak, English and regional languages serve as media of communication within Nestl6's multinational network of operations. English provides the language of communication both within the Cambodian office and between the Cambodian office and company headquarters in Switzerland; Thai is used widely for communication among Nest16 operations in Southeast Asia. In addition to Khmer, Cambodians hired into managerial positions are required to know both English and Thai (Faculty of Law and Economics survey). Oil company SHELLran operations in Cambodia in the 1960s and 1970s and commenced business in the country again in 1992. Shell Company of Cambodia is the local subsidiary of Shell International, whose two parent companies are based in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom; Shell operates in more than 100 countries around the world. In Cambodia, the company runs a network of gas stations, as well as depots for receiving imports by sea (at Sihanoukville) and air (Phnom Penh). In 1996, the company employed 140 Cambodians working in administration, customer service, distribution, finance, marketing, operations, and retail. Those considered managers (approximately 20 percent) are required to know both Khmer and English, as "English is the official language of the Company" (Edwards, 1996, p. 33). French oil company TOTAL began operations in Cambodia in January 1994, signing an agreement with the Compagnie Cambodgienne des Carburants and committing to an initial $2 million investment even before the Law on Investment was passed (Abdelkafi, 1994). Like Caltex and Shell, Total imports petroleum and operates gas stations. Total is unique, however, in its use of French in signage: Total stations market essence, not gasoline. Despite this declaration of the value of the French language within the company, Cambodian management employees are required to know English, as two Cambodian university deans explained. In the late 1990s, the Faculty of Law and Economics and the National Institute of Management both sent

30

Chapter 2

groups of students to Total for internships. Total ultimately hired those from the National Institute of Management, where students are required to study English, not those from the Faculty of Law and Economics, where students learn French in mandatory classes (interviews with Iv Thong, Yuok Ngoy, 2000). As the language preferences of British-American Tobacco, Caltex, Nestle, Shell, and Total indicate, English functions equally well for multinational corporations headquartered in English-speaking countries (the United Kingdom and the United States) as it does for those headquartered in nonEnglish-speaking nations (Switzerland, the Netherlands, France). "Even French companies are turning more and more to the use of English as an international language," lamented Hubert Dkfossez, a French administrator at the Institut de Technologie du Cambodge (interview, 2000). Indeed, the path chosen by France's Credit Agricole Indosuez suggests the veracity of Dkfossez's statement. Credit Agricole Indosuez became the first foreign bank in Cambodia when it opened its doors in March 1993; the bank had operated in Cambodia from 1880 to 1963 as Banque Indosuez (Hayes, 1993). According to the French manager of the bank, "English is absolutely essential for local hires." "I love my country and my language," the manager concluded, "but English is simply the language of widest currency" in international business (interview, 2000). Companies based in the United Kingdom or the United States, on one hand, and those based in France, on the other, provide bookends to a large geographical middle ground of businesses that run in English in Cambodia. Cambodians also need to know English to secure positions in firms headquartered in Denmark, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, and other many countries. To provide just a few examples, English is the language of communication in Royal Air Cambodge, a Malaysian-Cambodian joint venture that reconstitutes the name of a colonial-era airline. Cambodians are required to know English to secure management positions in Maersk International Shipping, a Danish firm. English language skills are needed to work in management for Thailand's Siam Cement, Sweden's Mobitel, and Indonesia's Wearwel Garments. Cambodian companies that engage in regional or global business also demand English language skills of local hires. The Soci6te Khmere des Distilleries, which imports and manufactures rice alcohol, requires its managers to know English, as does the Phnom Penh Media Company, a firm specializing in billboard advertising (interviews with Duy Chandina, Vann Chanty, Stephen Paterson, 2000; newspaper advertisements; Faculty of Law and Economics survey). Nor does geography provide the only organizing structure against which to examine preference for English in business in Cambodia. Knowledge of


31

English stands as a requirement for work across sectors, from beverages (the Cambodia Beverage Company, with Coca-Cola, and the Cambodia Brewery, with Tiger Beer), to hotels and other components of the tourist industry (the Cambodiana Hotel, the Hotel Inter-Continental, Hotel Le Royal), to telecommunications (Alcatel, Shinawatra, Telstra). Cambodians need to know English to secure management positions in the garment industry (Hong Kong Garment, J.C. Penney, Thai Pore Garment), in investment and accounting firms (International Management Investment Consultants, Pricewaterhousecoopers, Tilleke and Gibbins), and in shipping (Global Logistics, Helicopters Cambodia, Transpo International). Cambodians are equally likely to be required to know English by large and well-known multinational corporations like Unilever, Samart, or Petronas, as by small, lesser-known, independently owned foreign firms, like Forte Insurance (a Singaporean insurance company), Asset Management (an Australian security firm), or Asia Pacific Resources (a Malaysian events-management company) (interviews with Marc Ladian, Stefanie Lubke-Dreyer, Peter Slade, 2000; newspaper advertisements; Carrad, 1999; National Institute of Management survey; Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology survey; Royal University of Phnom Penh survey). Given the demand for English by companies across geographical, sectoral, and dimensional spectra, it would appear difficult to capture the parameters of English preference in business in Cambodia any more accurately than the unqualified statements that began this section. Indeed, no matter the yardstick against which it is measured, the market does seem to demand English, and English does seem to be the language of business in the country. Nevertheless, those universalizing statements do overstate the case in several ways. First, as already discussed, Khmer is used extensively in Cambodian-owned enterprises that purchase materials and sell products within the country. Second, international and internationally oriented Cambodian firms typically require English only of their managerial-level employees; below, I discuss the role these bilingual managers play as intermediaries between monolingual expatriates and Cambodian workers. Finally, Chinese is gaining currency as a language of business in Cambodia. It is to this subject that I now turn.

2.3.3

"But Chinese Is Coming"

While virtually all my informants recognized the value of and demand for English in business in Cambodia after 1993, several pointed to the increasing importance of another language. "Chinese is fast becoming the language of business in Cambodia," argued Helen Cherry, the director of the Australian Centre for Education in Phnom Penh (interview, 2000). Today

32

Chapter 2

English appears to enjoy an easy dominance in business in the country, began Toshiyasu Kato of the Cambodia Development Resource Institute, "but Chinese is coming" (interview, 2000). Chinese is widely used within two spheres of business in Cambodia, each of which places language demands on Cambodian employees. First, Chinese facilitates regional communication within the garment industry, where most factories are owned and run by investors and managers from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, and Singapore. As a result, explained Stephen Paterson on the basis of the National Institute of Management survey, "Many garment factories want Cambodian graduates who can speak Chinese." "After Chinese, the second language in these companies is English," continued Iv Thong, dean of the institute, on the basis of the same survey. A review of hiring practices illustrates the point made by these informants. At Singaporean F.Y. Cambodian Fashions Ltd., personnel managers are required to be "good in English and Chinese in both speaking and writing." At an "established garment manufacturer in Phnom Penh," Cambodian quality control inspectors need to augment their "fluency in both spokenlwritten Khmer and English" with "knowledge of spoken Cantonese andlor Mandarin." Similar language skills are required for work at the many garment factories surveyed by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (interviews with Iv Thong, Stephen Paterson, 2000; newspaper advertisements [Cambodia Daily, 2 and 16 February, 20001; National Institute of Management survey; Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology survey). Chinese is also rebounding within Cambodia's entrepreneurial ethnicChinese community. Until very recently, repression of this community had inhibited the public use of Chinese in the country. In 1970, Chinese language schools were closed in an attempt to sever one conduit for communist ideas into the country. Approximately one-half of the ethnic Chinese community died as a result of Khmer Rouge policies that targeted both urban and nonKhmer Cambodians. In the 1980s, the government further suppressed the ethnic-Chinese community in retaliation for China's support of the Khmer Rouge (Gray, 2000; Kiernan, 1996; Peng, 1995). For decades, then, ethnicChinese Cambodians were forced "to hide their [Chinese] identity by not speaking Chinese" (Kyne, 1999, p. 11). As a result, many Cambodians of Chinese descent have shifted to Khmer and lost their Chinese language skills. Others have learned Khmer but at the same time managed to retain Chinese. One Cambodian whose grandfather had immigrated from China described his own experience for me. This man spoke only Chinese as a child at home, but stopped using the language when he entered school. Now, he concluded, "Our tongues are rusty from not speaking for so long" (interview with Kim Sovanna, 2000).


33

Cultural and linguistic restrictions were finally lifted in 1992 as the country moved toward economic transition and integration, and today Cambodia's ethnic-Chinese community "is in robust revival" (Gray, 2000, p. 12). As in many other Southeast Asian nations, the ethnic Chinese in Cambodia dominate the country's "merchant class," as Webster and Boring's (2000) survey of Cambodian-owned firms illustrates (p. 11). For those ethnicChinese business owners who maintained their heritage language through the turbulence of the 1970s and 1980s, and who engage in trade with other countries in the region (as distinguished from the majority that Webster and Boring [2000] found operating exclusively within Cambodia), Chinese serves an important function. For them, "communication and relations with China [and other Chinese-speaking nations] are no problem," explained Buy Vanny of the Faculty of Law and Economics, "because they can do so in Chinese" (interview, 2000). The president of China's Chamber of Commerce made the same point. "Most Cambodian businessmen are ethnic Chinese, so communication is easy" for Chinese business travelers to Cambodia, commented Xie Xiangrong (cited in Gray, 2000, p. 12). The resurgence of Chinese among ethnic-Chinese Cambodian business owners has affected demand for language skills among Cambodians in ways perhaps both expected and unexpected. First, various companies that provide support services in Cambodia are increasingly demanding Chinese language skills of employees who interface with Cambodia's ethnic-Chinese business community. DHL Worldwide Express provides one example. This company, which operates in Cambodia from a regional base in Singapore, has begun to require Chinese language skills of its employees. "Chinese is not to facilitate communication with the Singapore base," explained Stephen Paterson of the National Institute of Management, "but with local businesses, many of which are owned and managed by ethnic-Chinese Cambodians." For their part, however, ethnic-Chinese owners of internationally oriented businesses in Cambodia are demanding English skills of employees. At least some can speak both Khmer and Chinese, so "where they really need help is with English, because in communication with Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and other nations English is used," explained Buy Vanny of the Faculty of Law and Economics. Iv Thong of the National Institute of Management similarly emphasized the demand for English among this demographic. For ethnic-Chinese business owners, he argued, "the need for [employees hired out of] higher education is English" (interviews with Buy Vanny, Iv Thong, Stephen Paterson, 2000; National Institute of Management survey). Some commentators treat Chinese and English as mutually exclusive languages in commerce in Cambodia. Director of the Australian Centre for Education Helen Cherry, for instance, argued that "Chinese is important for

34

Chapter 2

doing business in Cambodia, where most businesses are owned by [ethnic] Chinese people," but "English is important for the outside world" (interview, 2000). As the demand for language skills among Cambodian employees of Chinese-owned and ethnic-Chinese-owned businesses indicates, however, we cannot so neatly disaggregate the use of and demand for Chinese and English in the country. While Chinese appears to be an important language in foreign regional enterprises operating in Cambodia, both Chinese and English are required for Cambodians hired into management positions in the garment industry. Whereas Chinese is also used widely within businesses owned by ethnic-Chinese Cambodians, language preferences for employees either interfacing with or working for this group similarly include both English and Chinese. In fact, it would seem more accurate to characterize the preference for and utility of Chinese in Cambodia as a domain within a larger field. Where English runs the full geographical, sectoral, and dimensional gamut of this field (of big and small international and internationally oriented firms; based in Europe, Asia, and Cambodia; trading in oil, garments, and other products), Chinese appears as an additional language along certain coordinates of the field-in garment factories owned by interests from Chinese-speaking countries, in particular. Stephen Paterson of the National Institute of Management summed up this linguistic geography similarly. "English is a constant" in business in Cambodia, he argued. "But some companies want Chinese skills in addition to English" (interview, 2000).

2.3.4

"French Is Losing Out in Cambodia"

During the colonial period, French served an important purpose in business in Cambodia, providing the language through which the protectorate was integrated into France's economic empire. Integration with the metropole weakened following independence, and it largely ceased with the installation of communist governments in the 1970s and 1980s and the commencement of policies that withdrew the country from commerce with the West. Though France has been very involved in helping rebuild Cambodia's human and physical infrastructure in recent years, the former metropole has engaged in very little economic interaction with its former colony. "France has only 4 percent of the Cambodian market," the director of CoopCration Fran~aise(French bilateral aid) in Cambodia told me in 2000 (interview with Jacques Gerard, 2000); even this small figure overstates Kang Chandararoth's (2003) estimation of French imports to or foreign direct investment in Cambodia. One French lawyer advising the Faculty of Law and Economics suggested that Cambodia is simply too small a market to attract signifi-


35

cant French interest. Having a population of only 11 million, Denis SaintMarie told me, "Cambodia won't be buying the TGV," France's high-speed train a grande vitesse (interview, 2000). Whether because of the size of the national market or other reasons, relatively few French companies have established operations in Cambodia. Exceptions to this tendency include Total, Crkdit Agricole Indosuez, and Alcatel (a French telecommunications firm); French companies also work in the agriculture, construction, and pharmaceutical industries in Cambodia. While small, the French economic presence in Cambodia does register demands for language skills, in several ways. Certainly some metropolitan firms require French language skills among their Cambodian staff; French construction companies in particular tend to hire Cambodians who can speak French (interview with Stefan Preese, 2000). As mentioned earlier, however, most French companies seek employees who know English. These enterprises appear to have reached the same conclusion arrived at by Jacques Gerard of Coopkration Franqaise. "French will not be a commercial language in Cambodia," Gerard stated. "Businesses will use English and Chinese" (interview, 2000). Some Cambodian firms whose business brings them into contact with French investors or businesspeople, on the other hand, do prefer French language skills. The Rural Development Bank provides one example. This state-owned bank established in 1998 requires employees to know French so as to facilitate communication with "international guests who speak French." At the same time, the bank expects its employees to know English for communication with that larger and more inclusive group of "international guests" (Faculty of Law and Economics survey). Although one Frenchman concluded confidently that "speakers of good French will be able find positions in private enterprises," most informants rate the utility of the former colonial language rather low for Cambodia's contemporary economic life (interview with Lionel Leignel, 2000). "French is not much use anymore compared with English and Chinese," remarked the dean of the National Institute of Management. "Only old men speak French" (interview with Iv Thong, 2000). The secretary of state for the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport concluded more simply. "French is losing out in Cambodia," he said (interview with Im Sethy, 2000).

2.4

Uses of Foreign Languages in Business in Cambodia

In the previous section, I discussed the relative demand for Khmer, English, Chinese, and French language skills in economic enterprises operating in Cambodia. Knowledge of Khmer appears sufficient for work in Cambodian-owned businesses that procure supplies and sell products within

36

Chapter 2

Cambodia. Firms either based in or trading with other countries, however, demand language skills in addition to Khmer for Cambodian employees. Virtually all these latter firms require English; an important subset additionally desires knowledge of Chinese; a few prefer French language skills, often in addition to English. Once hired by international or internationally oriented firms, Cambodians are called upon to use their foreign language skills in several ways. First, because foreign languages are typically the media of OFFICE COMMUNICATION in international firms, Cambodians hired into managerial positions apply their knowledge of foreign languages in reading reports, giving presentations, and interacting with expatriate senior managers. At Thaiowned Cambodia Samart Communication, for instance, "all documents that Cambodian employees read are written in English" (Faculty of Law and Economics survey). At British-American Tobacco, Cambodian department managers must be able to "gather, analyze, and synthesize information" for presentations to senior managers (interview with Richard Demblom, 2000). At Nestlk, employees must know English to be able to communicate about daily matters with expatriate managers who do not speak Khmer (Faculty of Law and Economics survey). For those employed by Shell, such communication involves "understand[ing] instructions . . . , rais[ing] questions and hav[ing] general discussions" in English with managers from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (Edwards, 1996, p. 33). Foreign languages also typically serve as the media of COMPANY COMMUNICATION for foreign firms operating in Cambodia. On one hand, this means that Cambodians working in offices in Phnom Penh use foreign languages to communicate with head offices or company operations in other countries. In the garment industry, Chinese often provides the medium for international company communication; the preference in garment factories is thus "to hire people who can speak Chinese, so as to be able to contact [Chinese-speaking owners in] China, Singapore, Malaysia," and other countries in the region (interview with Iv Thong, 2000). Cambodians use English in much the same way to communicate within the multinational firms surveyed by Tim Walton of PricewaterhouseCoopers-at BritishAmerican Tobacco, where "English is that language of worldwide communication" (interview with Richard Demblom, 2000); Shell, where "English is the official language of the Company" (Edwards, 1996, p. 33); and elsewhere. "Even large French companies require English language skills" for international company communication, Walton concluded (interview, 2000). Such is the case at Crkdit Agricole Indosuez, where according to the French manager "all our international correspondence is in English" (interview, 2000).


37

On the other hand, Cambodians use their foreign language skills within local operations, to facilitate communication between monolingual expatriates and Cambodian worker-employees, At British-American Tobacco, 61 Cambodian managers who speak both English and Khmer make possible communication between the eight expatriate senior managers, none of whom speak Khmer, and the more than 600 Cambodian workers who do not speak English. According to Human Resources Director Richard Demblom, these bilingual managers mediate virtually every aspect of the tobacco operation in Cambodia-from the acquisition of tobacco from contract farmers, to its transportation to Phnom Penh, to the production, distribution, and sale of cigarettes (interview, 2000). Allen Edwards (1996) described Shell's operations in Cambodia as similarly dependent on the linguistic abilities of bilingual managers. To illustrate, Edwards discusses how instructions from the Phnom Penh office reach an operator at one of the company's petroleum depots. The operator is a monolingual Cambodian, but his [Cambodian] line manager [has both English and Khmer language skills]. The procedures for the operator to follow in his work originate from the Management in English. The operator's line manager . . . then explains these procedures and instructions to the operator in Khmer. (p. 33) Bilingual Cambodian managers play much the same role in garment factories, where they mediate communication between Khmer-speaking Cambodian garment workers and Chinese-speaking factory managers from China, Taiwan, and other countries. Finally, Cambodian employees of both international and Cambodian firms use foreign languages in CUSTOMER RELATIONS. Employees of the state-owned Rural Development Bank, for instance, use their English and French language skills in interactions with their "international guests" and "international guests who speak French," respectively (Faculty of Law and Economics survey). English plays a similarly important role in the Cambodian-owned Phnom Penh Media Company. There, Cambodian employees use English "to communicate with foreign clients," to "facilitate transactions with foreign customers," and more generally to broker deals with international companies interested in advertising their products in metropolitan Phnom Penh (Faculty of Law and Economics survey). At Cambodia Samart Communication and other telecommunications firms operating in the country, "Cambodian employees communicate orally in English with . . . foreign customers [for the purpose of] providing good services" (Faculty of Law and Economics survey). At the Hotel Inter-Continental and other large hotels, Cambodian employees use English for the purposes of "responding

38

Chapter 2

appropriately and politely to requests or orders," "describ[ing] facilities of the hotel," "giv[ing] directions within the hotel," and so on (Australian Centre for Education, 1999b, p. 9).

2.5

Forming Cambodians for the Language Needs of Business

Cambodians use foreign language skills in office communication, company communication, and customer relations in both foreign- and Cambodian-owned companies in Cambodia. According to Tim Walton of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the demand for Cambodians with foreign language skills sufficient to these tasks-and English language skills in particularvastly exceeds the supply. That is to say, the number of Cambodians with English skills adequate for the needs of business does not equal the number of positions available in companies. More than enough Cambodians graduate from higher education each year to fill managerial-level openings, Walton concluded, but "there is a huge gap between the [language] skills graduates bring to the market and what the market needs" (interview, 2000). To address this dissonance, many companies have taken the proactive step of providing foreign language training for employees. In other words, because they cannot directly hire enough Cambodians with language skills sufficient for required office communication, company communication, and customer relations tasks, they hire employees on the basis of other criteria (the "ability to behave professionally in a Western way" is paramount, explained Tim Walton; interview, 2000), and they then form them linguistically according to company needs. Some economic enterprises provide language training through in-house programming. At Nestle, for example, "the company supports the training of all staff to communicate in English by providing a training course every morning" (Faculty of Law and Economics survey). As of 2000, Cambodia Samart Communication was in the process of launching a three- to six-month in-house English language training course for its 200 Cambodian employees (Faculty of Law and Economics survey). By far the more common mechanism by which companies provide language training to employees, however, is through partnership with one or more of the proprietary language schools that have opened in the country since the early 1990s. The discussion below focuses on the four schools that offer language education for businesses in Cambodia; in chronological order of their inaugurations, they are the Centre Culture1 Franpis, the Australian Centre for Education, the Cambodian-British Centre, and Regent School of Business. To be sure, a great many private language schools operate in Cambodia beyond these large, foreign-owned and foreign-run education centers. Most are small operations in which Cambodians with some English


39

language skills teach out of rented rooms using pirated materials (see Knight, 1996). Because these small private schools do not partner with businesses but would more accurately be characterized as responding to Cambodians' desire to learn foreign languages (a desire that is, of course, conditioned by many factors, including the country's economic transition and integration), I discuss them as an artifact of language choice in Chapter Seven. Most of the four large language schools also respond to Cambodian choices with general language courses for individual enrollment, and thus these schools too will feature in the chapter on language choice. In their partnership with businesses (and, as we shall see in later chapters, with political and assistance enterprises), however, they do considerably more than respond to choice, becoming in fact part of the context in which Cambodians make language choices. In what follows, I introduce these schools and provide general descriptive information about their structure, budget, and student and teacher demographics before focusing on the collaboration with economic enterprises that distinguishes them from the mass of private language schools operating in the country.

2.5.1

The Centre Culturel Franqais

The Centre Culturel Franqais, or French Cultural Center, opened in Phnom Penh in 1990. At that time, before the establishment of the Kingdom of Cambodia, France did not recognize or engage in any direct bilateral relations with Cambodia. For this reason, France directed funds to Cambodia through a Paris-based nongovernmental organization that runs French language and cultural programs in many countries, Alliance Franqaise. When bilateral relations between France and Cambodia were established in 1992, the center known as Alliance Fran~aisebecame the Centre Culturel et de Cooperation Linguistique, and management of it passed to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. By 1996, the center had assumed its contemporary name and had attained a degree of autonomy in administration from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, though it continues to be an official component of Cooperation Fran~aise, France's bilateral humanitarian and technical assistance program in Cambodia (interview with Michel Thureau, 1992; interviews with Lionel Leignel, Andre Schmidt, 2000; Ambassade de France, 1997; Centre Culturel et de Cooperation Linguistique, 1995). From its flagship school in Phnom Penh, the Centre Culturel Franqais (CCF) expanded in the early 1990s to centers in two provincial capitals, Siem Reap and Battambang. "The majority of our programming is general French" offered to adults and children in successive, graduated courses through the Departments of Adult and Youth Education, explained the

40

Chapter 2

director of the center (interview with AndrC Schmidt, 2000). In the early and mid-1990s, more than 8,000 Cambodians studied French at CCF; approximately 40 percent attended French language classes with sponsorship from CoopCration Franpise (interview with AndrC Schmidt; Centre Culture1 F r a n ~ a i sde Phnom Penh, 1993; "CoopCration Educative," 1996). By 2000, student numbers had dropped to 4,700, with 4,000 Cambodians enrolled in Phnom Penh and 350 each following French language classes at the Siem Reap and Battambang centers. Most classes at CCF are given by 54 Cambodian French language instructors. The Cambodian teaching staff is joined at CCF by an additional 105 Cambodian administrative and support personnel. Beyond the small number of French nationals working in administration, CCF employs 11 language teachers from France (interview with Lionel Leignel, 2000). Students pay between $18 and $25 for part-time, three-month language courses; this tuition represents a significant increase over the $4 charged for similar courses in the early 1990s. In the 1999-2000 budget year, student tuition generated $308,000 in revenue for the center. According to the coordinator of the Department of Special Programs at CCF, this revenue covered the wages of the majority of teachers, who are paid on an hourly basis (interview with Lionel Leignel, 2000). Teachers receive compensation according to their level of education; those holding the Dipl8me ElCmentaire de la Langue Franpise are paid about $3 per hour, for instance, while teachers who have completed the Dipl8me d'Etude Approfondie are compensated at a rate of $10 per hour. Most of the rest of the CCF budgetexpenses related to the buildings, utilities, salaried French employees, and so on-is underwritten by CoopCration Franqaise. In 1999-2000, the total CCF budget reached $1.14 million. Student tuition accounted for 27 percent of the total, while the French government provided nearly all of the remaining 73 percent, or $83 1,000 (interviews with Eric Galmard, Lionel Leignel, 2000). Beyond the general French program, CoopCration Franqaise administers through CCF a massive assistance project for the Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, which I discuss in detail in Chapter Six. Finally, CCF runs a variety of courses within its Department of Special Programs. In addition to French language classes designed for particular groups (French for Foreigners, for instance), this department offers Frenchfor-specific-purposes classes related to administration, computing, economics, secretarial skills, and tourism. Though most students who enroll in these courses support themselves, a few are sponsored by economic enterprises. As of 2000, five students were attending the French for Tourism class under sponsorship from Air France (interview with Lionel Leignel, 2000). In 1995, CCF provided French language instruction for employees of the Allson hotel (Postlewaite, 1995). Because so few companies are sending employees to


41

CCF for French language courses, they contribute negligibly to the center's revenue. 2.5.2

The Australian Centre for Education

IDP Education Australia opened the Australian Centre for Education (ACE) in Phnom Penh in 1992. Formerly the International Development Program of Australian Universities and Colleges, IDP Education Australia is an education provision company owned by the Australian university system; as of 1999, IDP worked in 32 countries, often as a subcontractor for the Australian government's international aid agency, the Australian Agency for International Development, or AusAID (Lazenby & Blight, 1999). The inauguration of ACE in Cambodia followed a feasibility study conducted in 1991 and the establishment by Australia of direct bilateral relations with Cambodia in March 1992 (McAndrew, 1996). ACE has grown in both size and scope since its establishment in 1992. Though the Phnom Penh center remains its largest school, in the mid-1990s ACE opened satellite centers in four other cities, Battambang, Kampong Cham, Siem Reap, and Sihanoukville; the Sihanoukville center closed in 1998. Whereas in 1994 ACE provided general English language instruction to 2,260 students in Phnom Penh, by the turn of the century the center was teaching English to 4,103 students in various locations, most in Phnom Penh. Eighty percent of ACE students follow courses in the General English Division. Classes here cluster within the General English Program (a 12level general English series), the Special Skills Program (English report writing, for instance), and the Vocational Education Program (English for business purposes, for the most part). Tuition for these 45-hour, 10-week courses ranges from $70 to $200. After students finish the 12-course series in the General English Program, they can apply for admission to two-year diploma courses in accounting, information technology, and management offered by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). RMIT programming at ACE began in 1999; as of 2000, 53 students were enrolled in diploma courses, for which they paid a total two-year tuition of $3,190 (interviews with Helen Cherry, John Marshall, 2000; Australian Centre for Education, 2000b). Director Helen Cherry and the center's other senior administrators all come to Cambodia from Australia. In addition, ACE staff includes 59 expatriate teachers (mostly Australian), 21 Cambodian English language teachers, and 33 Cambodian administrative staff. Teachers earn an average of $15 per hour (interview with Stephen Moore, 2000). While most instructors teach classes in the General English Division, some work in the English Language for Ministry Officials (ELMO) Project, an educational assistance

42

Chapter 2

program offered through ACE by the Australian Agency for International Development; I discuss this extensive program in Chapter Five. According to Helen Cherry, it was fortunate that ACE won the contract from AusAID in 1994 to run the English language teaching program for Cambodian government personnel, because until that time the center had been losing money. For the next few years, AusAID revenues subsidized the General English Division, though that division became self-supporting in 1996 when tuition was raised to its current level. In 2000, ACE earned $1.6 million from sources in Cambodia; AusAID paid IDP Education Australia an additional $870 million ($1 million Australian dollars) in Canberra for ELMO and two other Australian government-sponsored programs at ACE (interview with Helen Cherry, 2000). According to Helen Cherry, nearly 10 percent of the 3,300 students enrolled in ACE's General English Program courses are sponsored by economic enterprises. That is to say, a significant number of the students learning to read, write, speak, and understand English in nonspecific courses at the Australian Centre for Education are there because their employers use English in business; need Cambodians who can use this language in office communication, company communication, and customer relations; and have taken the proactive step of forming employees for this purpose. In 1994, the Australian telecommunications company Telstra headed the sponsorship list at ACE. In that year, Telstra not only sent 41 of its own employees to ACE for general English training, but sponsored 90 Cambodians from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications to English courses there (Maloy, 1996). The roster of company sponsors to ACE had grown considerably by 2000. In addition to Telstra and others from the mid-1990s, sponsors in 2000 included AEA International (a medical services company), Asia Pacific Resources (the events-management agency), Bates Cambodia (an advertising firm), Caltex, Electricit6 du Cambodge (the state-owned electricity company), Maersk International Shipping, Mobitel, and Shell (interview with Helen Cherry, 2000; Australian Centre for Education, 1994, 2 0 0 0 ~ ) . Beyond providing general English courses to which companies can sponsor employees, the Australian Centre for Education also designs specific English language courses for the individual needs of particular enterprises. In the early 1990s, such individualized courses were offered on an ad hoe basis; in 1997, they began to be administered through ACE's new Private Programs Division. Many programs in this division have served firms in the telecommunications industry. In 1996, for example, ACE delivered an 80hour customer service skills course for 25 Mobitel employees; customer service representatives received instruction in customer relations, listening skills, and problem solving. ACE offered similar courses to customer service representatives of Thailand's Shinawatra in 1998 and 1999. In 1998, ACE


43

designed a two-module, 100-hour course for 15 Mobitel middle mangers. Besides receiving the training given to customer service representatives, employees in this class also learned management skills, with particular attention being given to presentations and negotiations (interview with Helen Cherry, 2000; Australian Centre for Education, 199917). Finally, ACE has contracted with Alcatel "to provide English language training specific to the telecommunications industry so that their provincial staff can convey information about faults, problems," and other issues to the head office in Phnom Penh (Australian Centre for Education, 1999a, p. 4). In 1996, ACE won the largest English language training contract yet awarded in the country, from the Cambodian-owned Hotel Inter-Continental. Training of over 800 Cambodian hotel workers began six months before the hotel opened in March 1997, accelerating to an intensive level one month before the facility's inauguration. Over the course of the full two-year contract with the Hotel Inter-Continental, ACE designed three different kinds of courses for Cambodian employees. The 120-hour front-of-house courses prepared Cambodians who worked in the reception area to greet customers, facilitate their requests, give directions within the hotel, and make "appropriate small talk" (Australian Centre for Education, 1999b, p. 9). The 80-hour back-of-house courses focused on similar topics for Cambodians whose interaction with foreign guests took place in restaurants and elsewhere in the hotel. The 40-hour beginner courses were offered to employees who had no previous knowledge of English. These courses focused on greetings, responding to basic questions, understanding references to days and times, and vocabulary specific to workplaces such as the laundry (Australian Centre for Education, 199917). As of 2000, ACE was in the process of planning a course for Petronas, the Malaysian oil company. Petronas had contracted with ACE to sponsor 75 employees of the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority for a series of two English language classes to be followed by a management class to be offered by the National Institute of Management (interview with You Rith, 2000).

2.5.3

The Cambodian-British Centre

The Cambodian-British Centre began operations in Phnom Penh in 1992. As with the Centre Culture1 Franqais and France, the opening of the Cambodian-British Centre predated the establishment of British bilateral relations with Cambodia, and thus funds for the center did not come directly from the British government. Rather, monies from the British Overseas Development Administration (now renamed the Department for International Development) were channeled to the Cambodian-British Centre through a nongov-

44

Chapter 2

ernmental agency. In the case of the Cambodian-British Centre, this agency was the Centre for British Teachers (CfBT), an educational contractor that works in a variety of domains (teacher education, prison education, educational inspection, and English language training, among others) both in the United Kingdom and abroad. When it formally recognized Cambodia in 1994, the British government did not take over direct control of the Cambodian-British Centre, as the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs had done with the Centre Culture1 F r a n ~ a i s .Rather, CfBT continued to administer and manage the center as a subcontractor (interview with Lucy Royal-Dawson, 2000; Smith, 1996; Thomas, 1996). The Cambodian-British Centre closed in June 200 1 . The Cambodian-British Centre (CBC) was both a smaller and a more focused English language training operation than the Australian Centre for Education. To begin with, for most of the 1990s the center devoted its entire energies and resources to the administration of a single, British-funded project, the Cambodian Secondary English Teaching (CAMSET) Project; I discuss this multifaceted project in detail in Chapter Six. It was only as CAMSET began to draw to a close in the mid-1990s that CBC diversified its educational offerings. Rather than opening general English courses to individual or sponsored students, CBC began to work with both economic enterprises and development agencies in the provision of what one British teacher associated with the center termed "tailor-made" English language classes (interview with Lucy Royal-Dawson, 2000). According to the director of studies at CBC, at any given time in the late 1990s between 500 and 600 Cambodians were enrolled in these classes offered through the center's Language and Management Training Unit. Teachers included nine expatriates, mostly from the United Kingdom, and three Cambodians; two expatriates from the Centre for British Teachers administered the center (interview with Conor Boyle, 2000). In 1996, CBC landed the second-largest contract for English language teaching awarded in Cambodia, with British-American Tobacco. Following a language assessment for the entire staff of British-American Tobacco (BAT), CBC developed a five-tier training program for more than 200 BAT employees. In the course's lower tiers, Cambodian employees of BAT studied "work-related English"; those who graduated to the upper tiers received "management-oriented" English language training (interview with Conor Boyle, 2000). The Cambodian-British Centre directed BAT employees up through these tiers for three years, ending in 1999. According to Director of Studies Conor Boyle, this contract "helped bridge CBC's transition from CAMSET," by which he meant that work for BAT played an important role in CBC's diversification beyond project work for the British government. Besides the partnership with British-American Tobacco, CBC


45

designed and ran a one-year English language communication course for Nestle's administrative and production staff, gave English language and management training to employees at Nestle, Shell, and Tricelcam (a telecommunications company controlled by Malaysian interests), and administered a five-module customer service course for Mobitel (interview with Conor Boyle, 2000; Centre for British Teachers, 2000). According to Conor Boyle, in the late 1990s CBC earned revenues of between $200,000 and $250,000 annually from the economic enterprises and development agencies that contracted for English language training through the Language and Management Training Unit. These revenues barely registered when held against the CAMSET project, however, which brought nearly $10 million into the Cambodian-British Centre between 1992 and 2001. When this latter project ended in 2001, a needs-analysis conducted by the Centre for British Teachers concluded that CBC would no longer generate profits, and the Cambodian-British Centre was closed (interview with Lucy Royal-Dawson, 2001). 2.5.4

Regent School of Business

Regent School of Business opened as Regent College in Phnom Penh in July 1994. Of the foreign-based proprietary English language schools operating in Phnom Penh, Regent is unique in that its ownership does not derive from a country where English is spoken as a first language. Dato Dr. Chen Lip Keong, a Malaysian, owns Regent School of Business, having invested $400,000 in the renovation of the school building (Heng & Francis, 1994). Also, Regent emphasizes degree programs to a greater extent than the Australian Centre for Education or the Cambodian-British Centre, and English language classes serve a correspondingly more specific function for at least some students at Regent than at these other schools. According to the school's director, Regent's "primary goal is to strengthen Cambodians' skills and help [them] to be more competitive in the international business environment" (Heng & Francis, 1994, p. 19). This business focus emerges clearly in the school's degree offerings. Through curriculum developed by the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Regent administers two-year diploma courses in accounting, business studies, management, marketing, and secretarial studies. Tuition for individual three-month classes runs between $150 and $210, with the total cost of a diploma program averaging around $1,500. In addition, students can follow courses in a bachelor of business administration degree offered in conjunction with the Universiti Tun Abdul Razak in Malaysia, and a master of business administration course given in partnership with Australia's University of Southern Queensland. As of 2003, approximately 350 students were

46

Chapter 2

following degree programs at Regent (Peter Darch, personal communication, 1 October 2003). According to a Cambodian administrator, in 2000 Regent employed 15 British and American teachers in its Business Division (interview with Chhit Srey Peov, 2000). English serves as the language of all instruction at Regent School of Business, and students in all diploma courses complete a series of business English classes in addition to subject-matter classes. If applicants do not have sufficient command of English to enter subject-matter courses directly (as determined by an entrance exam), they are assigned to the school's English Language Division, which is staffed by 20 British and American instructors. In this division, successive and graduated general English courses cost between $30 and $35 dollars for three months of part-time instruction. In addition to preparing Cambodians for entry into businessoriented diploma programs, the English Language Division enrolls nondegree students. As of 2003, 450 Cambodians studied English at Regent outside the context of degree programs. Approximately 70 percent of all Regent students come to the school with external sponsorship, including from economic enterprises like ACNielsen, Caltex, the Cambodia Beverage Company, the Cambodia Brewery, Mobitel, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Shell (interview with Chhit Srey Peov, 2000; Edwards, 1 96; Regent School of Business, 2003). 4

3.

TRAJECTORIES AND CORRELAT ONS IN ECONOMY AND LANGUAGE

In this chapter, I have sketched the economic context in which Cambodians make language choices. In this final section, I consider the trajectories and correlations that characterize this context as a means both of summarizing the chapter and of anticipating some of the theoretical issues with which I conclude the book.

3.1

Economic History

Even before the formation of the Kingdom of Cambodia in 1993, Cambodian policy makers set the country on the path toward economic transition and integration by recognizing the private sector and allowing the private ownership of land. The official abandonment of communist-era economic structures in favor of the market economy system announced in the 1993 constitution furthered this trajectory, with various results. In the countryside, economic transition has altered Cambodians' ideas about work and land, and


47

the beginnings of agricultural modernization suggest a time when farmers may be able to operate in economic systems beyond the local level. Meanwhile, the 1994 Law on Investment has brought billions of dollars of foreign direct investment into the country; this investment that manifests in the hundreds of foreign companies now established in metropolitan Phnom Penh has significantly impacted the country's volume and patterns of trade. Though considerable uncertainty characterizes the future-particularly in relation to the sustainability of the garment industry within the World Trade Organization and the competitiveness of the agricultural sector within the ASEAN Free Trade Area-it is unambiguously clear that metropolitan Cambodia has integrated within regional, hemispheric, and global economic networks.

3.2

Language Demands of the Market Economy for Cambodians

Cambodia's economic trajectory of the last decade has brought diverse demands for language skills to the country. Certainly most Cambodians can participate in the market economy with knowledge only of their native Khmer; as Don Boring of the International Finance Corporation reminded me, "Most Cambodians work with other Cambodians," and they do not need to learn foreign languages to communicate with their compatriots (interview, 2000). Many of those working with foreign companies or with Cambodian firms that do business outside the country, however, must know foreign languages. As we have seen, employers ranging across geographical, sectoral, and dimensional strata require Cambodian managers to supplement their native knowledge of Khmer with knowledge of English. Employers situated at certain coordinates on this field demand Chinese language skills of their Cambodian employees, in addition to knowledge of English and Khmer. A very few employers require French language skills of the Cambodians they hire. As several informants put it, "The market demands English," "Chinese is coming," and "French is losing out in Cambodia" (interviews with Yuok Ngoy, Toshiyasu Kato, Im Sethy, 2000). The geographical spectrum of language preference in Cambodia illustrates trends that both support and contradict traditional ways of thinking about international languages or languages of wider communication. Note what might be termed "correlations" between language preference and the national location of companies either exercising or conditioning that preference. In terms of Chinese, we can discern a rather strong language-nation relationship. More specifically, Chinese language skills are required of Cambodian managers working in garment factories owned by interests in

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Chapter 2

Chinese-speaking countries like China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. Additionally, companies like DHL Worldwide Express require knowledge of Chinese among employees to facilitate communication with business owners who, though citizens of Cambodia, attach through their ethnicity to China. A similar correlation emerges between French language preference and nation, though demand for French is so small as to immediately call into question any conclusion. A very few French companies hire Cambodian employees who can speak French, and at least one Cambodian company, the stateowned Rural Development Bank, requires employees to know French in anticipation of communication with international guests from France. It is less productive, however, to define the demand for English in national terms. To be sure, companies based in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States require knowledge of English among their Cambodian employees. But so too do companies headquartered in China, France, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, and many other nations where English is not spoken as a first language. In fact, there is no geographical logic to the demand for English in business in Cambodia, no correlation between anglophone national status and corporate English language preference-or, perhaps more accurately, the correlation evidenced by the language requirements of Australian, British, and American firms alone weakens to the point of meaninglessness when the similar language preferences of companies based in non-English-speaking countries are added to the analysis. This lack of correlation suggests strongly that we begin to look beyond nations to understand the economic contexts that condition English language choice. At least as it relates to the economy, English appears to have expanded beyond those anglophone polities with which it has traditionally been associated and today seems to attach directly to the world economy, a global unit of analysis that underlies the system of national political organization in the world.

3.3

Uses of Foreign Languages in Business in Cambodia

If employers demand English, Chinese, and French skills of their Cambodian employees, they do so for specific reasons. Cambodians are required to know foreign languages so as to be able to read documents, give presentations, interact with expatriate supervisors, and otherwise engage in office communication. In company communication, Cambodians use foreign languages in interactions with head offices and company operations in other countries. Additionally, they apply their bilingual skills in company operations within Cambodia, notably in facilitating communication between monolingual expatriate managers and monolingual Cambodian workers in garment factories, tobacco fields, oil pumping stations, and other venues.


49

Finally, it is in foreign languages that Cambodians engage in relations with international customers and potential customers. Extrapolating from these very specific duties to a more general level, Cambodians use foreign language skills to contribute to the success of the foreign- and Cambodian-owned economic enterprises that hire them. Indeed, it seems entirely reasonable to argue that the success of these firms depends on the foreign language abilities of their employees, for without that middle stratum of Cambodians who can speak foreign languages in addition to their native Khmer, monolingual expatriates simply could not establish or manage operations in the country, and Cambodian business owners would be unable to secure inputs from or sell products to foreign suppliers or customers. Given that the establishment of foreign economic enterprises in Cambodia and the extension of Cambodian business networks beyond the country's borders are both evidence of a larger phenomenon, it may be possible to push this conclusion one step further. Accordingly, it seems reasonable to argue that Cambodia's economic integration itself depends on the mediating linguistic skills of bilingual Cambodians, with English language skills serving the widest integrative function, Chinese skills facilitating integration within particular networks, and French contributing to integration in a very restricted context. I want to be very careful not to overstate this linguistic dependency, for the success of economic enterprises depends on a great many factors beyond language skills, including the quality of products, the stability of the national government, the competitiveness of local labor in relation to global trade agreements, and so on. Similarly, the country's economic integration has occurred as a result of a great many factors, including the collapse of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, the political will of Cambodian legislators to pass the Law on Investment, and myriad decisions in boardrooms around the world to accept the risks of establishing operations in the country. Nevertheless, one cannot relate the last 10 years of Cambodia's economic history without reference to foreign languages, in particular English and Chinese. At a minimum, it seems defensible to conclude that these languages are integrally connected with-if not integral to-the success of business in Cambodia and the regional, hemispheric, and global economic integration of the country:

3.4

Forming Cambodians for the Language Needs of Business

Unable to hire directly enough Cambodians with language skills adequate to their office communication, company communication, and customer relations requirements, many firms operating in Cambodia have contracted

50

Chapter 2

with foreign-owned and foreign-run proprietary language schools to form Cambodian employees according to their linguistic needs. The Centre Culture1 Fran~ais,operated by Coopkration Fran~aisethrough the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has offered very limited French language training for economic enterprises. The Australian Centre for Education, which is owned by the Australian university system, provides a significant volume of English language training for businesses through both its General English and Private Programs Divisions. Though now closed, the Britishadministered Cambodian-British Centre ran English language courses for companies through its Language and Management Training Unit. The Malaysian-owned Regent School of Business has also worked with businesses in Cambodia to improve the English language skills of employees, many within the context of degree programs. I argued above that demand for and use of English in business has slipped the anglophone orbit and that, as a result, the language-nation correlation in this regard has weakened past the point of any significance. In another way, however, the correlation remains strong, and that is in the business of English language program provision. Though Regent School of Business is owned by Malaysian interests, the school employs English language teachers from the United Kingdom and the United States. The vastly larger Australia Centre for Education and the Cambodian-British Centre, when it was in operation, are or were explicitly associated with anglophone nations and offer or offered most instruction through Australian, British, and American teachers. It seems possible to conclude on this basis that the English language, while for business purposes no longer useful only to economic enterprises based in anglophone nations, still appears to be controlled as an instructional commodity by actors associated with these nations. English can be used by any business, it seems, but it can apparently only be taught-productively, effectively, legitimately-by anglophone language schools. Certainly the strong correlation between English language program provision and anglophone national status would decrease by including in the analysis the hundreds of Cambodian-run private English language schools that do not contract with business, and thus it may be necessary to qualify the previous statement. Accordingly, it seems possible to conclude that English as an instructional commodity attractive to foreign or international companies is controlled by anglophone actors. We encounter a similar tendency relative to political transition and integration, the subject to which I now turn.

Chapter 3

THE POLITICAL CONTEXT FOR LANGUAGE CHOICE

1.

POLITICAL HISTORY

1.1

Democratic Transition

During the Vietnamese occupation between 1979 and 1989, Cambodia blazed as a hot spot in the Cold War. After driving the Khmer Rouge out of the country, the Vietnamese installed a single-party communist government made up of several generations of Cambodian revolutionaries who had sought refuge in Vietnam. The government of the People's Republic of Kampuchea and its Vietnamese patron, both of which were aligned with and received support from the Soviet Union, defended the country against three armed Cambodian factions based in camps on the Thai border. The communist Democratic Kampuchea, or Khmer Rouge, had isolated Cambodia from the world between 1975 and 1979, during which time many hundreds of thousands of people had died. The royalist Front Uni National pour un Cambodge IndCpendent, Neutre, Pacifique, Et CoopCratif (FUNCINPEC) was headed by Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the former king who had abdicated the throne and held political power between 1955 and 1970. The republican Khmer People's National Liberation Front (KPNLF) followed a Sihanouk-era prime minister, Son Sann. These resistance forces, which joined together as the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea in 1982, received military and humanitarian assistance from the People's Republic of China and the United States (for histories of this period, see Chanda, 1986; Clayton, 2000; Haas, 1991; Shawcross, 1984; Vickery, 1986).

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Chapter 3

Throughout the 1980s, Cambodians fought one another as what Michael Haas (1991) has termed "proxies" for the Cold War superpowers (p. 3). Despite certain victories achieved and certain advantages gained, for the most part the warring factions balanced one another in Cambodia in an equilibrium that gave the People's Republic of Kampuchea control of most of the country but left the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK) intact on the border and in refugee camps in Thailand. At the international level, however, the CGDK emerged the clear winner. Despite abhorrence for the Khmer Rouge, the United Nations voted to deny credentials to the People's Republic of Kampuchea and, instead, seated officials from the CGDK in the General Assembly. Support for the People's Republic of Kampuchea from Vietnam, the Soviet Union, and other Eastern-bloc countries was overwhelmed by opposition from an odd alliance variously dedicated to limiting Soviet, Vietnamese, and communist influence in Indochina. Subscribers to this latter alliance included the United States, other Westem-bloc countries, the People's Republic of China, and the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (for vote tallies in the United Nations, see Haas, 1991). The stalemate in Cambodia began to break in the late 1980s. With Mikhail Gorbachev's rise to power in 1985, the Soviet Union initiated the reforms that would ultimately lead to its dissolution, and Moscow's dedication to international communism and its financial assistance to both Vietnam and the People's Republic of Kampuchea decreased. As these ramifications of perestroika became clear, the Vietnamese realized they would not be able to support the occupation of Cambodia and began planning their 1989 withdrawal. Similarly lacking resources to continue the war independently, People's Republic of Kampuchea leader Hun Sen grew receptive to attempts by the United Nations Security Council to broker a peace. Cambodian combatants held numerous meetings in Paris, Tokyo, and Jakarta between 1989 and 1991. Ulti~nately,a United Nations framework for peace gained the approval of all four Cambodian factions, and the Agreements on a Comprehensive Political Settlement of the Cambodian Conflict, popularly known as the Paris Peace Accords, were signed by representatives of the State of Cambodia (the 1989 successor to the People's Republic of Kampuchea), Democratic Kampuchea, FUNCINPEC, and the KPNLF on 23 October 1991 (Curtis, 1998; Heder & Ledgerwood, 1996; for the text of the accords, see Peou, 2000). The Paris Peace Accords stipulated that the four warring factions together establish a Supreme National Council (SNC) in which "the sovereignty, independence and unity of Cambodia [would be] enshrined" during a transitional period. Although representatives of the SNC would sit in the United Nations and would represent the country internationally, during this

3. Political Context for Language Choice

53

transitional period they would "delegate . . . to the United Nations all powers necessary" to ensure the democratic election of a constituent assembly that would, in turn, draft a new constitution and form a new government. Among the considerable tasks the United Nations undertook in Cambodia to make this election possible were the cantonment, disarmament, and demobilization of the various Cambodian armed forces, the verification of the Vietnamese withdrawal, and the resettlement in Cambodia of almost 400,000 refugees living in camps in Thailand. Additionally, "in order to ensure a neutral political environment conducive to free and fair general elections, administrative agencies, bodies and offices which could directly influence the outcome of the elections"-particularly those related to defense, finance, foreign affairs, and national security-were placed under "direct United Nations supervision" (Paris Peace Accords, cited in Peou, 2000, p. 440; also see United Nations, 1995). These multiple tasks constituted one of the most ambitious interventions in the history of the United Nations. In all, the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) sent to the country more than 20,000 international personnel, including soldiers, police, administrators, and election officers. The 16,000 soldiers seconded to UNTAC came from 34 countries, with Bangladesh, Bulgaria, France, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Uruguay, and Tunisia each taking charge of particular zones, or clusters of provinces. The 3,400 police came from 32 countries; Bangladesh, Ghana, Lndia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines each sent more than 200. Two hundred United Nations professionals staffed UNTAC's Civil Administration Component, which supervised those agencies, bodies, and offices that could affect the outcome of the election. Election officers included 200 career United Nations personnel, as well as 450 United Nations volunteers from 46 countries. Altogether, the UNTAC mission cost more than $2 billion. Of this figure, $806 million went to the salaries of expatriates, who earned as much as $145 per day; $235 million paid for the rental of buildings and personal accommodations; and $158 million bought and maintained the more than 8,000 vehicles used by UNTAC (Curtis, 1994, 1998; Heder & Ledgerwood, 1996; Shawcross, 1994; United Nations, 1995). The UNTAC mission began with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords on 23 October 1991 and ended with the promulgation of the new constitution on 24 September 1993. The mission failed in one significant way. Specifically, UNTAC proved unable to secure the demobilization of all four warring factions, since the Khmer Rouge ultimately refused to cooperate, and as a result UNTAC's Military Component was forced to play a more active role than originally intended in establishing a secure environment for the election (Doyle, 1995). Nevertheless, the election took place as planned

54

Chapter 3

between 23 and 28 May 1993 and, despite some intimidation and violence, was certified "free and fair" by both the United Nations and independent international observers (Curtis, 1998, p. 10). More than 4 million Cambodians, or 90 percent of all registered voters, cast ballots in the election of 120 legislators to the new Constituent Assembly. In the end, then, a democratically elected body took office in Cambodia as a result of the UNTAC intervention, and UNTAC thus fulfilled its primary mission. The royalist FUNCINPEC, headed by Norodom Sihanouk's son Norodom Ranariddh, received 45.5 percent of the 1993 vote and sent 58 candidates to the Constituent Assembly. Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP), a reformation of the communist party that had led the People's Republic of Kampuchea and the State of Cambodia, received 38.2 percent of the votes, and 51 CPP candidates were elected to the national legislative body. The remaining ballots elected 10 candidates from the Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party (BLDP) and 1 from Moulinaka, a BLDP splinter party, to the Constituent Assembly. Beginning work in June 1993, the Constituent Assembly drafted the country's new constitution, which legislators adopted on 21 September 1993. Article Seven of the constitution reestablished Cambodia as a kingdom with a king who "shall reign but not govern." In Article Fifty-One, the assembly declared its dedication to Cambodia's political future as a multiparty, liberal democracy: "The Kingdom of Cambodia adopts a policy of Liberal Democracy and Pluralism. . . . All powers belong to the people" (cited in Peou, 2000, pp. 467,472). In a somewhat unusual application of the democratic system, the two political parties that had received the most votes agreed to a power-sharing arrangement in which FUNCINPEC7s Norodom Ranariddh and CPP's Hun Sen took office as "first" and "second prime ministers, respectively. Cambodia's co-prime ministers assumed their duties on 24 September 1993 in a ceremony that also promulgated the constitution, crowned Norodom Sihanouk as king, redefined the Constituent Assembly as the National Assembly, and officially established the Kingdom of Cambodia. Power sharing in the prime ministers' office also telescoped to the system of 18 ministries and four state secretariats that composed the executive branch of government in 1993, with certain ministries being headed by FUNCINPEC members, others by CPP members, and yet others by co-ministers from both parties (Curtis, 1998; Peou, 2000; United Nations, 1995).

1.2

International Recognition

During the 1980s, the United States, most other Western nations, China, and the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations had refused to open diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of Kampuchea and


55

the State of Cambodia, partially in response to Soviet and Vietnamese influence in the country and partially in response to the government's related communist orientation. Following the primarily successful UNTAC mission, however, these same nations quickly recognized the Kingdom of Cambodia and began opening embassies in Phnom Penh. France initiated diplomatic relations with Cambodia after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1991 (Heywood, 1993). Australia opened relations with the State of Cambodia in 1992, as did Malaysia (McAndrew, 1996; Peou, 2000); the United States and the United Kingdom officially recognized the Kingdom of Cambodia in 1994 (interview with Bill Carter, 2000; Smith, 1996). By 1995, China, Denmark, Germany, Japan, and the Netherlands had joined the ranks of the 85 nations that had established diplomatic relations with Cambodia (Kao, 1995; McAndrew, 1996). At the same time, Cambodia gained recognition by or invitations to participate in a variety of multinational organizations that had previously refused or suspended Cambodia's membership. The United Nations immediately endorsed the election on 29 May 1993 and, in resolutions approved later that year, recognized as legitimate the government of the Kingdom of Cambodia (United Nations, 1995). Both the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the European Union similarly accepted the results of the election shortly after the poll; even before the formation of the Kingdom of Cambodia, ASEAN endorsed the Constituent Assembly as "an important step towards the establishment of a Government of national reconciliation based on the new constitution" (cited in Peou, 2000, p. 266). With the election of the new government, the Asian Development Bank, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the World Bank), and the International Monetary Fund reanimated Cambodia's memberships, which had lain dormant since the country's first communist government rose to power in 1975 (Kappagoda, 1995; McAndrew, 1996). Some scholars describe the developments in Cambodia in the early 1990s as the cessation of political isolation. Grant Curtis (1994), for example, comments that the establishment of the Kingdom of Cambodia in 1993 "brought an end to the country's long international isolation" (p. 65; also see Utting, 1994). To a certain extent this is true: As a result of the election and formation of a new government, Cambodia began to interact officially with nations and organizations from which it had previously been cut off. At the same time, however, it is worth recalling that the People's Republic of Kampuchea and the State of Cambodia had not been completely "isolated" in the world in the 1980s, but had enjoyed extensive official relations within the Soviet bloc. Given this political history, it would be more accurate to understand the developments in Cambodia in the early 1990s in terms of local and international political transition and integration. More specifically,

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with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1991, Cambodia initiated a change from one political system (communism) to another (democracy) that both corresponded with the reconfiguration of the post-Cold War world and met the diverse expectations for recognition and membership in that world. Both of the political processes begun in Cambodia during the UNTAC period-that is, the country's transition to democracy and its integration into various international communities-faltered with the events of 5-6 July 1997. The reader will recall from Chapter Two that, in these days of factional fighting, Second Prime Minister Hun Sen of the CPP ousted First Prime Minister Norodom Ranariddh of FUNCINPEC. Hun Sen's military action seems to have responded to Ranariddh's secret negotiations with the Khmer Rouge to create a new coalition and unbalance the government of the Kingdom of Cambodia. The first instance of violence also appears to have been initiated by Ranariddh's party, when FUNCINPEC forces seized control of Phnom Penh's airport on 5 July 1997. Regardless of what precipitated the events that followed, though, at the end of the period of fighting Hun Sen and the CPP had unseated the democratically elected first prime minister and assumed a greater degree of control in the country than had been authorized by Cambodian voters. Shortly after July 1997, the Khmer Rouge, which had been disintegrating for some time, collapsed entirely; following the death of Pol Pot, the territory they controlled joined the Kingdom of Cambodia (for discussions, see Curtis, 1998; Ok, 1999; Peou, 2000). International response to Hun Sen's subversion of the democratic process was predictable, and generally negative. China, whose recognition of the Kingdom of Cambodia had responded more to the reversal of Vietnamese and Soviet influence in mainland Southeast Asia than to the country's pledge of democracy, seemed unperturbed by the events of 5-6 July. "China will continue to expand its friendly relations with the Cambodian government," State Councilor Lua Gan commented in August 1997 (cited in Peou, 2000, p. 396). Other nations and bodies that had predicated their recognition of Cambodia on its promise of democracy, however, answered with various degrees of severity. On 28 July 1997, the United States House of Representatives condemned the events as "a violent military coup d'etat" (cited in Peou, 2000, p. 391). United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan described the action as "a change in the composition of the Government . . . by armed force," and on 19 September the United Nations Credentials Committee voted to leave Cambodia's seat vacant during the 52nd General Assembly (cited in Peou, 2000, p. 303). By far the most damaging blow to Cambodia resulting from Hun Sen's "coup" was delivered by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Cambodia had been scheduled to join ASEAN, with Laos and Burma, on 25


57

July 1997. In a communiquk issued shortly before this date, however, ASEAN's foreign ministers reversed this decision. In "light of unfortunate circumstances which have resulted in the use of force," they announced, "the wisest course of action is to delay the admission of Cambodia into ASEAN until a later date" (cited in Shaftel, 2002).

1.3

Consolidating Democracy

Hun Sen's coup seriously compromised Cambodia's transition to democracy. As Sorpong Peou (2000) notes, however, it "did not completely derail" that transition (p. 289). In fact, the coalition government that had emerged from the 1993 election remained in force after the events of 5-6 July 1997, and in late July FUNCINPEC's Ung Huot was named by the National Assembly to complete Ranariddh's term as first prime minister (though with a "significantly decreased shar[e] of power" relative to Hun Sen; Curtis, 1998, p. 54). Similarly the National Assembly itself remained constituted, and elected representatives continued to debate and pass legislation designed to restructure the country in the postcommunist era. Of specific interest to the current discussion, the National Assembly continued efforts to complete the transition begun during the UNTAC era and to consolidate democracy in the country. Efforts toward the consolidation of democracy began with the articulation of the rights of citizens in the 1993 constitution. Unlike during the communist period, citizens in contemporary Cambodia "have the right to life, personal freedom and security," as well as the right to establish associations and political parties, to vote and stand for election, and to otherwise "participate actively in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the nation" (Articles Thirty-Two and Thirty-Five of the constitution, cited in Peou, 2000, pp. 469-470). Cambodians' human rights are similarly guaranteed under the constitution. The Kingdom of Cambodia accepts the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, specifically recognizing the rights and equality of women and children. According to Article Thirty-One of the constitution, "Every Khmer citizen shall be equal before the law . . . regardless of race, colour, sex, language, religious belief, political tendency, birth origin, social status, wealth or other status" (cited in Peou, 2000, p. 469). The 1996 Law on Nationality passed by the National Assembly clarified Khmer citizenship in a way that generally extends these rights to naturalized citizens of Chinese and Vietnamese heritage (Peou, 2000). With Article One of the constitution, the National Assembly announced Cambodia's official political adherence to "the principles of liberal democracy and pluralism" (cited in Peou, 2000, p. 466). Despite this pledge, Cambodian legislators had yet to grapple with the mechanics of multiparty,

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electoral democracy because many of the processes related to the 1993 election had simply been dictated by the United Nations. Thus, after the promulgation of the constitution, the National Assembly began debating new laws related to democratic practice. Debate continued after the coup, and the assembly formally adopted the new Law on Political Parties and the new Election Law on 28 October and 19 December 1997, respectively. Among other things, these laws define what a political party is ("a group of persons of like ideas who voluntarily forms a permanent and autonomous association in order to participate in national political life, in accordance with the principles of multi-party liberal democracy"; Law on Political Parties, Article Two, cited in Peou, 2000, p. 485) and establish procedures for the administration of national elections, giving attention to the size of the National Assembly (at least 120 persons) and the formula for determining provincial representation. Specific legislation related to democratic practice was passed within the context of a legal reform initiative dedicated to achieving the "rule of law." This legal standard of democratic states requires that "new laws, regulations and policies [be] consistent with the rules and procedures stipulated in existing laws and the Constitution; [be] made available to people in a transparent and simple way; and [be] applied fairly and consistently for all people" (Kato, Kaplan, Chan, & Real, 2000, p. 7). Among other things, accomplishing the rule of law in Cambodia has demanded a new level of scrutiny for draft legislation. T o provide one example, early drafts of the Law on Nationality seemed to restrict citizenship to Cambodians of ethnicKhmer descent, thereby contradicting the intention of the constitution to make citizenship available, through the process of naturalization, to persons of Chinese, Vietnamese, and other ancestries. The final Law on Nationality, passed in 1996, reflects the constitution's more inclusive reading and is thus more consistent with this foundational document (for a discussion, see Peou, 2000). Accomplishing the rule of law has also involved the elimination of secrecy in the development of legislation, a project that has been facilitated by the decision to televise debates in the National Assembly. As this example illustrates, reform toward the rule of law has advanced in consort with other initiatives concerned with democratic practice, notably media reform. Whereas under communist regimes Cambodians did not enjoy a free press, today the constitution guarantees their "freedom of expression, press, publication and assembly" (Article Forty-One, cited in Peou, 2000, p. 471). In fact, the constitution and the subsequent Law on Press Regime (1995) "guarantee . . . more freedom than equivalent laws in other countries in Southeast Asia" (Kato et al., 2000, p. 21). Particularly as these freedoms relate to debate in the National Assembly and the transparency of legislative


59

mechanisms, Cambodian media are expressly protected from government censorship (Mehta, 1997).

1.4

Toward Political Integration

If the Cambodian government has articulated the rights of citizens, clarified democratic practice, established the rule of law, freed the media, and pursued other efforts dedicated to completing the country's democratic transition (for a fuller review, see Kato et al., 2000), the government has also undertaken reforms designed to facilitate the country's postcommunist political integration. Consider the structural adjustment regime that the Cambodian government agreed to in 1994 in order to reanimate membership in the International Monetary Fund. Signing the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility committed Cambodia generally to "creat[ing the] basic conditions for well functioning markets" (Cambodia Development Resource Institute, 1996b, p. 6). Among other reforms intended to decrease state expenditures and increase revenues, Cambodia agreed to reduce the size of the civil service. At that time, approximately 165,000 Cambodians were employed by the state. Most had automatically been absorbed into the civil service under communist-era policies guaranteeing the appointment of higher education graduates; earning on average $20 per month, all were poorly paid (Ayres, 2000; Kato et al., 2000; Peou, 2000). Due in part to reforms that have continued after the expiration of the structural adjustment agreement, state salaries increased to an average of $28 per month in 2002 (International Monetary Fund, 2003). Perhaps the most significant cluster of initiatives related to Cambodia's political integration in the 1990s involved the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. ASEAN was formed in 1967 by the heads of state of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand; Brunei joined the regional association in 1984 upon achieving independence from the United Kingdom. Signing the ASEAN Declaration on 8 August 1967, the original ASEAN members dedicated themselves to "accelerat[ing] economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region" and to "promot[ing] regional peace and stability" (cited in Shaftel, 2002). Though the position was not directly articulated in either the ASEAN Declaration or the 1976 Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, ASEAN additionally opposed the spread of communism in Southeast Asia, and this unstated requirement excluded revolutionary Burma, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam from membership (for discussion, see Lee, 2000). Before the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975, Cambodia occasionally attended ASEAN meetings as an observer, but made no formal application for membership (Shaftel, 2002).

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As the threat of communist spread waned in the region in the early 1990s, ASEAN initiated a drive to enroll the remaining four nations of Southeast Asia by the association's 30th anniversary in 1997. For these nations, ASEAN membership was perceived as offering both political and economic benefits: Each would "become more prominent as a member of the region and the world community of nations"; at the same time, "participation in [the ASEAN Free Trade Area would] facilitate and accelerate . . . trade and investment [with and] from ASEAN countries" (United Nations Development Programme, 1996, annex 2, p. 4). Burma, Laos, and Vietnam joined the association in the mid-1990s. Cambodia signed the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia on 28 July 1995 and, over the course of the next few years, prepared for full membership in ASEAN (Norodom, 1995). Among other things, the government created the National ASEAN Secretariat and established ASEAN departments in ministries such as Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries; Commerce; Economy and Finance; and Justice (Kaplan, 399817). The ASEAN Department at the Ministry of Economy and Finance developed lists of items to be included in and excluded from the ASEAN Free Trade Area tariff reduction scheme, to which the country would accede upon joining the regional association (Kun, 1998). Beyond these and other specific initiatives undertaken in anticipation of membership (for thorough discussions, see Kato, 2001; You, 2001), the Cambodian government also began projects aimed at harmonizing the country's accounting and legal systems with those used by ASEAN member states. In 1993, the Cambodian Ministry Economy and Finance had adopted the French Plan Cornptable General (General Accounting Plan) as the accounting system "applicable to all sectors of the economy" (Godden, 2000, p. 30; also see Ogden, 1994). As Cambodia moved toward ASEAN membership, however, problems with this accounting decision became apparent. Notably, "all ASEAN states, not to mention the rest of Asia and most of the world, use an international accounting system [that is] unrelated to and incompatible with the French system" (Tulkork, 1994, p. 2). By 1999, Cambodians had come to see that this incompatibility would negatively impact the county's economic integration in the region, and the Ministry of Economy and Finance began studying the adoption of the accounting system used by ASEAN member states. This system, the International Accounting Standards, was officially adopted in 2001 (interview with Thao Sokmuny, 2001). During and immediately after the colonial period, Cambodia subscribed to French civil law, a legal tradition extending back to the jus civile,the civil law of the Roman Empire (Apple & Deyling, 1995; Rendall, 1999). Early in the 1990s, the Cambodian Ministry of Justice reinstituted this system as the legal foundation of the Kingdom of Cambodia (Tulkork, 1994). Problems


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began to arise with this decision, however, as the country commenced international integration, for while most of continental Europe and most former colonies of European powers use civil law, the United Kingdom and its former colonies (including the United States) subscribe to a different tradition, common law. Importantly, ASEAN member states base their legal systems on common law. The civil and common law systems are quite dissimilar, even "antithetical," in relation to matters such as the comprehensiveness of codes, the reasoning style of lawyers, the structure of the courts, and the trial process (Apple & Deyling, 1995, p. 35; also see David & Brierley, 1985). As one informant explained more generally, "common law concepts . . . are so different from the concepts in the French legal system" as to cause difficulties for individuals who work across systems (interview with Marie Bussi-Galloway, 2000). The antithetical nature of Cambodia's legal system in relation to that of other ASEAN states erected significant hurdles to the establishment of regional relationships, particularly economic. In order to eliminate this hurdle and "harmoniz[e] laws and procedures, especially in connection with the strengthening of trade," Cambodia made the decision in the mid-1990s to adopt the common law system for use internationally, but to retain civil law for domestic functions (Kaplan, 1998a, p. 51). A ranking official at the Ministry of Commerce explained this decision to me in an interview in 2000: For domestic law-civil, criminal, family-we will use the French civil law system. Because these are domestic issues, we do not need to interface with other countries and other legal systems. If an investor breaks the law in Cambodia, we can put him in jail with French criminal law. For commercial law, however, Cambodia will use the common law system, because we will be trading with ASEAN countries, which also use this legal system. (interview with Sok Siphana, 2000; also see Sok, 1998)

1.5

Practicing Democracy

After the events of 5-6 July 1997, the Cambodian government announced that elections would be held on the five-year schedule dictated by the constitution, in 1998. Following periods of registration and campaigning, polling took place on 26-27 July 1998. When the votes were counted, Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party had won 41.4 percent of the votes and sent 64 representatives to the 122-seat National Assembly. Forty-three F U N C W E C candidates were elected to the assembly with 31.7 percent of the ballots. Fourteen percent of Cambodians cast ballots for the Sam Rainsy Party, and 15 members of this party earned seats in the assembly (Peou, 2000). Peou (2000) examines the 1998 election in considerable detail,

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concluding that "despite some political intimidation and violence" it was generally free and fair, and that the Cambodian People's Party "did not appear to have engineered the election to its absolute advantage" (p. 328). On 25 November 1998, Hun Sen and Norodom Ranariddh established a new coalition government, with Hun Sen as prime minister, Ranariddh as chairman of the National Assembly, and CPP's Chea Sim as chairman of the Senate, a new legislative body established to review legislation approved in the National Assembly (Kato et al., 2000). Given that the victory of Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party in 1998 reaffirmed the outcome of the 1997 coup (it also presaged the CPP's subsequent victory in the 2003 general election), Peou (2000) wonders if Cambodia is "becoming a pseudo- [or] 'Asian-style' democracy" in which the government gives lip service to democracy but, being dominated by a single party and a single leader, is in reality little more than a dictatorship (p. 290). The significant efforts to consolidate democracy in the mid-1990s militate against this conclusion, however, as do the vitality of the multiparty system in Cambodia, the significant share of votes received by parties in opposition to the CPP, and the continuing necessity of the CPP to govern in coalition with other parties after consistently failing to capture a simple majority of votes. It might be more accurate, therefore, to understand the 1998 election and the establishment of the second CPP-FUNCINPEC governing coalition as a recommitment by Cambodians of all political persuasions to democratic practice and the realization of the political transition that had begun with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1991. Certainly this latter interpretation was widely shared, for the second election of the democratic period in Cambodia was greeted with general satisfaction by the international community, and the government subsequently formed on the basis of that election was welcomed into that community. China immediately accepted the findings of international observers that no significant irregularities had "distorted the will of the Cambodian voters" and lauded the election results, as did the European Union, Japan, and Vietnam (cited in Peou, 2000, pp. 400-401). Initially, the United States expressed doubts about the fairness of the election; after the formation of the new governing coalition, however, the United States revised its position and announced that it welcomed the CPP-FUNCINPEC government. The United Nations accepted the election results in the days following the balloting and, in an important international validation for the subsequently formed coalition government, voted on 4 December 1998 to seat its representatives in the General Assembly (Peou, 2000). Finally, the democratic election of the new government satisfied ASEAN of Cambodia's readiness for membership. On one hand, it may have been the


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election's demonstration of democracy that earned membership for Cambodia in this regional organization; though never stated officially, "all indications from ASEAN were that preconditions for membership were free and fair elections followed by the establishment of a coalition" (Shaftel, 2002). On the other hand, it may simply have been the commitment to peace, stability, and nonviolent governmental succession-as required of ASEAN members by the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation and as illustrated by the democratic election-that earned Cambodia's membership. Regardless, after certifying the integrity of the election and observing the formation of the new government, at the Hanoi Summit in December 1998 ASEAN voted in favor of admitting Cambodia. With committees already in place and systems already harmonized, Cambodia officially joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on 30 April 1999 (Kato, 2001).

2.

POLITICAL CHANGE AND LANGUAGE

2.1

The Political Context for Language Choice

With the signing of the Paris Peace Accords and the deployment of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia in 1991, Cambodia began a transition from communism to democracy. The democratic election of the first coalition government in 1993 quickly earned Cambodia recognition by nations and invitations to participate in organizations from which the country had previously been isolated. To many in the international community, the violence of 5-6 July 1997 evidenced a failure of Cambodia's political transition, and their response-illustrated most clearly by the decision of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to delay Cambodia's planned accession in 1997-negatively impacted the country's international political integration. A reinvigoration of efforts to consolidate democracy following the coup, coupled with specific reforms directed toward international political participation, preceded Cambodia's second exercise in democratic practice, the national election of 1998. With the formation of a new coalition government late in that year, the international community welcomed Cambodia once again, and the country's political integration advanced, most notably with successful admission to ASEAN in early 1999. Cambodians make language decisions in particular contexts. Given the history discussed in this chapter, what is the political context for language choice? To begin, how has the transition from communism to democracy impacted Cambodian language choice, and what impact on language choice has international political integration precipitated? More specifically, what language demands have the two organizations associated with Cambodia's

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transition and integration-the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)--introduced to Cambodia? Even as UNTAC and ASEAN bracket the decade of the 1990s for Cambodia, so too do the political processes associated with them frame an important period of democratic consolidation and practice in the country. Additionally, then, how have the consolidation and practice of democracy impacted language choice in Cambodia? Because my purpose is to sketch the political context for language choice, the discussion that follows focuses on the decisions that impact Cambodians' language choices; I discuss the language choices made within this political context in Chapter Seven. One aspect of Cambodia's political history I do not discuss in this chapter is the commencement of bi- and multilateral assistance that has accompanied the country's political changes since 1991. I return to the subject of international assistance and the context it creates for Cambodian language choice in the next chapter.

2.2

Methods and Data

I gathered data about the political context for language choice as a personal observer of events, through interviews or correspondence with Cambodians and international informants who worked in the country in the 1990s, and by reference to Cambodian government documents such as the constitution and the Law on Nationality. Specifically in relation to UNTAC, I collected some data as a resident in Cambodia at the beginning of the United Nations mission. I arrived in Cambodia one month before the signing of the Paris Peace Accords, in September 1991, to direct an English language program for the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo at a nongovernmental organization, the Cambodia Development Resource Institute. Working in Phnom Penh for the next year, I witnessed the arrival of the United Nations and the monumental changes, including those related to language, that this massive organization brought to Cambodia. I supplemented information gathered then and documented in reports to SUNY Buffalo through more recent exchanges with individuals who either lived in Cambodia during the UNTAC period or worked with the United Nations in the country at that time, as well as through published studies and commentary about the period. I returned to Cambodia for a six-month stay as a Fulbright scholar in January 2000. Cambodia had only recently joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and this event considered by many to be the most significant political development of the decade emerged as a consistent theme in interviews with Cambodians and expatriates. I had the opportunity


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to interview several of these informants again during a brief visit to Cambodia in September 2001. In these latter interviews, informants confirmed the trends and directions about ASEAN and language that they had previously suggested to me immediately after the country's accession to the regional political association.

2.3

Language Demands of Political Change for Cambodians

The political developments in Cambodia since 1991 have introduced two distinct demands for language skills to Cambodians. The country's political transition and international integration were supervised and authorized by groups outside the country, and these groups-notably the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-almost exclusively required or require English language skills of Cambodians. The consolidation and practice of democracy at the national level, on the other hand, requires only that Cambodians know and use Khmer.

2.3.1

Language Demands of Political Transition

The United Nations Transitional Authority brought more than 20,000 people to Cambodia to prepare for the election and, more generally, to facilitate the country's transition from communism to democracy. Steven Heder and Judy Ledgerwood (1996) comment that this enormous group was far from homogenous, but in fact would better be understood as a complex geography of smaller, sometimes-intersecting, sometimes-segregated "national, cultural, political, ideological, governmental, professional, personal, and emotional" groups (p. 29). The complex geography of UNTAC can also be illustrated with reference to language. Consider the single largest component of the mission, the military. Among the 34 nations that sent soldiers to Cambodia between 1991 and 1993, France, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Pakistan each sent more than 1,000. More than 600 were seconded to Cambodia by Australia, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Ghana, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Thailand, Tunisia, and Uruguay. Canada, China, Germany, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom each sent more than 100 soldiers (United Nations, 1995). Among these 15,991 soldiers were speakers of dozens-perhaps hundreds-of native languages, numerous regional languages, and several international languages or languages of wider communication. Of course, this linguistic diversity extended beyond the military, to all components of the UNTAC mission. Cognizant of the needs for communication within UNTAC, the United

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Nations debated language policy in New York before deployment to Cambodia. According to Nate Thayer (1993), France originally insisted that French be named the official language of the mission and "became embroiled . . . with other architect countries of the peace agreementv-China, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the six contemporaneous nations of ASEAN-over the subject of language. The issue "continued to be a source of rancor" for the French after it was ultimately decided that both English and French would serve as official languages of UNTAC (Thayer, 1993, p. 16). Certainly this language policy decision did not mean that all 20,000 UNTAC personnel could speak English and French. Ln fact, as Michael Doyle (1995) points out, some could speak neither language. Nor did it mean that all UNTAC components operating in all quarters of the country used both English and French; while French was used widely in Kampot Province (secured by French soldiers) and in the Civil Administration Component (which tended to be "dominated by French [administrators]"), English was more frequently spoken elsewhere (John Marston, personal communication, 30 September 2003). Indeed, despite the language policy decision made in New York in 1991 and the nominal equality of English and French that it declared, English quickly to rose to dominance in UNTAC. Gilles Carasso, the director of Coopkration Franpise in Cambodia in 1993, commented on this shift that occurred early in the United Nations transitional period. "French and English are the working languages of UNTAC," Carasso began. "Progressively, however, French has been marginalized" (cited in Laverne, 1993b, p. 5). For Grant Curtis, who served as senior program officer for UNTAC's Rehabilitation and Economic Affairs Component, this shift culminated in a de facto English language policy for the mission. "Most of UNTAC's day-to-day operations were in English," Curtis remembers. "I don't recall going to very many French-only meetings" (personal communication, 24 October 2003). One does not have to look very far to explain this phenomenon. According to former UNTAC interpreter Vonthanak Saphonn, "most of the United Nations staff spoke English," and the discovery of this common language in 1991 had the effect of redefining mission language policy, if unofficially (personal communication, 1 October 2003). This redefinition of language policy had a marked effect on language demands for Cambodians hired by UNTAC. Very few United Nations personnel in Cambodia could speak Khmer. Given this linguistic reality, Grant Curtis explains, the United Nations realized from the outset that "Cambodians working with UNTAC [would have] to have foreign language skills" (personal communication, 24 October 2003). In the days before mission deployment, United Nations personnel surveyed Phnom Penh to assess Cambodian skills in the mission's official languages. According to an


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internal United Nations memo from that period, in early autumn 1991 the United Nations anticipated that 70 percent of Cambodians hired would need to have English language skills, whereas 30 percent would need to have skills in French (Deasey, 1991). Several informants suggest that this anticipated proportion underestimated actual demand for English in UNTAC. "UNTAC mostly wanted English speakers," a former Cambodian employee of the transitional authority told me in 2000 (interview with Pen Bory, 2000). While "all . . . of the administrative staff hired by UNTAC [were] required [to have] some knowledge of either English or French," Curtis recalls, considerably "more [were required to know] English than French" (personal communication, 24 October 2003). In total, more than 60,000 Cambodians worked for the United Nations at some point during the two-year mission; most needed some degree of proficiency in English. Some served within the UNTAC administration. For Cambodians employed as drivers, guards, and guides for international personnel, basic English skills sufficed; for those working as receptionists, secretaries, and office personnel, "an intermediate standard of English" was required (Deasey, 1991, p. 3). Another category of Cambodians worked to facilitate communication between UNTAC personnel and Cambodians who could not speak English. Some of these latter employees interpreted "between UNTAC staff and Cambodian counterparts" in the administration of key government offices, the repatriation of refugees, and the demobilization of the armed forces; they were required to bring a "sophisticated command of English" to their work (Deasey, 1991, p. 3). Others were hired by UNTAC's Electoral Component in the months leading up to the 1993 election. Cambodians attached to the Electoral Component drew on diverse language skills in their work with UNTAC personnel to explain the process of electoral democracy to Cambodians, to register voters, to monitor polling stations, and to count ballots (Heder & Ledgerwood, 1996; Shaw, 1993). Before the deployment of the mission to Cambodia in 1991, the United Nations explored the possibility of training local Cambodians in English and French for UNTAC employment. A United Nations team approached several educational institutions in the region to discuss the provision of language instruction to more than 2,000 Cambodians; one organization, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, developed a proposal for the first three months of such training (interview with Simone Alcorso, 1991). Ultimately, however, it was decided to hire Cambodians who already had language skills sufficient for employment with UNTAC. Many of those who had high-level language skills and who could thus translate documents and interpret between UNTAC and Cambodian counterparts arrived from expatriate communities in Australia, France, Thailand, and the United States (Supote Prasertsri, personal communication,

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1 October 2003). Cambodians with language skills sufficient to other tasks could be found in Cambodia, often working in government service. In fact, so many Cambodians left their government jobs to work for UNTAC that a "serious curtailment of basic services" resulted (Curtis, 1998, p. 9). In a few cases, UNTAC took the proactive step of training Cambodians for mission language needs. The Australian Centre for Education (ACE), for instance, contracted with the United Nations in late 1992 and early 1993 to provide English language training for some employees; ACE gave 20-hour English courses to Cambodian "interpreters, translators, and office staff' in groups of 20 in Phnom Penh and several other cities (Raaj Singh, personal communication, 29 October 2003). The French military offered some French language training for Cambodian UNTAC employees in Kampot Province (Mathieu GuCrin, personal communication, 30 September 2003). Finally, the Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI) taught English classes for UNTAC. This nongovernmental organization dedicated to training and research was founded by an American aid worker in May 1990 with primary funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. The State University of New York at Buffalo contracted to establish and administer the English Language Training center at CDRI beginning in 1991. In early 1993, SUNY Buffalo ran two 160-hour English language courses at CDRI for a total of 48 Cambodians who would work with United Nations observers in monitoring the May 1993 election (Nay Chhuon, personal communication, 12 October 2003; Shaw, 1993). As these few and scattered examples illustrate, language training for UNTAC was not common. Rather, as Grant Curtis concludes, Cambodians themselves "rose to the challenge [and] opportunity" of the United Nations Transitional Authority by supplying their own skills in mission languages, particularly English (personal communication, 24 October 2003).

2.3.2

Language Demands of Political Integration

If the 1990s began for Cambodia with a political transition supervised by the United Nations, the decade ended with the country's successful international political integration, most clearly illustrated by entry into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 1999. This regional organization brings together diverse language communities. Among the 550 million residents of Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam can be found speakers of myriad native languages (Chong, Hmong, and Javanese, for example), many national languages (Bahasa Indonesia, Thai, and Vietnamese, for instance), and several regional languages of wider communication (varieties of Chinese and Malay in particular). With the exception of Thailand, the countries of the


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region had endured colonization and as a result had experienced greater or lesser exposure to colonial languages-Dutch in Indonesia; English in Brunei, Burma, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore; and French in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. As the regional association coalesced in the late 1960s, the original five members made a somewhat unusual language policy decision. Whereas international organizations like the United Nations and the European Union facilitated communication by providing simultaneous translation and producing official documents in multiple languages, ASEAN would use only English. In ASEAN, discussion and debate take place in English, with no official translation service. Further, documents are prepared only in English; members attach their signatures to even the most significant texts-the ASEAN Declaration and the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, for example-produced only in English. Though English may have carried negative connotations in the 1960s for those member states just emerging from British colonialism, Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew argued that policies for the new organization not be based "on religious, linguistic, or ideological exclusiveness" (cited in Solidum, 1974, pp. 58-59). Lee's advocacy for the linguistic non-exclusivity of English may have responded to or anticipated efforts by members of the declining Greater Malay Confederation to privilege the Malay language (on this confederation, see Palmer & Reckford, 1987). Indeed, as late as 2003, Malay advocates campaigned unsuccessfully for the recognition of Malay as an official language of ASEAN along with English (Yahya, 2003). In choosing not to translate debate or documents into multiple national languages, ASEAN passes responsibility for successful communication to member states, which must nominate representatives to the regional organization who are capable of speaking and reading English. ASEAN membership thus registers a distinct linguistic requirement for member states. In order to appreciate the magnitude of this requirement, we must first appreciate the magnitude of the organization. In early years, regional issues were discussed in annual meetings of ASEAN's foreign ministers. Following United Nations recommendations presented in 1972, 11 permanent committees were established within ASEAN in such areas as agriculture, culture, and economics, and the number of annual meetings increased substantially (Palmer & Reckford, 1987). Today, ASEAN's continually expanding committee structure organizes "an intensive schedule of meetings throughout the year" (Kaplan, 1998b, p. 24). According to Jeffrey Kaplan (1 998b), ASEAN convenes or participates in over 300 meetings [annually]. Not surprisingly, economic-related meetings, both at the political and technical level, form a large proportion of these meetings. For example, senior

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Chapter 3 economic officials typically meet four times each year to discuss . . . policy issues, technical cooperation and preparations for the yearly ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting. In addition, a variety of technical meetings are held regularly, between ASEAN customs officials, for example, or a working group drafting a new ASEAN tariff nomenclature. ( P 24)

As Kaplan (1998b) correctly points out, ASEAN meetings cover not only economic matters but "every area of ASEAN cooperation and interest," and they involve not only Cambodian ministries with economic portfolios but ministries with other regional cooperation interests (p. 24). The Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, for instance, participates in five ASEAN committees: Culture and Information, Youth and Sport, Drugs, the Environment, and Science and Technology (interview with Om Sethy, 2000). In addition, the Royal University of Phnom Penh participates in ASEAN as a member of the ASEAN University Network, a group formed in 1995 to "strengthen the existing network of cooperation among universities in ASEAN by promoting collaborative study and research programmes on the priority areas identified by ASEAN" (ASEAN University Network, 2000a, p. 5). Each of these committee obligations may require participation in multiple meetings annually. In 2000, for example, the ASEAN University Network organized a conference for university rectors (in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 26-27 January), convened an educational forum (in Brunei, 1527 May), and held a meeting of its board of trustees (in Langkawi, Malaysia, 5-6 June; interview with Pit Chamnan, 2000). Beyond regular committee work that a relatively restricted group of ministry personnel undertakes, ASEAN additionally organizes conferences, exchange programs, and educational opportunities for diverse participants from member states. In September 2001, for instance, the organization hosted the ASEAN Legal Systems and Regional Integration Conference at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur; the dean of the Faculty of Law and Economics in Phnom Penh attended this conference dedicated to "supporting the process of regional cooperation and integration through a better structured and conducive legal framework within ASEAN countries" (conference materials, cited by Yuok Ngoy, 2001). A two-week ASEAN student exchange program in July 2000 provided opportunities for seven Cambodian high school students to travel to Malaysia, meet students from other ASEAN nations, and "get to know each others' cultures" (interview with Om Sethy, 2000). Most ASEAN conferences and exchange programs operate on a "cost-sharing" basis, though ASEAN does offer some scholarships. The National University of Singapore, for instance, administers both short- and long-term scholarships intended "to prepare the next generation of


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leaders in ASEAN" (interview with Nay Chhuon, 2000; also see ASEAN University Network, 2000b). All these and many, many more committee meetings, conferences, and exchanges within ASEAN use English as the language of communication. This language practice has introduced what one ministry official termed "tremendous pressure" in Cambodia (interview with Chem Vijia, 2000; for a comparative discussion, see MacLeod & Sithirajvongsa, 1997). Simply put, Cambodian representatives to ASEAN must know English. To date, Cambodia has enjoyed considerable, though not complete, success in answering this requirement and thus participating effectively in the regional organization. In many cases, representatives with sufficient English language skills have been available to undertake appropriate tasks. The English-speaking rector of the Royal University of Phnom Penh, for example, participates as a delegate to the ASEAN University Network, and an English professor from the Institute of Foreign Languages attended the network's educational forum in Brunei in May 2000 (interview with Pit Chamnan, 2000). An Englishspeaking history professor and university administrator has joined both the ASEAN Vision Group and the East Asian Vision Group, a forum of ASEAN, Chinese, Japanese, and South Korean eminent persons (interview with Sorn Samnang, 2000). In other cases, however, it has proved difficult to find Cambodians with the right combination of knowledge and language skills for ASEAN participation. As of 2000, for instance, the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport had named representatives to only two of its five ASEAN committee obligations. When I asked about the credentials needed for the outstanding posts, one official explained that locating people with appropriate knowledge posed no difficulty, but that "the language requirement is demanding" (interview with Om Sethy, 2000). Other ministries have chosen ASEAN representatives based on their English language skills rather than their appropriateness for participation. According to another official, at least some of these representatives "have little interest or expertise" in the work of the committees to which they are assigned (interview with Chhieng Yanara, 2000). In yet other situations, Cambodians with appropriate expertise attend meetings, but they are unable to participate fully due to inadequate English language skills. "We need to know English so we can be actively involved in discussions," the secretary of state for the Ministry of Commerce cautioned (interview with Sok Siphana, 2000). In 2000, the rector of the Royal University of Phnom Penh concluded his interview with me by commenting that "language remains one of the main problems for us" in terms of political integration into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (interview with Pit Chamnan, 2000). Some progress appears to have been made toward solving this problem. When I

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inquired about ASEAN participation in 2001, I learned that representatives with appropriate knowledge and language skills had been named to all five ASEAN committees in which the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport was slated to participate (interview with Om Sethy, 2001).

2.3.3

Language Demands of Democratic Consolidation and Practice

Cambodia's democratic transition began in 1991 with the arrival of the United Nations Transitional Authority. The country took a significant step toward international integration in 1999 upon entry into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Both of these political processes have demanded English language skills of Cambodians by way of the organizations associated with them. The result intended by transition and required for integration, however, has not. That is, Cambodians have continued to consolidate and practice democracy in the country exclusively in the Khmer language. In the period following the first election, the Constituent Assembly drafted the constitution, which was promulgated in September 1993. According to Article Five of the constitution, "The official language and script [of the Kingdom of Cambodia] are Khmer" (cited in Peou, 2000, p. 466). The Khmer language is similarly privileged in the 1996 Law on Nationality, which includes among other requirements for citizenship "know[ledge of] Khmer language [and] Khmer script (cited in Peou, 2000, p. 189). Certainly the national language policy articulated in these documents does not mean that no language other than Khmer can be used for governmental functions; indeed, as we will see in subsequent chapters, many documents published under the authority of government ministries are written in English, and French serves as the language of instruction in several public universities. What this language policy does mean, however, is that the government generally operates in the Khmer language, and that citizens generally exercise their political rights and responsibilities in this language. More specifically, it was in Khmer that members of the Constituent Assembly debated and approved the constitution in 1993, and it was in Khmer that this document laying the foundation for democracy in the country was drafted and published. Khmer has continued to serve legislative functions in Cambodia after the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly. Representatives to the National Assemblies formed with coalition governments in 1993 and 1998 deliberate on legislation in Khmer; the laws they pass about elections, nationality, political parties, the media, and so on enter the legal code in Khmer; and the legal reform these laws together constitute is made transparent to Cambodians in Khmer. Moving from Cambodia's legislative assemblies to the process by which they are determined, candidates and political


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parties campaign for votes in Khmer, Cambodian citizens congregate on election day at polling stations staffed by Khmer-speaking election officers, voters enter their democratic choices on Khmer-language ballots, and the results of elections are announced by national, provincial, and commune election committees in Khmer. Against this litany of utility, it may not be necessary to state the obvious: that Cambodians have not found it necessary to use English or other foreign languages in order to consolidate and practice democracy. While foreign languages have certainly been used in bi- and multilateral assistance initiatives dedicated to the dissemination of ideas related to democracy (as I discuss in subsequent chapters), the Khmer language has proved perfectly sufficient to the democratic projects undertaken by Cambodian legislators and voters.

3.

TRENDS AND DIRECTIONS IN POLITICS AND LANGUAGE

In 1991, Cambodia began a transition from communism to democracy under supervision by the United Nations Transitional Authority. According to one commentator, the arrival of the United Nations brought "vast changes" to the political context in which Cambodians make language choices (Leong, 2000, p. 16). Though nominally equal with French, English quickly gained prominence as the preferred language of communication in UNTAC's complex geography; this unofficial language policy carried forward into the language demands made on the many thousands of Cambodians hired between 1991 and 1993 to work in UNTAC administration or between UNTAC and Cambodian counterparts. For Eric de Laverne (1993a), the language preference of UNTAC heralded nothing short of a new linguistic era in Cambodia: the era of English. Writing in November 1993 in the French-language newspaper Le Mekong, Laverne (1993a) commented that the "arrival of UNTAC . . . permitted the establishment of English" in the country. After the mission's departure, he concluded, "English seems to have installed itself in an irrevocable manner" (p. 6). The new linguistic era that Laverne (1993a) associates with the country's democratic transition has been advanced by some, though not all, subsequent political processes. On one hand, Cambodians have used the Khmer language quite successfully for national political purposes, notably in the consolidation of democracy by the Constituent and National Assemblies and in the practice of democracy by politicians and citizens alike. On the other hand, political integration into the post-Cold War world has accelerated the demand for English and reinforced the new linguistic era. In this chapter, I

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have illustrated Cambodia's international political integration by reference to the country's entry into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. This organization dedicated to regional security and economic vitality uses English as the official language in all its documents, as well as in its hundreds of annual committee meetings, conferences, and exchanges. Responding to the tremendous pressure created by ASEAN's language preference, Cambodian officials have worked and continue to work to locate representatives with configurations of expertise and language skill appropriate to participation in specific ASEAN venues. With the exception of a few scattered classes in English and French offered for Cambodian employees of the United Nations in the early 1990s, UNTAC and ASEAN have generally passed responsibility for communication to Cambodians. That is to say, these organizations have made language policy decisions and then expected Cambodians to reorganize their skills in response. Cambodians' affirmative response to the language demands of UNTAC and ASEAN anticipates the issue of language choice that I discuss in detail in Chapter Seven. For the moment, however, consider the question that a negative response would have introduced: Had Cambodians not acquired or improved their English language skills for employment and participation in UNTAC and ASEAN, would the country have succeeded in democratic transition and international integration? At first glance, it is almost impossible to imagine how Cambodia could have accomplished these political processes without the English language skills of some Cambodians. Without the thousands of Cambodians with varying degrees of proficiency in English, for instance, UNTAC would have been severely handicapped in its efforts to initiate political change in the country. Lacking Cambodian guards, drivers, and office staff capable of communicating in English, the United Nations would have found it considerably more difficult to operate in the country. More important, without the English-Khmer bilinguals who facilitated communication between UNTAC personnel and Cambodian counterparts, significant hurdles would have been erected to the administration of key government offices, the demobilization of warring factions, and the repatriation of refugees. Perhaps most important, without bilingual Cambodians attached to UNTAC's Electoral Component, the centerpiece of the transition-the election itself--could have been jeopardized. Similarly, international political integration would have been inhibited had Cambodians not been able to read the English-language treaties required for accession to ASEAN, to negotiate tariff reductions in English in anticipation of entering the ASEAN Free Trade Area, and to otherwise participate in the hundreds of English-language ASEAN committees, conferences, and exchanges dedicated to regional cooperation, stability, and prosperity.


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Despite the trend suggested by Cambodian history, however, the association between English and political change falls well short of dependency. That is, though it is hard to see how the United Nations could have functioned in Cambodia and how Cambodia could function in ASEAN without English as a mediating communication tool, democratic transition and political integration cannot be said to have depended on that language. The use of French in UNTAC, no matter how marginalized, militates against such a strong conclusion. Indeed, one could argue that political transition could not have occurred in Kampot Province had sufficient numbers of Cambodians there not known French and thus been able to assist French soldiers in the performance of their duties. Certainly Cambodia's political integration into ASEAN depends on the English language skills of delegates and conferees, but entry into ASEAN, no matter how important, is but one example of the country's post-Cold War international political integration. Political integration has also brought the Kingdom of Cambodia into the United Nations, and this organization does not require English language skills of members-though in fact the Cambodian Mission to the United Nations has chosen to use English as its official language (Lestari Boediono, personal communication, 13 July 2004). Thus, it seems appropriate merely to note the strong association between English and certain political processes in Cambodia since 1991. At this point, we can also begin to note cumulative associations or correlations regarding language and change in Cambodia. Notably, English appears to be related-though not exclusively so-to those change processes that require interaction or communication outside national borders, whereas Khmer functions widely in relation to change within those borders. As we saw in the previous chapter, it is when economic transition leads to integration in the region and beyond that Khmer gives way to other languages, English in particular. As we have seen in this chapter, English has been integrally connected to the country's political transition and integration, while Khmer has provided the language for democratic consolidation and practice. As we shall see in the discussion of international assistance that begins in the next chapter, however, this pattern does not hold in all contexts in Cambodia.

Chapter 4

THE ASSISTANCE CONTEXT FOR LANGUAGE CHOICE Employment

1.

ASSISTANCE HISTORY

1.1

International Assistance Since 1979

During the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979), Cambodia suffered terribly. Hundreds of thousands of people died in Democratic Kampuchea, many of them the educated Cambodians who had previously staffed the country's ministries, hospitals, and schools. Further, the country's physical infrastructure was severely damaged in the attempt by the Khmer Rouge to create an agrarian, socialist utopia. When the Vietnamese ultimately drove the Khmer Rouge from power, Cambodia thus faced tremendous challenges. According to one eyewitness, in 1979 there existed "no currency, no markets, no financial institutions," "the roads were damaged and unrepaired," and there was "virtually no electricity, clean water, sanitation or education" (Mysliwiec, 1988, p. 11). Worse, many of the people who might have known how to repair or reopen these systems and institutions were dead (for discussions of the period, see Chandler, 1993; Clayton, 2000; Shawcross, 1984; Vickery, 1984). For a two-year period, the international community responded generously to Cambodians' most immediate needs, notably to the famine that threatened as a result of the Khmer Rouge's failed agricultural policies. From 1979 to 1981, various United Nations agencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and about 50 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) channeled

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$335 million in emergency assistance to Cambodia. In 1982, however, the United States led most Western nations to impose an embargo on development assistance to the country in reaction to the continuing Vietnamese occupation. During the subsequent embargo period, assistance agencies with "emergency" mandates such as the United Nations' Children's Fund (UNICEF) and World Food Programme were allowed to work in the country, while agencies with "development" mandates such the Development Programme (UNDP) and the Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) were not (Charny, 1984; Mysliwiec, 1988). This distinction meant, for instance, that the international community would respond to the emergency by providing food and drilling wells, but would not work to sustain development by supplying the tools or training required to grow the food or to maintain the wells. As Eva Mysliwiec (1988) concludes, this policy "goes against the adage: 'Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, give him a fishing net and he will eat for the rest of his life,"' in that it "prohibits the giving of that fishing net" (p. 76). Even as the United States and the West inhibited the development of Cambodia under Vietnamese influence by withholding aid, Soviet-bloc nations provided significant assistance for this purpose throughout the 1980s (Haas, 1991). With approximately $80 million per year, the Soviet Union worked to repair port facilities, rehabilitate electrical systems, build roads, and restore agricultural production. East Germany provided about $5 million in development assistance to Cambodia each year, much of it to hospitals (Mysliwiec, 1988). Vietnam directed $25 million annually to Cambodia, though the majority of these funds supported the occupying army, which at its peak reached 220,000. Additionally, Vietnam seconded thousands of advisors to the government of the People's Republic of Kampuchea. Today, we would label this latter form of aid "technical assistance," as it was dedicated to building Cambodians' capacity to manage the country independently. Finally, a small number of Western NGOs, closely controlled by the communist government and its Vietnamese advisors, administered programs in the country in the 1980s; in 1986, for example, 27 NGOs with a combined budget of $10 million worked in Cambodia (Mysliwiec, 1988). Despite these efforts, Cambodia was still one of the least developed countries in the world in 1989, when the Western development embargo began to loosen. In that year, Soviet aid slowed, the Vietnamese withdrew, and the government of the renamed State of Cambodia accelerated the transitions that would lead to the market economy and liberal democracy. Even before the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1991 or the election of the first coalition government in 1993, Western nations began to provide development assistance to Cambodia, mostly through United Nations agencies and nongovernmental organizations. The United Nations Develop-

4. Assistance Context for Language Choice: Employment

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ment Programme opened a liaison office in Phnom Penh in 1990, at about the same time the United Nations' World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization began work in the country. The number of nongovernmental organizations in Cambodia expanded with international support during this same period, reaching 60 in 1991 (Cambodia Development Resource Institute, 1992). At the end of that year, $91 million in Western assistance was being channeled to Cambodia through these various organizations (Bernander, Charny, Eastmond, Lindahl, & Ojendal, 1995). For all intents and purposes, the embargo ended with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in October 1991. Shortly after the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) arrived in the country to begin planning the democratic election of 1993, the major donor nations and organizations of the post-Cold War world met in Tokyo at the Ministerial Conference on the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of Cambodia. At this June 1992 conference, donors pledged $880 million in assistance to Cambodia and established the International Committee for the Reconstruction of Cambodia (ICORC) "as a mechanism for aid coordination beyond the term of the United Nations Transitional Authority" (McAndrew, 1996, p. 13). At subsequent ICORC meetings in Paris and Tokyo between 1993 and 1995, donors pledged an additional $1.3 billion. Beginning in 1996, meetings of the Consultative Group replaced the ICORC conferences (McAndrew, 1996). At Consultative Group meetings held annually (except 1998) in Tokyo, Paris, and Phnom Penh since 1996, donors pledged $3 billion for Cambodian rehabilitation. In total, donor nations and organizations promised more than $5 billion to Cambodian assistance initiatives between 1992 and 2001, and they have actually disbursed $4.1 billion for aid purposes (Council for the Development of Cambodia, 2002). In the following sections, I introduce the kinds of assistance agencies that are directing this aid to various purposes and sectors in Cambodia.

1.2

Contemporary Assistance to Cambodia

1.2.1

Sources of Assistance to Cambodia

Cambodia today receives assistance from four general types of aid agencies. BILATERALASSISTANCE AGENCIES. Bilateral assistance is aid given by wealthy, developed nations to poorer, developing countries as a line item in the national budgets of the donor nations. Of the $4.1 billion in aid disbursed in Cambodia between 1992 and 2001, $2.4 billion, or 58 percent, was provided bilaterally. Donor nations giving in excess of $100 million to Cambodia between 1992 and 2001 include Japan ($913 million), France

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($31 1 million), the United States ($300 million), Australia ($201 million), and Sweden ($149 million; Council for the Development of Cambodia, 2002). Typically, bilateral aid is administered by national development agencies such as the Japan International Cooperation Agency, Coopkration Franpise, the United States Agency for International Development, the Australian Agency for International Development, and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. Virtually all bilateral assistance to Cambodia comes in the form of grants, which means that bilateral aid is a gift that does not require repayment. MULTILATERALASSISTANCE AGENCIES. Individual nations may be members of multilateral organizations that themselves support assistance initiatives in developing countries. Examples of multilateral agencies working in Cambodia include the United Nations agencies (the Development Programme [UNDP], the Children's Fund [UNICEF], the Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization [UNESCO], the World Health Organization, and many others), the European Union, and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. Of the $4.1 billion in aid disbursed in Cambodia in the 1990s, multilateral agencies provided $695 million, or 17 percent, nearly all in the form of grants (Council for the Development of Cambodia, 2002). In general, member states contribute to the budgets of multilateral organizations, which then administer assistance initiatives. Ln 2001, for example, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States each gave more than $50 million to the United Nations Development Programme, with Japan's $96 million being the largest single contribution (United Nations Development Programme, 2002). France and Germany each contributed about €350 million to the European Union's Development Fund in 2001, with Italy and the United Kingdom each providing around €200 million (Commission of the European Communities, 2001). With Belgium and Canada, France underwrites the majority of international assistance initiatives for the 51 French-speaking states that make up the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie; in Cambodia, France funds virtually all Francophonie programming (interview with Paul Lambiotte, 2000). INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS. Individual nations may also hold memberships in international and regional financial institutions that, in turn, fund assistance work in developing nations. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were conceived at the United Nations conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944. These two Bretton Woods institutions are joined in Cambodia by the Asian Development Bank, founded in 1966. Of the $4.1 billion in assistance disbursed in Cambodia between 1992 and 2001, the three financial institutions contributed $682 million, or 17 percent of the total (Council for the


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Development of Cambodia, 2002). The capital available to financial institutions comes from quotas, or subscriptions, paid by member states. The United States holds the largest quota in the Bretton Woods institutions (17.6 percent in the International Monetary Fund, for example), followed by Japan (6.5 percent), Germany (6.2 percent), and France and the United Kingdom (5.1 percent each; International Monetary Fund, 2002). Japan and the United States hold the largest quotas in the Asian Development Bank (16 percent each), followed by China (6.5 percent), India (6.4 percent), and Australia (5.9 percent; Asian Development Bank, 2003b). Though they both bring together groups of nations into a single membership, international and regional financial institutions differ from multilateral organizations in several ways. First, as banks, they provide at least some assistance in the form of loans, rather than grants. In Cambodia, about half the total disbursements from the international and regional financial institutions (and all the funds disbursed by the International Monetary Fund) have been extended as loans (Council for the Development of Cambodia, 2002). The terms of such loans may be very generous to borrowers; structural adjustment loans from the International Monetary Fund carry a rate of 0.5 percent interest, repayable over 10 years, with a grace period of five-and-ahalf years (McAndrew, 1996). Additionally, financial institutions may impose conditions on the money they lend. In accepting structural adjustment loans, for example, recipient governments must agree to macroeconomic reforms intended, generally, to initiate or increase recipient nations' participation in the global economy. While the International Monetary Fund loans money to member states in need of relatively short-term economic assistance and focuses strictly on macroeconomic performance, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank provide loans as well as grants for development initiatives in multiple sectors, including but not limited to economy and finance (International Monetary Fund, 2002). ORGANIZATIONS. Nongovernmental organizations NONGOVERNMENTAL (NGOs) are nonprofit entities that engage in advocacy or development work with funds collected through individual or institutional donations. Typically, NGOs assist small groups of people at the grassroots level. Such agencies may be based in developed countries but work in developing nations. According to Carol Strickley of the Cooperation Committee for Cambodia (an umbrella organization for NGOs in Cambodia), approximately 130 of these "international" NGOs currently work in the country (interview, 2000). Some of these organizations have familiar names, such as Church World Service (based in the United States), Concern (Ireland), or Mkdecins Sans Frontikres (France). Less familiar may be Dan Church Aid (Denmark), Hilfswerk der Evangelischen Kirchen der Schweiz (Switzerland), and the International Volunteers of Yamaguchi (Japan). Additionally, some 300

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NGOs are based in Cambodia and work exclusively there (interview with Carol Strickley, 2000). Such "local" NGOs include the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, Khemara, and Mith Samlanh (Friends). Since the 1980s, when they played an important role in development during the Western embargo, NGOs have funded $338 million in assistance initiatives in Cambodia; their contributions, mostly from international NGOs, amount to eight percent of total disbursements since 1992 (Council for the Development of Cambodia, 2002).

1.2.2

Types of Assistance to Cambodia

Bilateral agencies, multilateral agencies, international and regional financial institutions, and nongovernmental organizations provide four general types of assistance in Cambodia. BUDGETARYAID AND BALANCE OF PAYMENTS SUPPORT. Cambodia, like many countries undergoing transition from a planned to a market economy, has experienced difficulty in meeting its financial obligations. Without structures yet in place to provide adequate government revenue (taxes on market activity, for example), the Cambodian government has found itself short of funds for national fiscal purposes (that is, facing a budget deficit) and for transactions with the rest of the world (balance of payments deficit). T o assist the government financially during economic transition, donors have stepped in with budgetary aid and balance of payments support. The $41 1 million allocated to such assistance since 1992 amounts to 10 percent of total aid disbursements to the country; 67 percent of this aid has been extended as loans (Council for the Development of Cambodia, 2002). Budgetary aid and balance of payments support has been provided by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, as well as by the governments of France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, and the United Kingdom (Council for the Development of Cambodia, 2002; Grube, 1998). Some agencies have supported Cambodia financially as part of structural adjustment programs. Cambodia entered into the first agreement of this sort in 1994, with the International Monetary Fund (also see Chapter Three). After Cambodia's $53 million in arrears to this financial institution were cleared by grants from Australia, Denmark, France, Japan, the Netherlands, and Sweden, the International Monetary Fund agreed to loan Cambodia $120 million under its Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (McAndrew, 1996). Funds were to be deposited in the National Bank in blocks of $20 million over three years to "to help ensure Cambodia had the foreign currency reserves needed for imports and international transactionsM-that is, to support the country's balance of payments (Grube, 1998, p. 5 ) . In accepting these loans, Cambodia agreed to meet "clear targets for reducing


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the budget deficit, for monetary and financial reforms, liberalisation of external trade and investment, and for public sector reform" (Kannan, 1997, p. 12). More specifically, Cambodia would increase government revenue by restructuring and improving the tax system and would decrease expenditures, particularly in relation to the military and the civil service (Kannan, 1997). Ultimately, the Cambodian government did not meet the expectations of the International Monetary Fund. For a variety of reasons (including "economic uncertainties, the absence of any formal social safety net, and slow private sector job creation"), the civil service actually expanded in the three years following the signing of the structural adjustment agreement, from 165,000 to 174,000 (International Monetary Fund, 2003, p. 27; Kato et al., 2000). Similarly, the Kingdom of Cambodia failed to reduce the size of the military or to apply the tax system fairly and uniformly (to the logging industry, for example). Dissatisfied with these results, the International Monetary Fund halted loans to Cambodia in 1996, after having disbursed only $60 million of the originally promised $120 million (Grube, 1998). Following the lead of its sister Bretton Woods institution, the World Bank suspended aid to Cambodia in 1996. After a period of inactivity, in 1999 both financial institutions initiated new conditional loan programs in Cambodia (Council for the Development of Cambodia, 2002). FOOD, EMERGENCY, AND RELIEF ASSISTANCE. According to the United Nations Development Programme, aid of this type includes "resources aimed at immediately relieving distress and improving the well-being of populations affected by natural or man-made disasters" (cited in McAndrew, 1996, p. 33). Since 1992, United Nations agencies and some bilateral agencies have provided $581 million, or 14 percent of total aid disbursements, in food, relief, and emergency grant assistance to Cambodia. Amounts dedicated to these purposes generally declined throughout the 1990s, though they spiked in 2000 in response to severe flooding (Council for the Development of Cambodia, 2002). Grant Curtis (1998) reads this decline as evidence that the country is advancing on "the relief-to-development continuum," which is to say that donors have responded to the generally improving conditions in Cambodia by shifting their assistance efforts from "emergency or rehabilitation-type assistance" to "activities promoting longer-term reconstruction and development" (pp. 67,78). INVESTMENT PROJECT ASSISTANCE. Supporting investment projects is one way in which donors promote Cambodia's longer-term reconstruction and development. This kind of assistance finances projects that "create productive capital which can generate new goods or services"; typically, such aid funds improvements related to power generation, rural development, telecommunications, and transportation (United Nations Development

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Programme, cited in McAndrew, 1996, p. 33). Japan tops the list of those who have contributed to the $1.3 billion in investment project assistance to Cambodia since 1992; about one-third of this amount, which accounts for 32 percent of total aid disbursements in Cambodia, has been extended as loans. The Japan International Cooperation Agency repaired the "broken bridge" over the Tonle Sap River in Phnom Penh that the Khmer Rouge had bombed in the 1970s; the restoration of what is now known as the "Japan-Cambodia Friendship Bridge" cost $23 million. The Japanese spent $39 and $27 million respectively to upgrade the electrical and water utilities in Phnom Penh. They rehabilitated the port of Phnom Penh ($33 million), repaired roads throughout the country ($73 million), and built a bridge over the Mekong at Kampong Cham that had been discussed since the French colonial period ($62 million) (Japan International Cooperation Agency, 1999; Kyne & Chea, 2000; McAndrew, 1996). Other bilateral donors supporting investment projects include France ($12 million to rehabilitate Calmette Hospital and the Pasteur Institute in Phnom Penh), Australia ($9 million for bridge repair), and the United States ($40 million for road reconstruction) (Ambassade de France au Cambodge, 1997; Institut Pasteur de Phnom Penh, 1995; McAndrew, 1996). Multilateral agencies have also been active in investment project work. The United Nations Development Programme, for instance, mounted an extensive rural development initiative in the early 1990s. The Cambodia Area Rehabilitation and Regeneration Project was intended to restore the "basic rural infrastructure" in six provinces in the northwest part of the country (Curtis, 1998, p. 167). More than half of the $26 million directed to this initiative supported such investment activities as road repair, well- and pond-digging, irrigation system rehabilitation, and school, infirmary, and agricultural station construction (Curtis, 1998). The European Union funded a similar project, the Projet de Rkhabilitation et d'Appui au Secteur Agricole au Cambodge. A substantial portion of the $44 million disbursed in the first phase of this project supported investment activities (irrigation system rehabilitation, potable water source development, and so on) in six central and southeastern Cambodian provinces (Curtis, 1998; Dammers et al., 1996). Finally, the international and regional financial institutions with development mandates have supported investment projects in Cambodia. Among many other initiatives, the World Bank is financing the Provincial and Rural Infrastructure Project with a $20 million loan; 400 kilometers of roads are being repaired in this project with the intention of providing rural areas in north-central Cambodia with "safe, year-round access to markets and essential services" (World Bank, 2003a, p. 24). The World Bank has also directed $45 million in loans to the Social Fund, an autonomous public institution created in 1994 to "'kick-start' the rehabilitation and development


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process at [the] community level" (Curtis, 1998, p. 180); current projects within the Social Fund include the "construction or rehabilitation of schools, clinics, water wells, bridges, culverts, and irrigation facilities" (World Bank, 2003a, p. 38). With its cumulative disbursements of $293 million, the Asian Development Bank has financed investment projects in a wide variety of sectors, including rural development (the Stung Chinit Water Resources Development Project), energy (the Power Rehabilitation Project for Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and Sihanoukville), transportation (the Siem Reap Airport Project), and health (the Basic Health Services Project; Asian Development Bank, 1999). TECHNICALASSISTANCE. Funds directed by donors to technical assistance compose the largest single category of aid to Cambodia, amounting to 44 percent of total disbursements or $1.8 billion, nearly all in grants, between 1992 and 2001 (Council for the Development of Cambodia, 2002). Technical assistance supplies "resources aimed at the transfer of technical and managerial skills and know-how . . . for the purpose of building up national capacity to undertake development activities" (United Nations Development Programme, cited in McAndrew, 1996, p. 33). Unlike other forms of aid, technical assistance does not culminate in observable phenomena. That is to say, technical assistance does not augment current accounts in the National Bank, or deliver bags of grain to famine victims, or build bridges over rivers. Rather, technical assistance places Cambodians under the tutelage of experts who build their capacity to manage the nation and its development independently. The essence of technical assistance is captured in this term, "capacity building," which Martin Godfrey and his colleagues at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute define as the development of "the ability of individuals or organisational units to perform functions effectively, efficiently and sustainably" (Godfrey et al., 2000, p. 1 ) . Donors of all kinds have provided technical assistance in Cambodia. One of the goals of CARE International's Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Programme in the Garment Sector, for instance, is to build capacity related to research skills and reproductive health knowledge in two local nongovernmental organizations (CARE International, 2001). In the second phase of the Cambodia Area Rehabilitation and Regeneration Project, the United Nations Development Programme shifted from "direct implementation by project staff to intensive capacity building focused at the Cambodian institutions charged with development" (Curtis, 1998, p. 170). Godfrey et al. (2000) examine the technical assistance extended to the National Institute of Statistics in the 1990s. There, no fewer than five separate projects totaling $16 million have been directed toward "improv[ing] the capacity of staff to analyse, plan, implement and monitor population policies" (p. 91). Agencies involved in these projects include the Asian Development Bank, the Swedish

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International Development Cooperation Agency, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Population Fund, and the World Bank (Godfrey et al., 2000). In his analysis of international assistance to Cambodia, Curtis (1998) argues that "substitution technical assistance" preceded technical assistance for capacity building in Cambodia. Immediately after the United Nations transitional period, many donors-the Asian Development Bank, France, Japan, the United Nations Development Programme, and the World Bank, among others-placed advisors in Cambodian ministries. To a large degree, these experts carried forward the work begun by international personnel during the UNTAC period, that of actually administering the country. They "substitute[d themselves] for a perceived lack of national capacity" by, among other things, undertaking sectoral reviews, drafting legislation, establishing new institutions, and developing policy (Curtis, 1998, p. 86). For Curtis (1998), the elaboration of the National Programme to Rehabilitate and Develop Cambodia serves as the "prime example" of substitution technical assistance (p. 90). This 1994 document provided a "catalogue of national development priorities" (Curtis, 1998, p. 60; also see Chapter Two). Presented over the signature of Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhuon at the 1994 meeting of the International Committee for the Reconstruction of Cambodia as a guide to the country's development needs, the National Programme was in fact conceived and written by consultants from the United Nations Development Programme (Curtis, 1998). In a study published in 2000, Godfrey and his colleagues find considerable evidence that the substitution technical assistance of the early 1990s has been replaced by technical assistance for capacity building and, further, that the "record in developing individual and institutional capacity" through this kind of aid has been "quite good" (p. 19). One area in which the record does not appear to be good concerns the preparation of documents related to development. According to several informants, nearly all sector studies, project evaluations, and development reports published in Cambodia continue to be written by expatriate consultants. The annual development cooperation reports of the Council for the Development of Cambodia (from which I have drawn extensively in this discussion), for instance, are written by consultants from the United Nations Development Programme (Curtis, 1998). The trend extends well beyond the Council for the Development of Cambodia, as one Cambodian civil servant clarified. Pointing to a pile of documents on his desk published under the imprint of the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Planning, he explained: "All these documents are written by external consultants. Cambodians simply do not have the expertise and capability to produce them" (interview with Tuon Thavrak, 2000).


1.2.3

Sectors Receiving Assistance in Cambodia

Some of the sectors or "substantive area[s]" to which international assistance has been provided correspond with particular types of assistance (Council for the Development of Cambodia, 2001, p. 15). Thus, the "economic management" sector (to which $414 million, or 10 percent of total distributions between 1992 and 2001, has been directed) corresponds generally with budgetary aid and balance of payments support, and the "humanitarian aid and relief' and "disaster preparedness" sectors (totaling $459 million, or 11 percent of distributions) correspond with food, emergency, and relief assistance. Other sectors receiving assistance of various types include "rural development" ($574 million, or 14 percent), "administration" ($482 million, or 12 percent), "transportation" ($475 million, or 12 percent), and "health" ($433 million, or 1 I percent). The "education and human resource development" sector has received $383 million in assistance, which amounts to 9 percent of total distributions. "Agriculture" and "social development" each received around $300 million, or 7 percent of all distributions during the same period (Council for the Development of Cambodia, 2002). In recent years, funding for initiatives in the health sector has generally increased, from 11 percent of total disbursements between 1992 and 2001 to 14 percent of disbursements for the 1999-2001 period (Council for the Development of Cambodia, 2002). A case study in the health sector conducted by Godfrey et al. (2000) illustrates the amazing complexity of assistance to various sectors in Cambodia and, at the same time, introduces an important theme in development assistance: namely, that agencies may play multiple roles in relation to project funding and implementation. Godfrey et al, give particular attention to assistance initiatives in the malaria subsector. Among the five major ventures currently in operation in Cambodia, the European Union both funds and implements a $4.2 million malaria control project. The European Union also funds a smaller ($200,000) research project implemented by the World Health Organization. The World Health Organization runs two additional projects supported with nearly $5 million in contributions from the British Department for International Development and the World Bank. The World Bank both funds and implements the fifth, a $2.4 million malaria control project (Godfrey et al., 2000). Beyond these major initiatives, many nongovernmental organizations provide assistance in malaria control in Cambodia, among them Action Contre la Faim, Catholic Relief Services, Partners for Development, World Concern, and Youth with a Mission. Many of these organizations implement projects (ranging from the construction of clinics, to the distribution of mosquito nets, to the provision of treatment for malaria) with their own, or

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"core," funding. Other NGOs act as implementing agencies for bi- and multilateral agencies; in 1997, bilateral donors channeled 21 percent of their assistance budget to Cambodia through nongovernmental organizations, and multilateral organizations and financial institutions together directed 8 percent of their assistance funds to Cambodia by way of NGOs. Of specific relevance to the malaria subsector in Cambodia, the Italian NGO Cooperazione e Sviluppo runs a malaria epidemic emergency relief operation with European Union funding (Godfrey et al., 2000).

1.3

The Development of Development in Cambodia

Curtis (1998) describes international assistance to Cambodia across the 1990s as an enterprise in constant motion. I have already discussed two examples of this fluidity. First, agencies reallocated assistance along the "relief-to-development continuum" as the immediate needs of the early 1990s were met. Second, donors have shifted focus in relation to technical assistance; at least to a certain extent, assistance agencies have replaced substitution technical assistance with technical assistance dedicated to capacity building. Two additional developments in international assistance deserve attention: namely, the evolution of control over the aid agenda, and the movement away from the "aid market" of the early 1990s toward greater cooperation and coordination among donors. 1.3.1

Evolution of Control in Development

Curtis (1998) argues that in the "three years following the end of the UNTAC operation few, if any, real development 'choices' were made by the Royal Government (or, indeed, by Cambodians); rather such choices were made largely in donor capitals or by legions of expatriate technical advisers" (p. 68). The preparation of and response to the National Programme to Rehabilitate and Develop Cambodia illustrates Curtis's point. Not only was this template for Cambodian development written by foreign consultants (as was Implementing the National Programme to Rehabilitate and Develop Cambodia, presented by representatives of the Cambodian government at the 1995 meeting of the International Committee for the Reconstruction of Cambodia), but it was written in such as way as to "allow . . . donors to provide whatever assistance they wanted" (Curtis, 1998, p. 68). One Cambodian government official verified the prevalence of this tendency in the mid-1990s. "Most donors, on their own, project our needs, fix timeschedules and assign technical advisors," he explained. "We face considerable difficulties to convince the donors on the specifics of our needs and the sequencing of that support" (cited in Curtis, 1998, p. 93).


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Godfrey and his colleagues (2000) agree that much assistance during this period was largely "donor-driven," meaning that the "initial ideas [for aid projects came] directly or indirectly . . . from donors" (p. 22). According to research these scholars conducted for the Cambodia Development Resource Institute, Cambodians played a "large" role in the identification and design of only about 30 percent of assistance projects undertaken in the country in the mid-1990s; in fact, only 4 of the 50 projects they surveyed were truly "demand-driven," that is, "originating in requests from government" (p. 32). More frequently, assistance agencies launched projects that had been identified by their own needs-analyses and that, in at least some cases, "reflect[ed] current 'fashions' in donor circles" (p. 22). Often, as with both the United Nations Development Programme's Cambodia Area Rehabilitation and Regeneration Project and the European Union's Projet de RChabilitation et d'Appui au Secteur Agricole, projects implemented in Cambodia were based on designs developed elsewhere-four Central American countries for the former, and Bolivia for the latter (Godfrey et al., 2000). There may be several reasons that Cambodians "either ceded or lost control of the rehabilitation and reconstruction process" to the international assistance community (Curtis, 1998, p. 103). First, national leaders may have felt that they lacked the capacity to make decisions on their own. Perhaps we can extrapolate here from the comments made by the civil servant cited above. If Cambodians realize that they "do not have the expertise and capability7' to produce documents related to development, so too may they have formed a pragmatic assessment of their own ability, in relation to that of career advisors from the United Nations Development Programme or the World Bank, to define the larger agenda for development in the country (interview with Tuon Thavrak, 2000). At the same time, Cambodians' willingness to accept a subordinate position in the articulation of the national development vision may have stemmed from the ubiquitous needs of the post-UNTAC period. Feeling that "everything is needed" in terms of national reconstruction, Cambodians may have hesitated to identify particular development objectives for fear that their decisions would foreclose the provision of assistance elsewhere (Curtis, 1998, p. 68). According to Curtis (1998), Cambodians began taking a larger leadership role in the development enterprise around 1997. As evidence, this commentator points to the increased confidence within the Ministry of Social Affairs, where government officials actually rejected a development project proposed by a United Nations organization because, they explained, "we have no capacity to do it the way we should" (p. 103). Godfrey et al. (2000) agree that Cambodians are today assuming greater authority in development than in the mid-1990s, noting in particular the "close control exerted by [the Ministry of Health] over the budget" of the Health Sector Reform Project

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(funded by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, among others; p. 34). My own research at the Ministry of Economy and Finance's Economics and Finance Institute similarly suggests an evolution in control of the development agenda-though evolution to only an intermediate level. At this economics training center, Cambodians make recommendations for programming funded by a World Bank technical assistance loan, but final decisions continue to be made by international advisors in Cambodia and Washington (interview with Hean Sahib, 2000). The World Bank (1995) estimates that the transfer of control over the national development agenda in Cambodia may be completed by 2010.

1.3.2

From the Aid Market to the Sector-Wide Approach

When the Western aid embargo lapsed in 1991, Cambodia experienced an explosion of international assistance. Most bilateral agencies, many United Nations and other multilateral agencies, the international and regional financial institutions, and dozens of nongovernmental organizations all arrived in the country at more or less the same time, each eager to contribute to Cambodian development. Among other things, the sudden influx of agencies-and, importantly, their assistance budgets-made Cambodia one of the most aid-dependent nations in the world. In 1996, for example, total external aid to Cambodia amounted to 15 percent of the gross domestic product and 157 percent of total government revenue (Godfrey et al., 2000). In 2001, external aid represented 14.5 percent of GDP and 122 percent of government revenue (Council for the Development of Cambodia, 2002; "Economy Watch," 2003b). The gradually decreasing proportion of aid to government revenues over time suggests that Cambodia may ultimately be able to grow out of its current aid dependence, thus following the solution proposed by Godfrey et al. (2000), that one "way to reduce [aid] dependence [is] to increase export earnings and government revenue" (p. 10). The explosion of aid in the early 1990s also created an environment of competition and distrust among agencies within what scholars refer to as the "aid market" (Curtis, 1998, p. 69; McAndrew, 1996, p. 14). Agencies vied for subcontracts, jostled each other for control of various sectors, and sought to carve out niches for themselves on the country's ever-shifting development terrain. Donors "seemed to need to stake their claim to a piece of Cambodia" in the early 1990s, one aid worker explained to me in 2000. Referring in particular to bilateral organizations, she concluded that "all countries were tense about what they would get" when they "shared the cake" in Cambodia (interview with Solange Marguerite, 2000). The largest organizations gained a distinct advantage in the "development anarchy" of


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the early 1990s (Curtis, 1998, p. 72). In its $44 million Projet de Rkhabilitation et d'Appui au Secteur Agricole, for example, the European Union "muscl[ed] into provinces where it ha[d] never been before" and in the process "walk[ed] over initiatives which ha[d] been prepared over many years" by nongovernmental organizations (Quenelle, 1995, p. 8). The Asian Development Bank similarly "too aggressively tried to exert leadership in [sectors] crowded with other actors" (Curtis, 1998, p. 95). Agencies also competed for local office staff and "counterparts," those Cambodians attached to government ministries (and, less frequently, to local nongovernmental organizations) who work with donors on specific development projects. Given the upheavals of the 1970s that had precipitated the deaths of many and interrupted the educations of many others, the international aid community as a whole found it difficult to locate enough qualified Cambodians for these posts. In an effort to secure staff and counterparts for their own offices and projects, agencies began in the early 1990s to engage one another in "bidding up [the] wages" of Cambodians with appropriate credentials (Godfrey et al., 2000, p. 6). While staff received straight forward salaries as direct employees, the low compensation of government counterparts came to be augmented through an eclectic system of "salary supplementation" paid at a variety of levels and in a variety of ways. Godfrey and his colleagues (2000) estimate that international agencies were paying between $6 million and $17 million annually in salary supplements to counterparts in the late 1990s. The financial attractiveness of employment by assistance agencies has facilitated a "movement of qualified people to the external assistance sector" similar to that toward the United Nations during the transitional period (Godfrey et al., 2000, p. 6; also see Chapter Three). John McAndrew (1996) concludes that the aid-market approach to development in Cambodia has led to considerable duplication of effort, notably as different agencies have mounted competing projects in the same sectors. The aid market has also depleted Cambodia's human resources, as qualified people have left government service for agency staff positions and as others have become overly burdened as counterparts in multiple and overlapping projects. As these negative features of the aid market grew clear in the late 1990s, the international community began moving toward greater coordination within what is known as the "sector-wide approach." In the Health Sector Reform Project, for instance, all major donors and the Ministry of Health agreed to work together to articulate national health objectives and to accept coordinated roles in achieving them (Conway, 2000; Godfrey et al., 2000). Some progress away from the aid market has also taken place in the education sector, where some but not all donors have signed on to the idea of coordination. According to one representative from a bilateral organization,

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some donors reject the sector-wide approach because development assistance funds within it cannot be tracked as clearly to specific national sources (interviews with Anders Frankenberg, 2000, 2001).

1.4

The Purpose of International Assistance

Today, international aid agencies of all kinds are providing all kinds of assistance in all sectors and in all parts of Cambodia. Though diverse, this enterprise appears to be oriented by common themes. McAndrew (1996) provides a framework for this discussion: The generous pledges from donor agencies emanate from a genuine desire to assist the people of war-torn Cambodia. They also spring from a perceived interest to promote stability and market growth in Southeast Asia. In addition, they reflect a convergence of foreign policy worldwide desiring to support a peace process emerging from the post-Cold War era. (p. 3) In other words, aid agencies are providing assistance in Cambodia for humanitarian, economic, and political purposes. On at least some level, all organizations are responding to a humanitarian imperative. We are working in Cambodia, one international aid worker told me, as an example, "because of the critical need of resources here" (interview with Denis Sainte-Marie, 2000). Beyond generic humanitarianism, Cambodia's historical ties with richer parts of the world also motivate aid. As one French consultant explained it, organizations based in France "are thinking of the past" and are motivated by the "love for Cambodia in France" when they provide assistance (interview with Hubert Dkfossez, 2000). T o a certain extent, contemporary assistance from the former metropole may derive from what yet another French aid worker termed a national "guilty conscience" about the colonial period (interview with Solange Marguerite, 2000). Organizations associated with nations other than France may similarly be responding to guilt-particularly about the war in Indochina or support for the Khmer Rouge-through their contemporary assistance work in Cambodia. Indeed, as Curtis (1998) concludes, the substantial sums of money pledged to Cambodia in the last 15 years at least in part represent "'blood money,' expiating guilt over what the international community had wrought in Cambodia" (p. 72). In addition to humanitarianism, aid agencies also share a desire to assist Cambodia in the processes discussed in Chapters Two and Three. At times, interest in Cambodia's economic and political transitions has been expressed coercively, which is to say that agencies have withdrawn aid when Cambodia's movement toward the free market and liberal democracy has faltered.


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When the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank suspended loans to Cambodia in 1996, for example, they did so out of dissatisfaction with the speed of and dedication to market economic reform (see above and International Monetary Fund, 1999). Hun Sen's "coup" of 1997 had the most dramatic impact of any event in the 1990s on the provision of aid. As a direct result of this subversion of democratic practice, Australia, Germany, Japan, Norway, the United States, the Asian Development Bank, and the European Union all shelved assistance projects, and the Consultative Group donor meeting for 1998 was canceled (Grube, 1998). Even after the recommitment to democracy illustrated by the second election in 1998, the United States continues to deny direct assistance to the Cambodian government, instead funding development initiatives mounted by nongovernmental organizations that work outside state structures (interview with Jon Summers, 2000). For the most part, however, donors have supported economic and political change in Cambodia actively and positively, through the provision of assistance. Aid agencies have worked in several ways to facilitate the country's economic transformation. They have directed resources toward the development of what the Japan International Cooperation Agency (1999) terms the country's "economic infrastructure" (p. 5): to the agricultural lands where the vast majority of Cambodians earn their livelihoods, as well as to the roads, bridges, ports, and utilities that are essential to economic activity and the movement of goods to and from markets within the country, the region, and the world. At the same time, they have invested heavily in Cambodia's human resources, through programs in education, health, and other social sectors intended at least in part to support the development of a productive workforce for the new economic realities Cambodia faces in regional and world markets. At yet the same time, they have prepared Cambodian government officials for the management of the market economy through training programs, two of which I discuss in detail in Chapter Five. The international aid community has similarly worked toward political change in Cambodia. As the director of Cooperation Franpise explained, "All donors are working here to stabilize the political situation" (interview with Jacques Gerard, 2000). Assistance aimed generally at political stability takes several forms. First, agencies have supported the country's political transition through development programs designed to strengthen electoral processes, human rights, the rule of law, and other components of liberal democracy; the United States has played an important role here through nongovernmental organizations such as the University of San Francisco Community Legal Education Center in Phnom Penh. Second, donors have worked to reform government systems and practices for the postcommunist

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period; through CoopCration Franpise, for instance, France worked actively to reorganize the country's accounting and legal systems in the early 1990s (Ogden, 1994; Tulkork, 1994; also see Chapter Three). Finally, in the years leading up to 1999, donors mounted projects designed to prepare Cambodia for international political integration, notably within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations; I discuss several of these initiatives in Chapter Five. In some cases, it may be in the donors' own interests to assist Cambodia's economic and political transitions. Several aid workers, for instance, suggested that assistance from France intends the development of a market in Cambodia for the sale of French products-hospital supplies, medical equipment, and pharmaceuticals, in particular. If such products do flow from France to Cambodia, however, they appear to be swimming against the tide. Compare the general trends in international trade discussed in Chapter Two with those about assistance in this chapter: In 2000 and 2001, France provided $64 million in assistance to Cambodia, but sold only $52 million in goods there. Even larger disconnects between international aid and national market share can be found for Cambodia's other large bilateral donors (in the same two years, Japan provided $206 million in assistance to Cambodia but supplied only $78 million of the country's imports); these disconnects increase markedly when the national contributions of bilateral donors to multilateral organizations and international and regional financial institutions are taken into account (Council for the Development of Cambodia, 2002; Kang, 2003). With these negative balances, it seems clear that economic interests are not driving aid from France or other bilateral donors. Political interests, on the other hand, may underlie French assistance. With many other aid organizations, France desires the establishment of democracy and political stability in Cambodia; according to the French Embassy, "the goal o f . . . all cooperation to Cambodian institutions . . . is to promote democracy and support the foundation of a strong state" (Ambassade de France, 1997, p. 8). Within this general context, however, France is interested in political or governmental change leading to particular systems and practices. One informant illustrated this dynamic by reference to the French legal system. The establishment through French technical assistance of the "civil law or French system [in the early 1990~1had the effect of drawing Cambodians into the French legal sphere of influence," he explained. "By necessity, [this trajectory drew Cambodia] away from the common law or English or American sphere of legal influence" (interview with Theodore Allegra, 2000). In other words, this informant argued, the French are using assistance at least in part to erect structures in Cambodia that create or strengthen ties to France (and to other countries subscribing to French systems and practices), while curtailing or weakening others. As we


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will see in Chapter Six, the French often pursue such political interests through educational assistance to Cambodia.

2.

INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE, EMPLOYMENT, AND LANGUAGE

2.1

The International Assistance Context for Language Choice

Following the Vietnamese withdrawal, the beginning of Cambodia's transitions to the free market and liberal democracy, and the arrival of the United Nations, a multitude of international assistance agencies established operations in Cambodia. Together, bilateral agencies, multilateral organizations, international and regional financial institutions, and nongovernmental organizations disbursed more than $4 billion in technical assistance, investment project aid, emergency assistance, and budgetary or balance of payments aid in Cambodia between 1992 and 2001. On one hand, the international assistance enterprise in Cambodia seems to be in perpetual motion: It has evolved along the emergency-development continuum; moved away from substitution technical assistance, foreign control, and competition; and advanced toward technical assistance for capacity building, Cambodian control, and sector-wide cooperation. At the same time, however, the aid enterprise has exhibited a constancy of purpose: Driven certainly by altruism and possibly by self-interest, international assistance organizations have declared their dedication to facilitating economic and political change in Cambodia through both the provision and the suspension of aid. Cambodians make language choices in particular contexts. Considering the initiatives discussed thus far in this chapter, what is the international assistance context for language choice? Answering this question requires inquiry in three areas. First, given that aid agencies employ Cambodians (much as the economic and political enterprises discussed in Chapters Two and Three), understanding the international aid context for language choice requires that we consider the language demands of international agencies for Cambodians employed as office staff or project counterparts. This is the subject of the remainder of this chapter. Second, given that agencies administer technical assistance projects that subsequently affect Cambodians beyond those employed directly or indirectly, we must consider the language initiatives within projects in articulating the international aid context for language choice. This subject orients Chapter Five. Finally, some language projects impact students, teachers, and administrators in schools and univer-

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sities, and I discuss these in Chapter Six. In the rest of this chapter, I limit the discussion, as before, to the context for Cambodians' language choices, deferring analysis of the choices themselves to Chapter Seven.

2.2

Methods and Data

In order to understand the international assistance context for language choice as it relates to employment, I sought data in a variety of ways. T o begin, I interviewed representatives from all of the major bilateral organizations providing assistance to Cambodia. In 2000, I conducted one or more interviews with administrators from all the bilateral agencies that have provided more than $100 million to Cambodia since 1992: the Japan International Cooperation Agency, Coopkration Franpise, the United States Agency for International Development, the Australian Agency for International Development, and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. In addition to interviews with embassy-based aid officers, I interviewed assistance personnel working in specific projects run or funded by these and other bilateral organizations, notably the British Department for International Development. I followed somewhat the same system in gathering information from the multilateral organizations and the international and regional financial institutions operating in Cambodia. Regarding the Asian Development Bank, the European Union, the International Monetary Fund, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, UNESCO, UNICEF, the United Nations Development Programme, the World Health Organization, and the World Bank, I interviewed administrators, project officers, Cambodian counterparts, andlor Cambodians who had participated in project-based training programs. Beyond the manageable number of bilateral agencies, multilateral organizations, and financial institutions, about 430 nongovernmental organizations currently operate in Cambodia. I interviewed individuals associated with about 20 of these organizations, among them the Asia Foundation, Assemblies of God, the Cambodia Development Resource Institute, Coopkration Internationale pour le DCveloppement et la SolidaritC, Groupe de Recherche et d'Echanges Technologiques, New Humanity, and the University of San Francisco Community Legal Education Center. In interviews with nongovernmental organizations (and, in fact, all aid agencies), I asked many of the same questions McAndrew (1996) had asked in a previous study, notably about the amount of aid provided to Cambodia, the focus of contemporary assistance and the evolution of this focus across the 1990s, and the purpose in providing assistance. Finally, I asked specifically about agency language preferences-the language or languages required for Cambodian office staff and project counterparts; the language(s) used in


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training programs offered to other Cambodians in projects; the languages(s) in which project documents were written-and the rationale for these language policies. I attempted to gain a broader view on language preferences in NGOs (that is, beyond the 20 where I conducted interviews) through a survey I designed with colleagues at the Faculty of Law and Economics. Similar to that of businesses discussed in Chapter Two, this survey was intended to provide input to the faculty for its considered language policy reform. More specifically, the survey (in which all questions were provided in English, French, and Khmer) asked what language or languages Cambodian employees of nongovernmental organizations were required to know, and in what ways or for what purposes employees used these languages. I distributed surveys to all 430 nongovernmental organizations operating in the country, by way of the Cooperation Committee for Cambodia, an organization established in 1991 to facilitate communication and coordination among NGOs and other aid agencies. The director of the Cooperation Committee for Cambodia warned me at the outset not to expect a high percentage of returns, particularly from the 300 local NGOs that do not employ many graduates of higher education (interview with Carol Strickley, 2000). Despite her caution, I was surprised to receive only 16 completed surveys, all from international NGOs. These returns amount to 4 percent of all nongovernmental organizations and 12 percent of international NGOs. I supplemented the data gathered through interviews and the survey in several ways, first by recording the employment language requirements of international aid agencies announced in advertisements posted in Englishand French-language newspapers (the Cambodia Daily, the Phnom Penh Post, and Cambodge Soir) and on university bulletin boards during my most recent stays in Cambodia (January-July 2000 and September 2001), and second through interviews with administrators of language schools that subcontract to assistance agencies. Finally, several published documents, reports, and studies augmented and reinforced my own research on language and assistance, notably Godfrey et al.'s Technical Assistance and Capacity Development in an Aid-Dependent Economy (2000), which is based on data (interviews and documents) collected from 32 donor agencies (9 financial institutions or multilateral organizations, 8 bilateral organizations, and 15 nongovernmental organizations) involved in 50 international development assistance projects (in agriculture, economic management, education, health, and rural development). Through these various methods and sources, I gained quite thorough data on the language preferences of the bilateral agencies, multilateral organizations, and financial institutions that together provided 92 percent of total aid disbursements in Cambodia between 1992 and 2001. These research meth-

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ods garnered direct information on about 50 of the 430 nongovernmental organizations working in Cambodia, nearly all of them international as opposed to local; while these data are not comprehensive, the trends they suggest gain reliability through their similarity with those discerned from data about bilateral, multilateral, and financial organizations and institutions.

2.3

Language Preferences of International Agencies

The international assistance agencies operating in Cambodia express two language preferences. In the vast majority of cases, aid organizations use English in their work in Cambodia. In certain cases, assistance agencies operate in French, though English is increasingly being used in these organizations as an additional language. In this section, I examine these language preferences that translate into requirements or demands for Cambodians employed as office staff or counterparts by international assistance agencies.

2.3.1

"English Is the Language of International Cooperation, Full Stop"

I asked Richard Webber, one of the international advisors running the European Union's Programme d'Appui au Secteur de 1'Education Primaire au Cambodge, how he would characterize the language preferences of international aid agencies in Cambodia. "English is the language of international cooperation," he said, "full stop" (interview, 2000). Pou Darany, the undersecretary of state for the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, provided a more detailed analysis of assistance and language preference in his remarks at a seminar on English language teaching in Cambodia in 1996. "Almost all . . . donors and lending agencies . . . use English as their official language," he began. "Apart from France, [all bilateral donors] and their associated Non-Governmental Organizations . . . tend to use English." Finally, Darany concluded, all "multilateral lending agencies, principally the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, use . . . English as the medium of official communication" (Pou, 1996, p. 30). Tuon Thavrak, who has worked with many international agencies in his position as deputy director general of the Cambodian Ministry of Planning and as a counterpart in both Asian Development Bank and World Bank projects, reinforced the undersecretary's taxonomy of language preference; like the undersecretary, he conflated multilateral organizations and international and regional financial institutions into a single category. "There are two kinds of donors," Tuon Thavrak explained, "bilateral and multilateral."


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First, bilateral. For nearly all bilateral donors, all communication and documents are in English-except France, of course. Even Germany uses English. You see these letters here [referring to letters on his desk from the Netherlands Organization for International Development Cooperation and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency]? Everything is in English. Second, multilateral. These include the United Nations agencies like UNDP, UNICEF, the International Labour Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the World Health Organization. Most of these agencies use English as the language of communication in Cambodia. The only exceptions are the International Labour Organization, which is bilingual [English and French]. UNDP now has a French resident, and she prefers French. But still English is important in UNDP. Multilaterals also include the international financial organizations like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Asian Development Bank. For these agencies, all documents and all negotiations are in English. (interview with Tuon Thavrak, 2000) Using the taxonomy suggested by Tuon Thavrak and Pou Darany as a place to start, we can examine the language preferences in the international assistance enterprise deliberately. The five BILATERAL DONORS providing in excess of $100 million in assistance to Cambodia between 1992 and 2001 include Australia and the United States. The development agencies associated with these anglophone nations, the Australian Agency for International Development and the United States Agency for International Development, use English in their work in Cambodia, which is to say that they tend to communicate for development purposes with the Cambodian government or Cambodian nongovernmental organizations in English, produce documents about their assistance programs in English, and use English as the language of communication in their offices and projects (interviews with Lydia Bezeruk, Bill Carter, 2000). Beyond these largest bilateral donors, many other anglophone nations similarly privilege the English language in the provision of bilateral assistance to Cambodia. Among this extended group we can count development agencies from or supported by the governments of Canada (the Canadian International Development Agency), Ireland (the Agency for Personal Service Overseas or Irish Volunteers), New Zealand (the New Zealand Volunteers), and the United Kingdom (the Department for International Development and, more specifically, the Voluntary Service Overseas program, or VSO) (interviews with Graham Lang, Viv Lusted, Shona Macaskill, 2000; newspaper advertisements). But, as Tuon Thavrak and Pou Darany both point out, the use of English among bilateral assistance agencies in Cambodia is not constrained by

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anglophone national status. Japan provides by far the largest amount of bilateral aid to Cambodia, supplying nearly one-quarter of all assistance to the country through bilateral channels alone, and the Japanese use English in their assistance work in Cambodia. Sweden, the fifth-largest bilateral donor to Cambodia through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, also works in English in Cambodia, as do Denmark through the Danish International Development Agency, Germany through the Gesellschaft fiir Technische Zusammenarbeit, and the Netherlands through the Netherlands Organization for International Development Cooperation. Indeed, as both Thavrak and Darany clarify in their matrices of assistance agencies and language preference, virtually all bilateral aid organizationswith the exception of second-ranking France-use English in their assistance work in Cambodia (interviews with Anders Frankenberg, Nay Chhuon, Kazuki Shimizu, 2000; newspaper advertisements; Centre for British Teachers, 2000). Tuon Thavrak continues that most MULTILATERAL ORGANIZATIONS also privilege English in their work in Cambodia. In fact, every United Nations agency in operation in the country uses English: the Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS), the Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Development Programme (UNDP), the Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR), the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Labour Organization ( L O ) , the Office for Project Services (UNOPS), the Population Fund (UNFPA), the World Food Programme (WFP), the World Health Organization, and others. Thavrak correctly notes that some United Nations agencies subscribe to a policy of official English-French bilingualism, and this policy manifests in the use of French in certain assistance contexts. For example, UNDP supports a French technical assistance consultant to the Council for the Development of Cambodia; this consultant has proved quite helpful, the secretary general of the Council for the Development of Cambodia explained, in preparing 'documents in French for presentation to the French ambassador, who "will only accept documents written in French" (interview with Chhieng Yanara, 2000). English, however, serves the vast majority of functions in the vast majority of United Nations projects and offices (interviews with Conor Boyle, Lok Kim Lun, Supote Prasertsri, Vu Kim Por, 2000; newspaper advertisements). If the use of English is tempered by a nominal bilingualism in the United Nations, it simply has no contender in the INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS. The Asian Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank use English with few exceptions in Cambodia: in the Mekong Project Development Facility (run by the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank group),


10 1

in the Basic Education Textbook Project (Asian Development Bank), in the Agriculture Productivity Improvement Project (World Bank), and in technical assistance to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, to name but a few specific venues (interviews with Don Boring, Oscar Perez-de-Tagle, Mike Ratcliffe, Sok Hach, Thao Sokmuny, 2000). The language preference of financial institutions has caused some tension among some subscribing members of these organizations. "The Asian Development Bank is a multilateral agency supported not only by English-speaking countries, but also France," one official from Coopkration Franpise told me. "Why should the aid go to support English-speaking [offices and projects]?" (interview with Solange Marguerite, 2000). However, as Tuon Thavrak explained, "French-speaking stakeholders are few in number" in these organizations and as a result have little chance of altering institutional preferences for the English language (interview, 2000). Tuon Thavrak and Pou Darany refer only in passing to the language preferences of NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS, perhaps because they provide such a small amount of assistance compared to other kinds of aid agencies. It is in relation to this final assistance category, however, that the greatest geographical diversity can be found for English language preference. Certainly English provides the language of communication for international nongovernmental organizations based in anglophone countries, like Concern (based in Ireland), Oxfam (the United Kingdom), Quaker Service Australia (Australia), and World Vision (the United States). English also stands as the language of preference for nongovernmental organizations based in most of the rest of the world: for Dan Church Aid (Denmark), SOS Children's Village of Cambodia (Germany), Cooperazione e Sviluppo (Italy), Services of Health in Asian and African Regions (Japan), ZOA Refugee Khmer (the Netherlands), Norwegian People's Aid (Norway), Forum Syd (Sweden), Taipei Overseas Peace Service (Taiwan), and many, many others. Additionally, English serves as the language of communication for some nongovernmental organizations headquartered in francophone countries or regions, among them Coopkration Internationale pour le Developpement et la Solidaritk (Belgium) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (Geneva, Switzerland) (Faculty of Law and Economics survey; newspaper advertisements). Finally, English has been adopted as the language of preference by many local nongovernmental organizations, particularly those that operate programs in conjunction with, or with funding from, bilateral or multilateral organizations. Local NGOs that fall into this category include the Association of Cambodian Local Economic Development Agencies, which operates with funding from the International Labour Organization; the Cambodian Red Cross, an affiliate of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red

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Crescent Societies; Legal Aid of Cambodia and the Reproductive and Child Health Alliance, both partly funded by the United States Agency for International Development; Mith Samlanh (Friends), supported by Swiss Samlanh; and the NGO Forum on Cambodia, which serves a confederation of international NGOs working in Cambodia (interview with Chea Leang Kheng, 2000; newspaper advertisements; Peter Darch, personal communication, 1 October 2003).

2.3.2

"The General Tendency Is a Shift Away From French, Toward English"

In my conversations about language preferences in assistance agencies, many informants described the French language with metaphors of motion, as something declining, withdrawing, dissipating. "The French language has virtually disappeared in Cambodia," explained one Australian consultant who himself speaks French well (interview with Geoffrey Coyne, 2000). "The French language has degraded in Cambodia over time," the Frenchspeaking dean of the Faculty of Law and Economics added (interview with Yuok Ngoy, 2000). In development projects generally, "people [are] letting French drop in favor of English," explained a British advisor working in a French-language project (interview with Richard Webber, 2000). In Cambodia, concluded a French-speaking Japanese program officer at UNESCO who had worked for years in francophone Africa, "The general tendency is a shift away from French, toward English" (interview with Teruo Jinnai, 2000). It would be premature to toll the death of the French language in Cambodia, however, for several reasons. First, many aid agencies continue to use French and to demand knowledge of this language among the Cambodians they employ. The French government itself provides bilateral assistance in amounts second only to Japan, and French development initiatives function almost universally in the French language. Similarly, the multilateral Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, acting for the most part through its operator, the Montreal-based Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, uses French in Cambodian development. Further, some assistance extended through the European Union privileges French, though the tendency in this multilateral organization appears to be toward English, as illustrated by the Projet de R6habilitation et d'Appui au Secteur Agricole, which in its second phase adopted English as the medium of communication. Finally, at least 30 NGOs from France and other francophone nations work in Cambodia, among them Action Nord Sud, Enfants du Cambodge, Groupe de Recherche et d'Echanges Technologiques, Handicap International, MCdecins Sans Frontikres, and Pharmaciens Sans Frontikres. French contin-


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ues to serves as an important language of communication for these organizations, though the increasing use of English in many suggests a trend toward bilingualism (interviews with Youssef Arrif, Jacques Gerard, Nadine Lachat, Solange Marguerite, 2000; newspaper advertisements; Ambassade de France, 1997; Faculty of Law and Economics survey). Second, the French government is working diligently to maintain the status of French in the country-or, as one Cambodian informant put it, the French are working hard to "survive their language in Cambodia" (interview with Thao Sokmuny, 2000). The French officials with whom I talked were under no illusions about the utility of French for many of Cambodia's new realities. "French will not be a commercial language in Cambodia," conceded the director of Cooperation Franqaise in discussing the country's economic transition, and neither will French function well in many contemporary political situations, "especially for relations within ASEAN" (interview with Jacques Gerard, 2000). Recognizing this lack of economic and political functionality, the French have dedicated themselves to building an alternative utility for their language so that it can compete with English as a viable international medium in Cambodia. It will be through international assistance, and more specifically through assistance to education, Jacques Gerard explained, that the French will carve out a functional niche for their language. "Businesses will use English and Chinese," Gerard concluded, "and people will use Khmer in their daily life. But they will study in French" (interview, 2000). I return to the use of French in education-and to the creative and sometimes coercive methods adopted by France and the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie to ensure this use-in Chapter Six.

2.3.3

Rationales for the Language Preferences of International Assistance Agencies

Many international assistance agencies associated with France and other francophone nations use French in their work in Cambodia, while those representing or based in most other countries and groups of countries use English. Despite these different ultimate policies, the rationales underlying the preference for foreign languages in assistance agencies are remarkably similar. First, agencies choose English or French because, as Godfrey and his colleagues (2000) point out, very few international assistance workers "are able to use the Khmer language for professional purposes" (p. 28). There may be several factors influencing the dearth of Khmer language skills in the aid community, among them the fact that few people outside Cambodia speak Khmer, that Khmer is not frequently a curricular option at universities

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and language institutes in donor nations, and that most international assistance personnel do not work long enough in Cambodia to develop fluency in the national language. Additionally, some aid agencies seem to eschew Khmer because they see it as right or appropriate to provide assistance in their own language. The expectation in the Australian Agency for International Development is thus that Cambodians will assume responsibility for successful communication. More specifically, the second secretary at the Australian Embassy explained, Cambodians learn English "because we have to speak with them, don't we?" (interview with Lydia Bezeruk, 2000). If we are going to provide assistance, one French diplomat stated, it will be "as the French do it," meaning in the French language (cited in Thayer, 1993, p. 16). Some assistance organizations may also be concerned about the Khmer language itself. Subordinated to French (and to a lesser degree Russian and Vietnamese) through most of the modern era, Khmer has not been developed for use in many contemporary domains. One university dean explained the difficulties that the historical lack of Khmer language planning has precipitated. A group of Cambodian professors at his university was at work translating a U S . economics text into Khmer, he told me, but it "has been a difficult process because there is no recognized [that is, standard] Khmer vocabulary for [many] economics purposes" (interview with Iv Thong, 2000). While agencies may avoid these problems by privileging English or French, at least one has engaged the process productively. The University of San Francisco Community Legal Education Center translates English language lectures and texts into Khmer, in the process developing its own standard for Khmer legal terminology (interview with Janet King, 2000). Additional Khmer language planning progress is also being made by the Institute of National Language, which among other things organized the Research, Standardization, and Promotion of the Khmer Language Conference in 2000 (interview with Sorn Samnang, 2001). Finally, international aid agencies use French and English because they perceive there to be a historical rationale for their choice. Both before and immediately after the French colonial period, most secondary and all higher education in Cambodia was offered in French, and today virtually all educated Cambodians in their fifties or older can speak the metropolitan language fluently. This historically conditioned fluency both informs and justifies contemporary French language preferences in assistance, as the director of Coopkration Fran~aiseexplained with an anecdote: Often, there are meetings with Cambodians on one side of the table and international donors on the other, and we are speaking English. Cambodians are leaning in, straining to understand what is being said, but no one understands. Then, when the meeting breaks up, the Cambodians


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clarify with us in French what was said and what the discussion was about. (interview with Jacques Gerard, 2000) In other words, the French language, though established within the context of an inequitable historical relationship, nevertheless provides a foundation for contemporary, ameliorative assistance. "Why would Cambodians abandon their French language skills?" the director continued, rhetorically. And, by implication, why would the French not avail themselves of these skills in the provision of aid? In both cases, "It would be like throwing away the jewels that your grandmother gave you" (interview with Jacques Gerard, 2000). Representatives from aid agencies using English also point to history in justifying their language preference in Cambodia, but in this case they refer to global historical trends, rather than those specific to Cambodia. When I asked the second secretary of the Swedish Embassy about the use of English in Swedish development initiatives, for example, he replied with a dissertation on Swedish language policy since the Second World War. "Before World War 11," he said, "most people studied German as a second language, but World War I1 put a stop to that." Today, English serves as the dominant second language in Sweden, even to the extent that "many Swedish universities have set up graduate programs in English." The use of English in Swedish development initiatives in Cambodia reflects this evolution of language policy and preference at home, he concluded (interview with Anders Frankenberg, 2000). That a similar evolution has occurred in virtually every donor nation-Japan also offers graduate education in English, for instance-may also explain the use of English by most of Cambodia's other bilateral donors, as well as the trend away from French in the multilateral organizations and financial institutions they support.

2.4

Uses of Foreign Languages in International Assistance

It is difficult to gauge the number of Cambodians employed by international assistance agencies. Data gathered by Godfrey and his colleagues (2000) at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute on salary supplementation indicate that between 2,500 and 7,300 Cambodians worked in the late 1990s as project counterparts, though the assumptions adopted by these researchers were quite conservative, and it seems entirely likely that a much larger counterpart workforce exists. The data that I collected from assistance agencies can be extrapolated to suggest that at least 12,700 and perhaps as many as 21,850 other Cambodians work as direct employees in international assistance agencies, though the weakness of my data concerning nongov-

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ernmental organizations must again be noted. In any event, it seems safe to conclude that several tens of thousands of Cambodians are employed, indirectly as counterparts or directly as staff, in what Godfrey et al. (2000) refer to as "one of the Cambodian economy's biggest industries" (p. 1). Though it is difficult to speak with any certainty about the size of the Cambodian assistance workforce, one can draw definitive conclusions about the language expectations for members of it. To put it simply, nearly every Cambodian employed as staff in an assistance agency or counterpart in an aid project is required to know English or French in addition to his or her native Khmer. According to virtually all the assistance personnel I interviewed, all agencies that provided data through surveys, and all organizations that advertised for employees or supplied information though other secondary sources, the language preferences of international assistance agencies translate directly into language demands for Cambodians. The overwhelming preference for English in the international aid community of course manifests in a considerably stronger demand for that language than for French. It is so much stronger, in fact, that Godfrey et al. (2000) do not refer even once to the former colonial language in their extensive study of the international assistance enterprise. Similarly, Tuon Thavrak does not feel it necessary to qualify his conclusion that the unilateral demand among assistance organizations is for "Cambodian counterparts [and staff] who can use English well" (interview, 2000). Cambodians use foreign languages in two general ways in their work with international aid agencies. First, they FACILITATE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION within the agency and between the agency and other international organizations. Of the diverse skills they are called upon to use as they thus assist in the business of assistance, Cambodians' writing skills appear to be the least developed. Though agency informants report that Cambodians exercise their foreign language writing skills frequently in communicating with headquarters and with other aid agencies operating in Cambodia, they also describe an international division of writing labor. More specifically, Cambodians tend to be assigned duties related to the production of memos, letters, and other of what the Christian Outreach Relief and Development organization terms "internal references," while international personnel continue to provide substitution technical assistance in the preparation of reports and proposals to be distributed outside the organization (Faculty of Law and Economics survey). The Cambodia Development Resource Institute provides one exception to this rule. At this nongovernmental organization, the trend in recent years has been toward reports authored by Cambodians (see, for example, Sik, 2000; Sok, Chea, & Sik, 2001).


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Agencies attach great importance to Cambodians' ability to read international documents. In some cases, Cambodians read e-mails and other correspondence as secretaries or receptionists; in others, they read studies or reports concerning their organization's particular area of expertise as project managers or researchers. Agencies estimate that between 70 and 90 percent of documents related to development in Cambodia are written in English, and this prevalence appears to be one of the factors driving the ascendancy of that language in French assistance organizations. Pharmaciens Sans Frontih-es, for example, now requires employees to know both English and French, at least in part because "the large majority of documents [that come into our offices] are in English." This same organization expects Cambodian employees to command impressive oral skills for international communication; they use French when communicating "with French international personnel" and English with aid workers and visitors from all other countries (Faculty of Law and Economics survey). Oral language skills allow Cambodian employees to give presentations, to report to supervisors, and to discuss and resolve problems with international personnel. Significantly, as the program manager of the nongovernmental organization Australian Catholic Relief explained, as they "get advice and share experience with expatriate staff' orally, Cambodian employees also develop the capacity for independent work (Faculty of Law and Economics survey). Cambodian staff and counterparts additionally use foreign languages as they FACILITATE NATIONAL COMMUNICATION for aid organizations. AS bilingual speakers of both Khmer and English or French, Cambodian employees play a pivotal role in assistance by translating written documents between Khmer and foreign languages; interpreting meetings, conversations, and informal interactions between expatriates and Cambodians; and otherwise mediating communication between groups of people who do not speak a common language. To put it simply, they allow the generally monolingual international aid community to reach into and operate in generally monolingual Cambodia. It is through bilingual Cambodians, for instance, that international researchers collected the data on economic and social trends that anchor such important studies as McAndrew's Indigenous Adaptation to a Rapidly Changing Economy (2001), Krishnamurthy's The Impact of Armed Conflict on Social Capital (1999), and the multitude of national or sector studies produced by regional and international financial institutions (for example, Asian Development Bank, 1996; World Bank, 1992). Cambodian research assistants visit markets, villages, hospitals, and schools; they administer surveys and questionnaires developed by international consultants; and they translate the data into foreign languages, usually English. Ultimately, these activities culminate in the dissemination of information on

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Cambodian development that is invaluable to both funding and implementing agencies. Importantly, bilingual Cambodians allow international personnel to reach into Cambodia for the purpose of program provision or intervention. International aid workers arrive in Cambodia with ideas about development and resources with which to implement them, but they typically lack language skills necessary for communication. Bilingual Cambodian staff and counterparts fill this breach and in the process do a tremendous amount of the hard work that translates inspiration into realization in development. In the Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Programme, for instance, it was the Cambodian counterparts of CARE International who traveled to garment factories and explained the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases to young women employed there (CARE International, 2001). In the program I ran at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute in the early 1990s, it was bilingual Cambodian counterparts who undertook the complicated process of negotiating the release of officials from government ministries for English language training. Cambodians similarly provide the linguistic interface for international aid workers and farmers, small business owners, pregnant women, street children, prostitutes, and many other target populations in many other assistance initiatives.

2.5

Language Training for Office Staff and Project Counterparts

2.5.1

English Language Training for Agency Employment

According to Julia Brothwell of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, "We have not had much success in recruiting Cambodian staff with strong English language skills" and thus have placed considerable emphasis on post-employment language training (Faculty of Law and Economics survey). In taking this approach, the Red Cross joins many other aid organizations that, like the economic enterprises discussed in Chapter Two, have moved proactively to form Cambodian staff and counterparts linguistically for employment needs. Given the dominant preference for English in the international assistance enterprise, most training has been directed toward the improvement of English language skills. Some organizations have offered in-house English courses for employees, among them the nongovernmental Assemblies of God (United States) and Redd Barna (Save the Children Norway) (interview with Wes Lindquist, 2000; Faculty of Law and Economics survey). More commonly however, agencies subcontract English instruction to proprietary language


109

schools, notably the Australian Centre for Education, Regent School of Business, and the Cambodian-British Centre. Tuon Thavrak explained that "most donors use the Australian Centre for Education to provide language training" (interview, 2000). Beyond providing language instruction for Cambodians working for or with the Australian Agency for International Development, the Australian Centre for Education (ACE) teaches English for bilateral organizations such as the Canadian International Development Agency, the German Gesellschaft fiir Technische Zusammenarbeit, and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. United Nations organizations sending Cambodians to ACE include the Children's Fund, the Development Programme, the High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Labour Organization, the Office for Project Services, the Population Fund, and the World Food Programme. The multilateral International Rice Research Institute and the International Organization for Migration have also sponsored staff or counterparts to ACE. Among international and regional financial institutions, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank have sent employees to ACE for English language training. There, they follow courses with staff and counterparts associated with nongovernmental organizations such as the American Red Cross, the Asia Foundation, Coopkration Internationale pour le Dkveloppement et la Solidaritk, the Halo Trust, Lutheran World Federation, Pharmaciens Sans Frontikres, and World Education (Australian Centre for Education, 1994, 2000c; Faculty of Law and Economics survey). Most agency employees and counterparts attend classes in ACE'S General English Program; incoming students are tested and placed appropriately in the 12-level series of 45-hour, 10-week courses. Director of ACE Helen Cherry estimates that 30 percent of all students in these courses, approximately 1,000 as of 2000, were enrolled with sponsorship from aid agencies. Regent School of Business also offers a graduated series of classes where agency staff and counterparts can improve their general English language skills. As of 2003, aid agencies sponsored approximately 150 of the 450 individuals enrolled in Regent's general English classes. Serving many of the same agencies that have sent employees to the Australian Centre for Education, Regent has additionally trained staff and counterparts for the British Department for International Development (after the closure of the Cambodian-British Centre in 2001), Concern, UNESCO, and World Vision. Finally, Regent provided some of the 36,597 "trainee-days" of English language instruction for counterparts in the second phase of the European Union's massive Projet de Rkhabilitation et d'Appui au Secteur Agricole (interview with Helen Cherry, 2000; Peter Darch, personal communication, 1 October 2003; Projet de Rkhabilitation et d'Appui au Secteur Agricole au Cambodge, 2003; Regent School of Business, 2003).

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Through graduated classes offered at the Australian Centre for Education and Regent School of Business, Cambodian staff and counterparts improve their general English language skills and thus their ability to facilitate much international and national communication for aid agencies. Other courses target areas in which international organizations perceive their employees to need specific or focused instruction. Through its Private Programs Division, for instance, ACE has offered several courses intended to improve the English writing skills of Cambodians employed by assistance agencies. In a class for Mekong River Commission counterparts in a United Nations Development Programme project, ACE taught English report writing with particular attention to environmental issues; the Phnom Penh-based Mekong River Commission provides a forum through which Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam coordinate sustainable development in the Mekong River basin (interview with You Rith, 2000). In 2000, ACE was in the process of developing a course to improve the "writing and editing skills" of Cambodian staff and counterparts associated with the Asian Development Bank's Basic Education Textbook Project (Australian Centre for Education, 1999a, p. 4). The Cambodian-British Centre (CBC) tailored all English classes to specific purposes before it closed in 2001. Writing skills oriented a great many of these courses, including Report Writing for Redd Barna (Norway), Report Writing for Doctors for the local nongovernmental organization Reproductive Health Association of Cambodia, Report Writing and Meeting Skills for Handicap International (Belgium), and Reading and Writing Skills for Health Unlimited (United Kingdom). CBC designed writing courses for office secretaries and project managers at the United Nations Development Programme, where the British school provided most employee language instruction. Beyond writing, the Cambodian-British Centre offered language training in other specific areas requested by international agencies; the focus of these courses ran the gamut from the quotidian to the sophisticated. At one extreme, CBC taught English for Security Guards and Drivers for employees of CARE International. Moving forward along the continuum, the British school addressed the specific needs of specific staff or counterparts in such courses as English for Urban Environmental Managers (for the United Nations Office for Project Services), English for Health Educators (the World Health Organization), and English for Trainee Teachers of Law (the University of San Francisco Community Legal Education Center) (interview with Conor Boyle, 2000; Dahlane Yousos, personal communication, 30 June 2000; Centre for British Teachers, 2000).

4. Assistance Context for Language Choice: Employment 2.5.2

French Language Training for Agency Employment

Not all assistance organizations that form staff and counterparts linguistically for agency duties turn to proprietary English language schools and English language training. Coopkration Fran~aiseand several other agencies associated with France turn instead to the Centre Culturel Franpis (CCF) with the goal of improving employees' French language skills. As of 2000, CoopCration Franpise was sponsoring 30 counterparts from various government ministries to the Initiations des Affaires course offered through the Department of Special Programs at the Centre Culturel F r a n ~ a i s (interview with Lionel Leignel, 2000). According to one participant, this French-for-specific-purposes class focused on economic concepts and terminology (interview with Hong Try, 2000). Also in 2000, three employees of Pharmaciens Sans Frontikres attended courses at CCF, and the French nongovernmental organization Soutien 1'Initiative Privke pour 1'Aid a la Reconstruction had contracted with the center to provide French language instruction to counterparts in a project dedicated to improving children's library facilities (interview with Andrk Schmidt, 2000; Faculty of Law and Economics survey). Through Coopkration Franpise, the French government had earlier sent Cambodian counterparts and staff from Calmette Hospital to CCF for French language instruction; this initiative intended the improvement of French language skills to facilitate communication with and for the 14 French medical experts posted to the hospital as of 1997 (Ambassade de France, 1997). Finally, in 2000 the European Union's Programme d'Appui au Secteur de 17EducationPrimaire au Cambodge (PASEC) was sponsoring six employees to a course on secretarial skills at CCF. PASEC began in 1995, implemented by the French organization Centre International d'Etudes PCdagogiques. During its first five years, the project had what a current manager termed a "very strong francophone" flavor: All project documents were written in French, and all project staff and counterparts were hired or identified on the basis of their ability to speak this language. In January 2000, the Centre for British Teachers (CfBT) won the bid for the PASEC's second phase. Initially, CfBT continued the established language trajectory of the project; one CfBT administrator who had formerly served as a career officer in the British Council, for instance, ran French-language training sessions with counterparts from the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport. However, this same administrator told me that CfBT was in the process of "changing PASEC into an English-language project." Among other things, the new

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implementing agency prepared the second-phase project plan in English, and the language of communication in the office was evolving toward this same medium (interview with Richard Webber, 2000; Commission Europkenne, 1996). Richard Webber held PASEC up as a microcosm of the shift in language preference in development in Cambodia. "PASEC is one example of what is happening everywhere in Cambodia," he said, "with people letting French drop in favor of English" (interview, 2000). Webber's conclusion perhaps overstates the tendency toward English in that he fails to mention the numerous French-language educational initiatives supported by Coopiration Franpise. I discuss these assistance projects, in which French assistance personnel continue to teach their language to Cambodians in schools and universities, in Chapter Six.

3.

TRAJECTORIES AND CORRELATIONS IN ASSISTANCE, EMPLOYMENT, AND LANGUAGE

In this chapter, I have begun a three-part discussion of the international assistance context for language choice in Cambodia. More specifically, this chapter has explored the demands that international aid agencies place on Cambodians employed as office staff or project counterparts. In this final section, I note several themes as a way of summarizing the chapter and anticipating some of the theoretical issues I engage in Chapter Eight.

3.1

Assistance History

When the Soviet Union ceased supporting the international socialist revolution in Southeast Asia and the Vietnamese withdrew from the People's Republic of Kampuchea, Western nations cancelled the development assistance embargo and began providing aid to Cambodia. Since 1992, the international community has supplied the country with more than $4 billion in assistance resources. Aid has been directed to the country's budget and balance of payments, to emergency or relief situations, to investment projects, and to technical assistance; it has been allocated to education, health, rural development, transportation, and many other sectors; and it has been administered by a diverse array of bilateral agencies, multilateral organizations, financial institutions, and nongovernmental organizations. International assistance has not been a static enterprise in Cambodia. Many donors interrupted aid provision in 1997, for instance, when the country's transitions to the free market and liberal democracy faltered, though more


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recently they have recommenced programming and are once again working toward economic and political change in Cambodia through development efforts that, while fundamentally humanitarian in nature, may in some cases advance national interests.

3.2

Language Demands of Assistance for Cambodian Staff and Counterparts

In previous chapters about the economic and political contexts for language choice, I have been careful to emphasize the use of Khmer for relevant purposes and to qualify my conclusions accordingly. In each case, I have noted that change processes within the country can advance handily through the Khmer language, but that knowledge of foreign languages appears to be required as those changes lead Cambodia into broader networks. The commencement of international assistance to Cambodia has created a less complicated context for language choice, for "international" assistance by definition takes place only at that juncture where Cambodia faces the world. As we have seen, international aid agencies seldom use Khmer in their work in Cambodia, but rely on either English or French for assistance purposes. These language preferences, which reflect both linguistic and historical attitudes and trajectories, translate directly into language demands for Cambodians. Simply put, nearly every one of the tens of thousands of Cambodians hired by assistance agencies as office staff or project counterparts is required to know English and/or French in addition to his or her native Khmer. A few agencies use French and demand knowledge of this language among employees. Such agencies include the bilateral CoopCration Franpise, the multilateral Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, and several nongovernmental organizations based in France or other francophone nations; for the most part, those United Nations agencies subscribing officially to French-English bilingualism do not use French in their work in Cambodia. This field of French-language preference and demand can be charted geographically with a high degree of accuracy. To put this in the terms used in Chapter Two, there is a strong correlation between the use of French by donor agencies and the francophone national status of those agencies. A dramatically weaker geographical correlation emerges in relation to English. Certainly agencies associated with anglophone nations use English in their work in Cambodia and require knowledge of this language among Cambodian staff and counterparts; here we can locate numerous bilateral and nongovernmental organizations based in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New

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Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. But this correlation weakens when the English language preferences and demands of agencies from Denmark, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Taiwan, and every other non-francophone donor nation are included in the analysis. The correlation weakens further when we consider the consistent preferences and demands for English by nations acting together through United Nations organizations, the Bretton Woods institutions, and the Asian Development Bank. The correlation weakens yet further when we look across the 1990s, for preferences and demands in some organizations supported by and even based in France (the European Union and Pharmaciens Sans Frontieres in particular) have evolved either toward English or toward bilingualism over the course of the last decade. The language-nation correlations that have-and have not-emerged through this initial examination of international assistance in Cambodia invite us to reconsider traditional ways of thinking about international languages, even as they did relative to the global economy in Chapter Two. The French language still attaches geographically, to those nations where French is spoken as a first language. The English language, however, has clearly expanded beyond its original geographical base. Even as today it attaches directly to the global economy, so too does English attach to a transnational or global entity in the contemporary provision of aid: to the international aid community, sauf Francophonie.

3.3

Use of Foreign Languages in Assistance Agencies

Working either as staff for assistance agencies or counterparts in assistance projects, Cambodians use foreign languages in two ways. First, they draw on their English and French language skills in facilitating international communication within the agency and between international organizations. Cambodians read foreign-language correspondence and reports, and they participate in foreign-language discussions and meetings; while Cambodians exercise foreign-language writing skills for largely internal agency purposes, expatriates continue to provide substitution technical assistance by producing most publications for external audiences. Second, Cambodians facilitate national communication for aid agencies by translating documents and interpreting discussions between the generally monolingual international aid community and the generally monolingual Cambodian recipients of aid. In performing these latter duties, I argued above, bilingual Cambodians allow international assistance organizations to extend their reach into the country. It would be relatively easy to argue that the international assistance enterprise in Cambodia depends on the foreign language skills of local staff and counterparts. Certainly expatriates could handle all international and

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inter-agency communication, some of which is now assigned to Cambodian staff. But it is almost impossible to imagine how the real work of assistance could be accomplished without those bilingual Cambodians who mediate communication among various monolingual parties. International agencies would know little about Cambodia or its needs but for the behind-the-scenes involvement of bilingual Cambodians in research and sector studies. Nor would they be able to implement projects designed to answer the country's needs if bilingual Cambodians were not standing by, ready to translate documents, interpret discussions, and assume responsibility in countless other ways for the success of communication between groups of people who do not speak a common language. The potential dependency in international aid on foreign languages broadens and deepens when we consider the purpose of assistance; indeed, as I argued in Chapters Two and Three, the economic and political change that assistance supports also depends (or, more accurately, approaches dependency) on the mediating skills of bilingual Cambodians. As in Chapters Two and Three, I want to be very careful not to overstate the degree of any dependency, for exceptions will always complicate neat relationships. In assistance, these exceptions manifest in the language policies and practices of some aid organizations and expatriates. The Catholic Mission Society of America (Maryknoll), for example, gives all personnel sent to Cambodia intensive training in Khmer, and all Voluntary Service Overseas participants receive five weeks of Khmer language instruction prior to starting work (interview with Luise Ahrens, 2000; Stephen Clayton, personal communication, 30 January 2004). Nevertheless, the vast majority of expatriates do not know Khmer and do not use it in their work in Cambodia. Further, as a group they have demonstrated little interest in developing the Khmer language for assistance and other purposes; as of 2001, the Institute of National Language received no international support for its language planning efforts, for instance (interview with Sorn Samnang, 2001). Given contemporary and signaled preferences, it seems safe to conclude that most international aid agencies will continue to use English and French in the future and that the successful execution of assistance will continue to require-if not depend on-the participation of bilingual Cambodian intermediaries.

3.4

Language Training for Office Staff and Project Counterparts

Largely unable or unwilling to use Khmer, the international aid community has chosen to work in Cambodia through French- or English-speaking Cambodians. Unable to find sufficient numbers of Cambodians who can

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answer these language demands, agencies have created them through language training. The national attachments of French emerge clearly through a review of the few bilateral, multilateral, and nongovernmental agencies sending employees to the Centre Culture1 Franqais for French skills training. Conversely, the transnational attachments of English emerge in analysis of the myriad agencies that sponsor staff or counterparts to English language courses. Bilateral agencies from every nation (except France), multilateral organizations (except for the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie), all three financial institutions, and most nongovernmental organizations (including some based in France) have sent employees to the Australian Centre for Education, Regent School of Business, and/or the Cambodian-British Centre for both general and specific English language instruction. The patterns (or lack of them) in English language training carry forward the weak geographical correlation that I noted previously. Patterns related to English language teaching, on the other hand, recall the stronger languagenation relationship discussed in Chapter Two. Accordingly, the proprietary schools that have opened to answer the demands for English from international enterprises (assistance as well as economic) exhibit clear ties to anglophone nations. The reader will recall that the Australian Centre for Education is owned by the Australian university system and that the British government supported the Cambodian-British Centre through contracts with the Centre for British Teachers; Regent School of Business, though owned by Malaysian interests, hires British and American teachers to provide English language instruction. The stronger relationship between English language program providers and English-speaking nations suggests, as I noted in Chapter Two, that English as an instructional commodity remains in the control of actors associated with the first-language nations. While English can serve the communicative purposes of virtually any international assistance agency, it apparently can be sold only by schools with anglophone pedigrees-or, to recall the qualification noted in Chapter Two, it appears that only schools with anglophone pedigrees provide the English language instruction desired by, and attractive to, aid agencies and other international enterprises.

Chapter 5

THE ASSISTANCE CONTEXT FOR LANGUAGE CHOICE Projects

1.

CAPACITY BUILDING FOR TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

The previous chapter began a three-part discussion of the international assistance context for language choice in Cambodia. In it, I explored trends and developments in aid to Cambodia following the beginning of economic and political change in the late 1980s, I examined language preferences among international assistance organizations that operate in the country, and I considered how these preferences translate into demands for the thousands of Cambodians employed as agency staff or project counterparts. Simply put, most agencies-the diversity of which confounds geographical logicdemand knowledge of English in addition to Khmer, though some associated with francophone nations require French language skills. The language teaching industry serves the needs of international aid organizations, much as it does those of the economic enterprises discussed in Chapter Two, by preparing Cambodian employees linguistically for particular tasks. For the assistance community, these tasks include various forms of communication at both the international and national levels. In Chapter Four I suggested that the bilingual Cambodian employees of aid agencies allow the generally monolingual international assistance community to extend its reach into generally monolingual Cambodia. In many cases, the assistance enterprise requires knowledge of foreign languages among a group no larger than that made up of agency staff and

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counterparts. Bilingual Cambodian staff can communicate on behalf of expatriates with truck drivers and village leaders in the delivery of grain or other supplies for emergency relief organizations, for example, and they can hire and supervise laborers to repair roads, build bridges, or work on other investment projects for development agencies. Similarly, bilingual counterparts in Cambodian government service can administer budgetary aid or balance of payments support provided by international and regional financial institutions. In many technical assistance contexts, too, knowledge of foreign languages reaches no further than the ministry counterparts whose capacity is being built through what Tuon Thavrak of the Ministry of Planning termed "on-the-job training [where] you learn English by speaking English every day with consultants" (interview, 2000). In other technical assistance projects, however, the boundaries set for foreign language skills by aid organizations are not so neatly demarcated. Indeed, in many projects with large-scale capacity-building components, agencies teach foreign languages-almost always English-to a second group of Cambodians. I explore this phenomenon in this chapter, with two purposes in mind. First, the examination of a broad selection of capacitybuilding projects will allow us to define the demographics and depth of this targeted, secondary population with a certain degree of clarity. If the first group of foreign language speakers is inhabited by agency staff and counterparts, what Cambodians inhabit the second, and how deep do they stand? Further, exploration of diverse projects will illuminate the reasons that assistance agencies teach English to these Cambodians. If organizations demand knowledge of foreign languages among employees so that they can facilitate agency business internationally and nationally, what do they expect knowledge of foreign languages in the second group to facilitate? I continue to explore foreign languages and international assistance in the next chapter, where I examine Cambodia's educational system and the aid it receives.

SAMPLE OF PROJECTS In considering English language training programs for Cambodians beyond those employed as agency staff or counterparts, I survey 12 projects in detail and several more superficially. Projects cluster into two categories. In the early to mid-1990s, several assistance organizations ran large-scale

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English language programs for government personnel. These projects had nonspecific goals, by which I mean that the language skills gained in them did not have immediate, intended applications. Because learning English was thus the primary purpose of these projects, I refer to them below under the rubric "English as projects." Later in the 1990s, most agencies phased out nonspecific language programs, though English language training for government officials continued within the context of projects dedicated to particular goals. In these projects, English language instruction anticipates subsequent training or education, in English, in various subjects. Because the development of English skills in these projects represents an enabling, rather than a terminal, objective, I refer to them below under the heading "English in projects." The projects I examine do not comprise the entire population of technical assistance projects that affect Cambodians beyond those employed as staff or counterparts by assistance agencies, nor do they constitute a random sample of this population. Indeed, despite several efforts, I was unable to locate a master list of projects from which to draw such a sample. Rather, these projects represent something like a stratification sample, in that all strata of assistance agencies are represented in it. The sample includes projects mounted by bilateral agencies associated with anglophone nations (Australia, New Zealand, and the United States) as well as those outside the traditional anglophone orbit (Denmark, Germany, Japan, and Sweden). Both United Nations and other multilateral organizations are represented (the United Nations Development Programme, UNESCO, and the European Union). All three financial institutions (the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank) and several nongovernmental organizations (notably the Cambodia Development Resource Institute) complete the list. Because this sample is neither complete nor random, it cannot be said to reflect the full population of technical assistance capacity-building projects, and it will thus be necessary to treat tentatively the trajectories it suggests about English and international assistance. In fact, the sample itself restrains these trajectories, for in several cases agencies move beyond English, to both Khmer and French, in order to accomplish their goals. The linguistic transition in these projects-the point where they turn from English to other languages-will allow us to define more clearly both the scope and the function of that second group of Cambodians targeted for English language skills.

Chapter 5

3.

ENGLISH AS PROJECTS

3.1

The English Language Training Center at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute

Before the Australian Centre for Education, the Cambodian-British Centre, or Regent School of Business, the nongovernmental Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI) opened its English Language Training Center (ELTC) in Phnom Penh in partnership with the State University of New York at Buffalo. I was the first director of this center. For the first four years after its inauguration in 1991, the ELTC at CDRI differed from the proprietary language schools subsequently launched to answer individual and institutional demands for English language skills in that we provided English language training as part of our assistance mandate. That is, the English Language Training Center was not a business that taught English for profit, but an externally funded assistance project that supplied English language instruction as a resource for development. Funding for CDRI programs (which in addition to the ELTC have included computer training, a research unit, and a documentation center) comes largely from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, with smaller contributions from the Canadian, Danish, and Dutch governments and the World Bank (Cambodia Development Resource Institute, 1999, 2000). The Cambodia Development Resource Institute opened in 1990 with the stated goal of helping "prepare Cambodia and Cambodians for reintegration" into the world economy. Achieving this goal meant "equipping [Cambodians] with the tools and information they would need to negotiate the terms of future development and to adapt their public institutions and ways of working to meet the complex demands of economic reconstruction" (Cambodia Development Resource Institute, 1996a, p. 4). CDRI intended the English Language Training Center to contribute to this goal by improving the English language skills of government officials and thus increasing their ability to work with the United Nations and other aid agencies that were beginning to arrive in the country in the early 1990s. The majority of ELTC students worked in government offices identified as important to the nation's economic transition and integration, among them the Ministries of Agriculture (renamed Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries in 1993), Commerce, Economy and Finance, Industry, and Planning; the National Bank; and the Directorates of Rubber and Tourism (now the Ministry of Tourism). Classes were offered by two expatriates from Buffalo and two Cambodian English language teachers; at CDRI, these local counterparts translated skills they had gained in training as Russian language teachers in the 1980s.


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More than 400 government officials participated in English language courses at CDRI between 1991 and 1995. Most followed the Foundations course, which provided 260 hours of instruction in reading, writing, and oral communication skills over an eight-week period. Though general, this course was intended to provide students with English language skills useful in facilitating or managing the country's economic development. More specifically, as I reminded graduates of the ELTC's second English course, they had gained skills from which they could extrapolate in "introduc[ing themselves] in English to international development workers, diplomats, and businesspeople," in "attending English language lectures on economics or banking principles," and in "discussing . . . joint venture projects with company representatives from Thailand, Germany, or the United States" (Clayton, 1992, pp. 56-57). An early tracer study indicated that at least some graduates were indeed using English for such purposes. Several participants, for example, reported being appointed by their ministries to offices responsible for negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank; another replied that since completing the course he had "spent much time . . . translating written documents [about] world market prices and international economic activities . . . from English to Khmer for [Ministry of Commerce] bulletins" (Survey of English Course Graduates, 1992, p. 5). In 1995, CDRI's agreement with the State University of New York at Buffalo expired, and the English Language Training Center moved in new directions, becoming a cost-recovery subcontractor for other aid agencies. The center closed in 2000, partially in response to CDRI's evolution from a training to a research institution, and partially in response to the maturation of and increased competition from proprietary schools such as the Australian Centre for Education and the Cambodian-British Centre.

3.2

The English in Ministries Project, Agency for Personal Service Overseas

The Agency for Personal Service Overseas (APSO) is a volunteer organization funded by the government of Ireland. APSO works in 16 countries worldwide, with Cambodia being the only client nation in Southeast Asia. APSO opened its office in Cambodia in 1994 and has had as many as 17 volunteers in the country at a time. In the first few years of operation, English language training for government personnel featured prominently in the organization's mission. Unlike CDRI's English Language Training Center, which secured the release of government staff for off-site classes, APSO volunteers traveled to selected ministries and provided English

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language instruction there. In the heyday of the English in Ministries Project in 1998, APSO English teachers worked at the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, and the Ministry of Social Affairs. Though each ministry program developed in a somewhat different direction, they shared several features. Namely, ministry personnel were selected for participation in English courses by the ministries themselves, and instruction was given in small classes (generally 10 to 15), organized by level (beginning, intermediate, advanced), meeting relatively infrequently (one-and-a-half hours, two or three times per week; Boyle, 1998). When in 2000 I asked the country director of APSO to explain the rationale behind the English teaching program, it had already ceased, and the director seemed uncertain of its purpose. We mounted the initiative, Viv Lusted said, "in response to requests from the ministries" (interview, 2000). An examination of the curriculum illustrates the communicative situations APSO and its client ministries envisioned for participants. At the Ministry of Social Affairs, English language instruction included attention to letter writing, telephone communication, and presentations, while at the Ministry of Health, telephone communication, letter writing, and report writing oriented much instruction (Boyle, 1998). It seems possible to conclude on the basis of these topics that in the English in Ministries Project APSO sought to prepare a population of Cambodian officials capable of receiving and relaying information-facilitating communication-between their ministries and groups like the international aid community that generally use English in their work in Cambodia. Other graduates of the APSO program exercised their English language skills in attending courses and conferences sponsored by international agencies both in Cambodia and abroad (interview with Viv Lusted, 2000). APSO phased out its English teaching initiative between 1998 and 2000, in part out of frustration with the surprising rates of absenteeism in classes. As Viv Lusted explained, however, absenteeism was itself merely a symptom of a larger problem. In some cases, she said, students would study with APSO at the ministry, while at the same time following private English language classes that they paid for themselves in the evening, while at yet the same time being sent to proprietary schools like the Cambodian-British Centre to receive English language instruction as project counterparts. "There are just too many inputs now," she concluded (interview, 2000). Rather than competing for the attention of clients in a field already saturated with English language inputs, APSO closed the English in Ministries Project and moved toward greater involvement in capacity building with local nongovernmental organizations.


3.3

123

The English Language Training for Cambodian Key Ministries Staff Project, British Overseas Development Authority

The English in Ministries Project run by Irish APSO was quite small compared with the ministry officials project mounted by the British government. The English Language Training for Cambodian Key Ministries Staff Project, which commenced in December 1993, was funded by the British Overseas Development Administration (now the Department for International Development), implemented by the Centre for British Teachers (CfBT), and offered at the Cambodian-British Centre (CBC) in Phnom Penh. According to Mike Bicker of CfBT, the key ministries project gave English language instruction to officials from 17 national ministries, the Council of Ministers (a supraministerial body), and the municipality of Phnom Penh (Bicker, 1996). Though the project title suggests an interest in a narrow subset of the Cambodian government, in fact nearly all ministries sent staff to CBC for English language instruction, with the Ministries of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries; Education, Youth, and Sport; and Foreign Affairs being heavily represented (interview with Conor Boyle, 2000). Over the life of the project, approximately 600 government officials attended English courses at CBC (interview with George Taylor, 2000). Three expatriates from CfBT taught project classes, which initially met for six hours per week for a period of six months. In 1995, course terms were reduced to three months in an effort to reverse dropout rates that reached 43 percent in late 1994. Project staff explained the dropout rate as a function of the program's success: Even before they could finish their courses, ministry officials' increasing English language skills identified them for participation in activities that necessitated their withdrawal (Bicker, 1996). The British project intended generally to "increase capacity in English for ministry officials" (interview with Conor Boyle, 2000). On one level, the project built linguistic capacity for nonspecific communication with international aid agencies. Early in the program, CBC attempted to achieve this goal though a generalist curriculum. As the program matured, CfBT reoriented classes toward what one administrator termed "English language training geared to [ministry officials'] work" (interview with Conor Boyle, 2000). In the First Contacts course, for instance, students learned "language skills required by those ministry staff whom a foreign visitor is most likely to meet or speak to on hislher first contact with a ministry" (Bicker, 1996, p. 97). More specifically, students practiced and learned vocabulary appropriate to "greeting a visitor, checking on the visitor's purpose in seeking a

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meeting, arranging appointments over the phone, [and] explaining the structure of one's department" (Bicker, 1996, p. 97). Courses focused additionally on language skills appropriate to other situations participants might encounter in working with international agencies, notably on presentations, meetings, and correspondence (interview with Conor Boyle, 2000). On another level, the Cambodian-British Centre intended the increased English language capacity of ministry officials to facilitate the country's political integration. As Bicker (1996) argues in a presentation about the key ministries project, "If Cambodia is to become a fully integrated member of [the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN], then the country will need a corps of well-trained civil servants who possess high-level English language skills" such as those gained by graduates of the British project (p. 96). Bicker illustrates the importance of English for ASEAN through a cautionary tale that mirrors the tension Cambodians themselves described and that I related in Chapter Three. Without near-universal English language skills among government officials, he suggests, one of two things may happen in ASEAN meetings: Representatives with appropriate subject knowledge but without adequate English language skills may attend regional meetings and conferences, or Cambodians with sufficient English language skills but without appropriate subject knowledge may be chosen to represent Cambodia in ASEAN. In either case, Bicker (1996) concludes, "information transfer may not take place," to Cambodia's disadvantage (p. 96). The English Language Training for Cambodian Key Ministries Staff Project concluded in August 1997, at which point the British government directed English language assistance fully to the ongoing Cambodian Secondary English Teaching Project, which I discuss in Chapter Six.

3.4

The English Language for Ministry Officials Project and the English for Academic Purposes Project, Australian Agency for International Development

Of all the English-as-projects language courses begun for Cambodian government officials in the early 1990s, only two continue today. These projects are funded by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and implemented by and at the Australian Centre for Education (ACE). The English Language for Ministry Officials (ELMO) Project began in 1994 in Phnom Penh, Battambang, and Sihanoukville, and it expanded to Australian Centres for Education in Siem Reap and Kampong Cham in 1995 and 1996, respectively. According to the second secretary of the Australian Embassy, AusAID invites nominations to the English language course from


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17 client ministries, with preferences being given to candidates from the Ministries of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries; Education, Youth, and Sport; Interior; Justice; and Rural Development (interview with Lydia Bezeruk, 2000). Nominees are interviewed to determine whether they have an "immediate need for English in the workplace" (Australian Centre for Education, 2000a, appendix 3). Once admitted, students proceed through 11 levels of general English instruction in classes that meet five hours per week for 10 weeks. The first six levels tend to be taught by Cambodian English language teachers, with expatriates offering instruction in the latter five levels. As of 2000, nearly 2,000 Cambodian ministry officials had either graduated from or were currently enrolled in the ELMO program (interview with Pen Bory, 2000; Australian Centre for Education, 2 0 0 0 ~ ) . ELMO graduates can apply with other ministry personnel to AusAID's English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program, which has been offered since 1998 through ACE in Phnom Penh. Admission to this intensive English language course is based on applicants' scores on the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exam. Those with lower scores enter a 12-month, 1,000-hour course, while high-scoring applicants follow a 6-month, 500-hour course. Both courses require students to attend classes full-time, and AusAID secures their release from ministry service for this purpose. As with ELMO courses, AusAID pays participants in the EAP program "a nominal stipend" to supplement their government salaries (Boyle, 1998, p. 8). Expatriate teachers of EAP courses attempt to increase the language skills of participants beyond the intermediate level attained in the ELMO program and thus to answer the increasing "need . . . for advanced level English and academic skills" in Cambodian government ministries (Australian Centre for Education, 2000a, appendix 9). As of 2000, approximately 200 Cambodians had either completed or were currently enrolled in the English for Academic Purposes program at ACE (interview with Liz Neil, 2000). The two AusAID English language programs pursue the same three objectives. The first purpose, explained the coordinator of the ELMO program, "is to improve the English skills of ministry officials so they can work [as] counterparts" in assistance projects (interview with Pen Bory, 2000). "We teach English in Kampong Cham, Siem Reap, and Battambang in addition to Phnom Penh," a senior program officer for AusAID continued, "because there is much more donor activity in these provinces than elsewhere in Cambodia" and because, as a result, there is a large demand in these locales for Cambodian government personnel with English language skills (interview with Eak Khun, 2000). In addition to training Cambodians for assistance interaction with agencies such as the United Nations Development Programme and the World Food Programme, ELMO and EAP courses train

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English-speaking counterparts specifically for AusAID projects. "It is in our interests to bump up the capacity in ministries to help with our own projects," Lydia Bezeruk explained, "because we have experts on the ground [that is, running various projects] who need counterparts" in government service (interview, 2000). Second, the Australian English language projects support Cambodia's political transition and integration. Regarding transition, both projects succeed the earlier English for Democracy course; this course offered in 1993 for members of the previously communist Cambodian People's Party integrated basic concepts of liberal democracy with English language training (Australian Centre for Education, 2 0 0 0 ~ )Regarding . integration, both projects work specifically to prepare Cambodians for participation in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. As Director of ACE Helen Cherry explained it, AusAID expects graduates "to be able to work in Cambodia on ASEAN matters and to be able to travel abroad and attend and participate in ASEAN meetings" (interview, 2000). Those in the EAP program receive the most specific training. "In class," the EAP coordinator told me, "we discuss ASEAN-related subjects, such as trade and agriculture. We use ASEAN-related materials, such as appropriate newspaper articles and ASEAN reports. We teach students how to read these documents, and more importantly how to 'read between the lines"' and thus to think critically about the implications for Cambodia of ASEAN membership (interview with Liz Neil, 2000). Finally, English language training in the English Language for Ministry Officials and English for Academic Purposes Projects prepares at least some Cambodians for participation in the Australian Development Scholarship program. I discuss this initiative that sends 20 Cambodians per year to graduate courses at Australian universities in more detail below.

4.

ENGLISH IN PROJECTS

The projects discussed in the previous section are anchored by English, by which I mean that English language teaching is their main activity. Of course, donors expect that graduates will exercise their increased English language capacity in a variety of ways related to international assistance and the economic and political changes with which it integrates. But note the looseness with which English language training attaches to these ultimate expectations. Typically, a government official completes an English language course and then returns to his or her ministry post, whereupon he or she waits to be named as a counterpart in an aid project, assigned to an ASEAN committee, or sponsored to an English-medium conference or


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training course by an aid agency. In the English-as-projects model, donors create "a pool of officials" with English language skills sufficient for subsequent, though undefined, participation in or related to the international assistance enterprise (Australian Centre for Education, 2000a, appendix 9). In the mid-1990s, the English-as-projects approach to capacity building was superseded by a project model that links English language skills more firmly with expectations for participation in Cambodia's development. In these projects, aid agencies target a specific population for training on a specific subject, and the English language plays an enabling role in the process-though, as we will see, other languages also contribute in these capacity-building initiatives.

4.1

The Distance Learning in Financial Economics Project, Cambodia Development Resource Institute

Early in its history, the English Language Training Center at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute entertained the idea of providing economics-oriented, English-for-specific-purposes courses for Cambodian ministry officials who would subsequently study economics, in English, at the Institute of Social Studies in the Hague. "English is essential to the learning and diffusion of modern economics in Cambodia," wrote two professors from the Institute of Social Studies, as well as to "un-learning notions, concepts and old habits of thinking and acting" acquired about economics during the socialist period (Sideri & Irvin, 1991, pp. 11, 5 ) . This initial idea remained unrealized, however, largely because of the reluctance of the Cambodian government to grant long-term release to ministry officials for overseas study tours. In 1994, CDRI launched an economics training venture for Cambodian ministry personnel that responded to this earlier constraint. In this project that began in December 1994, students received training in financial economics in Cambodia from professors seconded from the Centre for International Education in Economics at the University of London. All instruction in this program sponsored by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) was given in English (Goppers, Baaberg, Borges-MAnsson, & Noonan, 2000). The program recruited participants from the Ministries of Economy and Finance, Commerce, and Planning; the National Bank; the Council for the Development of Cambodia; the Faculty of Law and Economics; and the National Institute of Management. Twentyeight of 45 applicants performed adequately in English and mathematics on the entrance exam and were admitted to the one-year Certificate in Economics Principles course. In this year, students focused on "concepts and vocabulary related to their future course of studies." While "learners had a

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very advanced knowledge about . . . balance of payments, deficits, monetary policy and so on," for instance, they "did not know about the basic workings of a savings account or credit cards" (Yeo, 1996, pp. 92, 93). After completing their first year, 24 students entered the University of London's Master of Science in Financial Economics degree program. In this two-year course, students followed classes in Cambodia such as Banking and Finance, Development Finance, International Finance, Macroeconomic Models and Policy, and Macroeconomic Policy and Stabilization (Cambodia . addition, the 23 students who Development Resource Institute, 1 9 9 6 ~ )In passed their qualifying exams traveled to the United Kingdom for a threeweek residential study tour at the University of London; there, they joined participants from similar SIDA projects in Mozambique, Namibia, and Vietnam in research methods courses supportive of their 10,000-word theses ("CDRI Update," 1997). Ultimately, 22 Cambodians graduated from the master's course in March 1998 and returned to their government posts ("CDRI Update," 1998b). One graduate who had studied economics in Cambodia in the 1980s described the value he found in the master's program. "The course is up-to-date and very useful for the development of Cambodia," he began. "The subjects we study are new for me. Before, I studied [socialist] economics, but not open market economics which is quite different" (cited in Cambodia Development Resource Institute, 1996a, p. 21). The English language played several roles in the distance learning program. First, it was through demonstration of English language skills that candidates gained admission to the program. The coordinator of the CDRI English Language Training Center (ELTC) estimated the proficiency of those admitted as equivalent to a 500-550 score on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (Yeo, 1996). Those lacking skills at this level were simply not allowed admission and were thus denied the opportunity to gain economics knowledge through subsequent instruction. Second, the ELTC supported those enrolled in the program through ongoing English language training. During the certificate year, the ELTC ran a 12-week, half-day course that included specific classes in Academic Reading Skills, Academic Writing Skills, Listening and Study Skills, and Grammar, with a consistent focus on economics concepts and vocabulary. In the subsequent, two-year degree course, the ELTC provided a series of workshops that integrated with students' writing assignments, including their theses. In general, students found academic writing in English to be quite challenging, and as a result both valued and "clamor[ed] for" the ELTC's enabling support services (Yeo, 1996, p. 94).


4.2

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Preparations for Cambodia's Membership in ASEAN Project, the United Nations Development Programme

Following the successful election in 1993, the way cleared for Cambodia's entry into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (see Chapter Three). In anticipation of accession, several assistance agencies initiated projects intended to prepare the country for membership in this regional political organization. The United Nations Development programme (UNDP) funded the first such venture, the Preparations for Cambodia's Membership in ASEAN Project, beginning in August 1996. At its broadest, the UNDP ASEAN membership project intended to "expedite [the country's] integration into the region" by "develop[ing] Government capacities to participate in ASEAN activities" (United Nations Development Programme, 1996, p. 1). More specifically, the project pursued three objectives, the second and third of which addressed economic and political changes related to ASEAN accession. In terms of the former, the project prepared Cambodians for participation in the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) by, among other things, working with relevant ministries to develop lists of goods to be excluded from tariff reduction and elimination (see Chapter Two). In relation to the latter, UNDP assisted appropriate offices in harmonizing Cambodia's customs procedures, tax system, and commercial laws with the "standards and practices of ASEAN member countries" (United Nations Development Programme, 1998, p. 22). More concerned with the idea of ASEAN than with the mechanics of regional economic and political integration was the project's first objective: to "increase knowledge about ASEAN and Cambodia's membership and participation in ASEAN" among government officials at both the national and provincial levels (United Nations Development Programme, 1998, p. 7). Within the context of the first objective, the UNDP project provided courses to "increase . . . English language knowledge and skills among concerned Government officials" (United Nations Development Programme, 1996, p. 10). Both the Cambodian-British Centre (CBC) and the English Language Training Center at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute (ELTC, by then a cost-recovery subcontractor) won contracts with UNDP for the ASEAN project. CBC offered two courses that the director of studies described as "English for ASEAN," in 1997 and 1998 (interview with Conor Boyle, 2000). Approximately 50 officials from nine ministries (including the Ministries of Commerce, Economy and Finance, and Foreign Affairs) participated in these courses, which met three hours per day for six and three

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months, respectively. CBC courses focused on "ASEAN-related themes" while emphasizing reading, writing, and grammar skills (United Nations Development Programme, 1998, p. 55; interview with Lok Kim Lun, 2000; United Nations Development Programme, 1999). In 1998, the ELTC offered two 45-hour courses on "the language of multi-cultural and international meetings and negotiations" for a total of 25 senior ministry officials ("CDRI Update," 1998a, p. 16; "CDRI Update," 1 9 9 8 ~ ) . The English language training component supported the ASEAN membership project in two ways. First and more broadly, it was expected that participants would increase their linguistic capacity for work within this organization that uses English as the language of communication; an early tracer study indicated that participants had indeed advanced in their "ability to incorporate English into their ASEAN-related work" (United Nations Development Programme, 1998, p. 12). Second and more specifically related to the project's first objective, English language instruction anticipated diverse training, in English, designed to familiarize participants with the regional political organization. To begin, the project sponsored Cambodian officials on tours of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, during which they attended ASEAN committee meetings, received instruction in classes such as ASEAN Institutional Arrangements and AFTA Arrangements, and learned negotiation skills. The project also brought groups from ASEAN member states and elsewhere in the region to Cambodia to run workshops on similar topics and strategies. A Malaysian firm, Ludher Consultancy, provided a one-week, intensive ASEAN orientation to 25 Cambodian ministry officials; this orientation covered such topics as "ASEAN's history, working apparatus, membership preparations, economic cooperation, [and] functional cooperation" (United Nations Development Programme, 1998, p. 61). The UNDP project oriented a second group of Cambodians to ASEAN through a one-week intensive course for 24 provincial officials, mostly chiefs or deputy chiefs of provincial cabinets. Unlike the first Englishlanguage orientation, this second session was led by Cambodian counterparts, in the Khmer language. Cambodian counterparts additionally provided a three-day "training of trainers" workshop for 11 officials who had completed one of the first two sessions. These trainers would use Khmer after the close of the project in July 1998 to "more broadly spread knowledge about ASEAN to more officials" throughout the Cambodian government system (United Nations Development Programme, 1998, p. 61). As the manager of the ASEAN membership project put it, trainer training aimed to "develop a core of officials with deep understanding of ASEAN issues who could then pass along that knowledge to a broader set of officials" in Khmer (Jeffrey Kaplan, personal communication, 24 February 2004).


4.3

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The European Union's Training Project for Officials

The European Union (EU) also worked to prepare Cambodia for entry into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations through its Training Project for Officials. The E U signed a memorandum of understanding regarding this project with the Cambodian government on 14 January 1997, though the events of 5-6 July 1997 interrupted its implementation. Ultimately, the project began on 21 July 1999 and ran through October 2000 (interview with Denis Winckler, 2000). According to the project training manager, the EU initiative provided "skills training for ASEAN" and thus intended to "help officials prepare for meetings and negotiations in ASEAN" (interview with Denis Winckler, 2000). The project worked with approximately 100 Cambodians divided roughly into four groups. The first three groups comprised civil servants, with about 60 percent coming from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and about 20 percent each arriving from the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Participants worked either in their ministry's ASEAN department or in other departments concerned with regional issues, among them Asia-Pacific departments and Cambodian debt departments (interview with Stephen Moore, 2000). The first three groups organized participants according to their ministry rank, so that high-ranking, mid-level, and junior civil servants clustered together. The fourth group enrolled students from the Ecole Royale d'Administration, the country's training school for civil servants. These students might be termed "civilservants-in-training." All participants received substantial English language instruction in the EU project. I asked the training manager, himself a Frenchman, why the project had emphasized English. In fact, he replied, the original memorandum of understanding did not mention English language training, but Cambodian officials "told us that they wanted it in the project." English language training, he explained, was a "key request of the Cambodian government" (interview with Denis Winckler, 2000). The English Language Training Center at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute gave instruction to high-ranking civil servants. According to the ELTC coordinator, participants in this course focused on negotiation skills and "listening and reading for ASEAN topics" by, among other activities, "reading the ASEAN Economic Bulletin and discussing ASEAN topics" (interview with Stephen Moore, 2000). Participants in the other groups followed courses designed by the Cambodian-British Centre in which they practiced "social English that people might use in interacting with ASEAN counterparts" and learned how to "explain Cambodia's government, economy, and culture" in English (interview with Conor Boyle, 2000). The first three groups studied

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English between four and six hours per week for seven months; the civilservants-in-training from the Ecole Royale d'Administration received 10 months of English language instruction. Increased English language capacity prepared Cambodian officials ultimately for participation in ASEAN. More immediately, it prepared them to participate in training courses about ASEAN that the European Union organized in Cambodia. In Legal Matters, for instance, participants received instruction related to human rights, the rule of law, and "international law in the ASEAN context." In Investments and Trade Development, they considered the "general and geopolitical context" of Cambodia's regional economic integration. Instruction in Diplomatic Skills focused on "crisis management and information in multilateral context" (European Union, 2000, pp. 5-7). In Basic Skills for Public Administration Managers, Cambodian officials gained familiarity with the mechanics of work in ASEAN by participating in simulations of ASEAN meetings and drafting documents according to ASEAN protocols. Instruction was offered by a diverse group of local, regional, and international experts, including aid workers attached to the United Nations Development Programme in Phnom Penh, diplomats from the Indonesian and Thai Embassies, and European academics and government officials (European Union, 2000). Cambodians in the project's first three groups-that is, the high-, mid-, and junior-level civil servants from ASEAN and ASEAN-related departments-received all instruction from all experts in English. The civilservants-in-training at the Ecole Royale d' Administration, however, received what the project training manager termed "some" instruction in French (interview with Denis Winckler, 2000). The Ecole Royale d'Administration accepts considerable French bilateral assistance and has adopted French as the dominant language of instruction. On one hand, the acknowledgement of French in the EU project may have responded to the school's language policy. On the other, the greater use of English may have reflected the pragmatic attitude about language among the institution's Cambodian administrators. According to the associate director of the Ecole Royale d'Administration, despite the preference for French the institute is willing to "use any language that will open the minds of the students" (interview with Van Buntheth, 2000).

4.4

Economics and Finance Institute at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the World Bank

The Economics and Finance Institute (EFI) of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) opened in 1998 with funding from the World Bank. The EFI differs from other projects discussed heretofore in that it occupies a


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physical space, this being a new, three-storey structure built by the World Bank on the grounds of the MEF. Also unlike other projects, the EFI is controlled at least to a certain extent by Cambodians, who operate it with funds from a World Bank technical assistance loan. The EFI is directed by Dr. Hean Sahib, a Cambodian man with a Ph.D. in economics from a Ukrainian university. According to the director, the EFI's management team makes recommendations for programmatic activities to the ministry's Project Management Unit, through which the World Bank oversees loans and grants to the ministry. This unit reviews proposals and forwards some to the World Bank in Washington, where decisions ultimately are made (interview with Hean Sahib, 2000). The EFI offers a wide variety of economics-oriented courses for Cambodian government officials; while the majority are attached to the MEF itself, others work with the Ministries of Commerce and Planning, the Council for the Development of Cambodia, and the National Bank. In 1999, the institute gave instruction to 2,913 "class-students"; as some Cambodians attended more than one class, fewer actual individuals enrolled (interview with Hean Sahib, 2000). Offerings in the part-time, three- to six-month courses in 2000 included Capital and Money Markets, Fiscal Policy and Management, Foreign Investments in Cambodia, and Macroeconomic Concepts. Beyond these courses that oriented participants generally to the dynamics of the market economy, the EFI designed very specific classes on very specific aspects of economic transition and integration, among them the full-time, nine-month course on Taxation, Tax Management, and Tax Auditing for 35 civil servants in the MEF's Tax Department. In the full-time, 13-month ASEAN Customs course, 20 members of the ministry's Customs Department who "interact with ASEAN member states on customs issues" studied "international economics, regional economic integration, negotiation with foreigners, and ASEAN issues" (interview with Hean Sahib, 2000; Economics and Finance Institute, 1999). Classes at the EFI are taught by both Cambodian and expatriate experts. The six Cambodian faculty at the EFI teach economic management and finance, while senior staff from the MEF like the director of the Budget Department "provide courses related to their jobs" (interview with Hean Sahib, 2000). Consultants from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Asian Development Bank teach courses on short-term missions to Cambodia; as of 2000, for instance, two World Bank experts were leading two-week seminars in the ASEAN Customs course, in which they were joined by an African customs expert in the country on a six-month mission. Finally, the EFI hires independent international subcontractors such as the experts from the Philippines and Australia who in 2000 were offering instruction in the Taxation, Tax Management, and Tax Auditing course

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(interview with Hean Sahib, 2000). In general, the director explained, "If lecturers are Cambodians, they lecture in Khmer. If they are expatriates, they lecture in English" (interview with Hean Sahib, 2000). In anticipation of courses offered in English, the EFI directs considerable resources-in fact, 40 percent of its annual budget-toward English language instruction. As of 2000, the Cambodian-British Centre (CBC) offered four kinds of English classes for the EFI. In the beginning and intermediate series, participants advance through five levels of English language classes, each meeting for 72 hours over the course of 12 weeks. Graduated Englishfor-specific-purposes classes target Cambodians "who already know English but need practice" in areas such as writing and presentations (interview with Hean Sahib, 2000). Hean Sahib estimates that 500 "class-students" per year complete general or specific English courses at the EFI (interview, 2000). Finally, CBC offers instruction to senior MEF officials focusing on writing, meeting skills, and presentations (interview with Conor Boyle, 2000). After CBC closed in 2001, some British teachers formed a new organization, CamEd, and continued offering English language classes at the EFI (interview with Lucy Royal-Dawson, 2001). Beyond preparing staff specifically for economics classes in English at the EFI, the institute's English language program also links less directly with other training opportunities in English. Because of their English language skills, the director explained, ministry staff have been positioned well for participation in a broad range of seminars offered by the Australian Agency for International Development, the International Monetary Fund, the National University of Singapore, and other organizations in multiple venues around the world. The emphasis on English language training finally prepares MEF staff for nonspecific communication with expatriates. Today, the director concluded, "You can go into any office and speak with staff in English. Three years ago this would have been very difficult, but now you can because the staff has been studying English for three years" (interview with Hean Sahib, 2000).

4.5

Agriculture Productivity Improvement Project, World Bank

The World Bank approved the Agriculture Productivity Improvement Project (APIP) on 28 February 1997, though the Bank's dissatisfaction with Cambodia's economic and political trajectories almost immediately postponed the project (interview with Bonaventure Mbida-Essama, 2001; also see Chapter Four). APIP shares with many of the technical assistance projects discussed above an interest in facilitating economic change in the

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country, though of course with agriculture as the driving force for change. "Long-term agricultural development will be crucial in helping to meet Cambodia's challenges," argues the World Bank (1997), "namely, the need to feed a growing population[,] to create rural employment opportunities[,] to stem urban migration," and more generally to "fuel" economic growth by making this industry in which more than 70 percent of Cambodians work more efficient and productive (p. 1). Aimed at accomplishing these broad goals through capacity building among civil servants working in the field, APIP formally commenced in May 1999 (interview with Oscar Perez-deTagle, 2000; World Bank, 2003a). APIP differs in magnitude from the technical assistance projects discussed to this point. Quite simply, it dwarfs other projects in terms of the number of Cambodians it affects. According to the project's training manager, as of 2000 APIP intended to build capacity in 10,000 of the 12,000 civil servants employed in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries and in selected provincial departments of agriculture. Civil servants would cluster into three categories corresponding with the three phases of training. In the first phase, 250 APIP staff and counterparts in Phnom Penh would participate in project classes. A similar number of staff and counterparts from the five provinces in which APIP works would be trained in the project's second phase. In the third phase, nearly all staff from the national ministry and the five provincial departments would receive instruction. Of the 10,000 Cambodians scheduled for training, 6,000 live and work in the provinces (interview with Oscar Perez-de-Tagle, 2000). Capacity building in APIP would proceed with general education training in computers, management, planning, policy making, and statistical analysis for most participants, and it would continue with technical classes related to civil servants' areas of expertise (agronomy, animal health, fisheries, rubber, and so on) (interview with Oscar Perez-de-Tagle, 2000; World Bank, 2003a). Because English would serve as the language of instruction in virtually all classes, however, the process of capacity building would begin with three levels of English language instruction. According to the project training manager, "most people" would complete the first two levels, in each of which they would study general English for 45 to 60 hours over the course of 10 to 12 weeks. Those at higher levels in the ministry or provincial departments would matriculate to a third, English-for-specific-purposesclass on international communication, presentation skills, and report writing (interview with Oscar Perez-de-Tagle, 2000). As of 2001, both the Australian Centre for Education and Regent School of Business were offering English language instruction under subcontracts with APIP (interview with You Rith, 2001).

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I asked the training manager why English had been chosen as the language of instruction in the project. "The World Bank decided that the project would use English, and the ministry agreed," he replied, for several reasons. First, in using English APIP would build linguistically on several previous English-language projects in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries. Second, the decision anticipated Cambodia's entry into ASEAN, "where English is the language of communication and where there will be considerable agriculture exchange and partnership" in the future. Finally, increased English language skills would prepare a limited number of ministry officials for advanced training, in English, at universities in Thailand, Vietnam, and other countries. The only exception to the English language policy, the training manager concluded, would be for some participants in the Rubber Department, where ongoing French assistance has encouraged French language skills. APIP is not "promoting the French language," the training manager hastened to add. Rather, in their work with the Rubber Department French experts would simply be using a convenient language to pursue their fundamental "interest in Cambodia's agricultural development" (interview with Oscar Perez-de-Tagle, 2000).

4.6

Capacity Building in Education and Human Resources Sector Management Project, UNESCO

In 1995, UNESCO initiated a project aimed at increasing capacity for human resources management in Cambodia. Funded by the United Nations Development Programme, the project responded directly to the transitions that the country had been undergoing since the late 1980s. As the United Nations Development Programme (1993) stated in the project document, the "shift from a centrally-planned towards an open-market oriented economy, the opening to the western world and to its rapidly developing Asian neighbors, and the changes in the political setting require a completely new type of human resources" compared with those formed in the 1980s (p. 9). "In this context," the UNESCO project sought to "enhance [the] planning and management capacity in relation to education and human resources development" in the ministry most directly responsible for preparing Cambodians for the country's new realities, the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport (United Nations Development Programme, 1993, p. 9). As in the projects discussed above, the UNESCO capacity-building exercise began with English language training. Two hundred candidates from several ministries (most from Education, Youth, and Sport, but also from Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries; Economy and Finance; Health; Planning; and others involved in human resources development) sat for the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency at the English Language


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Training Center at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute. A combination of test score and demographics determined admission. In August 1995, 60 Cambodians divided roughly between those working in six national ministries and those attached to 14 provincial and municipal departments of education entered the preparatory English language course at the ELTC. Participants attended both skills-based Foundations courses and specific English for Education courses in four months of intensive study; classes met six-and-a-half hours per day, five days per week (Chan & Yeo, 1996, p. 100). Fifty-two Cambodians completed English language training, during which they began to receive the "financial incentive," or salary supplement, they enjoyed throughout the project (Altner, 1999, p. 179). After completing the English language course, participants attended several short seminars aimed at preparing them for overseas training. Though the project document suggested that these courses would be "conducted in the language requested by participants-Khmer, French or English," in fact all instruction was given in English except in the educational planning workshop (United Nations Development Programme, 1993, p. 15). In this one-week course, participants received English-language instruction and then reviewed lessons in Khmer in anticipation of the project's second phase, which I discuss below (Chan & Yeo, 1996). In April 1996, the 52 participants departed for three-month courses on Budget and Financial Management, Educational Planning and Administration, Educational Statistics and Information Systems, and Human Resource Management at the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand, De La Salle University in the Philippines, and the Institut Aminuddin Baki in Malaysia. English served as the language of instruction in all these courses (Altner, 1999). Of the Cambodians who completed overseas training and returned to Cambodia in June 1996,41 began work in the second phase of the project. In this phase, participants developed training modules to guide the further dissemination of the ideas and concepts they had been exposed to overseas. Ultimately, participants produced modules on Communication Skills, Educational Planning, Financial Management and Budget, Leadership and Motivation, Office Work Procedures, Performance Appraisal, and Staff Development. Cambodians first wrote the modules in English (for one . editing example, see Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, 1 9 9 8 ~ )After by expatriates, the modules were then translated by participants into Khmer. Having completed the translation of the training modules by June 1997, Cambodian participants used them to run three-week, intensive workshops for education officials. From June 1997 through 1998, those Cambodians who had themselves received instruction related to human resources development in English in Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand passed their knowledge along, in Khmer, to more than 1,500 Cambodians from the

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Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, from all 23 provincial departments of education, and from many district (the subprovincial administrative unit) education offices. By the time the UNESCO project closed in January 1999, the human resources curriculum had become institutionalized at four training institutions throughout the country. More important, those Cambodian education officials who had completed the course had increased their capacity to "participate in dialogue and analysis concerning [educational] policy, planning and management issues" (Altner, 1999, p. 195).

4.7

Predeparture Training

The English language component in UNESCO's capacity-building project prepared Cambodians for training both in Cambodia and abroad. Other projects aimed at building civil servants' capacity in relation to the country's new realities send participants overseas directly. While many of these projects thus forego content-based training in Cambodia, they often provide what has come to be known as "predeparture" instruction in English in anticipation of courses, in English, at diverse universities in many countries. Most proprietary English language schools have provided predeparture English language courses for government officials. The Cambodian-British Centre, for instance, prepared staff from the National Institute for Public Health and the Ministry of Environment for English-language courses at European universities within the context of projects administered by the German and Danish governments, respectively (interview with Conor Boyle, 2000). With funding from two nongovernmental organizations (the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia and Stichting Benevolentia, headquartered in the United States and the Netherlands, respectively), the English Language Training Center at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute taught English to Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport officials in anticipation of master's courses at Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines (interview with Luise Ahrens, 2000; "Cambodian Educators," 2000). Among other predeparture offerings, the Australian Centre for Education prepared health officials for English-language courses at several universities in Asia and Australia for the Asian Development Bank and taught English for the New Zealand bilateral assistance agency to more than 150 officials in anticipation of courses in "economic and administrative reform" at Khon Kaen University in Thailand (Australian Centre for Education, 1999t7, p. 4; Australian Centre for Education, 1 9 9 9 ~ ) . The Australian Centre for Education also gives continuing predeparture English language courses for Cambodians enrolled in the Australian Development Scholarship program. According to the author of a study that traces


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graduates of this program, the Australian Agency for International Development conceived the scholarship initiative in 1994 as a means of facilitating Cambodia's administrative, or public sector, reform. "To rehabilitate and develop Cambodia, the Royal Government . . . requires a public administration that can respond to the changing social and economic needs of the country," Marie Yeo (1999) writes. "Especially with Cambodia's integration in ASEAN, the [government] must have an efficient public service, one which is able to adapt its public functions to the demands of a market economy." It is just this responsiveness and adaptiveness, Yeo concludes, that the "well-trained, well-qualified staff' who complete the Australian Development Scholarship program will be able to bring to their work and the country's changed circumstances (pp. 1 , 2 ) . The Australian scholarship program enrolls approximately 20 Cambodians per year, most from ministries with which AusAID works closely like Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries; Education, Youth, and Sport; Health; and Public Works and Transportation, but also from some others "involved in governance and economic policy" (Yeo, 1999, p. I). Candidates, including some who have matriculated from English Language for Ministry Officials or English for Academic Purposes courses, sit for the International English Language Testing System exam and are admitted with scores demonstrating intermediate English language skills (3.5 to 4.0). Students then proceed with between 3 and 18 months of English-for-academicpurposes classes at ACE in Phnom Penh; candidates secure release from their ministries to attend these intensive, 27-hour-per-week classes, and they are paid a salary supplement for participating. Ministry officials graduate from predeparture training having received successful scores on the exit exam. Generally, candidates must attain a 6.5 IELTS score to proceed to degree programs in Australia, though some courses require higher or lower scores (7.0 for linguistics, for instance, and 6.0 for engineering) (interviews with Lydia Bezeruk, Liz Neil, Tuon Thavrak, 2000). As of 2000, approximately 65 Cambodians had completed degree programs or graduate diplomas at Australian universities in such fields as aquaculture, business administration, civil engineering, educational administration, financial management, public health, and ophthalmology (interview with Lydia Bezeruk, 2000). The rector of the Royal University of Phnom Penh completed a master's degree in adult education at the University of Technology Sydney, where his thesis examined language policies in Cambodian higher education (interview with Pit Chamnan, 2000). The deputy director general of the Ministry of Planning studied what he termed "capitalist economics" in Melbourne in the development scholarship program. This man who had earned a license at an East German university in the 1980s commented that "in East Germany I learned socialist economics, and in

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Australia I learned capitalist economics. Now I have studied both extremes!" (interview with Tuon Thavrak, 2000). According to Yeo's (1999) tracer study, 83 percent of returned graduates reported that they were using the skills and knowledge gained in Australia either fully or partially in their government work.

4.8

Departure Without Training

If some capacity-building projects forego content education in Cambodia but offer predeparture English language training, others provide neither. In what might be termed "departure without training" initiatives, assistance agencies recruit Cambodians for international educational ventures who have attained the required English language skills either on their own or within the context of other projects. The United States government provides several short-term educational opportunities in the departure-without-training format, including through the International Visitor Program, Summer Institutes, and the Fulbright Summer Program; none of these three- to six-week English-language study tours include preparatory language training in Cambodia. I asked one participant, the deputy director general of the Ministry of Commerce, what he had learned in the United States. "Democracy," he replied, and how to "think with an open mind" (interview with Chheng Saroeun, 2001). Another man reported receiving instruction on American geography, history, law, literature, and politics while on a tour with 30 participants from 28 countries (interview with Div Sean, 2000). Yet another told me he had studied the Constitution, U.S. electoral processes, and political theory in a four-week seminar on the U S . system of governance at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania (interview with Sok Keang, 2001). The United States also offers longer-term study opportunities through the Fulbright Scholarship Program, which as of 2000 had sponsored 37 Cambodians to graduate degree programs at U.S. universities (interview with Marrie Schaefer, 2000). Several other agencies recruit Cambodians with existing English language skills for overseas education. UNESCO, for instance, has sent Cambodians for master's degrees in education, science, and technology to universities in China, France, Israel, and Japan; with the exception of those offered in France, English is the language of instruction in all the courses sponsored by UNESCO (interview with Supote Prasertsri, 2000). Several hundred Cambodians have studied at Japanese universities with sponsorship from the Japan International Cooperation Agency. In group courses with participants from various nations, Cambodians study in English; in courses designed specifically for Cambodians, such as the Training Course for Provincial Educational Administrators at Nagoya University, English


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lectures may be translated into Khmer by Cambodian participants (interview with Kazuki Shimizu, 2000; Japan International Cooperation Agency, 1999). As of 2000, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency was contracting with the Cambodian-British Centre to screen candidates for English-medium programs in Sweden. Since 1997, 40 Cambodians per year have joined SIDA-sponsored participants from other countries at Swedish universities, where they have studied democracy, environmental issues, human rights, journalism, and other topics in one- to six-month Englishmedium courses (interview with Anders Frankenberg, 2000). The International Monetary Fund has offered short-term educational opportunities to Cambodians with sufficient English language skills at the IMF Institute in Washington, D.C., as well as at institutions in Australia, China, Japan, and other countries. In one program offered at the Shanghai Institute of Finance and Economics in 1995, participants from several former communist countries attended lectures on how to achieve economic transition. "We studied free-market economics, specifically banking and accounting," one man who had taught socialist economics at the university level in the 1980s told me. "We knew about socialist economics, but this was the first time I had learned about capitalism" (interview with Kim Savun, 2000). Another ministry official participated in the Macro-Economic Adjustment and Financial Sector Review Seminar in Washington. This two-week course brought together participants from 40 countries, all of whom had been selected through IMF interviews at least partially on the strength of their English language skills. In this seminar, participants "learned about macroeconomic policy, so we can make fiscal plans," and studied comparative economic transition, examining "what has been successful and what has not" in the "experience of other countries" (interview with Heang Siek Ly, 2000). While English dominates, it is not the only language used for instructional purposes by the International Monetary Fund. When I spoke with Hean Sahib of the Economics and Finance Institute in 2000, he was in the process of selecting three Cambodians to attend a seminar on financial programming at the IMF Institute in Washington. As this seminar would bring together participants from francophone nations and would operate in the French language, he had been asked to recommend participants who could speak French (interview with Hean Sahib, 2000).

5.

TRENDS, TRAJECTORIES, AND THEIR LIMITS IN ENGLISH AND ASSISTANCE PROJECTS

In this chapter, I have examined 12 projects that taught or teach English to Cambodians, and I have referred briefly to several others. In these

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projects, aid organizations provide English language instruction to Cambodians beyond those employed as office staff or project counterparts, thus creating a second group with English language skills. Unlike the proprietary language schools discussed in earlier chapters, aid organizations do not teach English for profit (though of course their subcontractors may), and Cambodians thus do not pay to attend classes. In fact, in several cases agencies have actually paid Cambodians to study English, by providing salary supplements to English class participants. According to Martin Godfrey and his colleagues (2000) at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute, this practice is quite common and, thus, may be more prevalent than my data suggest. If so, participants may have been paid to study English in assistance initiatives other than UNESCO's Capacity Building in Education and Human Resources Sector Management Project and Australia's English Language for Ministry Officials, English for Academic Purposes, and Development Scholarship Projects. Projects that provide English language instruction can be divided into two categories. In English-as-projects initiatives, learning English constitutes something close to a terminal objective, for though it is expected that Cambodians will ultimately use their linguistic skills for particular purposes, the act of teaching English couples only loosely with them. Agencies that have taught English in this format include the Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI, with funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency), the Agency for Personal Service Overseas (Ireland), the British Department for International Development, and the Australian Agency for International Development. In other projects, English serves an enabling function. In these English-in-projects ventures, agencies teach English to Cambodians as preparation for participation in subsequent, English-language courses on various topics. Agencies working in this mode include CDRI, the United Nations Development Programme, the European Union, the World Bank, and UNESCO. Some of these latter projects specifically prepare Cambodians to receive content instruction, in English, in other countries. Particularly within the context of predeparture and departure-without-training projects sponsored by the Australian, Japanese, Danish, German, New Zealand, Swedish, and United States governments, by UNESCO, the Asian Development Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, and by several nongovernmental organizations, Cambodians have attended English-language university courses in Australia, China, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam. The projects examined in this chapter reinforce several of the themes that emerged in Chapter Four, notably the increasing transnationality or globality of the English language in international assistance. To be sure, bilateral


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agencies associated with Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States have worked to create or engage a second group of Cambodians with English language skills. The traditional English language-anglophone nation relationship weakens, however, when the similar actions of the Danish, German, Japanese, and Swedish bilateral organizations are considered. The English language initiatives of several United Nations and other multilateral agencies, all three international financial institutions, and a number of nongovernmental organizations further confound the correlation. Note also the second way that transnationality or globality manifests for English in this chapter. Increasingly, universities and specialized educational institutions are adopting English as the medium of instruction, at least for graduate education, regardless of their geographical location. Today, an English-language university infrastructure has spread well beyond its original or historical anglophone base, and donors can sponsor English-proficient Cambodians to studies not only in anglophone countries, but also at diverse institutions throughout Asia and Europe. A stronger geographical logic remains relative to English as an instructional commodity, however. When assistance agencies seek to build English capacity among Cambodians in anticipation of education or other activities, they turn to schools with anglophone pedigrees, whether by way of ownership (the Australian Centre for Education and the Cambodian-British Centre), faculty (Regent School of Business), or partnership (the English Language Training Center at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute with the State University of New York at Buffalo).

5.1

Demographics of the Second Group

One must be very careful in drawing conclusions from data representing only a subset of a whole. In the case of this chapter, my stratification sample of projects may or may not accurately reflect trends and trajectories among all technical assistance projects with significant capacity-building components. As I proceed here toward the theoretical issues I engage subsequently, therefore, I pay particular attention to outlying data that contradict trends, constrain trajectories, and in the process illuminate more clearly both the rationale for teaching English in projects and the demographics of the group learning English in them. At first glance, it might appear quite easy to describe the Cambodians other than agency staff and counterparts who have been targeted for English language skills. In all the projects I have examined, this second group comprises officials working in government service. In fact, outside the formal education system (which I discuss in the following chapter), agencies have not sought to build English language capacity in any secondary

Chapter 5

population other than the civil service. CARE International's Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Programme in the Garment Sector, for instance, has provided training about sexually transmitted diseases to more than 5,000 Cambodian garment workers; though project counterparts received at least some initial training in English, they educate factory workers in the Khmer language (Socheat Chi, personal communication, 29 January 2004). The University of San Francisco has offered courses such as Contracts in the Free Market Economic System, Rule of Law, and Liberal Democracy and Pluralism to more than 2,200 Cambodian lawyers-intraining at its United States Agency for International Development-funded Community Legal Education Center; while expatriates and Cambodian counterparts work together to develop these courses in English, counterparts either deliver instruction directly in Khmer or translate expatriates' Englishlanguage lectures into Khmer for participants (interview with Janet King, 2000). When they target civil servants, however, assistance agencies turn toward English-language instruction and preparatory English language classes. It is difficult to ascertain the number of civil servants affected by these initiatives. The English-as-projects ventures discussed above provided nonspecific English instruction to more than 3,200 government officials in the 1990s, and the Australian projects continue. Approximately 12,400 Cambodian civil servants have followed English language classes in the English-inprojects ventures examined in this chapter; while many projects have impacted 100 or fewer Cambodians, hundreds and thousands have been affected in others, notably the World Bank's Economics and Finance Institute and Agriculture Productivity Improvement Project. In all, the projects explored in this chapter document the provision of English instruction to nearly 16,000 Cambodian government personnel. If we could extrapolate this figure accurately from my sample to the full project population, it would certainly run to multiple tens of thousands. At the same time the United Nations Development Programme was running the ASEAN membership project that I examined above, for instance, it was administering 15 other technical assistance projects, "most [of which had] some [English] language training attached to them" (Boyle, 1998, p. 12). No matter how far we might extrapolate it, however, the ultimate figure will not reach the full civil service, which the International Monetary Fund (2003) estimated at 163,500 in 2002. Thus, the second group of Cambodians targeted by international aid agencies for English language skills is not the civil service in its entirety, but a segment of the civil service. Several of the projects discussed in this chapter provide clues that may allow us define this subpopulation more accurately. Consider the Preparations for Cambodia's


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Membership in ASEAN Project (UNDP) and the Capacity Building in Education and Human Resources Sector Management Project (UNESCO). In the former, national ministry officials studied English in anticipation of, among other things, an orientation to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Later in the UNDP project, however, some of these same Cambodians themselves oriented provincial civil servants to ASEAN in the Khmer language. In the UNESCO project, civil servants from the national administration studied English as preparation for education in several Southeast Asian nations. When they returned to Cambodia, they translated what they had learned into Khmer and carried these ideas to provincial and district officers in their native language. Note that it is as the civil service transitions from the national to the provincial and district levels that these two assistance projects shift away from English to Khmer. In fact, all but a few of the projects discussed in this chapter target Cambodians in the central or national administration (who as of 1999 numbered 33,593) for increased English language skills (Kato et al., 2000); the exceptions include Australia's English Language for Ministry Officials Project, which enrolls Cambodians from all levels of government, and the World Bank's Agriculture Productivity Improvement Project, in which 6,000 Cambodians working in provincial agriculture departments join 4,000 from the central administration in English language and technical courses. While international aid agencies have targeted the civil service for English language skills, then, they appear particularly interested in teaching English at the central level, to Cambodians attached to national ministries in Phnom Penh.

5.2

Rationale for Teaching English to Civil Servants

Even as aid agencies teach English to staff and counterparts for particular reasons, so too do particular reasons drive their efforts to increase English language skills in the Cambodian civil service. In the early 1990s, English capacity-building ventures appear to have been dedicated at least in part to the preparation of what might be called "undesignated counterparts." While some graduates of English-as-projects initiatives ultimately attended English-medium training courses or participated in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, others were identified for work with the international assistance community. The Australians continue to think of this second group of Cambodians as a "pool" from which to draw talent-an English-speaking reserve for the provision of aid. Though graduates of the English Language for Ministry Officials and English for Academic Purposes Projects owe no obligation to the Australians, they are at the same time the

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first to be tapped as counterparts for Australian projects. Of course, as they are drawn into project work as counterparts, they abandon their reserve status and gain a specific designation in the international aid enterprise. English-in-projects ventures make more explicit the link between English language training and national trajectory than do the projects that begin and end with English. In this second generation of capacity-building technical assistance projects, language instruction anticipates further training, in English, in Cambodia and abroad. It is not an exaggeration to say that all subsequent instruction integrates, to at least a certain degree, with Cambodia's economic and political transitions. Some projects advance these changes directly. While the Cambodia Development Resource Institute's distance learning program with the University of London oriented Cambodians conceptually to the free market, courses on taxation and customs offered by the World Bank at the Economics and Finance Institute taught them how to manage it. While UNDP's ASEAN membership project worked with Cambodians to harmonize the country's systems and practices with those in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, simulations and skills-training exercises in the European Union's project prepared them for participation in the regional political organization. Other projects were conceived within the context of transition and advanced economic and political change indirectly, whether by improving agriculture (the World Bank's Agriculture Productivity Improvement Project) or developing the country's human resources (UNESCO's Capacity Building in Education and Human Resources Sector Management Project). The second generation of capacity-building projects, like the first, creates a pool of English-proficient Cambodian civil servants. These Cambodians are not intended to work with aid agencies as counterparts, however; to recall the image I used in the previous chapter, they do not reach into Cambodia to facilitate the provision of assistance to populations in need of it. Rather, they reach out of the country, at least metaphorically. Whether by traveling to universities and institutions in other nations or by participating in training programs offered by international personnel in Cambodia, these civil servants act as couriers, using their English language skills to acquire knowledge and ideas relevant to the country's new realities before returning to their ministry posts. In many cases, these ventures and the new ways of thinking and acting encountered through them represent pivotal-even epiphanic-experiences for Cambodian participants. "We knew about socialist economics," one graduate of an International Monetary Fund course told me, "but this was the first time I had learned about capitalism" (interview with Kim Savun, 2000). "Democracy," another replied when asked what he had learned in the International Visitor Program in the United


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States, and how to "think with an open mind" (interview with Chheng Saroeun, 2001). The experience of many Cambodians sponsored to capacity-building initiatives would, at first glance, appear to confirm the connection articulated earlier in this chapter by Professors Sideri and Irvin of the Institute of Social Studies in the Hague. "English is essential to the learning and diffusion of modern economics in Cambodia," these professors argued. For many Cambodians prepared through English language classes for participation in English-medium training ventures, English does indeed play a central role in the diffusion of ideas related to economic change-and, similarly, in the dissemination of ideologies associated with political change. In some projects, English not only centers but prefigures the acquisition of ideas, for in many cases applicants must demonstrate English language skills before even being admitted to programs, let alone being given the opportunity to gain knowledge and encounter new ideas. Australia's development scholarship program and Sweden's departure-without-training offerings operate according to this model-as do at least some World Bank programs, as a consultant in Phnom Penh explained. This expatriate had tried to sponsor several senior officials from the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport to a training course at the World Bank Institute in Washington, D.C. When he commented that his candidates spoke French fluently, the administrators in Washington replied, "No, they have to be able to speak English" (related by Vincent McNamara, 2000). Exceptions to the English language rule, however, constrain the essential ideological connection. In some cases, international agencies have turned to French to facilitate the diffusion of ideas. Some Cambodian participants at the Ecole Royale d'Administration, at the IMF Institute in Washington, and in the Rubber Department at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries have gained knowledge, and perhaps experienced ideological epiphanies, through the French language. Similarly, Khmer has served as the medium of at least some instruction at the Economics and Finance Institute, and it is thus through Khmer, not English, that at least some officials from the Ministry of Economy and Finance have advanced in their understanding of market economics. Finally, recall once again the use of Khmer in UNDP's ASEAN membership project and UNESCO's human resources development project. In later phases of these initiatives, Cambodians used Khmer to disseminate the ideas gained through interaction with international personnel (about the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and human resources management, respectively) to other Cambodians. The secondary movement of ideas within these latter two projects suggests a final role anticipated by the international aid community for English-

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proficient civil servants. In UNDP's Preparations for Cambodia's Membership in ASEAN Project and UNESCO's Capacity Building in Education and Human Resources Sector Management Project, national ministry officials encountered ways of thinking and acting immediately relevant to their own work through English-medium training ventures, and they subsequently relayed these ideas to colleagues at the provincial and district levels in Khmer. It is not clear how widespread this model is, and my stratification sample again cautions against any generalization. Nevertheless, projects other than these will certainly include formal ideological relay mechanisms, and in others the secondary movement of ideas will take place informally, at meetings, seminars, and conferences. In all such ventures, Cambodians themselves advance the processes set in motion and the changes championed by international aid organizations in that they carry and disseminate ideas farther and deeper into the civil service and the country. In so doing, they fulfill the basic promise of capacity building, in that they have begun to "perform functions effectively, efficiently and sustainably" (Godfrey et al., 2000, p. 1).

Chapter 6

THE ASSISTANCE CONTEXT FOR LANGUAGE CHOICE Education

1.

EDUCATIONAL HISTORY

This chapter concludes the three-part analysis of the international assistance context for language choice in Cambodia. In the first part (Chapter Four), I explored aid agencies as employers; nearly all demand knowledge of English in addition to Khmer among the Cambodians hired as staff or project counterparts. In the second discussion (Chapter Five), I studied capacitybuilding technical assistance projects that affect Cambodians beyond the several tens of thousands employed by aid agencies. Through both Englishas-projects and English-in-projects initiatives, the geographically diverse international aid community is creating a second group of English-proficient Cambodians, roughly equivalent in size to the first. All of these latter Cambodians work in government service, most in the national administration. While some ultimately apply their English language skills as project counterparts, the majority use English in subsequent training ventures. It is through these ventures, I argued, that many Cambodians reach out of the country to gain ideas and knowledge facilitative of national change or development, particularly in relation to economic and political transition and integration. The use of Khmer and French in some capacity-building projects militates against a necessary or essential relationship between English and the diffusion of ideas in Cambodia, however. There is a third group of Cambodians targeted by the aid community for foreign language instruction and skills. At any given time, this final group vastly outnumbers the agency employees and civil servants discussed

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heretofore. Further, it increases annually, for each year a new cohort of Cambodian youth begins to study English or French at schools and universities, in classes supported by international aid agencies, under policies often formulated with the availability of assistance in mind. One international aid worker argued that Cambodians in this third cohort-students in the educational system-would graduate into the first two groups, at which point language program provision outside formal education would be curtailed or eliminated. The "next generation will be able to use English" and French so much "better [than] the current generation," he concluded, that assistance agencies will no longer find it necessary to teach these languages to staff and civil servants (interview with Stephen Moore, 2000). Indeed, the teaching of English and French in schools and universities may also make redundant foreign language education for graduates working in domains outside the assistance enterprise. Understanding these multiple venues, and the various utilities that attach to English and French in them, is my main purpose in this chapter. More specifically, following brief methodological and historical discussions this chapter proceeds in two main parts. First, I examine the Cambodian educational system, giving attention to the government decisions and international assistance initiatives that inform language policy and practice at various levels. After this descriptive section, I begin to consider the rationales driving language policy and practice. This latter project requires that we understand why international agencies are teaching English and French in schools and universities: What functions do international aid enterprises expect knowledge of English and French to serve for Cambodia's students? It also requires that we understand the language policy decisions made by Cambodians: What functions do Cambodian educational policy makers expect knowledge of English and French to serve for the nation's students? For the most part, I engage only the former question in this chapter. Except as it relates to history, I defer the Cambodian part of the equation, with other discussions of Cambodian language choice, to Chapter Seven.

1.1

Methods and Data

In Chapter Five, I drew conclusions about the teaching of English to Cambodian government officials through a series of case studies; because my project sample was perhaps imperfectly related to the population of technical assistance projects with capacity-building components, my conclusions remained somewhat tentative. No such tentativeness attaches in this chapter, however, because I gathered data from every relevant source in every relevant component of the Cambodian educational system. Through

6. Assistance Context for Language Choice: Education

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interviews with many Cambodian ministry personnel, I sought to understand official educational language policies. Interviews with numerous administrators, teachers, and students at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of education helped me understand how these policies manifested institutionally. Interviews with dozens of expatriates involved in aid projects throughout the educational system advanced my understanding of how educational assistance affects language policy implementation. Because foreign languages are used most extensively at the university level, I took particular care to gather comprehensive data at Cambodia's higher education institutions. There are 11 public institutions of higher education in Cambodia. At each, I interviewed one or more Cambodian administrators and one or more expatriates involved in the provision of assistance. In many cases, I also interviewed professors and students; in every case, I visited libraries and talked with librarians about holdings. I conducted a typical number of interviews at the University of Health Sciences, where at different times I talked with the university rector, the chef de projet of the French assistance initiative, the coordinator of the French language teaching program, an expatriate English teacher from a nongovernmental organization, three Cambodian librarians, and several students. I conducted the greatest number of interviews at the Faculty of Law and Economics, where I taught in 2000 and where, as a result, I had daily contact with Cambodian administrators, professors, and students, as well as with French administrators, professors, and language teachers. I supplemented data about higher education gathered through interviews with information gleaned from unpublished documents provided by administrators and aid personnel. I also benefited from the considerable scholarly work that has recently been published on Cambodian education, notably David Sloper's Higher Education in Cambodia: The Social and Educational Context for Reconstruction (1999). Finally, in what follows I draw frequently on my own previous research, including interviews conducted in 1991 and 1992 within the context of my duties as director of the State University of New York at Buffalo's English Language Training Center at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute and in 1994 for my dissertation. I published some of these data in Education and the Politics of Language: Hegemony and Pragmatism in Cambodia, 1979-1 989 (Clayton, 2000), a historical analysis that may provide an introduction to contemporary trends and trajectories in education and language in Cambodia.

1.2

Education, 1979-1989

The Khmer Rouge (1975-1979) left little in Cambodia in the way of educational infrastructure. When in power, they abolished formal education,

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destroyed school buildings and libraries, and targeted educated Cambodians like teachers and professors for death (for a discussion, see Clayton, 1998). According to the Ministry of Education (1990), by the time the Khmer Rouge were driven out of the country by the invading Vietnamese in 1979, 75 percent of the nation's teaching force, 96 percent of tertiary students, and 67 percent of primary and secondary students had either been killed or had died from starvation or inhumane treatment. With these teachers and educated individuals, argued an educational leader of the post-Khmer Rouge Cambodian government, Cambodia lost the "intellectual resources [that were] the country's most . . . valuable capital" (Ek, 1991, p. 2). Shortly after beginning their 10-year occupation of the country, the Vietnamese initiated an extensive assistance project aimed at restoring Cambodia's educational system; the Soviet Union and other Eastern-bloc countries additionally contributed to this initiative. The training of Cambodian teachers and professors to replace those killed by the Khmer Rouge centered this project, which at least in the early 1980s involved considerable substitution technical assistance. The Vietnamese reopened the country's 18 primary and six lower-secondary teacher training colleges, for instance, and they staffed these institutions with Vietnamese professors. As of 1988, several tens of thousands of Cambodians had graduated from one- and three-year courses at these pedagogical institutions and had joined others trained more cursorily in the early 1980s in a 50,000-strong teaching corps (UNESCO, 1991). At the colleges, professors' Vietnamese-language lectures were translated into Khmer for Cambodian students. When they graduated and entered schools as teachers, Cambodians taught in Khmer, the language of general education since the early 1970s, when the gradual process of "Khmerization" had replaced colonial-era French. In the early 1980s, Vietnamese and Soviet professors taught Cambodian tertiary students in French. In these early years, universities enrolled tertiary students who had survived the Khmer Rouge; these first students could speak French, which had been the language of higher education before 1975. Students in the first three classes at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy completed their training under the tutelage of French-speaking Vietnamese and Soviet doctors, for instance, and French speakers from the Vietnamese Ministry of General Education trained the first three cohorts of Cambodian upper-secondary teachers at the Teachers' Training College. By 1983, however, all pre-1975 tertiary students had been graduated, and universities began enrolling Cambodians who could not speak French. At this time, the Ministry of Education adopted what one official termed a "flexible" language policy (interview with Ek Sam 01, 1994). Lacking the human resources-that is, the professors-to offer university education on their own, Cambodians ceded language decisions to those willing and able to provide


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those resources. According to one man who had been involved in formulating the language policy, "If assistance came from the Soviet Union, we would use Russian; if from Vietnam, we would use Vietnamese" (interview with Im Sethy, 1994). The flexible language policy governed higher education until the late 1980s. Students admitted to the technical and agricultural universities, for example, studied Russian intensively in their first year and then followed degree courses in that language with Soviet professors; at the Economics Institute, students learned Vietnamese in anticipation of content courses in that language offered by Vietnamese professors. In addition to being flexible, the new language policy was intended to be temporary. As one Cambodian administrator put it, it would stay in place "only until we had had the chance to train our own professors" (interview with Pich Sophoan, 1994). Some future professors emerged from within Cambodia, as the most promising of the first years' graduates matriculated into the faculty ranks. Others returned from university training in Eastern-bloc countries, notably the Soviet Union, East Germany, Vietnam, and Cuba. In anticipation of these ventures, Cambodians studied Russian or Vietnamese two hours per week in upper-secondary schools, and they learned Russian, Vietnamese, German, and Spanish from expatriate instructors at the Institute of Foreign Languages. As they entered the professoriate and displaced expatriate teachers, however, they lectured in Khmer, and the flexible language policy began to transition to the third higher education language policy of the 1980s, Khmerization. Cambodians understood well the implications of educational assistance in the final decade of the Cold War. In submitting students to educational relationships with Eastern-bloc professors, sometimes through foreign media, they knew they were formalizing linkages intended to draw Cambodia into the communist sphere of influence. More specifically, they realized they were authorizing situations in which Cambodian students would be exposed to ways of thinking and acting aimed at aligning them, and through them the country, in an ideologically polarized world. One former Ministry of Education official explained this dynamic in an interview in 1994. "We were interested in rebuilding the country," he began, "not in serving a foreign ideology." Nevertheless, he continued, they opened themselves to this ideology through educational assistance relationships with the communist bloc because "we were unable to connect with countries of the West . . . due to the embargo. [There] simply was no other possibility of assistance for us with which to rebuild the country" (interview with Ek Sam 01, 1994). Particularly in the early 1980s, the teaching and learning of English and French were forbidden in Cambodia outside very controlled environments like the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy. If clandestine private schools

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were discovered, they were closed, and their teachers were sometimes arrested (interviews with Ben Visnou, Chau Sa, 1994). Many Cambodians correctly associate this prohibition with the country's Cold War alignment. "The Vietnamese did not allow English and French," one man told me, because they "wanted to keep Cambodia isolated" from the West (interview with Pich Sophoan, 2000). "If you know a language," another informant explained more fully, "you can then have relations with people who speak that language." In the same way that knowledge of Vietnamese and Russian facilitated educational and other exchanges within the Eastern bloc, he continued, "English and French were prohibited to discourage relations with the West" (interview with Pit Chamnan, 2000). In so doing, yet another man concluded, occupation-era language policies inhibited Cambodians from encountering and reorienting themselves in relation to "democracy, human rights[, and other] progressive, good ideas from the West" (interview with Chau Sa, 1994). As the Cold War waned in the late 1980s and as Cambodia commenced the economic and political transitions that would ultimately lead to relations with the West, Australian and French nongovernmental organizations began to be allowed to train Cambodian English and French teachers at the Institute of Foreign Languages. In 1989, prohibition was fully repealed, and Cambodian schools started offering English and French as foreign languages.

2.

EDUCATION IN CAMBODIA

2.1

The Contemporary Cambodian Educational System

The educational system in Cambodia today largely replicates that in place when the Vietnamese and Soviets ceased providing aid between 1989 and 1991. Education begins with six years of primary school (increased from five in the 1996-1997 school year); primary enrollments rose from 1.3 million to 2.1 million between 1989 and 1999. Though it is the government's goal that all children attend nine years of school, relatively few do, for reasons including high dropout and repetition rates, incomplete grade-range offerings in some primary schools, and inaccessibility of lower-secondary schools for students in many areas. As of 1999, 226,000 Cambodian children were enrolled in three-year lower-secondary schools (grades 7-9); this number had decreased from 244,000 in 1989. The same kinds of problems that negatively impact enrollments at the lower-secondary level inhibit matriculation to three-year upper-secondary schools (grades 10-12). Eightytwo thousand Cambodian youth were studying at the upper-secondary level in 1999, up from 43,000 in 1989 (Ministry of Education, 1990; Ministry of


155

Education, Youth, and Sport, 1999a). Public education in Cambodia requires no tuition, though considerable costs pass to parents through numerous fees (for discussions of educational financing, see Bray, 1999; Bray & Seng, 2005). Graduates of upper-secondary schools can apply for admission to 10 public higher education institutions: the University of Health Sciences (opened in 1979), the Royal University of Phnom Penh (1980), the Institute of Foreign Languages (1981; though technically a school within the Royal University of Phnom Penh, the Institute of Foreign Languages is often treated separately, as I will do in this chapter), the Institut de Technologie du Cambodge (1981), the National Institute of Management (1984), the Royal University of Agriculture (1985), the Royal University of Fine Arts (1988), the Faculty of Law and Economics (1992), the Faculty of Pedagogy (1992), and Maharishi Vedic University (1993). Cambodians also follow universitylevel courses at an 1 lth institution, the Ecole Royale d'Administration (1994), though because it offers only nondegree programs, the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport does not consider this school a university. As of 1989, the 7 institutions then in operation enrolled around 5,000 students, all on full government scholarship. At the end of the decade, nearly 19,000 Cambodians followed courses at the 11 higher education institutions, some of which had initiated a tuition structure for some students. Additionally, 2,863 Cambodians studied at several private universities in 2000 (Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, 2 0 0 0 ~ )I. consider these private universities, along with other private schools that respond to Cambodians' language and education demands, in Chapter Seven. Despite the considerable assistance received from the Eastern bloc in the 1980s, when aid ended between 1989 and 1991 the Cambodian educational system lacked many resources, notably human resources. Certainly Cambodian officials had increased their capacity to manage the Ministry of Education through technical assistance relationships with Vietnamese "experts," or advisors. In fact, by the mid-1980s, many advisors had returned to Vietnam because, as one official explained to me, Cambodians "could do everything [and Vietnamese advisors were not] needed any longer" (interview with Pit Chamnan, 1994). The central component of the Eastern-bloc project, however, was both incomplete and imperfectly completed. To begin, universities had not yet been fully staffed; at the agricultural university, for instance, students sent overseas for advanced study had not finished their courses, and there was no one available to fill the teaching vacancies created by departing expatriates (interview with Chan Nareth, 1992). To continue, the language teachers trained in the 1980s became obsolete virtually overnight; by 1991, the Ministry of Education had cancelled, and the Institute of Foreign Languages had stopped admitting teachers-in-training for, the

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Russian and Vietnamese secondary language programs (interview with Pit Chamnan, 1992). When Western agencies began arriving in the late 1980s and early 1990s, many were eager to pick up where the Vietnamese and Soviets had left off, and Cambodians were eager to find new sources of aid to education and, more specifically, for teacher and professor training. In the following sections, I consider these new educational assistance relationships, giving particular attention to those that facilitate or influence language policy and practice. I begin by examining the primary, lower-secondary, and uppersecondary levels of education, and I conclude with case studies of the 11 public higher education institutions.

2.2

Primary Education

A great many agencies have provided assistance to the primary level of education in Cambodia since the early 1990s. The Asian Development Bank supported textbook development through the Basic Education Textbook Project (Asian Development Bank, 1996, 20 June). In the Education Quality Improvement Project, the World Bank aims to improve primary school effectiveness (interview with Vincent McNamara, 2000). UNICEF (underwritten entirely by the Swedish Lnternational Development Cooperation Agency) has been active in primary curriculum development and has taken the lead in promoting a sector-wide approach in international aid to education in Cambodia (interview with Anders Frankenberg, 2000). Since the mid-1990s, CoopCration Franpise has trained nearly 200 primary school inspectors at the Faculty of Pedagogy in Phnom Penh (interview with Thor Sor, 2000). Among other things, the European Union's Programme d' Appui au Secteur de ]'Education Primaire au Cambodge has provided comprehensive support to the country's primary teacher training colleges; as of 2000, this project had trained more than 800 faculty for these colleges and continued to provide financial support to them by way of salary supplementation (interview with Richard Webber, 2000). None of these projects contravene official language policy, which states that Khmer shall be the language of instruction in Cambodian primary schools (interview with Prak Polla, 2000). To be sure, some agencies use foreign languages as media of project communication andlor training. As mentioned in the Chapter Four, for instance, counterparts for the Programme d'Appui au Secteur de ]'Education Primaire au Cambodge were originally hired on the basis of their ability to speak French (though English has increased in importance since the Centre for British Teachers replaced the Centre International d'Etudes PCdagogiques as project implementer in


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2000). Similarly, French served as the language of instruction for the first two groups of primary inspectors trained at the Faculty of Pedagogy by Cooperation Franpise; since 1998, however, the French Embassy has engaged translators to facilitate communication between French professors and Cambodian inspectors-in-training, as it had become "more difficult to find French-speaking students" (interview with Thor Sor, 2000). But neither these projects nor those mentioned in the previous paragraph support the use of foreign languages as instructional media. "Primary education," the coordinator of the French-funded inspector training program told me, "is entirely in the maternal language" (interview with Anne Barbarit, 2000). In fact, the international aid community's disinterest in foreign languages for primary education extends even to that component of the primary language policy that concerns foreign languages. Accordingly, though students in primary grades five and six are supposed to study a foreign language of their own choosing three hours per week, no agency has expressed an interest in training language teachers to staff the country's 5,000-plus primary schools. As the chief technical advisor for the World Bank's Education Quality Improvement Project put it, "no donor will touch" this huge initiative because so much remains to be done elsewhere in education. At least partially as a result of the lack of involvement by donors, "there is no capacity to provide instruction" in foreign languages in primary schools, and the policy remains largely unrealized (interview with Vincent McNamara, 2000). As a Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport official concluded more simply, "We can't do this yet" (interview with Prak Polla, 2000). One exception to the general trend in language and aid to primary education can be found in the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie's classes bilingues program, initiated in 1994. The Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie ( A m ) brings together 350 universities from 40 nations where French serves as the language of at least some instruction; the agency's current name replaced the Association des Universitks Partiellement ou Enti6rement de Langue Franpise in 1998. While most of the children and young adults who study one-half in Khmer and one-half in French in the classes bilingues program do so in 12 lower- and upper-secondary schools in six cities, a minority follow the bilingual curriculum in two experimental primary schools in two provincial capitals, Siem Reap and Takhmau. AUF supports classes bilingues schools with books, furniture, and curriculum development; three expatriates supervise the continuing education of 156 francophone Cambodian teachers, who receive a salary supplement of $3 per hour for their participation (interviews with Paul Lambiotte, Solange Marguerite, 2000).

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2.3

Lower-Secondary Education

Khmer is the language of content studies in secondary education in Cambodia. On 18 October 1996, the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport made more precise the 1989 decision to offer English and French as foreign languages in secondary schools: Today, students in grades 7, 8, and 9 are to study either English or French five hours per week; they are to continue studying this same language four hours per week in grades 10, 11, and 12 (Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, 1996). In fact, in 1996 the education ministry could offer foreign languages with only partial success. A generally sufficient number of Cambodian French teachers staffed the country's 355 lower- and 132 upper-secondary schools; many had been educated before 1975 and had survived the Khmer Rouge regime. Conversely, there simply were not enough English teachers to implement the new language policy. "It depended on the school," one Cambodian educator told me. In some cases, "schools had the human resources to offer English classes," while in others they did not (interview with Suos Man, 2000). Various assistance efforts throughout the 1990s sought to right the language teaching imbalance while at the same time improving the quality of language instruction in lower-secondary schools. Immediately after the government decision to begin offering English in secondary schools, an Australian nongovernmental organization, Quaker Service Australia (QSA), initiated a "recyclage" program for Cambodian secondary school teachers, "so named because its aim was to 'recycle' and train those who had had some, even minimal, previous experience . . . teaching English" (Oats, 1994, p. 58). Between 1989 and 1993, Australian volunteers ran 11 recyclage courses, most at the Faculty of Pedagogy in Phnom Penh. Cambodians from three demographics enrolled in these 12week English language and pedagogy courses run on weekends and during school holidays: Cambodian Russian and Vietnamese secondary school teachers who no longer had classes to teach, teachers of other subjects who had received some English language training, and those with good English skills but no pedagogical training (Quaker Service Australia, 1991). As of 1993, more than 300 Cambodians had graduated from Quaker Service Australia recyclage programs, and many had assumed positions as English language teachers in secondary schools (interview with Neang Muth, 1992; interviews with Jane Fowles, Kao Sophal, 2000). In 1993, the QSA recyclage program was superseded by a more substantial initiative, the Cambodian Secondary English Teaching Project, or CAMSET. The British government funded CAMSET, and the Centre for British Teachers implemented the project through the Cambodian-British Centre. Between 1993 and the end of the decade. more than 700 Cambodian


159

lower-secondary English teachers received in-service training at the Faculty of Pedagogy in Phnom Penh and at regional teacher training colleges throughout the country. All received a $2 per day salary supplement during their full-time, six- to nine-month courses. In the phase of the project that ended in 1997, expatriates taught classes focusing on English language skills, language pedagogy, and classroom management; four Centre for British Teachers staff supervised four teacher trainers from the British government's Voluntary Service Overseas organization in giving this instruction. Cambodians themselves began teaching classes in 1997. The 30 Cambodian English language educators now on staff at the regional teacher training colleges received intensive training within CAMSET, both through on-the-job interaction with expatriates in Cambodia and through overseas training ventures at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom and the Regional English Language Centre in Singapore. While teacher and trainer education centered CAMSET, these components did not complete the project. In fact, the British worked broadly throughout the nearly decade-long initiative to build a comprehensive infrastructure supportive of English language teaching in lower-secondary schools. They developed a series of textbooks, English for Cambodia, to replace those written earlier by Quaker Service Australia. They trained a corps of inspectors to monitor and advise both lower- and upper-secondary English language teachers nationwide. They built the National English Teaching Resource Centre on the grounds of the Faculty of Pedagogy and stocked it with an 80,000-volume library of English language teaching materials. They encouraged the formation of private English schools at the regional teacher training colleges to provide a sustainable revenue stream for English department faculty after CAMSET closed and salary supplementation ceased. When the British ultimately left in 2001, 108 English teachersin-training were enrolled at the colleges in two-year, preservice programs run by Cambodians and funded by the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, and the future of English language education at the lower-secondary level seemed secure (interviews with Jane Fowles, Kao Sophal, Prach Chan Sokha, Lucy Royal-Dawson, George Taylor, 2000; Kao & Som, 1996). For most of the 1990s, Coopkration Franpise focused on retraining French language teachers who had survived the Khmer Rouge. In 1992, the Centre Culturel Franpis implemented a recyclage program in Phnom Penh with French bilateral funding; this program expanded to three additional provinces in 1993. According to a French educator who had directed one provincial operation in 1995, recyclage programs enrolled practicing Cambodian French teachers from both lower- and upper-secondary schools (interview with Marie Bussi-Galloway, 2000). Working at the Centre Culturel Franpis in Phnom Penh and at regional teacher training colleges in

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Battambang, Kampong Cham, and Takeo, the French provided linguistic and pedagogical instruction through "weekly courses during the school year and six-week intensive courses during the summer holiday" (Centre Culturel et de CoopCration, 1995, p. 3). By the mid-1990s, more than 900 Cambodians had graduated from recyclage programs and had returned to French language teaching in lower- and upper-secondary schools. Most classroom instruction in these programs was offered by 15 Cambodian teacher educators who had trained at the cultural center in Phnom Penh before being seconded to the provinces (interviews with Marie Bussi-Galloway, Sim Sieng Pav, 2000; Centre Culturel et de Coopkration, 1994). By 1997, the French had phased out the recyclage initiative, at least in part because their program at the Faculty of Pedagogy in Phnom Penh had begun to graduate school inspectors to monitor and perfect the nationwide secondary French teaching corps. At the same time, CoopCration Fran~aise initiated a preservice program to train the next generation of lowersecondary French language teachers. Between 40 and 50 students per year enter this two-year preparatory course launched at the Faculty of Pedagogy in February 1998. According to the program coordinator, participants study the French language and language teaching methods, in French, 20 hours per week; because they, like the lower-secondary English teachers-in-training discussed above, will additionally be certified to teach Khmer language and literature, they also receive 10 weekly hours of Khmer-language instruction on these topics (interview with Vincent Dareau, 2000). In conjunction with this program, the French gave 1,260 French-language texts to the faculty's library, which also contains around 1,000 Khmer and 1,000 English books, the latter donated by the Asia Foundation, a nongovernmental organization funded by the United States Agency for International Development. Unlike the British, the French have not separated from their program at the Faculty of Pedagogy. As of 2000, three French expatiates were supervising 10 Cambodian professors in the formation of French lower-secondary teachers. Only those Cambodians who teach in French receive the $4 per hour salary supplement paid by CoopCration Franpise (interview with Vincent Dareau, 2000).

2.4

Upper-Secondary Education

The movement toward the 1989 decision to teach English and French in secondary schools began at the Institute of Foreign Languages in 1984. Defying the Western embargo on development aid to Cambodia, Australia initiated talks with the People's Republic of Kampuchea about supporting an English language teaching program. The Cambodian government first rejected the offer because of its "unwillingness to have Western teachers"-


161

and, through them, Western ideas-"in Phnom Penh," but then accepted on the condition that candidates study at the Foreign Language Institute in Hanoi (Oats, 1994, p. 43; interview with Pit Chamnan, 2000). One man involved in this decision told me that it did not signal "the beginning of Cambodia's turn toward the West": The communist government and its Vietnamese advisors "had not changed their minds about the West," but "were interested in providing some ministry officials with English language skills, because we needed to communicate with Western nongovernmental organizations" operating or inquiring about operations in the country (interview with Pit Chamnan, 2000). In 1984, 12 Cambodians departed for a three-year translator training course in Hanoi through a program funded by the Australian government and implemented by Quaker Service Australia (QSA). In 1985, the English language program moved to the Institute of Foreign Languages in Phnom Penh, where it continued under the direction of Quaker Service Australia into the early 1990s. In 1988, QSA received permission to bring Australian English language teachers to Cambodia and open a fiveyear, upper-secondary English teacher education program (interviews with Pit Chamnan, 1992, 1994, 2000). According to the director of the Institute of Foreign Languages, this latter decision did indeed reflect changes in the country's trajectory at the end of the Cold War. Anticipating the Vietnamese withdrawal, the Cambodian government relaxed the earlier opposition to Western ideas and began directing the country "from a command economy to a market economy" and from communism to democracy. It was within this context of dktente and transition, the director explained, that linguistic prohibition faded and "I was able to extend the classes in English at the institute" (interview with Pit Chamnan, 2000). By 1992, 10 Australians were involved in the preservice education of 150 Cambodian teachers-in-training (Coyne, 1999). In 1993, the Australian government passed the contract for Cambodian English teacher education to a consortium of the University of Canberra and IDP Education Australia. The team leader of the new, four-year Bachelor of Education in Teaching English as a Foreign Language degree wrote that CanberraIIDP "aim[ed] at rapid localisation of lecturing positions . . . and self-sustainab[ility]" through teacher education, infrastructure development, and entrepreneurship (Coyne, 1999, p. 143). The Australians hired Cambodian graduates of the QSA program to teach in the new venture, "exposed [them] to expert foreign teaching and management styles," and sent many to Australian universities for postbaccalaureate certificate and master's courses; by 1995, only three Australians remained as advisors to 28 Cambodian faculty (Coyne, 1999, p. 150). Australia renovated one of the buildings at the Institute of Foreign Languages and increased the English Department

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library established by QSA to 7,000 English-language titles (Coyne, 1997). At the beginning of the CanberralIDP era, the Australian government paid Cambodian lecturers $420 per month; this figure decreased to $175 by 1997 as the program's Private English Division developed alternative revenue streams to replace salary supplements (Bun, 1996; Coyne, 1999; Suos, 1996). In 1997, Australia officially ended its support for the bachelor of education program, for at least two reasons. First, the program had indeed become sustainable. Largely under Cambodian direction, the enrollments had grown from 150 at the end of the QSA era to 330 in the 1996-1997 school year. After the Australian departure, the program expanded even more dramatically with the initiation of the Bachelor of Arts in English degree; as of 2000, the 454 students enrolled in this program were contributing more than $200,000 to the English Department budget through their $450 annual tuition (interview with Suos Man, 2000). Second, the Australians separated from the program because it had failed, at least in one way. According to a tracer study, only 23 of the program's 129 graduates as of July 1996 were actually teaching English in upper-secondary schools, the others having found positions in business, with international aid agencies, or in higher education (Coyne, 1999). As the Australian team leader concluded, "You can imagine how difficult it was to explain to bureaucrats in Canberra why we should continue the program when we weren't meeting our stated goal" of placing English teachers in high schools (interview with Geoffrey Coyne, 2000). While Australian organizations brought the most substantial resources to Cambodian upper-secondary English language teaching, several other assistance agencies have mounted smaller teacher education initiatives. In 1992, a loose consortium of aid organizations under the direction of a nun from the Catholic Mission Society of America (Maryknoll) began retraining Cambodians enrolled in the by-then redundant Russian and Vietnamese teacher education programs, as English teachers. Between 1992 and 1994, 11 volunteers from mostly Christian, mostly nongovernmental organizations based for the most part in the United States redirected the trajectories of 170 Cambodian high school language-teachers-in-training (interview with Luise Ahrens, 2000; Murray, 1996). The British Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) organization also contributed to this teacher reeducation project and, in 1993, began supplying volunteers directly to high schools (RoyalDawson, 1996). As of 2000, seven VSO volunteers were working in uppersecondary schools around the country; while a minority actually taught English to Cambodian students, most directed the continuing education of Cambodian English teachers. In the case of the volunteer in Kratie, in the remote northeast part of the country, the teacher educator moved "up and


163

down the [Mekong] river by boat," mentoring English faculty at all 12 high schools in the province (interview with Graham Lang, 2000). French language teaching commenced in Cambodia much as English teaching had. In 1985, a French nongovernmental organization funded by the French government, France LibertC, approached the Ministry of Education about establishing a French training program. Initially, the ministry refused the offer of French teachers while accepting books and curricular materials for a three-year translator training program run at the Institute of Foreign Languages by a Cambodian French teacher educated before the Khmer Rouge regime (interview with Pit Chamnan, 1992). An educational administrator involved in the decision to open the French program in the mid-1980s argued that the materials provided by France inspired for at least some Cambodians the changes that the country would embrace more fully in 1989. France Libertk brought "some documents that described life in other countries," this man told me, and through them "we started to change our spirit. We started to compare our socialist system with the imperialist system. At that time, we had what could be called a 'cultural revolution,' a change from socialist thinking to a broader outlook" (interview with Var Simsamreth, 1994). In 1988, France LibertC began to send teachers from France to the Institute of Foreign Languages, and they launched a five-year upper-secondary French teacher education program (Soy, 1997). In 1990, Alliance Fran~aise opened the Centre Culture1 Franpis in Phnom Penh and seconded four professors to the French teacher training program. By 1992, France was funding this program bilaterally, and eight French language teachers were working with four Cambodian educators to provide instruction to 143 students (interview with Pit Chamnan, 1992; DCpartement d'Etudes Francophones, 1997). At about this same time, Coopkation Franpise began to diversify offerings at the institute. While upper-secondary teacher education remains by far the largest program, today the French additionally support four-year courses in journalism, linguistics, and tourism while continuing the translator training program begun in the 1980s. Two hundred seventy-seven students were enrolled in these programs in 2000; approximately 15 students were following courses in each of the smaller specializations, with the remainder studying to become French teachers in upper-secondary schools. Every year, the six most promising graduates receive scholarships for oneand-a-half-month study tours in France (interview with Eric Galmard, 2000). CoopCration Franpise intends the French Department ultimately to be self-supporting, and the French Embassy has directed considerable resources toward this goal. The French government in partnership with the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie renovated a building at the Institute of Foreign Languages, equipped a language laboratory, and built the holdings

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of the French library to 10,000 volumes (Ambassade de France, 1997). The number of local faculty in the department has gradually increased as responsibility for classroom teaching has passed to Cambodians, and many have been sponsored to graduate courses at French universities. The French Department employed 27 Cambodian faculty in 2000, seven of them on leave at universities in France. Concurrently, the number of French faculty has decreased, from a high of 20 in 1993 to 4 in 2000. All teachers, French and Cambodian alike, earn salaries based on their level of education. Those holding a maitrise, for instance, earn $9 per hour, while those with an agre'gation earn $12 (interview with Eric Galmard, 2000). There is some indication that graduates of the French Department, like their counterparts from English, do not enter upper-secondary schools as teachers. According to one Cambodian French teacher in the department, for example, some graduates "choose to work for nongovernmental organizations and private enterprises," at least to the extent that demand exists for francophone employees (interview with Chhiv Yiseang, 2000). Generally more French than English graduates do accept teaching positions in secondary schools, however, including at Sisowath High School in Phnom Penh, where Coopkration Fran~aisesupports a classes bilingues program identical to the one funded by the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie at 12 other lower- and upper-secondary schools. As of the 1999-2000 school year, bilingual schools enrolled 3,039 Cambodian children and young adults. In their final year of secondary education, classes bilingues students receive more than 1,000 hours of French-language instruction, with about two-thirds being directed to language skills and about one-third to math and science courses given in French (interview with Paul Lambiotte, 2000; Ministkre de l'Education, de la Jeunesse, et des Sports, 2000).

2.5

Tertiary Education

"There is no clear policy or guideline from the government regarding foreign language education in higher education," the rector of the Royal University of Phnom Penh wrote in 1997 (Pit, 1997, p. 4). In reality, he told me in person, "language policies depend on foreign aid," just as they did in the 1980s (interview with Pit Chamnan, 2000). Indeed, even the terms used to describe language policies during the Vietnamese occupation emerge in contemporary statements. "Khmer should be the language of teaching for higher education," the director of the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport's Higher Education Department commented, "but because the Khmer Rouge destroyed nearly all our human resources, we lack quality teachers. For this reason, we must accept assistance from foreign donors, and we temporarily must use the foreign languages that these donors bring" (inter-


165

view with Pich Sophoan, 2000; my emphasis). Donors themselves recommended that "the national language [be used] as medium of instruction in the education system as a whole," but at the same time called for the "jlexibility of higher education institutions in the choice of language as medium of instruction" (recommendations of the National Higher Education Task Force, cited in Hebert, 1999a, p. 282; my emphasis). What these various commentators are describing is a complex tension among what Cambodians want, what they are able to accomplish on their own, and what donors are willing to provide. In the early 1990s, France alone assisted Cambodia's universities. "After the Paris Peace Accords [in 19911, we decided to concentrate on educational training," the director of Coopkration Fran~aisetold me. "Further, we decided to focus on a small group for education: engineering, medicine, economics and law, and administration. . . . France is the only nation to respond to Cambodian needs in higher education" (interview with Jacques Gerard, 2000). In the early 1990s, the conditions France placed on assistance created a tension that resulted in the widespread use of French in tertiary education. As Cambodian administrators have gained educational resources from assistance sources outside Francophonie and on their own, however, tension has lessened, and the emphasis on French has decreased-though it has by no means disappeared. I pay particular attention to the rise and fall of this tension in examining Cambodia's 1 1 public higher education institutions, beginning with the first to reopen after the Khmer Rouge regime.

2.5.1

University of Health Sciences

The University of Health Sciences began as the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry and the Faculty of Pharmacy of Phnom Penh University in 1960. The combined Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy reopened only months after the Vietnamese invasion, in 1979 (Phnom Penh University, 1996). Francophone nongovernmental organizations began teaching French at the medical school in 1985 to support the continuing use of this educational medium. Alliance Franpise and Coopkration Fran~aiseassumed French language teaching responsibilities in 1990 and 1992, respectively (interview with Seng Lim Neou, 1992; interview with Sim Sieng Pav, 2000; Centre Culture1 et de Coopkration, 1994). On 1 1 February 1993, Prince Norodom Sihanouk and the French Minister of Foreign Affairs signed a protocole d'accord in which France agreed to provide comprehensive support for the medical university. Since then, Coopkration Fran~aisehas rehabilitated the institution's existing infrastmcture, and the French pharmaceutical firm Pierre Fabre Mkdicament has built a new pharmacy faculty. With the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie,

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the French outfitted both a rn&diathBque,which subscribes to 63 Frenchlanguage medical journals, and a bibliothkque, which contains 10,000 medical books, about equally divided between those donated by francophone organizations, in French, and those in English provided by the Asia Foundation and the Japanese government. Five French nationals work full-time at the university in administration and medical training. French doctors attached to Calmette Hospital and the Pasteur Institute teach classes in their specializations at the medical school, and Coopkration Fran~aisebrings additional specialists-5 1 in the 1999-2000 school year alone-from universities in France and other francophone nations to Phnom Penh for short-term missions, during which they engage Cambodian professors in continuing education (interviews with V. Girard, Jean-Jacques Santini, 2000; Protocole d 'Accord, 1993; Zones d 'Activite', 1999). For their part in the protocole d'accord, Cambodians agreed to facilitate the French assistance initiative and to use French as the language of education at the university. A document that followed the protocole d'accord suggests that Cambodians themselves made this language policy decision. "Cambodians specifically requested that French be named the language of work in the University of Health Sciences," the proceedings of the first Conference on Franco-Cambodian Cooperation state, and Cambodians asked that CoopCration F r a n ~ a i s eprovide "intensive French language instruction" to entering students so as to be able to operate in this language (ProcBsVerbal, 1995, p. 32). The Cambodian rector of the medical university, on the other hand, presented the French language policy as a necessary condition of the aid package. "According to the terms of the agreement, the school is to receive support only from France and is to use French as the language of instruction," he explained. "It is not clear whether the French would continue assistance" if the university moved away from French-medium instruction (interview with Vu Kim Por, 2000). Nate Thayer (1993) agrees with the rector, stating unequivocally that "French assistance [to the medical university is] contingent on instruction being limited to French language" (p. 16). In 1999, nearly 1,300 Cambodians were studying to be doctors, dentists, and pharmacists at the University of Health Sciences. All medical studies begin with a one-semester intensive French course offered by six Cambodian French language teachers under the supervision of one expatriate; all local teachers graduated from the French Department at the Institute of Foreign Languages. In the remainder of their first four years at the medical school, students receive between four and six hours of French language instruction per week while also following content courses in French. Students are


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supposed to receive English instruction in their fourth, fifth, and sixth years, but France does not provide it; the U S , nongovernmental organization World Concern offers part-time, voluntary classes to about one-third of the students in the dental school. Cambodian doctors complete their training with either two- or three-year internships. Those who enter the third year are paid a $100 per month stipend by CoopCration Franqaise, and they graduate as specialists in pediatrics, surgery, and other fields. The 40 best graduates per year receive scholarships for additional one- to three-year courses at French universities (interviews with V. Girard, Jean-Jacques Santini, Dennis Thorne, 2000). The director of CoopCration Franpise holds up the medical university as an example of a successful assistant partnership. "Our experience [at the University of Health Sciences] has taught us that it is possible to upgrade some of the constituents of higher education," Jacques Gerard told me (interview, 2000). Gerard's Cambodian counterpart at the medical school is somewhat less enthusiastic about the assistance relationship. Certainly the quality of education has improved since the signing of the protocole d'accord in 1993, Rector Vu Kim Por acknowledged, but he also feels trapped by its language conditions and their implications. CoopCration Franpise insists on the use of French in education at the university, he confided, because "they don't want us to go to other countries for education or exchange." In fact, the rector would like to begin providing students the chance to learn English and to explore opportunities through that language. The rector has not been able to implement his idea, however, because the school has "no support from any English-speaking country" to augment the resources dedicated to the French language by CoopCration Franpise (interview with Vu Kim Por, 2000). Lacking assistance to support substantial change, the rector is working in small ways to expand the horizons of his students beyond what the French refer to as the "international network of [French-medium] medical teaching institutions" into which the University of Health Sciences has been "integrated" (ProcBs-Verbal, 1995, p. 32). For example, he explained, there are two options for pediatric internship placements in Cambodia. At Calmette Hospital, interns work with French doctors in the French language. Interns placed at the Sihanouk Hospital, however, can work with Australian and American volunteer doctors, in English. By placing some interns in the latter hospital, the rector is able to secure some English language exposure for some students while at the same time "not making France unhappym-and thus threatening his source of assistance-by challenging the medical school's language policy directly (interview with Vu Kim Por, 2000).

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2.5.2

Chapter 6

Royal University of Phnom Penh and the Institute of Foreign Languages

Phnom Penh University was inaugurated in 1960. After the Khmer Rouge regime, the Teachers' Training College and the Institute of Foreign Languages opened, in 1980 and 1981, respectively. These two institutions merged in 1988 to create the institution that became the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) in 1996 (Royal University of Phnom Penh, 1997). The university comprises three faculties, one of which is the Institute of Foreign Languages. In the Upper-Secondary Education section, above, I discussed international support for the institute's English and French Departments, where the country's upper-secondary language teachers receive their training. While the Australian program is now self-supporting, Coopkration Fran~aiseremains involved in the preparation of high school French-language teachers. Outside these two main departments, the institute offers Khmer classes for foreigners and runs a small Japanese-language program; the latter is funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency and operated by three Japanese teachers, two from the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) program and one with the United Nations Volunteers (interview with Yoshiko Ogawa, 2000). As of 1997, 90 students from numerous departments in the Royal University of Phnom Penh were following the 350-hour, two-and-a-half-year, nondegree Japanese language program (Foreign Languages Centre, 1997). Graduates do not teach the language in public schools, where Japanese is not a curricular option. The Japanese Language Master Plan prepared by JOCV "identifies only tourism as an area offering employment for those with some Japanese language skills" (Foreign Languages Centre, 1997, p. 18). In addition to the Institute of Foreign Languages, the university offers degree programs in the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities; for many professors and students, it is these two faculties that compose the Royal University of Phnom Penh. The university had been completely Khmerized by 1987, which is to say that professors from Vietnam had by then been replaced by Cambodians trained either at the university or in Eastern-bloc countries. According to the rector of the university at the time, "the level of the knowledge and the level of the quality of professors [were] very low" in the early 1990s, and so the administration welcomed the arrival of Western organizations interested in training teachers and supplying other educational resources. The first to arrive were the French, who provided French language teachers and materials bilaterally in 1992 and 1993. The rector explained contemporaneously that the French have "given us [these resources] in order to 'France-icize' the universitynto maneuver it toward French-medium instruction. In 1993, the university


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accepted an offer to join the Association des UniversitCs Partiellement ou Entikrement de Langue Franqaise (AUPELF), though administrators rejected a comprehensive French language policy in favor of a "two-group approach," where certain students could enter the French-language stream and others could study entirely in Khmer (interview with Var Simsamreth, 1994). Following the signing of an official agreement in 1994, AUPELF (which became the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie in 1998) opened five filikre francophone degrees at the university, in biology, chemistry, geography, mathematics, and physics (Convention, 1994). As of 2000, two francophone expatriates were managing the filikres and providing continuing education for the Cambodian professors teaching in them, 16 in science and 19 in French language. Cambodian professors receive $4 per hour, in addition to their government salary, for their participation. By 1998, 54 professors had been granted scholarships for three- to six-month study tours at francophone universities in France, Belgium, and Canada. In addition, in the two years following 1997 eight professors from francophone universities had traveled to Cambodia on short-term teacher training missions. In 2000, 170 students were pursuing filikre francophone degrees at the university. Students receive intensive French instruction during their first two years, after which they transition into French-medium content classes. Throughout their academic careers, students collect a $25 per semester stipend from Francophonie, reduced from $50 in 1999. As of 2000, Francophonie had sponsored 139 university students to short-term study tours at francophone institutions in France and Belgium (interviews with Youssef Arrif, Nadine Lachat, Lav Chhiv Eav, 2000; interview with Murielle Cormorand, 2001 ). Beyond that provided by Francophonie, the Royal University of Phnom Penh has received assistance from two anglophone groups. Beginning in 1993, the same loose consortium of generally religious, generally U.S.-based aid agencies that redirected the training of Russian and Vietnamese teachertrainees at the Institute of Foreign Languages (see Upper-Secondary Education section, above) commenced work at the university's original campus, known as RUPP I. Between 1993 and 1997, 1 1 expatriates from organizations such as the Baptist Cooperation Service, the Catholic Mission Society of America (Maryknoll), the Mennonite Central Committee, and the U.S. Information Agency (the English Teaching Fellow program) provided continuing education to nearly 200 professors. "Although the emphasis is on improving English skills," one teacher in the program commented at the time, "other topics of interest have included computer training, [teaching] methodology, and academic subjects such as . . . physics" (Murray, 1996, p. 36). Professors received no salary supplement for class participation, a factor that Alice Murray (1996) associates with the program's high dropout rates.

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A few professors have been sent overseas to master's courses at Englishmedium institutions, including two to Assumption University in the Philippines and one to the State University of New York at Albany, all with funding from Maryknoll (interview with Luise Ahrens, 2000). At the same time, the consortium has taught English to students according to the university's shifting foreign language policies. In 1996, the university abandoned an earlier policy requiring students to take both English- and French-as-a-foreign-language courses and began allowing them to study either English or French, six hours per week, for their first three years (interview with Pit Chamnan, 2000). As of 2000, both expatriate and Cambodian consortium staff taught English to 934 Cambodians, or about 80 percent of the students at RUPP I subject to the new language policy. Maryknoll pays the consortium's 11 Cambodian English teachers between $100 and $185 per month, depending on qualification and seniority; three teachers graduated from the Russian and Vietnamese teacher retraining program in the early 1990s, with the rest graduating more recently from the English Department at the Institute of Foreign Languages (interview with Luise Ahrens, 2000). The consortium also provides salary support to staff at the university's Hun Sen Library. This library holds 30,000 volumes, among them 16,000 English titles donated by the Asia Foundation, 7,000 Frenchlanguage volumes provided by the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie and CoopCration Franpise, and 7,000 Khmer texts, 2,000 of which were donated by a Japanese philanthropic organization (interviews with Margaret Bywater, Pou Vanny, 2000; Hun Sen Library, 1999). In 1993, an Italian, church-based nongovernmental organization, New Humanity, agreed to offer continuing education in the history, philosophy, and sociology departments operating at the university's second campus, known as RUPP 11. Early on, New Humanity provided considerable substitution technical assistance. Ln the philosophy department, New Humanity Director Toni Vendramin told me, professors were teaching "only MarxismLeninism and a little Greek philosophy, and it was not very good from our perspective," so expatriates simply wrote the new curriculum (interview, 2000). Later, the Italians transitioned to technical assistance for capacity building, bringing overseas academics to the university to work with Cambodian professors in improving pedagogical and research capabilities. Between 1994 and 2000, more than 100 professors, most from the Catholic University of Milan, the University of Bologna, and the University of Pisa, joined the five resident New Humanity staff for one-month missions at RUPP 11. New Humanity paid Cambodian professors to attend these courses "because we were taking their time when they could be making money doing something else" (interview with Toni Vendramin, 2000). Finally, New Humanity sent six Cambodian professors to Ateneo de Manila University in


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the Philippines for graduate studies (interviews with Chhay Yiheang, Toni Vendramin, 2000; New Humanity, 2000). In the first year of the New Humanity project, Italians lectured in French, while providing translation to Khmer, because "more of the [Cambodian] professors at that time knew French than English." In the second year, 19951996, they used English, with translation. Beginning in 1997, they taught in English and did not translate their lectures. They were able to make this linguistic transition, the director explained to me, "because of the English program for professors and students" (interview with Toni Vendramin, 2000). Beginning in 1996, New Humanity gave intensive English language classes for both students and faculty in the sociology department; all content classes were cancelled in this department in the fall so as to accommodate the 180-hour English course offered by professors from Rome. The English program expanded subsequently to include faculty in philosophy and students in all three departments. As of 2000, six volunteer English teachers from Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka were providing six weekly hours of English language instruction for New Humanity to most of the 340 students enrolled in their first three years of education at RUPP 11; some freshmen and sophomores in the history department follow a single French-as-a-foreign-language class given by a Cambodian teacher (interviews with John Ball, Lav Chhiv Eav, Toni Vendramin, 2000). New Humanity left the university in 2000, and the consortium from RUPP I stepped in to ensure that history, philosophy, and sociology students could continue learning English six hours per week. A final group of students at the university does not have to rely on the availability of assistance for foreign language instruction. The computer science and management programs in the university's Special Professional Department generate revenue through the $450 annual tuition paid by more than 800 students. Freshmen study Basic English for Computing three hours per week with six Cambodian graduates of the Institute of Foreign Languages; English language instruction does not extend beyond the students' first year. The tuition controlled by the department allows administrators to pay professors between $100 and $200 per month (interview with Ouk Chhieng, 2000; McNamara, 1999).

2.5.3

Institut de Technologie du Cambodge

The Soviet Union inaugurated the Royal Technical Institute as a gift to Cambodia in 1964. In the 1960s, Soviet professors staffed the institute and lectured in French. The Soviets reopened the school after the Khmer Rouge regime, in 1981, and they taught there in Russian until 1991, when the collapse of the Soviet Union precipitated their withdrawal. Fearing that the

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institute would close, the United Nations Development Programme and UNESCO collaborated to bring 28 Russian professors back to complete the education of advanced students. At the same time, UNESCO initiated talks with the Cambodian Ministry of Education about long-term support for the school. One plan called for the institute to close for a year, during which time students would complete an intensive English course in anticipation of content classes, in English, to be given by professors from the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok (interview with Om Nhieu Sarak, 1992; interview with Luise Ahrens, 2000; Savage, 1992). While this plan stalled, the French secured an agreement with Second Prime Minister Hun Sen on 10 September 1993 and commenced programming at the renamed Institut de Technologie du Cambodge (ITC) (Heywood, 1994; ProcPs- Verbal, 1995). In a unique administrative arrangement for Cambodia, the French have implemented the ITC project through a subcontractor, the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie. Particularly in the early years, Francophonie oversaw significant infrastructure development at the technical university, beginning with the renovation of buildings, laboratories, and workshops, and concluding with the replacement of Soviet-era artwork by posters announcing "La Francophonie Existe!" and "La Francophonie Toujours!" Francophone coope'rants built holdings in the university library to 6,200 books and 20 journal subscriptions, 90 percent of which are in French. The project sent many Cambodian professors and students for graduate degrees at francophone universities in France, Belgium, Canada, and Vietnam-in 1994, so many professors had left the country that I could find no one to talk with about the assistance venture; in 2000, 25 were studying overseas. As Cambodians have returned to faculty positions over the years, the number of French expatriate professors has decreased somewhat, to 18 (in addition to five francophone administrators) in 2000. Cambodian faculty receive salary supplements of $5 per instructional hour, to a maximum of $400 per month (interviews with Hubert Dkfossez, Patricia Merlet, Ouy Vanthon, 2000; Savage, 1992). Today, the Institut de Technologie du Cambodge offers both three- and five-year courses in chemical, civil, computer, electrical, mechanical, and rural engineering to approximately 600 students. Professors offer the threeyear technician course in both Khmer and French; the five-year engineering course operates entirely in the French language. All freshmen study French intensively during their first year with 12 Cambodian French teachers under the direction of two expatriates; French language instruction decreases in subsequent years, replaced by French-medium engineering classes. The Cambodian French teachers, most of whom graduated from the French Department at the Institute of Foreign Languages, receive a minimum of $3 per hour for instruction; those who have completed graduate training-six


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were on scholarship in Canada and France in 2000-receive $300 per month. ITC is one of five "international" institutes sponsored by the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (the others being in Bulgaria, Laos, Mauritius, and Vietnam) that enroll a multinational francophone student body. As of 2000, several Lao engineers-in-training were studying at ITC, and plans had been made to enroll francophone students from elsewhere in Asia and from Africa. All students receive a $50 per semester stipend from Francophonie (interviews with Hubert DCfossez, Patricia Merlet, 2000; Institut de Technologie du Cambodge, 2000). Language policy has been a source of considerable tension at the university. Immediately after France and Cambodia signed the convention stating (among other things) that "French was to be the only [foreign] language in the institute," engineering students briefly protested (interview with Ouy Vanthon, 2000; Moeun, 1993; Victor, 1993). In April and May 1995, students burned tires and effigies of French politicians during a three-week manifestation aimed at changing the institute's instructional medium to English. The 1995 protest precipitated a public airing of the university's language policy and, more broadly, of the tensions created when the desires of donors and recipients do not meet around the issue of language. The director of Francophonie for Cambodia threatened that "if they [the students] don't [accept] francophone policies, this action [French assistance] will go away" (cited in Barber, 1995b, p. 15). After complaining that he felt like he "was being held hostage on one side by [Francophonie] and by my own students on the other," Minister of Education, Youth, and Sport To1 Lah ultimately sided with the donor: "Teaching in French is justified," he concluded, "because it is France that is supporting the institute" (cited in Barber, 1995b, p. 14; Chin & Gillette, 1995, pp. 1, 4). While refusing to abandon the use of French in education, the francophone assistance partners did alter their language policy in one way as a direct result of the protest: They began offering students the opportunity to as secondary tostudy English as a foreign language in addition t-and French. As the Cambodian dean of the institute clarified, Francophonie "wants French to be the first foreign language of the institute [but] English can be the second foreign language" (interview with Ouy Vanthon, 2000). One French administrator at ITC explained the decision to open the English Section as a strategic concession on the part of the francophone partners. They knew, he told me, that in the engineering fields "English is more and more important, and French is less and less important." By forcing them to acknowledge the importance of English and to start providing opportunities for students to learn this language, he continued, "the demonstration saved the institute": Whereas students might simply have left the university over the restrictive language policy, the English "compromise" convinced them to

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stay enrolled in what remains a vital-and fundamentally francophoneinstitution (interview with Hubert Dkfossez, 2000). Today, engineers- and technicians-in-training at ITC study English between three and four-and-a-half hours per week every year except their first, with six Cambodian English language teachers recruited from both the Russian and Vietnamese teacher retraining program and the Institute of Foreign Languages. With French funds, the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie pays ITC English teachers $3 per instructional hour. When it commenced in 1995, two New Zealand volunteers from the Auckland Institute of Technology directed the English Section with sponsorship from the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2000, a single New Zealander advised the program, by then under Cambodian direction, and she was engaged in "working [herlself out of a job" (interview with Shona Macaskill, 2000). Several teachers have studied abroad, some with Australian funding after completing their bachelor of education courses at the Institute of Foreign Languages, and two with New Zealand government scholarships while contracted to ITC. The dean of ITC described the English Section as "very good," a sentiment shared by several 1998 graduates who, when asked about the most rewarding aspects of their time at ITC, all replied in various ways, "Now, I can speak English and French quite well" (interview with Ouy Vanthon, 2000; cited in Tuy, 1998, pp. 14, 15). 2.5.4

The National Institute of Management

The National Institute of Management (NIM) opened in 1984. NIM, then known as the Economics Institute, carried forward half of the mandate of the Faculty of Law and Economics established within Phnom Penh University in 1960. Professors from the University of Economic Sciences in Hanoi lectured there throughout the 1980s, in Vietnamese. Khmerization began in 1989, when 20 Cambodians from the first graduating class assumed faculty positions; the Cambodian professoriate grew as other local graduates, together with some who had studied in the Soviet Union, began teaching at the institute in 1990 (interviews with Iv Thong, 1992, 1994). In 1991, the French established an assistance presence at NIM, initially through Alliance Fran~aise.As the former associate dean of the institute put it, "In 1991, the Vietnamese left, and the French came" (interview with Yuok Ngoy, 2000). As they had done at other institutions, the French initiated a comprehensive assistance venture. They augmented the French holdings in the library and rewrote curricula to reflect the country's transition from a planned to a market economy. They provided advanced training for faculty, sending 12 professors for three-month to two-year courses at French universities in 1992 alone. Finally, nine French and Cambodian


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teachers initiated intensive French language classes for students-12 hours per week for freshmen, dropping off in subsequent years. Also as at other universities, the institute's administration expressed some hesitation about French assistance, and particularly about its heavy emphasis on French language teaching and learning. "The Economics Institute does not want to use French as its language of coordination," the dean told me in 1991, but has accepted the policy in order to secure assistance from France (interview with Iv Thong, 1991). In 1993, educational resources from another donor allowed the dean to act on his misgivings about the French language. In that year, the United States Agency for International Development funded two ventures for the National Institute of Management: the Georgetown University Management Education Development Project and the University of San Francisco Law Education Project. With two new aid programs set to arrive, NIM's dean demanded that Cooperation Fran~aisedecrease the number of hours of French and add six hours of English language instruction. "But the French refused," he told me, and threatened to withdraw their support (interview with Iv Thong, 2000). In a compromise that salvaged French assistance, the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport implemented an earlier decision to restructure economics and legal education according to the 1960 Phnom Penh University model. In 1994, the ministry transferred the study of economic sciences to what became the Faculty of Law and Economics, and NIM assumed the portfolio of another original university faculty, Commerce. The French economics assistance project moved with the economic sciences departments to the Faculty of Law and Economics in 1994 (interview with Yuok Ngoy, 2000). After what many informants refer to as "the divorce," the National Institute of Management enjoyed a period of prosperity with resources from Georgetown and San Francisco. Both donors attempted significant reforms at the institute. For its part, Georgetown aimed at "chang[ing the institute] from a more traditional European academic [university] with its strong emphasis on economics and accounting to an American type of management training [institute]" (Hebert, 1999b, p. 165). Meanwhile, San Francisco "sought to introduce the study of common law into the legal education system" (Hebert, 1999b, p. 169). Neither program, however, tried to maneuver NIM away from Khmer as the medium of instruction. While both American universities gave students three hours of English language instruction weekly, they also provided Khmer translators for the English lectures given by the six Georgetown and three San Francisco resident professors (Iv, 1996). The law project in particular offered overseas study opportunities for faculty, sponsoring 20 Cambodians to short leadership training courses and three to master's degrees at the University of San

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Francisco (Godfrey et al., 2000; Hebert, 1999b; Rendall, 1999). Following Hun Sen's "coup" in July 1997, the United States abruptly halted all projects that provided assistance to Cambodian government institutions, including the National Institute of Management. While Georgetown simply closed the management venture and returned to the United States, San Francisco shifted its programming to the autonomous Community Legal Education Center, opened in 1996, where professors continue to bypass the government and teach law classes directly to Cambodians (see Chapters Four and Five). Before the cessation of aid, however, NIM's administration had put in place structures designed to eliminate dependence on assistance for educational programming. Until 1996, students paid no tuition, and the government contributed to university budgets only by way of the small salary given to professors. In 1996, Dean Iv Thong participated in a UNESCO-sponsored tour of private universities in the Philippines, where the issue of tuition was discussed. "When he returned," a UNESCO administrator explained, Iv Thong "started admitting private students for money" (interview with Supote Prasertsri, 2000). In the next few years, enrollments at NIM exploded, from around 800 in 1995 to nearly 10,000 in 2000. Virtually all students pay $400 annual tuition, and the institute itself controls nearly all this revenue (interview with Iv Thong, 2000). "Students want to come study here because we use English," Iv Thong told me (interview, 2000), and he is at least partially correct. Today, students in accounting, business administration, finance, management, and marketing study English as a foreign language three hours per week with 16 Cambodian English teachers, some of whom graduated from the Institute of Foreign Languages. Nearly all content instruction, however, is given by Cambodian professors in Khmer. Exceptions to this rule include a small bachelor of law program, which NIM initiated in 2000. Approximately 50 students follow this English-language course, for which they pay $1,200 annual tuition; some law professors from the University of San Francisco Community Legal Education Center teach in this program as volunteers, thus acting outside the context of U.S. funding for the nonformal education center. Also in 2000, NIM established a master of business administration course with the Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). Expatriate and some local professors lecture in English to the 70-plus students enrolled in this two-year program, for which tuition totals $4,500; UUM retains 84 percent of the revenue generated from this venture. Both of these programs enroll students proficient in English; neither provides English-as-a-foreign-language instruction (interviews with Iv Thong, Stephen Paterson, 2000; interview with Matthew Rendall, 2001). With the revenue generated through student tuition, the National Institute of Management has become a self-sustaining institution and no longer needs resources from assistance organizations. "We don't have any financial


177

and/or liquidity problems [and we] have not borrowed any money from any banks" to fund operations or development, explained the associate dean in charge of administration (cited in Godfrey et al., 2000, p. 89). Today, NIM uses tuition revenue to pay professors between $10 and $15 per instructional hour, depending on qualification. With its own funds, the institute has constructed or renovated several buildings on campus. One houses the university library, which today contains 4,000 books, nearly all in English; while the Asia Foundation donated some, NIM purchased others with revenue generated by tuition (interviews with Iv Thong, Stephen Paterson, Man Monden, 2000).

2.5.5

Royal University of Agriculture

The Royal University of Agriculture began its life in 1965 as the Royal University of Agronomic Sciences, built and equipped by France. The Vietnamese reopened the school after the Khmer Rouge regime, and they gave short courses to Cambodian agricultural technicians there, in translation, from 1980 to 1984. In 1985, professors from the Ukrainian Agricultural Academy began offering degree programs in agriculture at the school, in Russian. Ukrainian professors abruptly departed the university in December 1990, before Cambodians sent to the Soviet Union and Cuba for graduate training had returned to faculty positions. Their departure stranded the university "in the middle of the road," the rector told me in 1994, "not knowing whether to turn right or left" (interview with Chan Nareth, 1994). After a one-month closure, the administration arranged for civil servants from various ministries to cover classes so that enrolled students could continue their studies (Chamcar Daung Agricultural Institute, 1992; Nay, 1996). In 1991, the Ministry of Agriculture rationalized the erratic system of language education that had commenced at the university in 1990, by declaring Khmer to be the medium of instruction and English to be the "first foreign language" (interview with Chan Nareth, 1992). By 1991, two expatriates from the British Voluntary Service Overseas organization and six Cambodian teachers were offering six hours of English language instruction weekly to university students. The French nongovernmental organization Groupe de Recherche et d'Echanges Technologiques (GRET) had seconded two French language lecturers to the agricultural institute, where they and six Cambodians were teaching French two hours per week to the same students. While the university itself paid Cambodian English teachers $0.40 per hour, the French Embassy compensated the Cambodian French language teachers at a rate of $3 per instructional hour. Besides teaching French, GRET revised the Soviet-era agricultural curriculum and worked with

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Cambodian professors to implement it. "The change in the curriculum was intended to reflect the change in the country's economic system and to help prepare students to understand the free-market economic system that they were going to enter when they graduated," Rector Chan Nareth explained (interview, 1994). According to Chan Nareth, in 1991 "the French Embassy began to pressure [us] to teach more French, as they did not think that two hours per week was adequate to learn French well enough to do anything" (interview, 1992). Perhaps to illustrate what Cambodians could do with French language skills, Coopkration Fran~aisesent 12 agriculture professors to France for graduate training and began shipping French texts and teaching materials to the university library. Eventually, the university agreed to a compromise wherein certain students in agronomy and veterinary science would receive more intensive French instruction in anticipation of French-language content courses taught by specialists from GRET and VktCrinaires Sans Frontikres, respectively. By 1998, responsibility for this program had passed to the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie and, as of 2000, 57 Cambodian students were following the two filibre francophone degrees. As in the structurally identical Francophonie programs at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, students in the filibres at the agricultural university receive a $25 stipend each semester for studying in French, and some (two in 1999) earn scholarships for short-term study tours to France (interview with Youssef Arrif, 2000). While Francophonie continues the French language courses begun by GRET, another French organization carries forward the teacher education and institutional transition projects initiated by this nongovernmental organization in the early 1990s. Beginning in 1995, the Caisse Fran~aisede Dheloppement, or French Development Fund, opened its Programme d'Appui B la Formation Agricole au Royaume du Cambodge (PAFAARC) at the agricultural university. Among other things, PAFAARC brings French and Canadian agricultural experts to Cambodia to "improve the quality of teaching" at the institution and thus to better "fit training with manpower needs" in the country (interview with Patrice Salgarolo, 2000). In 1999, six consultants ran short workshops at the university on subjects such as agricultural economics, soil technology, and veterinary hygiene; the program gives salary supplements to university professors for attending these sessions. PAFAARC's French director-the only French expert in residence as of 2000-has provided extensive management training for administrators aimed at "helping the university make the shift from a Soviet-style institution to a market-oriented system" (interview with Patrice Salgarolo, 2000). Finally, the director is attempting to facilitate the dissemination of informa-


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tion about agriculture in Cambodia by collecting theses written by agriculture students and publishing their abstracts. PAFAARC has promoted the use of French at the agricultural institute. At least one professor completed graduate training at a French university with PAFAARC funding, for instance, and the project sponsors 50 faculty and students to French language classes at the Centre Culture1 Franpis. However, Director Patrice Salgarolo explained that the "goal of PAFAARC is development, not language training. W e have no special program to force students and teachers to speak French." In this way, he concluded, "we are completely separate from the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie program" (interview, 2000). Indeed, PAFAARC seeks out Khmer-speaking experts from Cambodian expatriate communities in France and Canada to give workshops at the agricultural university; for the minority of workshops given in French, the project provides translation into Khmer. Additionally, PAFAARC chose to publish the collection of thesis abstracts in English, not French (see Programme d'Appui ii la Formation Agricole au Royaume du Cambodge, 1999). When I asked the director to explain this decision, he replied: "We are not Francophonie. W e are interested in technology, not languages. In fact, most teachers know English, so it is easier for them if we produce the document in English than in French" (interview with Patrice Salgarolo, 2000). As of 2000, the Royal University of Agriculture enrolled 527 students in departments of agronomy, economics, engineering, fisheries, forestry, and veterinary science. Cambodian professors give all content instruction in Khmer, except in the small filikre francophone programs. All but the French-stream students attend four hours each of English- and French-as-aforeign-language classes weekly, given by Cambodian faculty, most of them professors of other subjects who fill in as language teachers. Only professors who give instruction in the filikre francophone programs receive $4 per instructional hour from Francophonie. Many organizations have made donations to the university's library, among them the Asia Foundation, the International Rice Research Institute, and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (8,000 English books), and Coopkition Franpise, G E T , and PAFAARC (8,000 French volumes). As of 2000, the university charged tuition only to 13 students enrolled in a master's degree in tropical agriculture; most in this program study with sponsorship from aid agencies such as Oxfam and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. The two-year degree costs $10,000, and an international faculty under contract with the university offers all instruction in it in English (interview with Visalsok Touch, 2000; Royal University of Agriculture, 2000).

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2.5.6

Royal University of Fine Arts

When the Royal University of Fine Arts opened in 1965, it incorporated the schools of choreography and plastic arts that had been operating in the Royal Palace since 1917 (Ministkre de 1'Education Nationale et de la Culture, 1971). Following the Khmer Rouge regime, the institution began offering classes again in 1988. A few Vietnamese musicians worked with students in the university's secondary school for the performing arts, in translation, in the late 1980s (interviews with Chap Suon, Mao Ngyhong, 2000). Today, 563 students follow university classes in five faculties on two campuses: choreographic arts and music at the north campus, and archaeology, architecture, and plastic arts at the south campus. International assistance has entirely bypassed the faculties of choreographic arts, music, and plastic arts. According to administrators from the university, no organized aid program exists for professors or students in these three faculties, and no agency provides or facilitates scholarships to or for them. Following the university's language policy, most students at the south campus, including those in the plastic arts, choose to supplement their Khmer-language content classes with eight hours of either English- or French-as-a-foreign-language instruction given by Cambodian teachers. On the north campus, those enrolled in choreographic arts and music study both foreign languages eight hours weekly. Choreographic arts students may also learn Japanese with a Cambodian graduate of the Japanese language program at the Institute of Foreign Languages, in anticipation of as-yet-unrealized scholarships from Japan. "We are trying to prepare our students for study in friendly countries in the region," one administrator from this faculty explained (interview with Proeung Chhieng, 2000). The aid and language situation is quite different for students in archaeology and architecture. Cooperation Fran~aisearrived at these faculties in the early 1990s and, through Cambodian French teachers under the direction of one expatriate from France, began teaching French (Centre Culture1 et de Cooperation, 1995). In 1997, the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie carried this venture forward into filiPre francophone programs in archaeology and architecture. Eighty-two students were enrolled in these Frenchstream degrees in 2000. As in thefiliPres francophones at the Royal Universities of Phnom Penh and Agriculture, intensive French language instruction in students' first two years leads to French-medium content instruction subsequently. Four Cambodian French language teachers and four Cambodian subject-matter professors provide instruction, for which Francophonie pays $4 per hour. Students receive a $25 per semester stipend for studying in French. During the 1998-1999 school year, Francophonie brought two


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professors from francophone universities to Cambodia to give short courses to archaeology and architecture students, and five Cambodian graduates traveled to Canada and France with Francophonie funding for three- to sixmonth study tours (interview with Youssef Arrif, 2000). The faculties of archaeology and architecture also receive support from UNESCO, through its Japan-funded Training for National Capacity Building for the Conservation of Cultural Monuments Project. This project, which began in 1993, hires international and Cambodian instructors to "improve the quality of teaching in the fields of archaeology [and] architecture" and, in the process, to "develop . . . human resources in the field of cultural heritage preservation in Cambodia" (UNESCO, 1999, p. 1 ) . More specifically, according to the UNESCO officer in charge of it, the project hopes to produce graduates capable of working with Japanese preservation experts at the Angkor Wat (interview with Teruo Jinnai, 2000). As of 2000, the project employed 37 instructors, including eight from Australia, Canada, France, Russia, and the United States. Instructors teach full-time at the university and in addition run weekend pedagogical workshops for Cambodian faculty and administrators. The project cannot hire university staff for teaching positions and thus cannot pay them an instructional salary supplement, so it compensates them as much as $20 per hour for attending workshops, of which there were five in the 1999-2000 school year (interview with Teruo Jinnai, 2000). Since 1995, the UNESCO project has sponsored faculty and students to summer English language training at the Australian Centre for Education. In 1999, for instance, 119 students and 23 professors and administrators attended 10-week, 100-hour courses at the Australian center, where English language instruction focused on "archaeology and architecture contexts" (Australian Centre for Education, 1999b, p. 5). English language courses do not prepare students and faculty for English-medium lectures given by UNESCO professors, however. In fact, many UNESCO instructors teach in Khmer, and assistants translate other lectures delivered in English or French into the national language. Rather, English language training in the UNESCO project anticipates capacity-building exercises with expatriates working at the Angkor Wat. "There, all the Japanese consultants are English speakers," the UNESCO project officer explained. "If they [the Japanese archaeologists and architects] want to train students, or to send them to Japan for further education, English is the language they [the graduates of the Royal University of Fine Arts] need to know" (interview with Teruo Jinnai, 2000). While the UNESCO project does not offer overseas training opportunities to fine arts students, the archaeology faculty has enjoyed a scholarship relationship with the University of Hawai'i since 1993, and approximately

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20 Cambodians have pursued graduate degrees there over the years. Recently, numbers have fallen off significantly, as "it is [increasingly] difficult to find students with high enough scores on the Test of English as a Foreign Language to be accepted for the scholarship" (interview with Mao Ngyhong, 2000). The archaeology faculty also benefits from the efforts of volunteers from the Irish Agency for Personal Service Overseas (APSO), one of whom works with three Cambodian teachers-in-training to provide English classes for those archaeology students who select this foreign language option. A second APSO volunteer works at the library on the south campus. Today, approximately 75 percent of the library's 12,000 volumes are in English, donated by the Asia Foundation, Book Aid International (a British nongovernmental organization), and UNESCO; most of the 3,000 French titles survive from the pre-Khmer Rouge era. The Asia Foundation also gave 1,200 books to a smaller library at the university's north campus, which holds approximately 2,000 volumes (interview with James Malloy, 2000).

2.5.7

Faculty of Law and Economics

The French colonial administration opened the National Institute of Law, Politics, and Economics in 1948. In 1960, Phnom Penh University incorporated this institution as the Faculty of Law and Economics. Following the Khmer Rouge regime, Vietnamese and East German lecturers offered short courses through translators at the institution, then called the Administration and Judicial School. In 1992, the faculty regained its prewar university status (McNamara, 1999; Yuok, 1998). Today, two largely autonomous programs operate at the Faculty of Law and Economics. The bachelor of law program commenced in 1992 with a French assistance project administered by the University of Lyon 11. According to the French chef de projet of this aid venture, "at the beginning, cooperation focused on curriculum development" (interview with Denis Saint-Marie, 2000). More specifically, the Cambodian dean of the faculty continued, "the curriculum was organized by a French consultant," and as a result "legal education at the Faculty . . . follows the Civil Law System" (Yuok, 1999, pp. 14-15). The bachelor of economics degree began with French assistance at the National Institute of Management (NIM), but moved to the Faculty of Law and Economics in 1994. Before leaving NIM, French coope'rants from the University of Lyon I1 had revised the economics curriculum. "The central planning curriculum has been completely changed," writes the dean. Beginning with French cooperation in 1991, "economics students [have been] trained in Free Market Oriented Economic theory" (Yuok, 1997, p. 1).


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Most instruction in both programs is given in Khmer by Cambodian professors, many of whom have received graduate training in France since the early 1990s. As of 2000, the university enrolled 2,700 students, and 2,600 of them followed Khmer-medium law and economics degrees. The other 100 studied in French, most in the law school's filibre spkiale de droit, inaugurated in 1997. Approximately 20 students annually pass a competitive exam after their first year and enter this program. In it, they devote nearly onethird of their classroom hours to French-for-legal-purposes courses. Additionally, students take law classes given in French by three resident French lawyers and visiting professors from Lyon; in 1999, the project organized 14 missions from France. Graduates receive a diploma from the University of Lyon I1 and become eligible for scholarships in France. As of 2000, 19 Cambodians were engaged in one- or two-year law studies at the Facult6 des Sciences Juridiques at Lyon 11, and seven had been offered scholarships at the same university for the coming academic year (interviews with Marie Bussi-Galloway, Denis Sainte-Marie, Yuok Ngoy, 2000). In 1994, the French opened a bachelor of business administration degree at the Faculty of Law and Economics. Third-year economics students can apply for admission to this one-year program, for which tuition costs $250; approximately 25 applicants per year pass the entrance exam (largely of French language skills) and enroll. Once admitted, students follow a variety of economics classes, given in French by the French chef de projet, two French resident professors, and visiting economists from Lyon. Students attend both French- and English-for-economics-purposes classes taught by CoopCration Franqaise teachers. Graduates can continue into the Frenchlanguage master of business administration program opened at the faculty by the University of Lyon in 2001, for which they pay $500 annual tuition. Alternately, they can apply for CoopCration Franqaise scholarships to continue their economics studies elsewhere; since 1995, 16 have enrolled in French-language graduate courses in France and Vietnam, and 21 have entered the master of business administration course at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Bangkok. The dual-foreign-language requirement of the bachelor of business administration course anticipates this latter scholarship opportunity, for at AIT professors from France lecture in French while others from Australia, Germany, Thailand, and the United States teach in English (interviews with Henri Glodas, Mathieu Gukrin, Ngorn Saing, Yuok Ngoy, 2000). One French expatriate held up the foreign language requirements of the bachelor of business administration degree as "proof' that the French recognize the utility of English, particularly in the realm of business and economics. T o be sure, she began, Coop6ration Franqaise prepares students

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for French-stream courses. In fact, until 1999 all law and economics students received between 9 and 12 hours of French language instruction per week in their first year, falling off thereafter, from 30 Cambodian French teachers under the tutelage of two expatriates. But the English classes prove the French are not trying to "wipe English away here," she concluded (interview with Marie Bussi-Galloway, 2000). For the director of CoopCration Franp i s e , the decision to teach English responded equally to concerns about the long-term vitality of the French assistance initiative, as did the strategic concession to open the English Section at the Institut de Technologic du Cambodge. "If we don't strengthen the English program," Jacques Gerard reportedly told the dean of the faculty, "we will lose the institute" and with it an opportunity to educate students in a francophone environment (related by Yuok Ngoy, 2000). If a strategic concession, the decision to teach English comes in relation to a series of actions designed to forestall or temper an influence for this language at the school. In 1993, the University of San Francisco sought to establish its law education project at the faculty, but, as one man involved in this initiative told me, "the French refused to let us come in" (interview with Koy Neam, 2000). More specifically, the French "objected to . . . the development of a jointly integrated academic program and to the use of the English language" so "strenuously" that San Francisco withdrew to the National Institute of Management (Hebert, 1999b, p. 169). At about the same time, the Asia Foundation sent some English-language texts to the faculty and then visited to see if they had been delivered. "What are you doing here?" the French chef de projet asked rudely. "You should clear all visits to the faculty through me" (related by Iv Thong, 1994). Later, the French actually removed English books donated to the university library by this organization and the Japanese government. "You can't put these books on the bookshelves provided by CoopCration Franpise," the chef de projet told the Asia Foundation (related by Koy Neam, 2000). In 1994, a new dean launched a campaign to increase students' opportunities to learn English. After assuming the position, Yuok Ngoy immediately began requiring students to take three hours of English language classes per week while continuing their more extensive French language studies. "It is your decision to introduce English," the French assistance team cautioned him, "but we cannot pay for it" (related by Yuok Ngoy, 2000). This financial arrangement continued in 2000, with CoopCration Franpise supplementing the salaries of all Cambodian professors except those who teach English. Law and economics faculty receive between $10 and $15 per hour, depending on their qualifications, while French language teachers are paid $7 per hour. Fortunately, the dean controlled some tuition revenue in 1994-from the French bachelor of business administration degree program, in fact-and


185

was able to use it to hire Cambodian English language teachers and implement his new foreign-language policy. In 1999, the dean further reduced the emphasis on French for Khmer-medium students, and today all study both French and English three hours per week during their first three years. In their fourth year, students choose their own foreign language; 84 percent selected English in 2000 (interview with Yuok Ngoy, 2000). The French assistance team expressed considerable concern about the 1999 reduction of French language instruction, "because one cannot learn French in so few hours," and so quickly offered supplemental French classes for those students interested in applying to French-stream law and economics courses (interview with Marie Bussi-Galloway, 2000). At the same time, the dean took additional steps to support English language instruction. In 1997, the faculty had began to collect tuition from some Khmer-stream students, and by the late 1990s nearly 2,000 students were paying $380 annual tuition. With this revenue, the dean subcontracted with an organization from the United States, the English Language Institute (ELI), to teach English to students and provide continuing pedagogical and language training for the 16 Cambodian English language teachers employed by the faculty; some teachers graduated from the English Department at the Institute of Foreign Languages. This proprietary relationship, which is absolutely unique in the Cambodian higher education system, commenced in the 2000-2001 school year with the arrival of four ELI teachers and one director. The program expanded the following year to a total of seven expatriate staff (interview with Kenneth Wendling, 2000; interview with Kim Savun, 2001). Today, the English and French language programs coexist in relative harmony at the Faculty of Law and Economics. As one Frenchman put it, "There was a war between French and English here, but now it is over" (interview with Mathieu GuCrin, 2000). In recent years, the dean has even managed to negotiate some scholarships from anglophone institutions to complement opportunities for students at francophone universities. The University of Michigan, for instance, accepted three Cambodians to law studies in the late 1990s; at about the same time, the Korean and Japanese governments each agreed to sponsor three Cambodians annually to Englishmedium law courses, at the Transnational Law and Business University in Seoul and Nagoya University, respectively. Law graduates compete for these scholarships through examinations in which English language skills figure prominently (interviews with Yuok Ngoy, 2000, 2001). The Japanese continue to support the library at the faculty, where, with the Asia Foundation, they have built English-language holdings to 4,200 books. Approximately the same number of French-language titles have been donated over the years by CoopCration Fran~aise.

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2.5.8

The Faculty of Pedagogy

The Faculty of Pedagogy opened in 1992. The school itself is the oldest higher education institution in Cambodia, founded in 1921 as the Section Normale, or Teacher Training Department, of the LycCe Sisowath. In the 1980s, Vietnamese staff gave political training to educational officials at the school, then known as the Ecole SupCrieure de Gestion des Cadres de 17Education (interview with Neang Muth, 1992; interview with Thor Sor, 2000). I have already discussed most programs at the Faculty of Pedagogy, notably the lower-secondary English and French teacher and inspector training programs initiated by the British and French international development agencies (see Lower-Secondary Education section, above). In addition to these programs, in 1995 the faculty began providing one-year courses in pedagogy to university graduates. Participants study in Khmer with 60 Cambodian faculty on their way to becoming upper-secondary biology, chemistry, computer science, geography, history, Khmer literature, math, philosophy, physics, and psychology teachers. All upper-secondary teachersin-training study both English and French four hours per week with Cambodian professors, some of whom graduated from the English and French Departments of the Institute of Foreign Languages; the faculty receives no resources from any donor to support these language courses, and professors themselves receive no salary supplementation for their instructional efforts (interview with Hap Phal Thy, 2000). In 2000, the Japan International Cooperation Agency launched the threeyear Secondary Science and Mathematics Teacher Training Project at the faculty. Currently, four resident Japanese educators are working to upgrade the content knowledge and pedagogical skills of 20 science and math professors in the upper-secondary teacher education program. While the Japanese communicate with the Cambodian professors in English, the latter continue to offer instruction to teachers-in-training in Khmer, and graduates continue to teach in Khmer as they matriculate to positions in uppersecondary schools (interviews with Kazuki Shimizu, Thor Sor, 2000; interview with Lucy Royal-Dawson, 2001).

2.5.9

Maharishi Vedic University

Maharishi Vedic University (MVU) opened as a new institution in 1993. MVU is affiliated with an international network of universities founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, an Indian spiritual leader living in the Netherlands. In Cambodia, as at affiliate universities elsewhere, students pursue academic


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courses while at the same time "develop[ing their] health, intelligence and creativity . . . though Transcendental Meditation" (Vernon, 2000, p. 3). As the Cambodian rector of the university put it, by "integrating academic excellence and development of consciousness, education at the University unfolds the creative genius of its students" (Meas, 2000, p. 1). The Australian Aid for Cambodia Fund (AACF) has provided full support to the university since its inauguration; in fact, according to the director of this nongovernmental organization, AACF "established and [continues to] operat[e]" the university "in partnership" with the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport (Vernon, 2000, p. 3). Australian support to Maharishi Vedic University has taken several forms, beginning with the construction of the school's campus and the establishment of its library, which today holds 3,000 mostly English titles. In the early 1990s, the Australians recruited students and paid them a $4 monthly stipend. The Australians also recruited the university's 35 Cambodian professors and continue to pay them salary supplements ranging from $89 to $250 per month, depending on qualification. AACF has secured scholarships for some Cambodian faculty, notably the rector, who completed his master of business administration degree in Australia through the Australian Development Scholarship program (see Chapter Five). Eight volunteers from the Australian Expert Service Overseas program and the Australian Youth Ambassador program, among others, taught for AACF at the university in 2000 (interview with Andrea Babon, 2000). As of 2000, 339 students were enrolled in degree programs in agriculture and management at Maharishi Vedic University. AACF worked with Cambodians to develop the courses in agronomy, rural development, accounting, human resources management, and marketing that compose these degrees. Courses are "very modern, not traditional or alternative," one Australian volunteer told me (interview with Andrea Babon, 2000). All Cambodian faculty lecture in Khmer, and assistants translate the English lectures given by Australian volunteers. An Indian professor provided the mandatory three weekly hours of Sanskrit instruction in the early 1990s, though he has since been replaced by a Cambodian lecturer. One Australian volunteer teaches English along with two Cambodian professors. Students receive five hours of English language instruction each week. "English is our biggest selling point," one Australian volunteer explained, "and students demand it" (interview with Andrea Babon, 2000). Indeed, when the university opened, students requested an increase in weekly instructional hours devoted to English with the hope that "interpretation of classes could be eliminated" and they could follow Australians' lectures directly (Mang, 1995, p. 1).

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2.5.10

Ecole Royale d'Administration

The French colonial administration opened the Ecole Royale d'Administration, or Royal School of Administration, in 1956, for the purpose of training civil servants. In 1960, the school was integrated into Phnom Penh University as a faculty. After the Khmer Rouge regime, the school began educating government officials again, under several different names. On 25 February 1994, an assistance agreement signed by France and Cambodia "reinstated" the Ecole Royale d'Administration (ERA), though not within the university system (Ecole Royale d'Administration, n.d., p. 3). Today, the Ecole Royale d'Administration enrolls two groups of students in nondegree courses. University graduates can enter a two-year preservice course in preparation for government employment. Students are admitted to this program on the basis of competitive entrance exams. In 1997, only 43 of 559 applicants gained admission. As of 2000, the preservice program enrolled 60 students; enrollments have decreased steadily across the 1990s, in consort with the structural adjustment regime put in place by the International Monetary Fund and designed to reduce the size of the civil service (see Chapters Three and Four). ERA also provides in-service courses for current civil servants. In 2000, 154 Cambodian government administrators followed this one-year course (interview with Van Buntheth, 2000). Students in both tracks receive instruction in areas such as administrative law, economic management, enterprise economics, and land law. Through these and other subjects, ERA expects that students will gain "capacity to adapt to and to understand public life's different parameters [in relation to] Cambodia's integration into large international exchange networks, both in politics and trade" (Ecole Royale d'Administration, n.d., p. ii). Under the 1994 assistance agreement, responsibility for curriculum development and instruction at ERA passed to France's Institut International d'Administration Publique (IIAP), which "is [now] in charge of organizing and following through the training" at the school (Ambassade de France, 1997, p. 14). As of 2000, five professors from IIAP taught full-time at the administrative training school; additionally, seven or eight French professors typically travel from France to ERA each year to give short courses. The French work with two Cambodian administrators and numerous ministry officials who teach part-time at the school (interview with Van Buntheth, 2000). According to ERA'S Cambodian administrators, the French have brought significant change to the institution. "All the laws, the institutions, the administrative system, the manner of governing and decision making [in Cambodia]-all these were established by the French" during colonial times,


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the director general of the school began (Kong, 1997, p. 4). The current assistance effort has reconnected administrative training with this "path" or history, particularly in relation to legal and economic instruction. More specifically, concluded the school's associate director, IIAP emphasizes the "civil law tradition" and "French accounting practices" (interview with Van Buntheth, 2000). The French also redirected language practice at ERA according to historical precedent. The 1994 accord states that "courses and the sessions of work will be in French, and French language teaching will be included in the instructional program for ERA" (cited in "CoopQation Administrative Satisfaisante," 1996). By 2000, however, this practice had evolved somewhat, as the associate director explained. Though French remains the dominant language at the administrative training school, "today we use Khmer, French, and English" (interview with Van Buntheth, 2000). More specifically, French professors teach in French with Cambodian assistants, who translate their remarks into Khmer. Cambodian professors lecture in Khmer, though they may occasionally use English words, particularly "for economics subjects" (interview with Van Buntheth, 2000). In anticipation of these multiple instructional media, civil servants study both French and English three hours per week with Cambodian language teachers. The French teachers, along with most other Cambodian professors, receive $8 per instructional hour from CoopCration Franpise. Because the French will not pay English language teachers, ERA supplements the salaries of these Cambodians directly. Associate Director Van Buntheth seemed anxious to extend the English language training opportunities for civil servants at ERA, but he has not yet been successful in finding a donor to assist him. "We had a cooperative agreement with a U.S. institution in 1996," he told me, "but the relationship fell apart over a disagreement about salaries" (interview, 2000). In fact, it was the Asia Foundation that approached the administrative training school in the mid-1990s to suggest an English-oriented educational relationship, and the agreement did not founder on the rocks of remuneration. Rather, according to a program officer for this nongovernmental organization funded by the United States Agency for International Development, "The French kicked us out. They were very rude" (interview with Koy Neam, 2000). The Asia Foundation did succeed in donating some English-language books to the school's library where, with French texts provided by CoopCration Franpise, they now exist in a bilingual documentation center maintained by the European Union within the context of the Training Project for Officials (interview with Denis Winckler, 2000; see Chapter Five).

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3.

FRENCH AND ENGLISH IN CAMBODIAN SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES

3.1

Teaching French and English

In 1994, students at the National Institute of Management staged a protest against the rapid succession of aid agencies working at the institute and, more specifically, against the impermanent language policies they introduced. "We are going crazy," said one fourth-year student. "In our first year, we studied socialism, [and] we had Vietnamese teachers and the [Vietnamese] language. Then . . . we studied free market economics and French accounting, we had French teachers and [we] learnt the French language. Now we study marketing, business and American accounting [with] teachers from the U S . , and we study English. We are unlucky students" (cited in Mang, 1994, p. 5). This unlucky student provides a fair summary of Cambodia's recent educational history. In the 1980s, at least some schools received assistance from Eastern-bloc countries and adopted Eastern-bloc languages for instructional purposes. The "flexible" language policy that brought Vietnamese to the Economics Institute, Russian to the agricultural university, and the languages of Cuba and East Germany to the Institute of Foreign Languages followed the use of French in higher education, and it preceded Khmerization; by the end of the decade, Cambodian lecturers trained locally and abroad, often through Eastern-bloc languages, began to displace expatriate professors at Cambodia's universities and to teach in Khmer. Though it would thus be a mistake to accuse Cambodia's communist-era patrons of conspiring to establish their languages permanently in the country, many Cambodians nevertheless condemn Cold War language policies for their polarizing effects. As one man put it, the use of Vietnamese and Russian, coupled with the prohibition against English and French, facilitated educational and other interactions within the Eastern bloc while at the same time "discourag[ing] relations with the West" (interview with Pit Chamnan, 2000). As the Cold War in Cambodia relaxed toward the 1991 Paris Peace Accords, the French arrived with new and generous offers of educational aid. Later joined by the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (whose work in Cambodia the government of France funds almost entirely), the French have brought significant resources to the country and established an impressive educational assistance venture. Today, they provide support at every level of education. At the primary level, they train inspectors and run a small FrenchKhmer classes bilingues program. They educate French language teachers and inspectors at the lower- and upper-secondary levels, where in addition


191

they administer more than a dozen bilingual schools. They were the first to provide assistance at the tertiary level, and they continue to fund programs at every higher education institution except the National Institute of Management, where they did work for three years in the early 1990s, and the Maharishi Vedic University, where they have never had an assistance presence. Unlike the Vietnamese, the francophone educational partners are unabashedly interested in establishing their language in Cambodia. "The promotion of French is part of the philosophy of Francophonie," one of the coordinators of the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie told me (interview with Youssef Arrif, 2000). "Sure, we want to promote the French language," said another (interview with Nadine Lachat, 2000). "One of our goals here is the return of a certain presence to the French language," an official from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained (cited in Latour, 1995, p. 13). Even the Caisse Franpise de Dkveloppement admits to promoting French in Cambodia. While pointing out that "we don't force anyone to learn French," the director of the French Development Fund's project at the agricultural university conceded that they do support French language learning for interested students and faculty. "We are French, after all," he concluded (interview with Patrice Salgarolo, 2000). The French have used educational assistance in several ways to secure a place for their language in Cambodia. In some cases, French gambits could be termed coercive, as when bilateral accords require the use of French as a condition of assistance. Such agreements allow the French to impose their language on students and administrators, sometimes against their wishes. When students at the technical institute protested the use of French, for instance, the director of Francophonie threatened to withdraw aid; with no other source for assistance with which to operate the university, the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport reconfirmed the terms of the aid agreement, and French-medium instruction continued. While France has not threatened to withdraw from the University of Health Sciences, the possibility is never far from the mind of the rector, who told me it is "not clear whether the French would continue assistance" if he deviated too far from the protocol d'accord's language policy parameters (interview with Vu Kim Por, 2000). France did indeed halt aid to the National Institute of Management when the dean of that institution reduced the number of French instructional hours stipulated by C o o p h t i o n Franpise. In other cases, the francophone partners try to buy the linguistic loyalties of Cambodians and institutions. Francophonie, for instance, gives students between $25 and $50 per term for enrolling in thefilikres francophones and learning French. Those who choose to do so are the "poorest students," one international aid worker explained, who "need the money Francophonie pays

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them" (interview with Luise Ahrens, 2000). Coopkration Fran~aisedoes not as a rule pay students to follow French-stream courses, though they do provide a $100 monthly stipend to medical students completing internships. Both these organizations pay salary supplements to professors who lecture in French at French-medium institutions and in French-stream degree programs. At the Faculty of Law and Economics and the Ecole Royale d'Administration, the French have pushed salary supplementation one step further, to include nearly all Cambodian faculty, with the sole exception being those who teach English as a foreign language. In 1994, Coopkration F r a n ~ a i s eestablished a remuneration policy at the law and economics university that remains in force today. "It is your decision to introduce English," the French chef de projet told the dean of the Faculty of Law and Economics, "but we cannot pay for it" (related by Yuok Ngoy, 2000). Finally, the French have attempted to establish what the director of Coopkration Franpise termed a "utility" for their language (interview with Jacques Gerard, 2000). Creating this utility has required the construction of a comprehensive educational infrastructure, something like an educational pyramid. In some primary and all secondary schools, students can learn French in classes offered by Cambodian language teachers trained by Coopkration Franpise and the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie. High school graduates can enter French-stream programs at most universities; there, they can study with expatriates and Cambodians trained abroad, read French-language texts donated by francophone agencies, and in some cases receive scholarships for graduate studies at universities in France and other francophone countries. This is the "utility" for the French language in Cambodia today, Coopkration F r a n ~ a i s eDirector Jacques Gerard explained: As a result of France's comprehensive assistance initiative, "youth can choose French as the language of their studies, and they can use French to become doctors, engineers, agronomists, and lawyers." For the director, this infrastructure secures a place for French in the functional distribution of languages in Cambodia. "Businesses will use English and Chinese, and people will use Khmer in their daily life," he said. "But they will study in French" (interview, 2000). While France and Francophonie were building their educational pyramid in Cambodia, other international agencies began to arrive in the country with educational resources supportive of the English language. Following the signing of the Paris Peace Accords, the British and Australian governments began to fund training programs for lower- and upper-secondary English teachers, respectively; both programs carried forward initiatives launched by Quaker Service Australia for the Australian international development agency in the 1980s. Some bilateral programs also opened in higher education. At the National Institute of Management, Georgetown University and


193

the University of San Francisco implemented United States Agency for International Development projects in which the English language figured prominently, while the U S . Information Agency placed an English teaching fellow at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. The governments of Japan, Ireland, and New Zealand fund English language programs at the Royal University of Fine Arts and the Institut de Technologie du Cambodge. Finally, nongovernmental organizations based in Australia, Italy, and the United States have worked either singly or in consortiums to train English teachers or to run English language programs at the university level. These agencies have collectively built an infrastructure to support English language learning in Cambodia that both parallels and differs from that constructed by the French. To begin, English language teaching or teacher education programs have been established for the most part by organizations associated with first-language nations. To be sure, the Italians and Japanese have provided opportunities for Cambodian university students to learn English, and in so doing they separate the English- from the Frencheducation enterprise, in which there exists a perfect correlation between French language program providers and francophone national status. At the same time, however, recall that the English language teaching team for the Italian nongovernmental organization New Humanity includes members from New Zealand and that the Japanese subcontract English instruction in the cultural monuments project to the Australian Centre for Education. This preference for native speakers, coupled with the involvement of Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States in English language education in Cambodia, recalls the continuing geographical logic related to English language teaching that I have noted in previous chapters. The Japanese may use English in the Angkor Wat project, for instance, but they enlist an educational enterprise with an anglophone pedigree to teach it. To continue, in secondary education in particular anglophone aid agencies have created language teaching ventures that contrast through their sustainability with French initiatives. When the British closed the Cambodian Secondary English Teaching Project in 2001, for instance, they left in place a pedagogical program capable of training English teachers and graduating them to positions in lower-secondary schools. By the time the Australians departed the English Department at the Institute of Foreign Languages, they had similarly established a program that could run on its own, though the Cambodians it continues to graduate frequently choose against careers as upper-secondary teachers. Some movement toward sustainability has also taken place in higher education. At the Institut de Technologie du Cambodge, for example, New Zealanders have transitioned from direct administration of the English Section to an advisory role. Meanwhile, the francophone partners continue to administer French lan-

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guage teaching and teacher education programs directly and actively, though in several cases the number of resident expatriate advisors and professors has decreased over time. English program providers also differ from the French in the degree of coercion they apply to language learning, if not in the degree of financial incentive they attach to it. As with the French, all English-teaching agencies supplement the salaries of their Cambodian language instructors. As with the French at select universities, English programs including the Japanesefunded UNESCO project at the Royal University of Fine Arts extend remuneration to professors outside the language teaching ranks. As with Francophonie, some English initiatives even pay students, notably the British Cambodian Secondary English Teaching Project. But with financial incentives the English-French similarity ceases, for no English donor has used assistance to leverage institutional language policies. Indeed, of the few agencies that go beyond foreign-language to subject-matter instruction, most also translate English lectures into Khmer. While Italians did train professors in English at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, diverse expatriates have taught students through translators at the Maharishi Vedic University, the National Institute of Management, and the Royal University of Fine Arts. The apparent disinterest in using English as an instructional medium at the university level introduces a final difference between the English- and French-education infrastructures. Namely, whereas the French have created a utility for their language in education by establishing French-stream tertiary courses, those enterprises working on behalf of English have not. As a result of British and Australian teacher education initiatives, Cambodians can today study English as a foreign language in secondary schools. International aid has also made it possible for students to continue perfecting their English language skills at most universities, in two ways. Assistance organizations themselves teach English or administer foreign language programs at several higher education institutions; the comprehensive program at the Royal University of Phnom Penh contrasts with the scant offerings at the University of Health Sciences. At other institutions, including the Faculty of Pedagogy, Cambodian language teachers trained by Australians at the Institute of Foreign Languages work independently, outside the context of an educational assistance relationship. But this English infrastructure supports very little within the educational system itself. In 2000, a total of three English-medium degree programs, all administered outside the context of assistance relations (two at the National Institute of Management and one at the Royal University of Agriculture) enrolled about 140 students. Ln the same year, 2,600 Cambodians followed French-stream degree courses in the country. Additionally, relatively few scholarships send Cambodians to anglophone universities: only about 130


195

since 1991, with most being given to teacher educators and professors, rather than university students. The francophone partners, in contrast, sponsor between 125 and 150 Cambodian students annually to universities in France and other francophone nations. If agencies have built any utility for English in education, it has been in university libraries, where students can apply skills gained in foreign-language classes in reading the tens of thousands of English titles donated by the Asia Foundation and the Japanese government. Outside the university system, an Australian librarian has worked at the National Archives since 1995; the archives contain a rich historical collection, including 25,000 files from the French colonial period (interview with Margaret Bywater, 2000; Archives Nationales du Cambodge, 2000). Paradoxically, the significant utility that the French have created for their language in education has not drawn Cambodian educational administrators toward it. Quite the contrary, Cambodian rectors and deans have grasped successive opportunities to move their institutions toward English-if not entirely away from French. In some cases, assistance agencies outside Francophonie have facilitated this transition. Resources provided by the United States government through Georgetown University and the University of San Francisco, for instance, enabled the dean of the National Institute of Management to defy CoopCration Fran~aiseand begin offering English language classes for students. On a smaller scale, the rector of the medical university has worked through Australian and American doctors at Sihanouk Hospital to give some interns some exposure to English. In other cases, Cambodians have independently found resources with which to make the transition from French to English. At the Faculty of Law and Economics, the dean actually used tuition revenue collected from students in the Frenchstream economics course to hire Cambodian English language teachers and begin expanding the foreign language curriculum beyond French. He later used other tuition revenue to contract with a proprietary institution based in the United States and bring expatriate English language teachers to Cambodia. Cambodian administrators have moved their institutions toward English for specific reasons, which I discuss in detail in the following chapter on language choice. For the moment, consider how the French have responded to this trajectory. In the early 1990s, the French tried simply to pretend that English did not exist. At the Faculty of Law and Economics, for instance, the French chef de projet followed a directive issued by the embassy and "would refuse to respond if spoken to in English," the dean told me (interview with Yuok Ngoy, 2000). When Cambodian students began to agitate for English, the French bullied and threatened, as at the technical university. "French aid is good," First Prime Minister Norodom Ranariddh commented on the occasion of the 1993 protest at the Institut de Technologie du Cambodge,

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"but I wish other countries would hurry up a little bit" with educational resources that could be applied to the teaching and learning of English (cited in Victor, 1993, p. 4). When anglophone agencies did begin suggesting aid to Cambodia's universities, the French responded aggressively, even to the point of turning away visitors and removing English books from libraries. At this time, a contemporary French aid worker acknowledged, the francophone assistance partners really were trying to "wipe English away" (interview with Marie Bussi-Galloway, 2000). In the late 1990s, however, French opposition to English calmed. "It is realism," the director of Coopkration Franpise said when asked to explain the historical relaxation of tension. "We realize that English is the international lingua franca, and we have accepted this" (interview with Jacques Gerard, 2000). There has been a "big shift in the attitude of the French government and Francophonie in the last eight or so years," another man continued, and "we are becoming more pragmatic, particularly about English. It is possible to ask people to learn two or three languages, yes. But it is impossible to prevent them from learning English" (interview with Hubert DCfossez, 2000). Having arrived at this realistic or pragmatic conclusion, the French shifted tactics. In some cases, they began trying to secure a place for French in relation to English, rather than to the exclusion of it. At the Institut de Technologie du Cambodge, for instance, they strategically conceded a role for English in order to deflect students' demands for more revolutionary language policy change. At the Royal University of Agriculture, they embraced English without concession; there, the director of a French Development Fund project published thesis abstracts in English, not to safeguard the status of French elsewhere, but to facilitate broader access to the technical information they contained. Today, the French seem genuinely supportive of the English language in Cambodia, though in varying degrees relative to French. For the director of CoopCration Franqaise, the two languages coexist on an equal footing: "We believe that there are two international languages, English and French. We are not suggesting that French be the only international language, but that English and French both serve as international languages" (interview with Jacques Gerard, 2000). For others, the language equation does not balance. "It is absolutely, definitely, entirely necessary for Cambodian students to know English," the director of French language teaching for CoopCration Franpise told me. "English is the first foreign language in Cambodia. French is the second" (interview with Solange Marguerite, 2000). The coordinator of a university French language program agreed. "French is important," he said, "but English is more important" (interview with Mathieu GuCrin, 2000).


3.2

Reasons for Teaching French and English

In the 1980s, linguistic prohibition contributed to Cambodia's isolation from the West. When Quaker Service Australia and France Libertk began teaching English and French around 1985, they did so with the goal of reversing this isolation, at least as it related to international assistance. "Without a knowledge of [Western languages]," one agency wrote in a rationale equally applicable to either English or French, "Cambodia's access to the outside world is severely constrained, in regard to communication with external [aid] agencies" (Quaker Service Australia, 1991, p. 5). Language skills gained through educational programming, on the other hand, would prepare Cambodians to interact with the nongovernmental organizations and United Nations agencies beginning to arrive in the country and, thus, to receive and "make effective use" of the aid they offered (Oats, 1994, p. 31). The People's Republic of Kampuchea and their Vietnamese patrons allowed these programs to go forward because they too recognized the importance of Western languages for assistance relations, though the restrictions they placed on programming suggest their unwillingness, at that time, to reconnect the country to the West more fully. Cambodia's isolation from the West ended in the early 1990s, and since then aid agencies have erected sophisticated infrastructures through which to teach French and English to large numbers of Cambodians in primary, secondary, and tertiary schools. As representatives from both groups explain, however, language teaching is not an end in itself. Instead, as in the 1980s, it is the first step in a larger project. "Students don't learn French merely to learn French," offered a woman who had run French language programs in both secondary schools and universities. "Rather, they learn French as a point of access" to other things (interview with Marie Bussi-Galloway, 2000). "We are promoting the English language not because we are interested in promoting English," the team leader of the British Cambodian Secondary English Teaching Project told me, "but as a means" to other things (interview with George Taylor, 2000). Understanding the "other things" that students can do with French and English reveals the reasons aid agencies teach these languages in the Cambodian educational system today. For their part, the francophone assistance partners emphasize the knowledge or information available to students through French. Francophone agencies teach and students learn French "as a point of access to knowledge," the coordinator of a university language program began. "They gain this knowledge through documents written in French, through their classes offered in French, and through scholarships for study in France" (interview with Marie Bussi-Galloway, 2000). Several French administrators reiterated

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these main points. "Ninety percent of historical documents are in French," the coordinator of language teaching for CoopCration Fran~aisetold me, and French language classes prepare students to make use of these valuable resources (interview with Solange Marguerite, 2000). "The French language is the vector of our aid," explained the director of CoopCration Fran~aise, and through it "we train doctors, lawyers, engineers, and economists" both in Cambodia and abroad. Scholarships in particular "prepare Cambodians to take charge of the institutes of higher education" and to run them independently, without active French engagement, "in the future" (interview with Jacques Gerard, 2000). Note of course that the French justify the teaching of their language on the basis of its utility in education-a utility that they themselves have created. We teach French, they are arguing, so that Cambodians can study with professors we bring from France or pay in Cambodia, can read books and other materials we donate, and can avail themselves of scholarships we provide. The sheer artifice of this system inspired one administrator with CoopCration F r a n ~ a i s eto contradict with his superior. In fact, he argued, the French educational infrastructure can never be self-sustaining in Cambodia. If the francophone partners do not constantly guard its utility with external resources like expatriate professors, scholarships to France, and financial incentives for Cambodian teachers and students, he concluded, "I believe the French language will decline very quickly in Cambodia" (interview with Hubert DCfossez, 2000). Outside the engineered educational infrastructure, French will remain a useful language to students of Cambodian history who want to access colonial-era documents in the National Archives. The French created these archives historically, in 1924, though they reinforced their utility recently through a substantial donation of materials on the history of French Indochina to the archives' institutional partner, the National Library (Heywood, 1995). Agencies working on behalf of the English language in Cambodia begin to explain their work as do the French. "We are promoting the English language . . . as a means to education," the team leader of the British lowersecondary English teacher education project told me (interview with George Taylor, 2000). The coordinator of the consortium of nongovernmental organizations at the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) provided a more detailed analysis of how English language programs help students access knowledge and information through education. "Nearly all texts here are in English," she offered, adding that "Cambodia can't afford to develop new texts every several years, like the major academic publishers in the United States do." Thus, if students cannot read English, "they simply can't function in higher education." Additionally, students "want to be able to attend graduate school in the region" and elsewhere, "and English is the


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language of international education at nearly all universities in Southeast Asia," as well as in Europe and North America (interview with Luise Ahrens, 2000). Her counterpart at RUPP 11 reiterated this latter point. If Cambodians "want to study at regional universities," the director of New Humanity argued, "they must know English" (interview with Toni Vendramin, 2000). At first glance, it would appear that English program providers are as skilled in artifice as are the French. Certainly university students would like to attend graduate school abroad, and certainly many universities in anglophone countries and elsewhere offer courses in English. The reality is, however, that donors have made it possible for relatively few Cambodian students to travel overseas and pursue graduate education in English-vastly fewer, in fact, than the number sponsored by the francophone partners to French-language universities. At the same time, however, recall from Chapter Five the overwhelming tendency of international agencies to use English, as opposed to French, in capacity-building exercises both in Cambodia and abroad. If English gives lesser utility than French to students enrolled in formal education, it is clearly the more useful medium for education and the acquisition of knowledge outside that system, and it may be this external utility that English program providers intend students to exercise. Some graduates of the fine arts university, for instance, may have the opportunity to use English in training related to the preservation of cultural monuments at Japanese universities, while some civil servants from the Ecole Royale d'Administration may study in English in other technical assistance projects. The different educational utilities that attach to French and English extend also to the transitions in which international agencies are assisting Cambodia. T o begin, recall how aid integrates with the economic and political changes Cambodia has charted since the late 1980s: Contemporary assistance rewards or punishes Cambodia for moving toward or away from the free market and democracy while at the same time orienting Cambodians conceptually toward these practices and institutions (see Chapters Four and Five). These dual purposes also focus educational assistance. With other Western nations, France refused to provide educational resources bilaterally until after Cambodia had signaled its postcommunist trajectory by signing the Paris Peace Accords in 1991. A few years later, the United States responded to Hun Sen's subversion of democracy by pulling Georgetown University and the University of San Francisco from the National Institute of Management and canceling a significant primary education initiative, the Cambodia Assistance to Primary Education Project, that would have integrated with other efforts to build Cambodia's human resources through education (Lenaghan, 1997).

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Francophone aid agencies began to reorient Cambodians conceptually in formal education even as Vietnam and the People's Republic of Kampuchea sought to limit Cambodians' exposure to Western ideas. Through texts brought to the Institute of Foreign Languages by France Libertk in the mid1980s, some students and faculty gained an opportunity to learn about "life in other countries," to "compare [the] socialist system with the imperialist system," and to "change from socialist thinking to a broader outlook" (interview with Var Simsamreth, 1994). After 1991, France redirected the ideological trajectories of the Ecole Royale d' Administration, the Faculty of Law and Economics, the Royal University of Agriculture, and other institutions more deliberately, through curricular and institutional reforms. At the law and economics university, they "completely changed" the "central planning curriculum" introduced by the Vietnamese in the 1980s; since the French arrived in 1991, "economics students [have been] trained in Free Market Oriented Economic theory" (Yuok, 1997, p. 1). Meanwhile, at the agricultural university, the team from the Caisse Franpise de Diveloppement "help[ed] the university make the shift from [the] Soviet-style institution [established by the Ukrainian Agricultural Academy in 19851 to a market-oriented system" (interview with Patrice Salgarolo, 2000). Aid organizations associated with English have also worked to change the ways of thinking and acting introduced by Cambodia's Cold War educational patrons. At the Royal University of Phnom Penh, the Italian nongovernmental organization New Humanity pushed the philosophy curriculum beyond the Marxism-Leninism that had anchored it in the 1980s. Before being pulled from the National Institute of Management in 1997, Georgetown University established a program that would train Cambodians to "carry out the critical task of responding to national and international demands and opportunities in a global market economy linked by trade, travel, and telecommunications" and, more generally, to "contribute to democracy . . . through the promotion of economic development" (Memorandum of Understanding, 1995, 28 February, p. 1). At the same institution, the University of San Francisco used programming to introduce the "basic legal principles" and "basic principles of business law" that "underlie democratic institutions" and "facilitate Cambodian economic development" (Memorandum of Understanding, 1995, 1 February, p. 1). While they both advance ideological change though education, however, francophone and anglophone organizations do not apply their languages in the same way to the project. The former agencies rely in part on French, which, as a language of instruction for students at French-stream universities or in programs like the fili2re spe'ciale de droit at the Faculty of Law and Economics, provides a medium through which expatriates can diffuse ideas. There is thus a partial ideological utility for French in education-partial


20 1

because the French have also reoriented Cambodians conceptually through translators (at the Ecole Royale d' Administration, for example) and through Cambodian professors who lecture in Khmer (to students at the Faculty of Law and Economics who do not elect the French stream, for instance). English, on the other hand, holds virtually no ideological utility in formal education. To be sure, books provided by the Asia Foundation and the Japanese government will have communicated ideas as epiphanic as those conveyed through French titles. But those few anglophone agencies that have ventured past foreign language teaching to subject-matter instruction have done so through translators, not in English. If anglophone agencies do not rely on English to advance Cambodia's economic and political transitions in education, they have nevertheless built their language programs in relation to them. To put this another way, agencies are teaching English in education so that Cambodians can successfully operate outside education, in the networks into which these transitions have led. To put it yet another way and at the same time complete the contrast with French, they are teaching English not toward a utility they themselves have created, but toward utilities other actors have constructed. "Jobs is the number one reason" we teach English, the coordinator of the nongovernmental consortium at the Royal University of Phnom Penh began. With regional and global integration since the early 1990s, she recalled for me, hundreds of foreign companies and international aid agencies have established operations in Cambodia, and "nearly all the jobs [these enterprises offer] require English language proficiency" (interview with Luise Ahrens, 2000). An Australian volunteer similarly pointed to employment in contextualizing the emphasis on English language teaching at Maharishi Vedic University. "When I contact employers and ask for the qualifications they prefer," she told me, "they always say 'English language ability"' (interview with Andrea Babon, 2000). Integration has led the country most specifically into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and many informants turn to this regional political organization in explaining the importance of English in education in Cambodia. Of course, "English is the language of ASEAN," as many informants, including the coordinator of the nongovernmental consortium at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, reminded me (interview with Luise Ahrens, 2000). But, as the advisor to the English Section at the Institut de Technologie du Cambodge continued, "English is [also] a powerful force" in ASEAN, exerting pressure back to the formal education sector in Cambodia to prepare individuals with linguistic skills sufficient for subsequent participation (interview with Shona Macaskill, 2000). In fact, the coordinator of the Italian nongovernmental organization New Humanity named "Cambodia's planned entry into ASEAN" as the "real reason for choosing to teach

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English" at the Royal University of Phnom Penh's second campus in the early 1990s (interview with Toni Vendramin, 2000). Virtually every French coope'rant I talked with-from the national director of Coopkration Franpise, to chefs des projets at universities, to language teachers within those projects-seemed quite supportive of the English language for Cambodia, particularly in terms of its utility in networks beyond formal education. More specifically, French informants recognize that Cambodians can use English to participate in the regional or global economy by way of their work with foreign enterprises and internationally oriented Cambodian firms. "English is very useful for international trade and communication," one French university instructor commented. "After all, every country in the world can use English" (interview with Marie BussiGalloway, 2000). The French also appreciate that Cambodians can use English to contribute in international political forums, notably the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. "It is good for Cambodians to learn English," the director of Coopkration Franpise concluded, "especially for relations within ASEAN" (interview with Jacques Gerard, 2000). Conversely, English language program providers view the French language with suspicion. Indeed, expatriates associated with English express great concern that French language programming will draw Cambodia into an international community that in some ways differs from and competes with ASEAN and its associated networks. The director of C o o p h t i o n Franpise suggested this possibility in an interview in 2000. Certainly the French language will facilitate relations between Cambodia and France, he said, but it also "represents something else, other possibilities: It opens to Cambodians a window to a whole group of countries-Francophonie" (interview with Jacques Gerard, 2000). The 5 1 member states of Francophonie operate as a "bloc," a Moroccan French language teacher continued. "Historically, the world has been organized into blocs: the Western bloc, the Eastern bloc, the nonaligned bloc. These blocs are organized around certain economic and political ideas." Francophonie functions as one such "bloc" in the contemporary era, he concluded. It is a "vision of the world" based not only on a common language, but on common "ways of doing things" (interview with Youssef Arrif, 2000). In broad terms, the "ways of doing things" in Francophonie correspond with those in the international networks to which anglophone agencies invite Cambodia through English language programming. Both Francophonie and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, for instance, endorse the free market and democracy. Within these organizations, however, specific economic and political practices may differ-and may form the basis of contradictory educational assistance initiatives. Consider programming at the National Institute of Management ( N M ) at the time of the "divorce" in


203

1994. Even students at this institution could sense the competing approaches championed by successive aid agencies in or in relation to successive languages. While Coopkration Fran~aisetaught what one student termed the "French accounting" system in French, the United States Agency for International Development introduced "American accounting" and English through Georgetown University (the Plan Comptable General versus International Accounting Standards; see Chapter Three) (Mang, 1994, p. 5). Similarly, students would easily have discerned the difference between jus civile or civil law, which the University of Lyon I1 taught at least partially in French at the Faculty of Law and Economics, and the common law system established with English by the USAID-funded University of San Francisco at NIM before 1997. Accounting and law illustrate just two domains in which "ways of doing things" differ between France and Francophonie and much of the rest of the world-not only the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, but also most of North America and significant portions of Europe. While these differences in practice are certainly not as great as the differences in orientation between blocs during the Cold War, several informants used metaphors from that era to describe the potential effects for Cambodia of contemporary linguistic alignment. If the director of Coophation Frangaise is correct and the establishment of French "opens" Cambodia to Francophonie and its particular practices, they reasoned, then at the same time it will lead the country away from other international or global networks that do not use this language. "By forcing students to learn and study in French," one anglophone aid worker argued, "the French are marginalizing the graduates from the international communityH--even as, she might have continued, the Vietnamese discouraged relations with the West through language policies in the 1980s (interview with Luise Ahrens, 2000). The director of the Italian nongovernmental organization New Humanity focused his similar conclusion on Southeast Asia. "I would be happy if students knew both English and French," he said, "but not French only. Knowing only French as an international language would perpetuate the isolation of the country in the region" (interview with Toni Vendramin, 2000). The francophone partners have succeeded, at least to a certain extent, in drawing Cambodia into Francophonie. They created the Institut de Technologie du Cambodge, for instance, as one of five Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie institutions that enroll students from anywhere in the French bloc, and they positioned the University of Health Sciences within an "international network of [French-medium] medical teaching institutions" (ProcBs-Verbal, 1995, p. 32). Recently, however, the Cambodian government has taken decisions that appear to limit to education the country's engagement within the network of nations that use French entirely or par-

Chapter 6

204

tially. Early in the 1990s, Cambodia followed French assistance toward the Plan Comptable General and the jus civile system. Reversing these endorsements in the late 1990s and early twenty-first century (see Chapter Three), the government sent a strong signal to the world. Rather than operating, and perhaps being isolated, in Francophonie, Cambodia anticipates economic and political relations in networks including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that use the International Accounting Standards and follow the common law tradition. According to one observer, these interrelated decisions-that is, admission to ASEAN and official abandonment of various francophone practices-"sealed the fate of French in the country" (interview with Luise Ahrens, 2000). Perhaps more accurately, these decisions sealed the utility of French to education, while at the same time clearing a greater field of utility outside formal education for English.

4.

THREE GROUPS IN INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE

In the previous two chapters, I described two groups of Cambodians who have been taught foreign languages by international assistance organizations. Through English and (some) French language programs, agencies have trained bilingual staff and government counterparts; this first group of Cambodians allows the largely monolingual expatriate community to reach into largely monolingual Cambodia and provide aid to individuals in need of it. Agencies have also established skills in foreign languages, particularly English, in the national civil service. Members of this second group use their language skills to reach out of the country, by way of training programs organized in Cambodia and abroad by aid organizations, to acquire knowledge and information both generally and specifically relevant to the country's economic and political transition and integration. These latter individuals operate as couriers, returning new ways of thinking and acting to Cambodia and, often, disseminating them subsequently within secondary tiers of the government. In this chapter, I examined the final group identified by the international aid community for foreign language skills. This third group dwarfs the other two, which comprise several tens of thousands of Cambodians each. Currently, more than 300,000 children and young adults are studying English or French in schools and universities, in programs administered or initiated by international assistance organizations working to facilitate or influence government or institutional language policies. As some students graduate, others enter the educational system, and the population of Cambodians with


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exposure to foreign languages thus continually increases. It is important not to underestimate the significance of this enterprise begun with tiny programs by Quaker Service Australia and France Libertk in the mid-1980s. Through considerable work by many organizations at every level of education, assistance agencies have erected language training infrastructures that, when the compulsory education goal of nine years is ultimately realized, will impact virtually every Cambodian. If aid agencies have targeted relatively modest numbers of Cambodians for the first two groups, the third seems coterminous with Cambodia's entire population. A certain number of Cambodians in this third group ascend the educational pyramid, gain sophisticated foreign language skills, and position themselves variously relative to the international aid community. Some English and fewer French speakers will be hired as agency staff or counterparts, thus entering the group that reaches into Cambodia to facilitate the provision of assistance. Others who graduate into the civil service may be sponsored to English-medium training, in the global infrastructure of English-language universities and other venues, through which they and others in the second group reach out to acquire and retrieve new knowledge and ideas. As more and more Cambodians exit formal education with strong foreign language skills, one expatriate argued, agencies will begin to rethink postgraduation language programming. The "next generation will be able to use English" and French so much "better [than] the current generation," he concluded, that programs designed to improve employees' and civil servants' foreign language skills will be made redundant (interview with Stephen Moore, 2000). Similarly, as more Cambodians are introduced to the free market and democracy through formal education-in Khmer and French, though not in English-and other mechanisms, it may no longer be necessary to reorient graduates conceptually through capacity-building exercises. Other Cambodians in the third group will use their foreign language skills outside the assistance context, to the extent that utility allows. Some who learn French will find jobs with francophone economic or assistance enterprises, though most will discover little application for their language abilities beyond the educational infrastructure engineered by the francophone assistance partners. Conversely, though very few Cambodians study in English, this language holds broad utility outside education: Those who learn English while they are students can, after graduation, participate in the regional or global economy as employees of foreign enterprises or internationally oriented local firms, and they can represent their country in international political organizations, notably the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. In the future, an evolution similar to that suggested in the previous paragraph for the assistance enterprise will almost certainly take place in

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these latter venues. Accordingly, as Cambodians graduate from schools with English fluency, companies will no longer find it necessary to provide remedial language classes for employees, and the linguistic constraints on participation in ASEAN will ease for the Cambodian government. Having now completed the three-part examination of international assistance to Cambodia, I turn to language choice. In the following chapter, I consider the language decisions Cambodians are making in the complex context created by aid organizations together with diverse economic and political enterprises and actors.

Chapter 7


1.

THE CONTEXT FOR LANGUAGE CHOICE

Thus far in this book, I have examined the changes Cambodia has undergone since the end of the 1980s. With these changes, myriad economic, political, and assistance enterprises have entered the country and begun demanding, preferring, privileging, requiring, and teaching foreign languages. In the late 1980s, the government directed Cambodia away from central economic planning, toward the free market. The 1993 constitution announced this trajectory clearly: "Cambodia shall adopt [a] market economy system" (cited in Peou, 2000, p. 473). With this endorsement, legislation such as the 1994 Law on Investment, and other developments discussed in Chapter Two, Cambodia began to integrate economically with the rest of the world. Following the infusion of more than $5 billion in foreign direct investment, Cambodia today engages in trade widely within the region, the hemisphere, and the world. Most investments and imports come from countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and, to a lesser extent, elsewhere in Asia; most exports depart Cambodia in the form of garments for markets in the United States and Europe. Though contemporary Cambodia connects to larger economic networks primarily through Phnom Penh and its environs, this attachment appears to be broadening. Not only have the ideas of the market penetrated the remotest regions, but Cambodia's most significant economic sector-agriculture-appears to be modernizing in an effort to retain comparative advantage as the country begins to compete in the tariff-free ASEAN Free Trade Area.

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Economic transition and integration have introduced multiple language demands for Cambodians. Most market economic interactions within the country require knowledge only of Khmer, the language that has traditionally been used for economic purposes in Cambodia. For most economic activity involving communication outside the country or with nationally based expatriates, on the other hand, Cambodians must know English. Economic enterprises from diverse geographical bases-Denmark, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, and Sweden, as well, of course, as from the United States and other anglophone nations-require English language skills among the Cambodians they employ. At least some enterprises, notably in the garment industry, additionally require Chinese language skills. There is limited economic demand for French. In fact, most French firms require Cambodians to know English and, with economic enterprises without geographical logic, form employees linguistically for company needs in proprietary English language schools generally administered or staffed by native English speakers. Among other linguistic needs that Cambodians answer for foreign economic enterprises, bilingual managers mediate communication between monolingual expatriates and Cambodian workers. In Chapter Three, I examined the new political direction Cambodia has charted since the 1980s. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the close of the Cold War, the single-party, communist People's Republic of Kampuchea entered into negotiations with other warring factions that led to the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1991 and the United Nationsadministered election in 1993. As the Kingdom of Cambodia came into being in 1993, its new constitution officially endorsed "Liberal Democracy and Pluralism" (cited in Peou, 2000, p. 472). This signal of political intention was greeted favorably by many governments that had previously refused relations, and Cambodia began the process of post-Cold War international political integration. Factional fighting in July 1997 interrupted this process, which is to say that some nations and organizations rejected Cambodia's contemporaneous or anticipated memberships. Over the course of the next several years, the Cambodian government enacted legislation and adopted systems and practices designed to complete the democratic transition and to facilitate international political integration. With the national election of 1998, Cambodia demonstrated its dedication to democracy and satisfied requirements for admission to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Political transition and integration have brought Cambodia into contact with international organizations that both use English and require knowledge of it. In the early 1990s, the United Nations organized the Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) as a bilingual mission, though French was quickly relegated to secondary status in relation to English, the language more widely known by UNTAC personnel. The United Nations' demand for

7. Language Choice in a Nation Under Transition

209

English-Khmer bilinguals began a trajectory in the political realm that continues in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which Cambodia entered in 1999. English serves as the language of all communication in this organization dedicated to regional development, security, and stability, and Cambodians must know English to participate in the hundreds of meetings, conferences, and exchanges that ASEAN members attend each year. Conversely, the results of political transition and integration within Cambodia have not introduced a demand for English. In fact, Cambodians need only Khmer to practice and consolidate democracy. Among other things, Cambodian voters elect representatives, and these legislators subsequently debate and pass laws, exclusively in the Khmer language. In the late 1980s, international assistance agencies started arriving in Cambodia in significant numbers, as I detailed in the first part of Chapter Four. Since 1992, hundreds of bilateral agencies, multilateral organizations, international and regional financial institutions, and nongovernmental organizations have provided more than $4 billion in assistance to the country, in the form of budgetary aid, emergency relief, investment projects, and technical assistance, to sectors including education, health, rural development, and transportation. Assistance is fundamentally humanitarian in nature, in that it brings much-needed resources to Cambodia from more affluent parts of the world. Aid is equally fundamentally dedicated to economic and political change, however. Most donors withheld assistance in the 1980s, for instance, until Cambodia began to move away from central economic planning and the single-party communist form of government, and some withdrew aid in the mid-1990s when progress faltered. More positively, agencies have used assistance resources to prepare Cambodia for participation in the world into which economic and political transitions have led. Training and education in particular have reoriented Cambodians conceptually toward practices and institutions associated with the market economy and liberal democracy. Like economic enterprises, international aid agencies have brought language demands to Cambodia. As discussed in the second part of Chapter Four, they employ tens of thousands of Cambodians either directly as staff or indirectly as project counterparts, and they require these employees to know and use their preferred languages. Some agencies associated with France and a few other francophone countries use French in assistance work in Cambodia and demand skills in this language among the Cambodians they hire; increasingly, francophone agencies are additionally requiring staff and counterparts to know English. Most aid organizations, on the other hand, use and demand knowledge of English; these latter organizations arrive in Cambodia from bases that defy geographical correlation-not only from Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and other anglophone nations, but

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also from Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Taiwan, and virtually every other nation or multilateral configuration of nations. In their work with aid agencies, bilingual Cambodian staff and counterparts act as intermediaries, facilitating communication between the largely monolingual expatriate community eager to provide assistance and the largely monolingual Cambodian community in need of it. Often unable to find Cambodians with adequate foreign language skills for these and other tasks, agencies have trained them through partnerships with proprietary language schools. Beyond relatively limited employee training, aid agencies have also taught foreign languages to a wider audience. To begin, a geographically diverse array of organizations has provided English language instruction to Cambodians in government service, sometimes going so far as to pay them for attending classes. The sample of projects examined in Chapter Five suggests conservatively that several tens of thousands of Cambodian ministry officials have been selected by aid agencies for English language training within the context of capacity-building technical assistance projects. English-as-projects initiatives prepare what might be termed "undesignated counterparts" who may ultimately use their English language skills as intermediaries between aid agencies and diverse national constituencies, including government ministries and populations in need. English-inprojects ventures have created a second group of bilinguals capable of receiving English-language training in Cambodia or entering the global infrastructure of English-medium universities. These latter individuals reach out of the country as couriers, at least metaphorically: They acquire knowledge and information relevant to the country's post-Cold War trajectories, return with these ideas to Cambodia, and in at least some cases disseminate them within secondary tiers of the government. Only in rare cases have aid agencies used languages other than English in such capacity-building exercises. Finally, aid agencies have taught both French and English to hundreds of thousands of Cambodian children and young adults in government schools and universities. Chapter Six examined the impressive educational infrastructures erected in support of these languages by a relatively small number of aid agencies closely associated with francophone and anglophone countries. The French have tried a number of gambits to convince Cambodians to study French, including coercion and bribery. More productively, they have created an educational utility for their language as a medium through which Cambodians can study and, ultimately, gain credentials as doctors, economists, engineers, and lawyers. Beyond the thousands of English books donated to university libraries, anglophone agencies have created little utility for English in education in Cambodia. Rather, they teach English within the


21 1

context of existing utilities: so graduates can enroll in English-language courses in Cambodia and elsewhere (though more likely as civil servants with sponsorship from donor agencies than as students with similar funding); so they can find positions with foreign economic enterprises, regionally oriented Cambodian firms, or international aid organizations; and so they can participate effectively in meetings, conferences, and exchanges within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

2.

LANGUAGE CHOICE IN CAMBODIA

Myriad activities undertaken by diverse enterprises have created the context-in fact, interrelated economic, political, and assistance contexts-for language choice in Cambodia. More fully, economic, political, and assistance actors have engaged in activities that we can aggregate under the broad rubric of language promotion: They have demanded or required that Cambodians know foreign languages, they have preferred and privileged these languages, and they have taught them in schools and universities; in the process, enterprises have introduced or reinforced multiple utilities for foreign languages. Ultimately, these disparate language promotion initiatives coalesce into a particular environment, the context for language choice in Cambodia. Having devoted considerable attention to this context and how it came to be, we can finally open the slim volume I mentioned in Chapter One. Given the way things are in this nation under transition, what languages are Cambodians choosing, and why? In the sections that follow, I first describe these language decisions: What choices have been made? Descriptive data about individual choices exist in the form of surveys conducted by various parties and in the form of statistics concerning language enrollments in both government and private schools. I introduced some institutional or language policy choices in the previous chapter, and I review these educational decisions here. After describing individual and institutional language choices, I endeavor to explain them: Why have Cambodians made these choices? Explanatory data emerged primarily through interviews with Cambodian ministry officials, educational administrators, teachers, and students. In interviews, civil servants and school leaders often focused their explanations on institutional language choices, thus providing insight into the rationales underlying language policy decisions in education and other settings. Finally, I gathered data about the reasons Cambodians choose English in particular through surveys at two universities in 2000:

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The Institute of Foreign Languages. Eighteen teachers-in-training in the English Department completed a survey about language choice and private English schools after attending my guest lecture. The Faculty of Law and Economics. Six Cambodian professors from this university responded to my request for information about their personal language choices and histories.

2.1

Khmer

Before discussing Cambodians' decisions to learn Chinese, French, and English, it is necessary to acknowledge Khmer language choices, at least some of which have been impacted by the language activities of external enterprises. More than 90 percent of Cambodians speak Khmer as a native language, and in major cities virtually everyone speaks the language fluently ('InterMedia Asian Strategies, 1999). As we saw in Chapters Two and Three, this dominant native language serves important functions or purposes at the national level: Cambodians exchange goods and services among themselves in Khmer, and they campaign, vote, and otherwise exercise their democratic rights and responsibilities in that language. To a large degree, Khmer's utility in economic and political domains emerges organically without decision, even as most Cambodians acquire Khmer without choosing it. T o a certain extent, however, utility derives from language choices, notably the decision promulgated with the 1993 constitution to privilege Khmer as the official national language. In education, language policies favoring Khmer in primary and secondary schools similarly affirm the organic "choice" made by most Cambodians at birth. Recently, the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport decided to extend that choice to minority groups in Ratanakiri and Mondolkiri. In these upland provinces in the remote northeast part of the country, large numbers of Cambodians have effectively been denied access to education because they do not speak Khmer; their "lack [of] basic Khmer language skills . . . is widely recognized as the most significant barrier to . . . mainstream education" (Thomas, 2003, p. 3). In the capital of Ratanakiri, for example, only 20 indigenous students from a total population of 65,000 attended secondary school in 2002. In that same year, the government launched a new, bilingual education initiative for indigenous students. In several experimental schools, minority children can now begin studies in their native languages and then gradually transition to Khmer-medium instruction. In addition to allowing more minority students to access and benefit from education, the bilingual policy should over time make it possible for them to choose Khmer as a second language and, through it, to


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participate more fully in national economic and political life (also see Thomas, 2002). The Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport also appears to be working on behalf of Khmer in higher education. While the national language serves as the medium of education in many universities, its utility at this level is limited, particular in terms of its technical precision. As I mentioned in Chapter Four, Khmer has not been developed for use in many contemporary domains. "We lack technical words in Khmer for certain ideas," one university rector told me (interview with Chan Nareth, 2000). In some cases, a professor continued, lecturers "rely on English or French technical words," while in others, "professors make their own language decisions about vocabulary" (interview with Chhay Yiheang, 2000). Contemporary progress toward language elaboration began with the establishment of the Institute of National Language in 2000. Ignoring the language academy while working actively on behalf of French and English, the international aid community has demonstrated a marked lack of interest in Khmer language planning. Activities undertaken outside the context of international assistance such as the Research, Standardization, and Promotion of the Khmer Language Conference in 2000, however, may over time develop the Khmer language technically and thereby increase its utility for and enable its wider use in higher education (interview with Sorn Samnang, 2001). On a related note, the rector of the Royal University of Phnom Penh described the Institute of National Language as a force for strengthening Khmer against further inroads from foreign languages. "If we do not have a clear vision about national and foreign languages," he explained, "the foreign language can have a negative effect on the national language," particularly in higher education. More specifically, the rector feared that foreign language teaching programs would ultimately be so successful that Khmer would be displaced in higher education. Focusing on one language in particular, he said, "We cannot avoid English in Cambodia, but we must also work to strengthen our own language" and safeguard its position in Cambodian universities (interview with Pit Chamnan, 2000). For the rector, the Khmer language academy thus functions both offensively and defensively. By moving proactively to develop the Khmer language, he implies, the academy will at the same time forestall language policy erosion toward English. By increasing the utility of Khmer for use in higher education now, the academy will ensure that the national language is not relegated to secondary status in the future. The decisions to establish the Institute of National Language and to commence bilingual education for minority students, coupled with earlier language policy directives and the constitutional endorsement, illustrate a

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continuing pattern of governmental support for the Khmer language in Cambodia. This support suggests a vitality for Khmer-maintenance in relation to economic and political utility, and perhaps an upward trend in utility and use in and through education-for the conceivable future.

2.2

Chinese

In 1992, the government of the State of Cambodia lifted the ban against Chinese put in place by the Khmer Republic in 1970, carried forward by the Khmer Rouge beginning in 1975, and extended by the Vietnamese and the People's Republic of Kampuchea in 1979. With the end of prohibition, Cambodians were free once again to learn and use Chinese. The skyrocketing enrollment in Chinese-language schools provides one illustration of how Cambodians have embraced this new freedom. Before 1970, various ethnic-Chinese groups operated 50 private Chinese schools in Phnom Penh and 231 in the country as a whole (Kyne, 1999). Starting from zero in 1992, 12 Chinese-language schools had opened in Phnom Penh by 1995, including the Toun Hour Elementary School, which enrolled approximately 3,000 children. With nine other schools in the provinces, in 1995 more than 15,000 children were studying in Chinese educational institutions in Cambodia (Peng, 1995). By 1999, the number of schools had increased to 16 in Phnom Penh and 69 nationwide (Kyne, 1999). The Duanhua Chinese Elementary School in Phnom Penh enrolls 10,000 students and enjoys the distinction of being one of the largest Chinese-medium elementary schools in the world (Marks, 2000). One commentator estimates that 50,000 students attended primary and secondary Chinese-language schools in Cambodia at the end of the decade (Marks, 2000). As formal educational institutions that prepare primary and secondary graduates, Cambodia's Chinese schools fall under the jurisdiction of the national Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, at least loosely. This relationship guarantees that curricula and textbooks "incorporate themes of history and culture from . . . Cambodia [as well as] China" (Kyne, 1999, p. 11). The main difference between state schools and the private Chinese institutions manifests in language policy. Most students enter Chinese schools fluent in Khmer, and they study in this language for one year as a transition to Mandarin-medium education; before 1970, schools taught in many varieties of Chinese, including Cantonese, Hakka, and Hokkien (Kyne, 1999). Students in Chinese institutions also attend English-as-a-foreignlanguage classes up to five hours per week (interview with Div Sean, 2000). Families pay on average $30 monthly for their children to attend these private schools. The Cambodian-Chinese Association supports the burgeoning system of Chinese-language schools by, among other things, training


215

teachers to staff them (Kyne, 1999; Marks, 2000). Outside primary and secondary schools, many thousands of Cambodian children and adults study Chinese in private language schools operating in Phnom Penh and other cities (interview with Div Sean, 2000). For the most part, Chinese schools enroll ethnic-Chinese Cambodians eager to perfect their heritage language and find employment with or in relation to those economic enterprises that operate in Chinese. As commentators correctly note, the economic utility of Chinese derives from both regional and national bases. To begin, the decision to learn Chinese "is fueled by a demand for staff to serve Chinese employersH-and, of course, Chinese-speaking owners and managers from elsewhere in the region-who have arrived in Cambodia to operate garment factories and other enterprises (Marks, 2000, p. 23). As the vice president of the Cambodian-Chinese Association continues, however, many enterprises that do business with the entrepreneurial ethnic-Chinese Cambodian community also find that "it is necessary to [hire Cambodians who] know Chinese" (cited in Peng, 1995, p. 20). This dual economic demand and utility will continue to drive language choice in Cambodia, the vice president speculated: In the future, "more and more students-and not only ethnic-Chinese students-will choose to learn Chinese" (cited in Peng, 1995, p. 20). The resurgence of Mandarin-medium schools illustrates the trajectory of Chinese in contemporary Cambodia. Recognizing the dual economic utility of Chinese, Cambodians have made a variety of language choices. The Cambodian-Chinese Association has supported Chinese-language schools through teacher training, ethnic-Chinese parents have raised and paid tuition to enroll their children in these schools, and students themselves have approached the learning of their heritage language with "dynamism" and "fervor" (Peng, 1995, p. 20). As the director of the Australian Centre for Education (ACE) notes, however, at least some students have made even broader language choices in anticipation of even broader economic participation. "Many of our students study in Chinese primary and secondary schools, where of course they learn Chinese," she said. "They then come to ACE after school, where they learn English. This prepares them for virtually any job opportunity inside or outside Cambodia" (interview with Helen Cherry, 2000).

2.3

French

In the early 1990s the French language experienced a spectacular ascendancy in Cambodia. Beginning around 1996, however, the number of Cambodians choosing French began to decline, though the language has by no means disappeared from the repertoire of language choice in the country.

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Inaugurated in 1990, Alliance Franpise (which would later become the Centre Culturel Franpis) quickly grew to one of the largest institutions of its kind in the world (Thayer, 1993). According to an eyewitness account, on the day the center opened so many Cambodians jammed the reception hall that it was impossible for administrators to distribute application forms. Undeterred, "the director went up to [the second-floor] balcony and threw armfuls of applications into the street below," where eager students could recover them and enroll (interview with Mathieu GuCrin, 2000). By 1992, more than 8,000 Cambodians were studying French at cultural centers in Phnom Penh and two provincial capitals; this number would remain relatively constant through 1996 (Centre Culturel Franpis de Phnom Penh, 1993; "CoopCration Educative," 1996). At this midpoint in the decade, Cambodians also attended French language classes at private schools operated by francophone Cambodians. Several informants told me that they had operated their own French language schools in the early 1990s; there were "lots of private French language schools" in the country at that time, said one (interview with Ung Rotta, 2000; also see interviews with Chau Sa, Chhiv Yiseang, You Tony, 2000). In the early 1990s, thousands more Cambodians studied French in universities and public schools supported by francophone assistance agencies. In 1995, the number of students enrolled in French-language university programs or attending French-as-a-foreign-language classes at the university level peaked at 7,400, including those enrolled at the University of Health Sciences, the Royal University of Phnom Penh, the Institute of Foreign Languages, the Institut de Technologie du Cambodge, the Royal University of Agriculture, the Royal University of Fine Arts, the Faculty of Law and Economics, the Faculty of Pedagogy, and the Ecole Royale d'Administration. In this year, nearly 60 percent of all tertiary students in Cambodia studied French (Ambassade de France, 1997; Cuenin, 1999). In 1996, the school-leaving exam for lower-secondary students included a foreign language section for the first time. Student examination elections may reflect their foreign language choices in school: 63 percent sat for the French test (Department of General Education, 1996). If we could extrapolate this proportion throughout secondary education, we might conclude that nearly 200,000 Cambodians were following French language classes in high school in the middle of the decade. From this peak, the number of students choosing French has declined precipitously. By 2000, for example, the Centre Culturel Fran~aisenrolled 4,700 Cambodians, nearly 50 percent fewer than in 1996, and faltering demand had closed all or nearly all private French language schools (interviews with AndrC Schmidt, Chhiv Yiseang, 2000). In the same year, approximately 6,000 Cambodians were studying French at universities. While


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tertiary enrollment does not appear to be dramatically smaller than in 1995 (7,400), the proportion has diminished remarkably. Those currently receiving French language instruction constitute only 31 percent of the country's 19,579 public university students, down from 60 percent in 1995 (Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, 2000a); in addition, students at universities including the Faculty of Law and Economics attend fewer hours of French classes than they did a few years ago. Lower-secondary statistics also illustrate the weakening of French language choice. From 63 percent in 1996, the number of students sitting for the French section of the schoolleaving exam fell to 52 percent in 1998 and 33 percent by 2000. These figures might be extrapolated to a decline from 200,000 to 100,000 secondary students following French language classes between 1996 and 2000 (Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, 1998b, 2000b). Not all statistics related to French language choice illustrate a downward trend, however. Indeed, French is thriving-or at least maintaining-in several venues. When the Faculty of Law and Economics reduced the French-as-a-foreign-language requirement to three hours per week in 1999, for instance, Coopkration Fran~aisebegan offering optional French classes. According to the coordinator of the French language teaching program for the law faculty, 250 of 300 entering students in the scholarship law program elected the additional six hours of French classes in 1999 (interview with Marie Bussi-Galloway, 2000). Further, enrollments in French Department programs at the Institute of Foreign Languages have remained relatively constant, at between 250 and 300, across the 1990s (interview with Eric Galmard, 2000; Soy, 1997). Finally, the number of students in classes bilingues schools supported by the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie has risen steadily, from 245 in 1994 to 3,039 in 2000 (interview with Paul Lambiotte, 2000; Ministkre de l'Education, de la Jeunesse, et des Sports, 2000).

2.3.1

Reasons for Choosing French

Several factors explain historical and contemporary French language choice in Cambodia. To begin, recall from Chapter Six that Cambodians regained the freedom to learn Western languages in 1989. Many could exercise this freedom only partially in the early 1990s, however, due to an imbalance in language teaching resources. In 1995, for example, 1,378 French teachers and 529 English teachers staffed Cambodian secondary schools (Taylor, 1995). French assistance for teacher retraining may have encouraged this inequity, though the demographics of the pre-1975 teaching corps certainly also contributed. Regardless, following the government decision to offer both English and French in secondary schools, only 54

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percent of high schools could open English classes (Taylor, 1995). In other schools, students could choose only French (interview with Prak Polla, 2000). Elsewhere, educational leaders manipulated language choice in favor of French so as to shelter their French teaching staff. If administrators allowed students to select their own foreign language, one school director commented, they would all choose English, and the "French teachers would not have anything to do" (cited in Secondary Education Inspection Office, 1997, p. 14). The language-resource imbalance extended to tertiary education through international assistance, particularly in the early 1990s. "The French are being very aggressive in making resources for the teaching of French available to Cambodia," the dean of the National Institute of Management told me in the very first interview I conducted in Cambodia, in 1991. Meanwhile, countries and agencies associated with English are "not being generous in Cambodia" (interview with Iv Thong, 1991). The tertiary assistance imbalance constrained language choice at multiple levels. Without French assistance, "we would face difficulty in developing the institutes of higher education," one Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport official explained. "In fact, we have no choice but to accept the use of French, because we need the aid" (interview with Pich Sophoan, 2000). Of course, as the case studies in the previous chapter illustrate, language policy decisions made within the context of available assistance subsequently affected student language choices. At the University of Health Sciences, the Institut de Technologie du Cambodge, the Faculty of Law and Economics, and several other universities in the early 1990s, assistance accords required Cambodians to study French while in many cases specifically prohibiting the use of English. Not all Cambodians chose French under duress in the early 1990s, however. Rather, both then and now, some Cambodians have embraced French for its utility, particularly in education. For some, knowledge of French facilitates research. "The ability to do documentary research in French is and will be [an] important" factor in language choice in Cambodia, one educational administrator commented. "For young researchers interested in ancient and modern history of Cambodia, French is indispensable," given the material available in that language in the National Archives, from the Ecole Franqaise d'Extr2me-Orient, and through myriad other sources (interview with Sorn Samnang, 2000). Several respondents to a survey conducted by the Phnom Penh Post agree. "If we know the French language, we will [be able to read] research documents . . . in French, especially documents on Khmer history," one university professor offered, as an example (cited in "Second Language Debate," 1996, p. 2). The documentary utility of French informs language policies throughout higher education, including at the


219

Royal University of Fine Arts, where according to one administrator "the reason students [in some faculties] are required to study French is that there are important documents in French that it is necessary for them to be able to read" (interview with Mao Ngyhong, 2000). Knowledge of French also permits students to "access higher education," argues the rector of the Royal University of Phnom Penh (Pit Chamnan, cited in Soy, 1997, p. 3). For some, learning French is a necessary first step past high school-a hurdle, perhaps, but one no more onerous than any other that students must leap on their way to knowledge and a career. "I wish to be a doctor so I have . . . to study French," one medical student explained matter-of-factly (cited in Mang, 1993, p. 8). Others choose French in anticipation of overseas educational opportunities. "This is the real value of French" as far as university administrators are concerned, the associate rector in charge of francophone programs at the Royal University of Phnom Penh told me: "There are many, many more scholarships for our graduates to study in French-speaking countries than in English-speaking [venues]" (interview with Lav Chhiv Eav, 2000). Among the thousands who have embraced French for its utility in international education are Sorn Samnang and Chhiv Yiseang. The former earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of Paris and now works in higher education administration. The latter completed a master's in French language teaching at the University of Paris before joining the French Department at the Institute of Foreign Languages (interviews with Sorn Samnang, Chhiv Yiseang, 2000). The rector of the Royal University of Agriculture suggested a final reason Cambodians and institutions may want to choose French; when I spoke with the rector, he had just returned from a conference in Vietnam, where French economic investment in that country had been discussed. "If French enterprises invest in Cambodia and establish factories here," he argued with some animation, "there will be jobs for French speakers when they graduate from higher education" (interview with Chan Nareth, 2000). It may be worth noting that Cambodians have long dreamed of an economic utility for French. "The long-term existence of the French language [in Cambodia] depends on . . . France's economic influence," Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith commented in 1993 (cited in Ker, 1993, p. 8). "French businesses must invest in Cambodia in such a way as to create jobs for French-speaking Cambodians," the president of the Association of French Teachers in Cambodia argued in 1997 (Sim, 1997, p. 4). Contemporary patterns of investment and trade, however, suggest that this dream is today no closer to realization than it has ever been (see Chapter Two). "The future of the French language will depend on its utility," Royal University of Phnom Penh Rector Pit Chamnan stated in 1997, and for the moment that utility appears to lie solely in education (cited in Soy, 1997, p. 3).

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That said, French does hold some economic utility within education. More specifically, certain French language learners will be able to find employment as French language teachers. While public school teachers earn only a small government salary, those employed by universities supported by France and the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie receive higher compensation-ranging from $3 per instructional hour at the Institut de Technologie du Cambodge to $8 per hour at the Ecole Royale d'Administration. This educational earning potential inspires at least some language choices in Cambodia. "I am learning French so I can become a French professor," commented one fourth-year student in the French Department at the Institute of Foreign Languages. "With $3 per hour, I could live well" (cited by Soy, 1997, p. 3). French speakers also earned decent wages as teachers in private schools, before demand dropped so far that they closed. One man told me that in the early 1990s he had charged nearly $1 per hour for each of as many students as he could fit into a rented room, and that this income from private French tuition had supplemented his government salary handsomely (interview with Ung Rotta, 2000).

2.3.2

Reactions to the Decline of French

As noted above, the number of Cambodians engaged in French language learning has declined since about 1996. The director of the Centre Culture1 Franpis explained the decline at his center as a consequence of institutional factors. Whereas in the early 1990s a three-month part-time course cost $4, by 2000 tuition had increased to between $18 and $25. Although 40 percent of language learners were supported by Coopkition Franpise in the mid1990s, "today we have very few scholarships-in fact, almost none." These decisions made at the institutional level have negatively impacted student enrollments, he concluded (interview with Andr6 Schmidt, 2000). French numbers have also fallen because Cambodians are more frequently choosing to learn English-as indeed they would have done earlier had it been possible. In 1992, a survey at the agricultural university indicated that "95 percent of students would study English" if sufficient resources existed to teach the language (interview with Chan Nareth, 1992). On the basis of a 1995 survey, the Cambodian Secondary English Teaching Project "estimated that 60 to 70 percent of secondary students would be learning English [if resources] were available" for English language teaching (Taylor, 1995, p. 3). In fact, these estimates anticipated what actually happened in the late 1990s with fair accuracy. When the Royal University of Phnom Penh began allowing students to select their own foreign language in 1996, for instance, 80 percent chose English. Eighty-four percent chose English when the Faculty of Law and Economics began allowing students to make their


22 1

own fourth-year foreign language election (see Chapter Six). The associate director of the Ecole Royale d'Administration described the contemporary tendency in foreign language choice with a meteorological metaphor. "The wind is blowing toward English" in Cambodia today, he said, "not French" (interview with Van Buntheth, 2000). I discuss the ascendancy of English in detail in the following section. For the moment, however, consider the responses to the decline of French. A great many Cambodians invested enormous energy in learning French, both in the 1990s and, among the older generation, in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Some seem completely unsentimental about the language's changed fortunes, quick to discard it and follow the new linguistic breeze. Professor Chan Savary of the Faculty of Law and Economics perfected his French in the 1990s so he could travel to Poitiers and earn his Ph.D. Today, however, he has concluded that "French is not important at this university," and he is learning English (interview with Chan Savary, 2000). French served Iv Thong well, particularly in the early 1990s when his university, the National Institute of Management, enjoyed comprehensive educational assistance from Coopkration Franpise. He has now learned English, and he treats French dismissively. "French is not much use anymore," he told me (interview with Iv Thong, 2000). Indeed, some Cambodians consider French worse than useless. In all their activities in the country, these informants argue, the francophone assistance partners have thought only "about their own interests, not about the future of Cambodia" (interview with Prak Polla, 2000). Most Cambodians recognize that these French interests are not economic, given the miniscule investment the former metropole has made in the country. Rather, they are "primarily political," aimed at "holding us in Francophonie" (interview with Iv Thong, 1994; interview with Ouy Vanthon, 2000). While some benefit could come from participation in the French bloc, informants continue, it would not outweigh the cost. Consider first what the associate director of the Ecole Royale d'Administration (ERA) termed the "dissonance" between French civil law and Anglo-American common law, on one hand, and the "tension" between the France's Plan Cornptable General and the International Accounting Standards, on the other. "What happens in Cambodia?" Van Buntheth asked rhetorically. "The students use the French models [that they learn at ERA and other French-supported institutions], and it creates problems" for them when they interact for legal and economic purposes in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or other international venues, where the alternative systems prevail (interview, 2000). So too with language. France and Francophonie are trying to "expand the French language," to "survive their language," to "broadcast the French language," to "reassert their language" in the country, many Cambodians

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argued in virtually the same words (respectively, interviews with Lav Chhiv Eav, Thao Sokmuny, Chan Nareth, 2000; interview with Iv Thong, 1994). But "teaching French instead of English is in fact an indirect punishment for students," continued one ministry official, "because it so clearly limits their future opportunities" (interview with Tuon Thavrak, 2000). More specifically, shouted a leader of the protest at the Institut de Technologie du Cambodge in 1995, "If Cambodia uses the Francophone system, we will be illiterate in ASEAN, because ASEAN uses English as a common language" (cited in Lor, 1995, p. 6). More generally, Van Buntheth of Ecole Royale d'Administration concluded, "we are following the wrong path," both in terms of political practice and language (interview, 2000). For these Cambodians, the decline of French and the related abandonment of francophone legal and accounting systems announces nothing short of liberation from an they perceive as constraining, international network-Francophonie-that disadvantageous, and isolating. Paradoxically, for other Cambodians the decline of French introduces, rather than ends, isolation. At 68, Rector Vu Kim Por of the University of Health Sciences is an old man. "I can use only French, because I was educated during French colonial times," he told me, and fluency in this language has greatly facilitated his ability to work with Coopiration Franp i s e toward renovation and curricular improvement at the university. French has proven remarkably less useful, however, in his work as undersecretary of state for the Ministry of Health, where the World Health Organization privileges English. "I myself don't speak English," he explained, "so I am sometimes left out of discussions. Other older people like me who speak French are disgruntled because English is used at many meetings at the Ministry of Health" (interview with Vu Kim Por, 2000). Significantly, the decline of French threatens the very relevance of older, francophone Cambodians throughout the government. When aid agencies choose against their preferred foreign language, they are pushed unceremoniously to the margins and thus denied the ability to contribute their knowledge and expertise in important conversations. "I do not want the next generation to be limited like I am" by reliance on French, Vu Kim Por cautioned. Rather, "in the next generation, students must know English as well as French" (interview with Vu Kim Por, 2000). Other administrators of universities with francophone programs similarly tended toward acknowledging English without rejecting French. At the Institut de Technologie du Cambodge, for instance, Dean Ouy Vanthon suggested that students "will need to know both languages" equally well in the future (interview, 2000). For his part, the rector of the Royal University of Phnom Penh advocated a dual, weighted, foreign language policy, with English as the "first foreign language" and French as the "second" (inter-


223

view with Pit Chamnan, 2000). Whether advocating a weighted or equal approach, administrators predict that students would enjoy greater opportunity with both foreign languages than with only one. Multilingual students "may have some advantage" over others, concluded the dean of the technical university, in that they could access the educational utility of French while at the same time anticipating the utilities that attach to English (interview with Ouy Vanthon, 2000). These latter advocates of multilingualism are as perceptive as any about the constraints that come with participation in Francophonie. Vu Kim Por of the medical university, for instance, lamented the restricted opportunities that such alignment brings to his students, whom CoopCration Fran~aise does not "want . . . to go to other countries for education or exchange" (interview, 2000). As administrators of institutions that receive significant resources from the francophone assistance partners, however, these multilingualism advocates may also be more attuned than others to the benefits of participation. I asked the director general of the Higher Education Department at the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport whether tertiary institutions would abandon French if the francophone assistance partners halted aid. "The French [and Francophonie] will continue to give money," he replied, "so the issuen-and the tension for administrators who perceive disadvantage in the use of French but cannot renounce it without surrendering resources they have no other way of gaining-"will not be resolved7' (interview with Pich Sophoan, 2000).

2.4

English

The decline of French in Cambodia does not correspond perfectly with the rise of English, for as the university administrators in the previous paragraphs pointed out at least some Cambodians learn and use both foreign languages. Nevertheless, the clear tendency in foreign language choice in Cambodia over the course of the 1990s has been away from French, toward English. W e can read this trend through various data, beginning with the university language policy choices discussed in detail in Chapter Six. As the reader will recall, university administrators have consistently used available resources to support English, sometimes to the exclusion of French. With the arrival of Georgetown University and the University of San Francisco at the National Institute of Management (NIM) in 1993, for instance, Dean Iv Thong was able to begin replacing instructional hours devoted to French with English; following the loss of U.S. aid in 1997, the dean used tuition revenue to hire local English teachers and continue the university's English language trajectory. In 1994, Dean Yuok Ngoy of the Faculty of Law and Economics inaugurated an English language program

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with funds collected in tuition from the French bachelor of business administration course, and he later expanded the English program at the expense of French offerings with assistance from a proprietary organization hired with other tuition monies. Lacking resources to challenge the French language policy at the University of Health Sciences in any serious way, Rector Vu Kim Por nevertheless works through anglophone doctors at one teaching hospital to expose some medical students to English. In some cases, student advocacy has influenced language policy choices in higher education. Certainly the manifestations at the Institut de Technologie du Cambodge (ITC) head the list. Shortly after the technical university opened in 1993 with French support channeled through the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, students briefly protested the exclusive use of French. In 1995, a much larger protest stretched on for several weeks and captured the attention of leaders at the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport. Ultimately, though French remained the language of instruction at the institution, ITC's francophone assistance partners agreed to provide resources so the university could open the English Section. One Frenchman suggested that this decision amounted to a strategic concession on the part of donors, who feared that students would otherwise abandon both the institute and the French language. A similar pressure may have informed the French decision at the Faculty of Law and Economics to fund an English class in the otherwise-French bachelor of business administration course. Finally, student demand at the Maharishi Vedic University when it opened in 1993 appears to have resulted in a greater emphasis on English than originally planned. These and other language policy decisions made or influenced by Cambodians have dramatically increased the opportunity for students to choose English at the university level. As mentioned above, when students at the Royal University of Phnom Penh and the Faculty of Law and Economics gained the right to make their own foreign language decisions in 1996 and 1999, respectively, 80 and 84 percent chose English. An even higher percentage study English in the higher education system as a whole. In all, more than 17,000 students, or approximately 87 percent of the 19,579 Cambodians enrolled in the country's public universities, chose to study English in 2000 (this figure is aggregated from the case studies in Chapter Six, and it includes the nearly 10,000 who choose English by registering at the National Institute of Management). A somewhat smaller proportion appears to be choosing English in secondary schools, though this figure has increased markedly over time. Whereas only 36 percent of lower-secondary students selected the English section on the school-leaving examination in 1996, 48 percent did so in 1998. In 2000, the proportion had climbed to 66 percent, suggesting that somewhat more than 200,000 Cambodians were studying


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English in secondary schools (Department of General Education, 1996; Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, 1998b, 2000b). Beyond the formal education sector, a great many Cambodians study English in an astonishing array of private schools. At one end of the spectrum stand the Australian Centre for Education (ACE) and Regent School of Business, which, in addition to catering to the needs of foreign economic enterprises and the international aid community (see Chapters Two and Four), enroll individual Cambodians. Schools owned by Cambodians fill the middle range of the spectrum; here one finds the Angkor Borei Center, the Banana Center, the Universal English School, and other relatively substantial institutions that employ multiple teachers and operate out of buildings that resemble educational institutions; these schools occasionally hire native speakers from the backpack community. At the far end of the spectrum are myriad classes taught by individual teachers in rented rooms or in public schools in off-hours. With the exception of ACE and Regent School of Business, private English classes cost only a few dollars per month-$6 on average, according to students in the English Department at the Institute of Foreign Languages, all of whom taught part-time in private English schools (English Department survey). It is in private schools that we can read the trend in English language choice perhaps most clearly. Such schools have "grow[n] like mushrooms in the rainy season in order to meet the demand of students," one commentator wrote ("English Club," 1998, p. 9). In the early 1990s, a few dozen private schools offered English classes in Phnom Penh on "English Street," near the Royal Palace. By 1996, an expatriate researcher estimated that 93 private schools were answering the demand for English language learning in Phnom Penh (Knight, 1996). In 2000, an official with the municipal Phnom Penh Department of Education, which collects statistics from the larger private English schools, suggested that there might be as many as 200 (interview with Div Sean, 2000). Of course, private schools operate outside Phnom Penh as well. In all, the director of the National English Teaching Resource Centre estimated there to be 600 such schools serving the English language needs of 500,000 Cambodians throughout the country (interview with Prach Chan Sokha, 2000). There appears to be some overlap between this population and those discussed in previous paragraphs; surveys of lower-secondary students, for instance, suggest that between 20 and 45 percent augment their in-school English language studies with private classes (Knight, 1996; Secondary Education Inspection Office, 1997). Very recently, Cambodians have also chosen English at private universities recognized by the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport. In 2000, only a few such institutions had begun offering degree programs as an alternative to those available at public universities, among them the Interna-

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tional Institute of Cambodia, the Institute of Technology and Management, and Norton University. As of that year, 2,863 students followed courses at these institutions, for which they paid around $450 annual tuition (interviews with Chhuon Chan Than, Kao Sam 01, Touch Sunnary, 2000). By 2004, the number of private universities had increased to nearly 40, including at least one local branch of an Indian tertiary institution, Annamalai University (Abhay Pattnaik, personal communication, 8 January 2004; Yuok Ngoy, personal communication, 26 December 2003). In general, the many thousands of Cambodians now studying at private higher education institutions receive content instruction in Khmer. In virtually every case, however, administrators have selected English as a required foreign language. An English teacher from the Institute of Foreign Languages told me that private universities "would not be seen as legitimate" if they did not offer English. In the near future, she concluded, "it would be . . . surpris[ing] to see a [university] graduate [who] does not speak English" (Keng Sopheak, personal communication, 7 May 2004). Finally, we can read the trend toward English through language decisions taken in some government ministries. At the Ministry of Economy and Finance, for example, Minister Keat Chhon declared that staff "need to know three or four foreign languages," with "English [being] the first priority" (related by Hean Sahib, 2000). The Ministry of Commerce similarly privileges English as the first foreign language, if less formally. "I frequently speak to my staff in English" so that they can continually improve their English language skills, the U.S.-educated secretary of state for Commerce told me (interview with Sok Siphana, 2000). These two ministries, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have taken strategic advantage of opportunities to train their staff in English. The European Union did not initially include English language training for participants from these three ministries in the Training Project for Officials (see Chapter Five). However, expatriate administrators specified an English education component after Cambodian officials "told us that they wanted it in the project" (interview with Denis Winckler, 2000).

2.4.1

Reasons for Choosing English

Hundreds of thousands of Cambodians have embraced English in recent years, both institutionally and individually. Administrators and students have maneuvered language policies at the country's public universities away from French and toward English. Significant proportions of students at both tertiary and secondary levels have made personal decisions to study the language, sometimes with other Cambodians in the hundreds of private language schools operating throughout the country. Private universities have

7. Language Choice in a Nation Under Transition emphasized English while completely ignoring French. Even as these educational language policies inform students' language choices, so too do the decisions to privilege English made by officials in some government ministries influence the language choices of civil servants. A variety of reasons underlie Cambodians' English language choices. To begin, they have been able to choose English because the language-resource imbalance has been adjusted, largely through the intervention of assistance agencies. Whereas French teachers outnumbered English teachers in secondary schools by a nearly three-to-one margin in 1995, for instance, by 1999 graduates of the British-funded Cambodian Secondary English Teaching (CAMSET) Project had joined a secondary-level language teaching corps made up of 1,206 French and 1,235 English teachers (Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, 1999b). According to one CAMSET expatriate, there are now finally "sufficient numbers of English teachers" to allow secondary students to exercise their language choice and act on their "desire [to learn] English" (interview with Lucy Royal-Dawson, 2000). Few graduates of the English Department at the Institute of Foreign Languages, operated initially with Australian funding, have entered secondary schools as English teachers. As the reader will recall from the case studies in Chapter Six, however, many have taken jobs at universities. Whether they are paid by assistance agencies (as at the Institut de Technologie du Cambodge) or with tuition monies (as at the Faculty of Law and Economics), today these teachers offer instruction at many institutions that had restricted student language choice to French in the early 1990s. Beyond their freedom to do so, Cambodians have chosen English for its various utilities, beginning with economics or employment. Almost every respondent to my survey of English Department students named "jobs" as the single most important factor driving Cambodians' personal foreign language decisions. There are "more job opportunities for people with English knowledge," wrote one respondent. People learn English "because they want to get a well-paid job," replied another. "To be honest," answered a third, "people like to learn English because it is easy to find jobs" (English Department survey). While most learn English in anticipation of positions with the foreign economic enterprises and international assistance agencies that require knowledge of this language, English skills have led to other employment destinations. One professor at the Faculty of Pedagogy explained that in the early 1990s he had studied both French and English; he stopped learning French in 1997, however, "because during the time I studied French I could get a job teaching English" in a private school (interview with Hap Phal Thy, 2000). Employment opportunities also inform institutional or language policy choices. "For jobs when students graduate," the rector of the Royal Univer-

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sity of Agriculture replied when I asked why he required English at his institution. "Those who go to the private sector will use English-all private sector jobs require English" (interview with Chan Nareth, 2000). "English is the language of business, not French," the dean of the National Institute of Management commented in explaining his decision to change his institution's foreign language trajectory in the early 1990s. "Students need English, not French, to find jobs in the private sector" (interview with Iv Thong, 2000). Similar reasoning inspired Yuok Ngoy's decision to introduce English at the Faculty of Law and Economics. Students need to know English "to get jobs with international enterprises and nongovernmental enterprises," the dean began. In fact, our students "need to have a higher proficiency than students graduating from other universities, so that they can compete against them" (interview with Yuok Ngoy, 2000). "French is not so helpful for work with business or nongovernmental organizations," added a professor from the faculty who sat in on the interview (interview with Thao Sokmuny, 2000). Some commentators question the strength of the market for English speakers in Cambodia. The coordinator of the nongovernmental consortium at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, for instance, worried that opportunities in the private sector would not keep pace with the number of English speakers graduating from universities (interview with Luise Ahrens, 2000). Data provided by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which among other things recruits local employees for foreign firms in Cambodia, seem to confirm this fear: Though he argued that demand for Cambodians with appropriate language and business skills still exceeded supply, Tim Walton conceded that the 30 largest foreign corporations operating in Cambodia had hired only about 600 university graduates in the three years leading up to 2000 (interview, 2000). Other data that include the preferences of small and medium-size enterprises suggest stronger employment opportunities. "Our graduates are sought after because of their English skills," the dean of the National Institute of Management (NIM) argued on the basis of his university's placement rate with a broad spectrum of employers (interview with Iv Thong, 2000). According to the Careers Placement Office at NIM, 51 percent of the graduating class of 1996 found positions in the private sector (McNamara, 1999). By 1999, this figure had risen to 70 percent (interview with Patricia Baars, 2000). Beyond increasing their employment opportunities, Cambodians choose English for its real and potential utility in education. Some point to the dominance of English in scholarly publishing in explaining their personal choices. Undersecretary of State for Education Pou Darany contextualized such decisions in 1996. "It is widely believed that 80 percent of the world's scientific, technical and other learned papers are written in English," he


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stated (Pou, 1996, p. 31). Particularly for university professors and students, the wealth of information available in English-and, importantly, made available in university libraries in Cambodia by such organizations as the Asia Foundation-motivates English language learning. "I study English because I want to improve my knowledge [through] research," one professor at the Faculty of Law and Economics explained. "I learn English because it is a very important language for legal research," offered another. "I want to increase my knowledge and do research in economics by reading different kinds of books written in English," replied a final professor (Faculty of Law and Economics survey). More frequently, Cambodians refer to overseas training or exchange when discussing the educational utility of English. Civil servants have a reasonable expectation of being able to exercise this utility. In 2001, for instance, Professor Kim Savun of the Faculty of Law and Economics had been encouraged by a U.S. Fulbright scholar to enter a Ph.D. program in the United States through a program administered by the International Monetary Fund with Japanese government monies. To gain admission to the program, he needed to achieve a 550 score on the Test of English as a Foreign Language. Given this history, Kim Savun's association of English language I acquire English learning with overseas educational opportunity-"if fluency, I may win a scholarship to study abroad," he said-seems reasonable (interview with Kim Savun, 2001). At the same institution, Professor Chan Savary explained his shift to English from French as deriving, at least in part, from his desire to participate in English-medium academic conferences in the region. In 2000, having demonstrated his proficiency in English to the sponsoring organization, he received a scholarship to attend a colloquium on development economics in Bangkok (interview with Chan Savary, 2000). Cambodians outside the civil service also make language choices in anticipation of international educational participation, particularly in the global infrastructure of English-language universities. Students in the English Department at the Institute of Foreign Languages, for instance, declared their desire to use English to "continue higher education abroad," to complete "postgraduate [courses] in English-speaking countries," to "further [our] education abroad," and to "win scholarships" to universities in the United States or Australia (English Department survey). Many of these latter Cambodians will ultimately be disappointed, of course, given the many fewer scholarships offered by international assistance organizations to higher education graduates than to civil servants (see Chapters Five and Six); of course, some with personal resources as well as sophisticated English language skills may study abroad without agency sponsorship. One university that has made some progress in this area is the Faculty of Law and

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Economics, where the dean has worked aggressively to establish relations with, and to secure scholarships for English-speaking Cambodian students at, such institutions as the University of Michigan, Nagoya University, and the Transnational Law and Business University in Seoul. Finally, many Cambodians agree with the assessment of English language utility given by the secretary of state from the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport. "Everybody knows that English is the language of international communication," said Im Sethy (interview, 2000). For some Cambodians, international communication calls to mind the exciting venues to which English language skills grant entrke. "My mother told me to learn English," one man explained. "She said, 'It will be good at the airport, at recreation areas, in hotels. You can speak English almost anywhere in the world"' (interview with Kim Sovanna, 2000). For others, international communication is virtually synonymous with international assistance. W e need to learn English, one government official argued, so we can "communicate with donors and lending agencies, almost all of whom use English as their official language" (Pou, 1996, p. 30). To provide a specific example, the dean of the Faculty of Law and Economics described a meeting he had with visiting Japanese lawyers from Nagoya University. "They had brought a translator," he said, "but he didn't know legal terminology, so we spoke directly to one another in English" about inter-university cooperation (interview with Yuok Ngoy, 2000). For many Cambodians, however, the most important international communication takes place within the region, and more specifically within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Entry into ASEAN in 1999 has significantly "influenc[ed] the language choice of Cambodians toward English," began the deputy director general of the Ministry of Planning (interview with Tuon Thavrak, 2000). Because ASEAN uses English, continued a professor from the Royal University of Phnom Penh, "we too have to use this common language" (interview with Chhay Yiheang, 2000). "If we don't know English," a Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport official asked rhetorically, "how can we participate?" (interview with Pich Sophoan, 2000). Several Cambodian administrators at francophone universities constructed their advocacy for multilingualism at least in part around the concept of participation in ASEAN. Students need to know French for educational purposes, said the rector of the University of Health Sciences, but "I want graduates to have knowledge of English too, so they can participate in ASEAN meetings" (interview with Vu Kim Por, 2000). "With the entry into ASEAN, things changed dramatically," the dean of the Institut de Technologie du Cambodge stated more simply. Today, "we can no longer use only French" (interview with Ouy Vanthon, 2000).


23 1

Another Cambodian took the concept of participation even further. Of course "we have to know English when we go to ASEAN meetings," said Sok Siphana, the secretary of state in the Ministry of Commerce. "We need to know English so we can be actively involved in discussions" and realize the full benefits of membership in the regional organization. But even more important, we need to know English so that we can defend our interests. You know, ASEAN is not a kissy-kissy brotherhood. The countries are fiercely competitive, and a strong knowledge of English will help us to protect Cambodian interests. In particular, we need to look out for Cambodian interests in trade within ASEAN. (interview with Sok Siphana, 2000) Note the new dimension that the secretary of state adds to the utility of English for international or regional communication. Certainly Cambodians can choose English for things gained-to facilitate travel, or international assistance, or participation with other Southeast Asian nations in myriad cooperative ventures. But we should also choose English, he is saying, so as to avoid being disadvantaged in venues where the language serves as the medium of communication. For the secretary of state, English represents both a choice and a responsibility, for it is with this language that Cambodians will both participate in the Association of Southeast Asian Nation and defend their country against exploitation by other members of the regional organization.

2.4.2

Reactions to the Ascendancy of English

English is ascending in Cambodia in a generally inverse relationship with French. As one final illustration of these intersecting trajectories, compare the tuition for two master of business administration courses. The first, run in English with the Universiti Utara Malaysia at the National Institute of Management, charges $4,500 for the two-year course. At the Faculty of Law and Economics, on the other hand, the French-language MBA course administered by the University of Lyon I1 charges $500 per year. Not only does "the market demand English," but apparently the market for English can bear considerably more than the market for French (interview with Yuok Ngoy, 2000). Cambodians have responded in various ways to the ascendancy of English. Some relish it, among them the entrepreneurs who invested in English language programs early in the business cycle. "I've become very successful in a very short time," the owner of several private English schools commented in 1996 (cited in Brody, 1996, p. 20). The profit margin for English

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appears also to have contributed to the growth of private universities. The owner of the International Institute of Cambodia, for instance, represented his university as a business venture, pure and simple. He and his partner "thought about opening a factory," he said, but ultimately concluded that the market for their proposed product had become saturated. The market for English and other educational program provision had not, however, so "we opened a university instead" (interview with Chhuon Chan Thon, 2000). Some in government service have also enjoyed the rise of English, among them an official from the Ministry of Planning whose English language skills have allowed him to supplement his salary as a counterpart in assistance projects. "I can earn extra money through my skills in English," he explained. Indeed, he concluded, his linguistic ability has given him something of an "unfair advantage" over staff who do not speak English (interview with Tuon Thavrak, 2000). Other ministry staff have faced the ascendancy of English somewhat less enthusiastically. Rather than risking marginalization in discussions with aid organizations similar to that experienced by the rector of the University of Health Sciences (see Reactions to the Decline of French subsection, above), many in government service have determined to acquire English and remain engaged with the international agencies assisting their ministries or institutions. But these individuals who studied French in their youths andfor Eastern-bloc languages in the 1980s often describe English language learning as more of a duty than a pleasure. "My work forces me to learn English," the secretary of state of the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport commented, explaining that almost all meetings, documents, and correspondence with educational assistance agencies require him to use English (interview with Im Sethy, 2000). A university administrator sketched a similar language milieu in his position as national director of the European Union's Programme d7Appuiau Secteur de 1'Education Primaire au Cambodge. "English surrounds me at work," he said (interview with Neang Muth, 2000). "English is inevitable in Cambodia" and for administrators at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, the rector of this institution concluded, resignedly (interview with Pit Chamnan, 2000). Resigned or not, there is something rather heroic about these Cambodians. They are not young, and they carry heavy responsibilities in their government posts. Nevertheless, they have found time and resources to learn English and maintain their relevance in international assistance and with the aid community. Tuon Thavrak of the Ministry of Planning learned German in the 1980s so he could study in East Germany. Yuok Ngoy of the Faculty of Law and Economics acquired Vietnamese and completed his university degree at an institution in Vietnam. Hean Sahib of the Economics and Finance Institute studied Russian and then earned his Ph.D. in the Ukraine.


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All speak English today, as does Im Sethy of the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, who was learning French at the time of independence. "I have tried to improve my English," he told me. "Early in the morning, I practice speaking English aloud, to myself, when no one is around" (interview, 2000). The rector of the Royal university of Agriculture similarly marshaled his energies when he received an invitation to participate in a oneand-a-half month course on university management in Thailand in 1991. At that time, "I didn't know English, only French," but English was the language of the session. So, I decided I would learn English in one week. For that week, I sat with my dictionary, studying the conference papers and materials. Then, when I went there, I could speak-not very well, but I could make myself understood. (interview with Chan Nareth, 2000)

I asked many Cambodians if the personal inconvenience triggered by the ascendancy of English had some larger corollary. More specifically, I wondered if they saw English pulling the country into potentially disadvantageous international relations, in the same way that many perceived the language promoted by France to be doing with Francophonie. With one exception that I discuss below, every Cambodian I queried rejected my suggestion out of hand, sometimes with a touch of impatience for the na'ivetk with which I viewed the world. The dean of the Faculty of Law and Economics provided a rather typical response. Moving directly to what he correctly judged to be my real question, he said, "You know, when we use English, we don't think about the United States or England. We only think about the need to communicate." He continued: I was in a conference in Bangkok recently, with participants from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Some of the participants could speak Russian, because they had been educated in the Soviet Union in the 1980s. After the meetings, these people would speak to each other in Russian because it was a common language for them. They didn't think about the Soviet Union, they only thought about communicating with each other. "English dominates the world," the dean concluded, "so we use English to communicate. If Russian dominated the world, we would use Russian. It doesn't mean that we think about these countries when we use these languages" (interview with Yuok Ngoy, 2000). Nor, he and others who rejected my suggestion implied, does it mean that the use of English draws Cambodia into dangerous liaisons with anglophone states. An economist from the Cambodia Development Resource Institute articulated this same idea, though in different words. In that it does not lead into restrictive or constraining international relations, he concluded, "English provides a neutral

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foreign language choice" in contemporary Cambodia (interview with Sok Hach, 2000). The only Cambodian to disagree about the neutrality of English had just completed his master's degree in applied linguistics at La Trobe University in Australia, where he had encountered a variety of ways of understanding the contemporary status of English in the world. Of course no one associates English with the interests of anglophone countries, he argued, because "there are no actors in Cambodia" (interview with Neak Chandarith, 2000). With this comment, this young man intended to contrast what he saw as disengagement with the promotion of English on the part of anglophone nations with the overt promotion of French by the francophone assistance partners. An expatriate with the nongovernmental consortium of English language teachers at the Royal University of Phnom Penh agreed. Cambodians do not think about how their use of English might integrate with the interests of other nations, she said, because unlike France and the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie for the French language "no one is trying to get them to do itn-to learn English (interview with Luise Ahrens, 2000). In fact, however, as we have seen throughout this book, precisely the opposite is true: Everyone is promoting English, and everyone is trying to get Cambodians to learn the language. Recall Chapter Two: Virtually every foreign economic enterprise operating in Cambodia demands English skills among employees, and many form their staff linguistically for company needs in proprietary English language schools. Recall Chapter Three: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations expects Cambodians to know English, though unlike the earlier international political organization that shared this preference, the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia, ASEAN passes responsibility for English language learning to Cambodians themselves. Recall Chapter Four: Almost all international assistance organizations in the country require knowledge of English among their Cambodian staff and ministry counterparts; they too send Cambodians in large numbers to learn English at institutions like the Australian Centre for Education and Regent School of Business. Recall Chapter Five: English language teaching and learning figure prominently in technical assistance projects designed to increase capacity among Cambodian civil servants. Recall Chapter Six: Myriad aid agencies have taught English directly to Cambodians in schools and universities, or have worked to establish English language teaching programs that can be sustained by Cambodians themselves. Not only are actors almost beyond enumeration demanding, preferring, privileging, requiring, teaching, and otherwise promoting English in Cambodia, but actors from virtually everywhere are doing so. A partial list of the


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home bases of the economic, political, and assistance enterprises trying to get Cambodians to learn English includes Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. To this list we can add the collections of nations acting together in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations; in the European Union; in United Nations organizations like the Development Programme, the Children's Fund, and the World Health Organization; and in the international and regional financial institutions, notably the Asian Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. As I have pointed out several times in previous chapters, this list confounds geographical logic, correlating only weakly to anglophone national status. It is this spatial diffusion, perhaps, that explains Cambodians' perception regarding English and anglophone interests. We do not think about the United States or the United Kingdom when we choose English, the dean of the Faculty of Law and Economics might have continued, because actors from these nations constitute a mere minority in the amorphous group with whom Cambodians use or learn English. Rather, he could have concluded, we only think about the need to communicate-with others who have embraced the utilities of English without necessarily having been born to them, in networks including the regional and global economy, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the international aid community, and the global infrastructure of English-language universities. The only disadvantage Cambodians associate with English in these networks is, in fact, not knowing the language and thus being marginalized or exploited, whether personally in relation to the international aid community, nationally within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or in other ways in other venues in which the ability to maintain relevance, guard national interests, or otherwise contribute, participate, defend, or protect requires English language skills.

3.

TRAJECTORIES AND CORRELATIONS IN LANGUAGE CHOICE

This chapter has examined the language choices Cambodians have made within the context of transition and, more specifically, within the context created by diverse economic, political, and assistance actors. By way of concluding, this section summarizes the language trajectories that Cambodian choices have launched and anticipates the theoretical discussions that follow in Chapter Eight.

Chapter 7

3.1

Language Choice

Since the beginning of economic and political transition, Cambodians have made various languages choices. Khmer remains the language most frequently learned by Cambodians, though most acquire it without making the deliberate choice to do so. Recently, the government has taken steps to safeguard the status of Khmer relative to English in education; this and other attempts to augment the educational utility of the national language, coupled with its organic utility in economic and political life in Cambodia, suggest for Khmer a continuing vitality, if not an upward trajectory. If they choose Khmer by default at birth, Cambodians in increasing numbers are making conscious choices to learn Chinese. After having suppressed the language for decades, the Cambodian government lifted restrictions on Chinese in 1992, and ethnic-Chinese Cambodians in particular have embraced their heritage language, as illustrated by the astonishing growth of Chineselanguage schools. While Cambodians choose Chinese for its economic utility, that utility manifests dually, and Cambodian employees use the language for communication both with the entrepreneurial ethnic-Chinese community in Cambodia and with Chinese-speaking investors and managers who have come to Cambodia from elsewhere in Asia with the garment industry and other enterprises. Trends in French language choice might better be described as an arc than as a trajectory. In the early 1990s, significant numbers of Cambodians enrolled in French classes in public schools, universities, and private institutions. After about 1996, however, Cambodians began choosing against French, and enrollments fell precipitously. Today, some Cambodians continue to learn French for its educational utility, for with the language they can conduct research, pursue higher education at home, and win scholarships to France and other francophone countries. Most, however, have followed the shifting allocation of language resources away from French, toward English. More specifically, as teachers, books, and materials dedicated to English language learning have been made available by international assistance organizations and local educational administrators, Cambodians have grasped them and unceremoniously dropped French. While some francophone Cambodians lament the decline of French for what it signals in terms of personal relevance and isolation, others celebrate it as an artifact of the country's extrication from international constraint and isolation in Francophonie. Beyond opportunity introduced with resources, Cambodians have chosen English for its various utilities. "Jobs," said students in the English Department at the Institute of Foreign Languages. "Research and scholarships," added professors at the Faculty of Law and Economics. "ASEAN," con-


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cluded informants everywhere. With these utilities driving choice, the number of Cambodians studying English has increased dramatically in secondary schools and public universities; even more spectacular has been the growth in private English-language schools and universities, which run the gamut from substantial foreign-owned and locally owned institutions with stables of teachers to holes-in-the-wall rented by individual Cambodians with English language skills and pedagogical aspirations. Some have benefited from the rise of English, notably the investors who have grown rich selling the language to eager Cambodians. Many civil servants, on the other hand, have faced the ascendancy of English-and the necessity of learning yet another foreign language-with dutiful resignation. They do not, however, project the cost of relinguification to the international level, which is to say that they do not see the English language leading Cambodia into disadvantageous relations with anglophone nations.

3.2

The Context for Language Choice

Throughout this book I have noted relationships associated with language promotion. While there is a strong correlation to sinophone and francophone national status among those enterprises that demand, privilege, or teach Chinese and French in Cambodia, for instance, a much weaker correlation exists to anglophone national status among those similarly promoting English. Having now considered the language decisions Cambodians have actually made in recent years, it should be possible to examine a new set of correlations. Accordingly, we can seek patterns in the relationships between language choice and the context for language choice. When Cambodians use English, they do not think about the United States or other anglophone nations, the dean of the Faculty of Law and Economics said, arguing implicitly that English neither attaches to first-language nations (at least exclusively) nor can be understood in terms of the interests of these nations (at least solely) in the contemporary world. What Cambodians do think about when they choose English or other foreign languages is utility. They choose English because with this language they can find jobs with foreign economic and assistance enterprises, pursue education, and communicate internationally and regionally. They choose French so they can study in Cambodia and abroad. They choose Chinese because knowledge of this language opens doors to employment within the region. Note that in every case Cambodians' language decisions are responsive, which is to say that their choices respond to the utilities associated with various languages. T o begin, then, we observe a strong correlation between language choice and language utility. One could say that utility drives language choice, for example, or that language choice increases with utility.

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To continue, note that in virtually every case utility has been created by external actors through language promotion activities. Most foreign economic enterprises demand knowledge of English, and sometimes Chinese, among their Cambodian employees (though globally or regionally oriented local enterprises may similarly seek workers with English and Chinese language skills). The Association of Southeast Asian Nations expects Cambodians to know English. In addition, diverse aid agencies require and teach English and French for both employment and educational destinations. Perhaps it is too obvious to merit articulation, but Cambodians are not making language choices in a vacuum, even as the utilities that drive choice do not emerge spontaneously. Rather, Cambodians' language choices have been contextualized, informed, or delimited by the activities of a diverse group of economic, political, and assistance actors, almost all of whom come from outside the country. It may be possible to express this influence correlationally. Accordingly, there is a strong correlation between the language choices made by Cambodians and the languages demanded, preferred, taught, or otherwise promoted by external actors. More simply, we can observe a direct correlation between language choice and the context created for language choice. Cambodians are of course aware of how context informs choice. Cambodians are choosing English because "English dominates the world," the dean of the Faculty of Law and Economics argued, and he is partially correct. In fact, English dominates the world because an immensely complex, transnational coalition has united around the language. In a perpetual and escalating cycle, disparate enterprises have embraced the utility of English; with each new decision to use English, the utility of the language increases incrementally relative to other media; cumulatively, these language decisions have pushed English to a position of dominance in the world. For their part, Cambodians choose English largely because a subset of this coalition-the myriad economic, political, and assistance enterprises operating in the country-has brought the language to Cambodia and, through promotion activities, created utility for it. "If Russian dominated the world, we would use Russian," the dean continued, and he is again partially correct. If countless events had transpired differently in the history of the world, and if, as a result, the global coalition had adopted Russian, enhanced its utility, and promoted it in venues including Cambodia, then Cambodians would doubtless be choosing Russian today. The dean could also have juxtaposed English with Chinese or French, which actually hold some utility for Cambodians in the contemporary context. Thus, he might have concluded, if Chinese or French dominated the world instead of English, we would use Chinese or French instead of English. More fully: If virtually all internationally oriented economic


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enterprises in the world used Chinese (rather than the subset in Asia that currently does), then Cambodians seeking employment in the private sector would have little reason to choose English. Nor would Cambodians have any cause to choose English for regional political purposes if the Association of Southeast Asian Nations had adopted Chinese as its official language. Consider what would happen if assistance agencies from everywhere in the world, rather than simply from francophone states, used French-if French "surrounded" Cambodian ministry officials in their work with the international aid community, if French became de rigueur for jobs with aid organizations, or if French ascended to dominance in technical assistance projects and at universities throughout the world. If the utility of French had been increased in these ways, Cambodians would have proportionally fewer reasons to choose English. More generally, if coalitions had formed around Chinese or French beyond the Chinese-speaking region and Francophonie, if these coalitions had through choice and use enhanced the utility of these languages beyond employment and education, and if they had introduced these broader utilities in Cambodia through language promotion initiatives, then the context for Cambodian language choice would favor Chinese or French. For the moment, however, Cambodians are making language choices that are quite consistent with-correlative to-the context in which they actually find themselves. While some do in fact choose Chinese and French for the relatively restricted utilities that external actors have created for these languages, more are choosing English, the language that the transnational coalition has through demand, preference, and education expanded to greatest utility in the world and in Cambodia.

Chapter 8

ENGLISH LANGUAGE SPREAD

1.

PROMOTION, CHOICE, SPREAD

I concluded the previous chapter with a broad statement about the utility and dominance of Englis! in the world and in Cambodia. Throughout this book, I have used several verbs when discussing this language. Various enterprises use English, they prefer it, require it, demand it, privilege it, and teach it-they promote it-in Cambodia. Within this context, Cambodians are choosing English in ever-larger numbers. I have purposefully avoided using one final verb because it carries such heavy theoretical baggage. One could say that English is spreading in Cambodia, or (to depart verbs) that language choice in Cambodia represents an example of English language spread. As a way of connecting the Cambodian case study with larger discussions and concluding this book, I directly engage this concept in this final chapter. What can the Cambodian experience tell us about the spread of English? More specifically, what can the Cambodian case study add to the highly polarized debate taking place among scholars about English language spread?

2.

THE DEBATE ABOUT ENGLISH LANGUAGE SPREAD

There is little doubt that English is spreading. The United Kingdom and the United States introduced the language to the world during the age of colonialism, but colonial imposition cannot explain the continued use of the language in independent countries like Ghana, Kenya, the Philippines, and

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Singapore, which Braj Kachru (1995) clusters within the "outer circle" (p. 229). Neither can colonialism explain the increasing use of English in venues like Estonia, France, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey, and many other sites in Kachru's "expanding circle" (p. 229; see, respectively, Fonzari, 1999; Pulcini, 1997; Truchot, 1997; A1 Haq & Smadi, 1996; Battenburg, 1997; Dogancay-Aktuna, 1998). That the language has spread since the end of the colonial period is, as Joshua Fishman (1998-1999) puts it in a recent contribution, "undeniable" (p. 26). According to David Crystal (1997), English today enjoys a "special status," meaning that it has been adopted as the or an official language in at least 75 countries and territories, and between 1.2 and 1.5 billion people speak it fluently or competently (p. 3). Fishman (1998-1999), who increases this estimate to 1.6 billion, concludes that English language spread appears to be "unstoppable" in the contemporary world (p. 26). Scholars have long been interested in the spread of English, though they do not agree on its cause. One group examines the phenomenon as an artifact of choices made by national actors concerned primarily with national issues and problems. Early studies in this vein, such as Language Problems of Developing Countries (Fishman, Ferguson, & Das Gupta, l968), The Spread of English (Fishman, Cooper, & Conrad, 1977), and Progress in Language Planning (Cobarrubias & Fishman, 1983) connect with more recent inquiry, notably Post-Imperial English (Fishman, Conrad, & Rubal-Lopez, 1996) and The Dominance of English as a Language of Science (Ammon, 2 0 0 1 ~ ) . Scholars in what might be termed the language choice tradition argue that English is being pulled into new venues around the world by local actors who make institutional and personal choices in favor of it. For the most part, language choice scholars see English as useful and beneficial in these settings: as a tool for national integration (providing a common language in multilingual societies), for fiscal management (as cost-effective compared with indigenous languages), for economic and political participation, and for international communication in domains such as assistance, education, and science and technology. In contrast, a second group argues that English is spreading as a result of linguistic imperialism. Robert Phillipson (1992) reinvigorated this concept in his 1992 monograph of the same name, though the phrase in fact originated in the 1930s as part of a critique of the Basic English Movement (for a discussion, see Clayton, 1999). According to Phillipson (1994), the United Kingdom and the United States have promoted the maintenance of English in former colonies and its adoption in other locales through "English language spread policy," a purposeful plan coordinated by assistance agencies like the British Council and the Peace Corps to push English into greater use in the world (p. 7). By providing a medium for communication in various

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asymmetrical situations, linguistic imperialism scholars continue, the spread of English allows the United Kingdom and the United States to extend or transform colonial structures throughout the world. More specifically, Phillipson and others who agree with him see the spread of English as central to the contemporary relations of domination and subordination that simultaneously benefit the modern anglophone metropoles and exploit or disadvantage the contemporary "neoH-colonies (also see Pennycook, 1994; Tollefson, 1995). In recent years, debate about English language spread has raged between these two camps. The editors of Post-Imperial English, for example, commissioned the country case studies that compose the volume for the ostensible purpose of testing the linguistic imperialism thesis, but in fact most contributors worked simply to discredit it (Fishman et al., 1996). Phillipson's (1999) review of this volume, in turn, included harsh criticism for those contributors who had "excluded . . . aspects of power and ideology" in their analysis of English language spread (p. 376). Unfortunately, this debate appears to be polarizing scholars in each tradition against the alternative: Trapped by their own ideological encumbrances, scholars seem to be making little progress toward a resolution of the debate and a wider or more inclusive understanding of English language spread. In the sections that follow, I draw on the Cambodian case study to posit one such wider resolution-or, more accurately, one hypothesis that may in greater or lesser degrees prove useful for further inquiry about English language spread. I begin analysis with the linguistic imperialism thesis because the Cambodian case study has more to engage relative to this way of understanding English language spread, and I conclude with the language choice thesis.

3.

LINGUISTIC IMPERIALISM

Since its modern articulation in 1992, the linguistic imperialism thesis has advanced in sophistication. Under the influence of critiques mounted by Alastair Pennycook (1994, 1995), for instance, linguistic imperialism scholars have began to acknowledge the concept of agency, recognizing that actors in subordinate relations are not passive, but respond in various ways to imposition, linguistic or otherwise. By 1999, even Phillipson had relaxed his rigid structural-functionalism and had begun to acknowledge "the decisive role [played by] human agency" in the development of inequitable linguistic relations (Phillipson & Skutnabb-Kangas, 1999, p. 22). In other ways, however, the linguistic imperialism thesis remains enigmatic, clearly at odds with both the contemporary world and with contemporary critical visions of the world. The Cambodian case study illuminates this

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tendency in several ways, beginning with the post-national attachments of English.

3.1

Post-National English

The linguistic imperialism thesis suggests that English is spreading around the world through the promotion efforts of the United Kingdom and the United States. To summarize Phillipsonvs (1992) extensive analysis of British and American efforts to spread the English language since the end of the Second World War, these nations have (among other things) placed native English language teachers in schools and universities; trained indigenous teachers of the language; built extensive networks of English language libraries and cultural centers; offered scholarships to home universities for students able to speak English; and provided aid projects, in English, in agriculture, medicine, rural development, and other domains. The critical mass of these initiatives, Phillipson (1992) concludes, "establish[es] and continuous[ly] reconstitut[es] inequalities between English and other languages" in such a way as to influence the decisions of individuals and policy makers throughout the world toward English (p. 47). The Cambodian case study supports this plank in the linguistic imperialism argument, though only within a considerably larger context. Indeed, not only the United Kingdom and the United States, but every anglophone nation in the world has taught or otherwise promoted English in Cambodia. Through the Centre for British Teachers, the United Kingdom trained lowersecondary English teachers in the Cambodian Secondary English Teaching Project. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) supported English language teaching initiatives within larger projects implemented by Georgetown University and the University of San Francisco at the National Institute of Management; in addition, the Asia Foundation has built English holdings at many libraries in the country with USAID funding. The Australian Agency for International Development worked to prepare upper-secondary English teachers at the Institute of Foreign Languages while at the same time teaching English to thousands in ministry service, some of whom later pursued master's degrees in Australia with the Australian Development Scholarship program. New Zealand sends advisors to the English Section at the Institut de Technologie du Cambodge, while volunteers from the Irish Agency for Personal Service Overseas have taught English both to Cambodian ministry personnel and at the Royal University of Fine Arts. The Canadian International Development Agency does not teach English in Cambodia, but does privilege the language in assistance work by, among other things, sponsoring employees to language courses at proprietary schools.


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But bilateral agencies associated with anglophone nations barely begin the list of actors who have promoted English in Cambodia. In fact, the list extends through the bilateral aid organizations of all countries except France, through all United Nations and other multilateral agencies except the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, and to nearly all nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), including many based in francophone countries. Recall, for example, the Distance Learning in Financial Economics Project, administered by the Cambodia Development Resource Institute with funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, in which Cambodian government officials received English language training in advance of economics courses both in Cambodia and at the University of London. The European Union, the United Nations Development Programme, and the World Bank similarly provided English language training to ministry officials within the context of technical assistance projects, some of which sponsored Cambodians to university courses in other countries. The Italian NGO New Humanity taught English at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, while nongovernmental organizations based in Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Taiwan, and many other states hire English-speaking Cambodians and send employees for skills-upgrading classes to proprietary English language schools. Nor does the list end with assistance agencies, for political enterprises too have promoted English in Cambodia. Today, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) extends a language preference trajectory begun in the early 1990s by the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia. While ASEAN does not teach English in Cambodia, it exerts considerable pressure toward English language learning, for Cambodians realize that without English skills they would be unable to participate in the regional political forum or defend national interests in the ASEAN Free Trade Area. The list may culminate in the economic domain, though it is here that we encounter the greatest consensus in favor of English. Accordingly, economic enterprises in all sectors, from all bases (including France), and of all sizes (from mammoths like Nest16 to small firms like Forte Insurance) use English in their work in Cambodia and demand English language skills among the Cambodians they employ. Some teach English to employees themselves, though more commonly enterprises form Cambodians for company needs at schools like the Australian Centre for Education. Most firms operated by Chinese speakers-in the garment industry, for example-require employees to know both Chinese and English. In this book, I have approached the promotion of English from a contextual perspective. That is, I have argued that this diverse coalition of economic, political, and assistance enterprises has created the context in which Cambodians are choosing English. More specifically, these enterprises have

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themselves made decisions to work in English, and these cumulative decisions have increased the utility of this language (for employment, political participation, education, and so on) compared with others at the world level. Enterprises have then introduced these utilities in Cambodia both through their hiring practices and through the opportunities they offer to speakers of the language. Cambodians have recognized the broad utility associated with English relative to the more restricted utilities associated with French and Chinese and, as a result, have chosen to learn this language more frequently than they have chosen to learn the others. Note first that had I adopted a slightly different-a critical-tone, my approach would have drawn close to that of the linguistic imperialism thesis. Indeed, the massive promotion of English in Cambodia has created an imbalance, if not an inequality, between the utility of English and that of other foreign languages Cambodians may consider choosing. The Cambodian case study clearly departs the linguistic imperialism thesis, however, regarding the demographics of the enterprises that promote English and thereby create the context for Cambodian language choice. In his response to the linguistic imperialism thesis, Fishman (1996) presents English as "post-imperial," by which he means (among other things) that the language can no longer be associated merely with the former anglophone colonial powers (p. 623). The Cambodian case study both supports Fishman's conclusion and pushes it further: English has indeed slipped the orbit of the United Kingdom and the United States and is today being used and promoted not only by these nations, not only by other anglophone nations, but by virtually every nation and multilateral configuration of nations, with the exception of Francophonie. Given this new territoriality, it seems possible to conclude that English has entered not merely a "postimperial," but also a "post-anglophone" stage, which is to say that today the language attaches almost universally throughout the architecture of nations and supranational organizations that compose the political world. English also attaches in architectures other than the political, or perhaps on political and other planes simultaneously. Universities throughout the world have adopted English as an instructional language, particularly at the graduate level; recall, for example, the education of Cambodians, in English, at universities in Japan, the Philippines, and Sweden. Though these universities can be categorized in terms of their state affiliations, which of course correlate weakly with anglophone national status, they also cluster together in a single unit defined by their common language policy: the global infrastructure of English-language universities. English attaches similarly in the international aid community sauf Francophonie, which like the global university infrastructure can be understood either in terms of its constituents' diffuse national bases, or as a single entity defined by its common purpose


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and shared language of preference. Most important and also most removed from the world's political architecture, English attaches by way of its near universal use to the global economy, a unit of analysis whose boundaries cross national frontiers in complex and discontinuous ways, even as the curves on a topographical map underlie the straight lines superimposed by variable and impermanent polities. These extra-national attachments suggest an introductory critique of the linguistic imperialism thesis. Phillipson associates English with the United Kingdom and the United States. The Cambodian case study, on the other hand, shows English to have expanded considerably beyond these polities, being today not only post-imperial, but also post-anglophone. Importantly, English has also evolved along coordinates other than the political, becoming simultaneously "post-national," "transnational," or simply "global."

3.2

Selling English

Phillipson presents English linguistic imperialism as centrally important to the creation and maintenance of the dependency relations through which the former anglophone imperial powers control and exploit current and emerging neocolonies. Thus, linguistic imperialism "interlocks with economic, military, and cultural dependence [resulting in an] asymmetrical relationship that leads to continued strength in the rich West [and, relatedly, to] the underdevelopment . . . of poor countries" (Phillipson, 1994, p. 19). Here and elsewhere, Phillipson uses various dichotomies to divide the world: rich and poor countries, center and periphery, "haves" and "have-nots" (respectively, Phillipson, 1988, 1992; Phillipson & Skutnabb-Kangas, 1999). In each case, however, his contextualizing comments leave little doubt as to whom he sees in the dominant role. In "English Language Spread Policy," for instance, his conclusion about the asymmetrical relations that culminate in the enrichment of some nations and the underdevelopment of others comes after a lengthy discussion of the "American promotion of the spread of English," the "British promotion of the spread of English," and the "Anglo-American liaison" regarding the spread of English (Phillipson, 1994, pp. 10, 14, 17). The dramatic complexity of the context created for English language choice in Cambodia calls into question Phillipson's vision of the world. Assuming for the moment that we can accurately read asymmetrical international or global relations from English language promotion, Phillipson suggests a world controlled by the United Kingdom and the United States. This is clearly not the world in which Cambodians live. Rather (carrying forward the assumption of asymmetry, at least for the moment), Cambodia operates in a world controlled by a complex coalition of actors associated

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with numerous nations and groups of nations (anglophone and others) as well as with economic, assistance, and educational communities located globally rather than nationally. Cambodians themselves recognize in the diffusion of English language promotion that the world has changed since the days of British and American colonialism. "When we use English, we don't think about the United States or England," the dean of the Faculty of Law and Economics replied to my veiled suggestion (interview with Yuok Ngoy, 2000). On the basis of similar data from other venues, Fishman (1996) draws the conclusion that the dean certainly intended: that "English [needs] to be re-examined [as] not directly serving purely Anglo-American territorial, economic, or cultural expansion" (p. 8). Before doing this-that is, before exploring the way English may (or may not) integrate with post-imperial hierarchies that may (or may not) exist in the world--consider one area in which Phillipson's vision appears accurate. Accordingly, actors from first-language nations control an important segment of the English language teaching business in Cambodia and, through it, accumulate considerable capital. Recall how the geographical diffusion of enterprises that privilege English clarifies when the focus shifts to those teaching the language. Diverse economic and assistance enterprises require employees to know English, for example, though most subcontract with the Australian Centre for Education, the Cambodian-British Centre, or Regent School of Business for English skills-upgrading classes; all of these schools employ native English teachers, and of them only the latter is not owned and administered by an organization based in an anglophone country. Of course, individual Cambodians study at these schools too, without sponsorship from foreign firms or aid organizations. The vast majority of nonsponsored students, however, follow classes in the hundreds of Cambodian-owned private English language schools scattered throughout the country, where for the most part their tuition enriches their compatriots, not anglophone actors. Similarly, diffuse aid agencies have financed technical assistance projects, but an anglophone commonality emerges among their English language program providers. In the English-as-projects format discussed in Chapter Five, the Agency for Personal Service Overseas (with Irish government funding), the Centre for British Teachers (funded by what would become the British Department for International Development), and the Australian Centre for Education (for the Australian Agency for International Development) ran the English in Ministries Project, the English Language Training for Cambodian Key Ministries Staff Project, and the English Language for Ministry Officials and the English for Academic Purposes Projects, respectively; at the nongovernmental Cambodia Development Resource Institute (funded by the Swedish, Canadian, Danish, and Dutch


249

governments), native-speakers taught ministry personnel in the English Language Training Center. In English-in-projects ventures mounted by the European Union, UNESCO, the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, and other agencies, the Australian Centre for Education, the Centre for British Teachers, and the Cambodia Development Resource Institute provided English language training for government officials destined for subsequent English-language coursework. Enterprises that contract to teach English or train English teachers in schools also demonstrate a strong tendency to anglophone national status. The Cambodian Secondary English Teaching Project, administered by the Centre for British Teachers with bilateral funding from the United Kingdom, ran from 1993 to 2001, during which time British expatriates graduated 30 Cambodian teacher trainers and more than 700 English teachers for lowersecondary schools. The Australian government funded the upper-secondary English teacher training program at the Institute of Foreign Languages, beginning in 1984 through the nongovernmental Quaker Service Australia and, between 1993 and 1997, through the University of Canberra and IDP Education Australia. Agencies currently or formerly involved in English language teaching or teacher education at universities include the Auckland Institute of Technology (funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs), the British Voluntary Service Overseas organization (the British Department for International Development), the Agency for Personal Service Overseas (the Irish government), and the US.-based English Language Institute (directly funded by the Faculty of Law and Economics). The Australian Centre for Education taught English classes for students at the fine arts university within the context of a UNESCO project. These various tendencies aggregate as a strong correlation to anglophone national status among those agencies that teach English under contract with others-whether with economic or assistance agencies to form employees linguistically, or with bi- or multilateral aid organizations to train ministry personnel or teachers, or with the more affluent universities to teach students. It is somewhat difficult to quantify the capital flows associated with this market for English as an instructional commodity. In 2000, the Australian Centre for Education earned $2.5 million teaching English in Cambodia, though at least some of this revenue would have been contributed by individuals as opposed to contracting agencies or institutions. While the Cambodian-British Centre earned between $200,000 and $250,000 annually from the sale of English in Cambodia, this figure does not include income from the Cambodian Secondary English Teaching Project. A considerable portion of this roughly $10 million project would have flowed to associated British actors and enterprises: to the expatriates employed by the Centre for British Teachers; to British publishers and manufacturers of textbooks,

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equipment, and other materials; to British air carriers for the transportation of project personnel; to British universities for the education of Cambodian teacher trainers; and to other producers that enjoy a commercial relationship with the British Department for International Development. If we cannot quantify it precisely, capital from the sale of English is nevertheless flowing in patterns suggested at least generally by the linguistic imperialism thesis: Certain enterprises associated with anglophone nations are selling English to various organizations in Cambodia, and these proprietary relations result in the transfer of capital to the seller. Whether this benefit to anglophone actors manifests in a corollary disadvantage to Cambodians is less clear. On one hand, most of the capital transferred to anglophone enterprises originates not with Cambodians but with foreign economic and assistance agencies operating in Cambodia, and it thus might be categorized as neutral relative to Cambodians themselves. As Stephen Clayton (2004) points out, however, the enormous monies invested in English language teaching and teacher education programs by foreign actors like the British Department for International Development might have had a more positive impact for more Cambodians had they been directed to Khmer literacy programs or myriad other educational or social service initiatives. From Clayton's (2004) perspective, English language teaching brings not only benefits to the provider, but disadvantages to Cambodians by way of underdevelopment in other domains.

3.3

Essential English

As a step toward an examination of English and post-imperial hierarchies in the world, consider the necessary or essential role linguistic imperialism scholars assign to English in the continual reconstitution of colonial relations. In an early contribution, Phillipson concludes that the imposition of English "has been an essential component of neo-colonialism [which extends] colonialist . . . practice[s with] no significant break" (Phillipson, 1988, p. 345; my emphasis). In his 1992 monograph, he states more specifically that linguistic imperialism is necessary to the "progression from one type of imperialist control to another": It is "essential for completing the move away from crude means, the sticks of colonial times, and even the more discreet means of the neo-colonialist phase of asymmetrical bargaining, to neo-neo-colonialist control by means of ideas" (Phillipson, 1992, p. 53; my emphasis). Note that his latter statement qualifies the former in an important way. For Phillipson, the imposition of English is essential to the dissemination of the ideas that legitimate the contemporary version of "imperialist" relations.


25 1

The Cambodian case study speaks in several ways to this ideological component of the linguistic imperialism thesis. To begin, recall how various aid agencies train Cambodian civil servants as couriers, ready to reach out of the country (at least metaphorically), acquire knowledge and ideas relevant to the country's postcommunist trajectories, and then return home with them. English provides the medium in almost all such capacity-building ventures. In the Distance Learning in Financial Economics Project offered by the Cambodia Development Resource Institute with Swedish bilateral funding, for instance, ministry officials studied English and then used the language to follow classes about economic transition and integration both in Cambodia and at the University of London. At the Economics and Finance Institute operated with World Bank funding at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Cambodians learned English in anticipation of further courses, many in English, about taxation, customs, and other technical aspects of market liberalization. Said one Cambodian of an English-language course he had attended at the Shanghai Institute of Finance and Economics for the International Monetary Fund, "We knew about socialist economics, but this was the first time I had learned about capitalism" (interview with Kim Savun, 2000). Beyond economics, Cambodians have also retrieved ideas related to political change through English. In the Preparations for Cambodia's Membership in ASEAN Project, for example, the United Nations Development Programme used English to teach ministry personnel about protocols, standards, and practices in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as Cambodia moved toward membership in this regional political organization. On a more abstract level, the English for Democracy course offered with Australian bilateral funding at the Australian Centre for Education integrated basic concepts of liberal democracy with English language training for members of the formerly communist Cambodian People's Party. Participants from several ministries received instruction-in English-about human rights and the rule of law, among other topics concerned generally with democratization, after completing a series of preparatory English language courses in the European Union's Training Project for Officials. "Democracy" and how "to think with an open mind," one ministry official replied when I asked what he had learned on an English-language study tour of the United States (interview with Chheng Saroeun, 2001). Some scholars aggregate ideas about economic and political change such as those Cambodians have encountered through English as the "neoliberal agenda." At its broadest, neoliberalism comprises a "sometimes uneasy and contradictory fusion" of ideas about how states should be organized in relation to the global economy (Overbeek & van der Pijl, 1993, p. 15). On one hand, governments will not regulate this economic system, avoiding the

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imposition of constraints on the movement of goods or capital. On the other hand, states will regulate their own internal stability; regimes will succeed one another democratically, human rights will be protected, the rule of law will be upheld, and so on. Selma Sonntag (2003) reiterated these dual foci recently in the language policy context, associating neoliberalism more simply (if less contradictorily) with economic liberalization and political democratization. Importantly, many scholars consider neoliberalism to be the guiding ideology-what Antonio Gramsci (1971) would have termed "common senseH-of a new world order: globalization. The world has been "restructured" in the last 30 years, Henk Overbeek and Kees van der Pijl (1993) argue as an example, and neoliberalism has "guided this restructuring and shaped its trajectory" (p. 2; also see Chomsky, 1999; Oxhorn & Ducatenzeiler, 1998; Wallerstein, 1995). I return in the following section to globalization, and to the ways English may (or may not) integrate with hierarchies that may (or may not) have arisen with it. For the moment, however, consider the "essentialness" of English in the dissemination of its guiding ideology. "English is essential to the learning and diffusion of modern economics in Cambodia," offered two professors from the Institute of Social Studies in the Hague, in a statement that seems entirely consistent with the English language essentialism of the linguistic imperialism thesis (Sideri & Irvin, 1991, p. 11). But, while assistance agencies and universities have relied heavily on English to orient Cambodians away from communist systems and practices, they have at the same time demonstrated what I have elsewhere termed a "pragmatic" language policy tendency (see Clayton, 1999, 2000). While uniformly dedicated to the promotion of a particular and cohesive cluster of ideas (in this case, something like the neoliberal agenda), they have made variable language decisions based on the problems and possibilities of individual situations. Several agencies have used French in technical assistance projects dedicated generally and specifically to economic and political change. The International Monetary Fund organized a French-language economics seminar in Washington for participants from francophone countries, including Cambodia, for instance, while the European Union introduced civilservants-in-training at the Ecole Royale d' Administration to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations at least partially in French. Agencies have also exposed Cambodians to new ways of thinking through their native language. At least some instructors from the World Bank used Khmer to teach classes related both conceptually and practically to market liberalization at the Economics and Finance Institute. In projects including one administered by UNESCO, agencies trained officials from national ministries in English, and these civil servants then further disseminated the ideas they had acquired to


25 3

their colleagues at the provincial and district levels, in Khmer. It may be by way of this latter structure-the rolling or sustainable ideological diffusion set in motion through capacity building-that the concept of the market has so thoroughly penetrated the country, reaching even those remote villages studied by Krishnamurthy (1 999) and McAndrew (2001). There appear to be several reasons that agencies make pragmatic language decisions in projects dedicated to the ideological reorientation of civil servants-or, for that matter, of students; the few anglophone agencies that have provided content instruction related to liberalization and democratization at Cambodia's universities have done so through translators, not through English. Accordingly, agencies may be responding to established foreign language traditions at particular institutions, or to the language possibilities of lecturers, or to those of students; alternately, they may simply find it more effective or efficient to deliver ideas--or to set in motion educational programs that will continuously deliver ideas-in languages that participants control better than they do English. In other situations, the departure from English may derive from something other than pragmatism. Coopkration Fran~aiseand the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, for instance, typically privilege French at Cambodia's universities. While the ideas disseminated in French resonate with those offered in other languages by way of their general orientation to the free market and liberal democracy, the French language policy may simultaneously advance particular national interests by way of their association with practices specific to Francophonie. Pragmatic or self-interested, these language policies suggest a clear departure from the linguistic imperialism thesis. According to Phillipson, English plays an essential role in the dissemination of ideologies that legitimate colonial-like asymmetries in the world. Whether we call it the neoliberal agenda or refer to it more neutrally as a conceptual fusion of economic liberalization and political democratization, the ideas that are guiding and shaping the restructuring of the world toward globalization have been introduced in Cambodia in French and Khmer, as well as in English. Whether this new world holds possibilities for Cambodians, or introduces disadvantages within a transnational articulation of colonialism, are questions for the following section.

3.4

Globalization

In a recent contribution, Phillipson and coauthor Tove Skutnabb-Kangas (1999) open the possibility that English may integrate with structures other than the colonial or neocolonial. "English is deeply involved in ongoing processes of globalisation," they write in their essay "Englishisation: One Dimension of Globalisation" (p. 20).

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In Cambodia, English has integrated with at least two dimensions of globalization: the interrelated processes of liberalization and democratization. Beginning with the latter, it is almost impossible to imagine political change in Cambodia without English. Recall, for example, the rapid shift away from French and toward English as the language of communication within the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC). As I argued in Chapter Three, without the mediating skills of bilingual Cambodians who learned English in order to work for the United Nations, UNTAC would have met considerably greater difficulties in directing the country's democratic transition. Similarly, Cambodia's integration into democratic political networks would have been dramatically complicated had Cambodians not learned English; most relevant, Cambodian officials would have been constrained in accession negotiations and other meetings with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which uses English as its official language. Having noted the connection between English and political change, we must also note its limits, recalling that both French and Khmer have played important roles in democratic transition, consolidation, and practice in Cambodia. Analysis of democratization within the globalization literature tends to focus on its correlative relationship with liberalization-that is, whether "economic growth is essential for, and therefore must precede, democratization," whether components of liberal democracy such as the rule of law and good governance are "imperative" to economic growth, whether liberalization and democratization are simply "mutually reinforcing," and so on (McGinn, 1996, p. 353; Kato et al., 2000, p. i; Nelson, 1994, p. 61). Scholars do not generally develop critical arguments about "the expansion of democracy" in the world (Dailami, 2000, p. 1; though see Robinson, 1996). Indeed, in the Cambodian context, it would difficult to argue that the rights to vote, to hold office, to express oneself, and to enjoy personal freedoms could represent anything but an improvement for those who had lived through communism, the Vietnamese occupation, and the Khmer Rouge regime. To the extent that English has been involved in these unambiguously good results, the spread of English is unambiguously good. To the extent that English has contributed to the liberation of millions of people from authoritarianism and oppression, the spread of English cannot be said to be subordinating or exploitative. Critical conclusions exist in abundance, however, in the literature on economic globalization-which, had they fully engaged it, might have pushed Phillipson and Skutnabb-Kangas (1999) beyond their continuing focus on English language spread relative to "particular national interests" and "Anglo-American dominance" (pp. 23, 30). Many critical globalization scholars argue, for instance, that the recent restructuring of the world has


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resulted in a "transformation of the modern imperialist geography of the globe" and a reconstitution of relations of domination and subordination in the world (Hardt & Negri, 2000, p. xiii). Specifically, they suggest that the "separate national capitalist classes" of the colonial and neocolonial eras have integrated (or are in the process of integrating) into classes "whose coordinates are no longer national" (Boswell & Chase-Dunn, 2000, p. 212; Robinson & Harris, 2000, p. 14). While these contemporary classes operate in a new formation, the global economy, they are bound in relations reminiscent of those that Marx described at the societal level or that dependency theorists explored between nations. Namely, the "global proletariatmlocated mostly but not entirely in the developing world-is exploited and disadvantaged by being drawn into an economic system controlled by the "transnational capitalist class" or "global bourgeoisie" (Sklair, 1999, p. 157; Robinson & Harris, 2000, p. 17). Had Phillipson or other scholars developed an argument about English from this conceptual starting point, they would have had to address the considerable body of literature suggesting a different outcome for the world's poor of global economic integration and participation. The scholars who have contributed this latter literature agree fundamentally with former president Bill Clinton that "open markets are the best engine we know of to lift living standards and build shared prosperity" throughout the world (cited in Dollar & Kraay, 2001, p. 1). Working with huge data sets compiled across decades by the World Bank and other organizations interested in economic and social change, scholars present what boils down to a very simple argument: Participation in the global economy brings economic growth; growth (typically measured in terms of gross domestic product, GDP) means more money for governments and individuals, which in turn translates into less poverty, better health, more education, and so on. William Easterly (2001) sums up this perspective on globalization well in a discussion entitled "Why Growth Matters." Growth reduces poverty, he writes, but "poverty is not just low GDP; it is dying babies, starving children, . . . oppression of women," and countless other economic and social ills (pp. 14-15; also see Easterly, 1997; Thomas et al., 2000). Phillipson and Skutnabb-Kangas (1999) hint toward adherence to the former position on globalization, calling for empirical studies of "how English is involved" in the creation of a world that is "manifestly and monstrously skewed in favour of a minority of haves and [against] a vast majority of have-nots" (pp. 21, 20). The Cambodian case study can answer at least the request for empirical information about English and global economic processes. Recall the overwhelming preference for English among foreign and internationally oriented Cambodian-owned economic enterprises; certainly some firms demand Chinese, and a few require knowledge

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of French, but most Cambodian employees are expected to know English. Cambodians use their English language skills in numerous ways for these enterprises, including in office communication, company communication, and customer relations. In fact, I argued preliminarily in Chapter Two that the very success of these companies depends on bilingual Cambodians' ability to mediate communication between sundry monolingual parties. Ultimately, I concluded, English plays a vital (if not essential) role both in the success of business in Cambodia and in the country's-or at least parts of the country's-related regional, hemispheric, and global economic integration. The question, of course, is what global economic integration and participation mean for Cambodians. Results are contradictory, beginning with econometric studies that induce national trends from the aggregated trajectories of diverse groups. As noted in Chapter Two, Cambodia's gross domestic product has increased dramatically since the process of economic transition began in the late 1980s. At the individual level, per capita GDP increased from $200 annually in 1993 to $280 in 2002 ("Economy Watch," 2001; World Bank, 2004). Directly related to this growth, the proportion of Cambodians living in poverty has declined. The percentage of Cambodians existing below the poverty line established by the World Bank at $1 per day decreased across the decade, falling from 39 percent in 1994 to 34 percent in 1999 (Sok et al., 2000). While income is rising, however, so too is income inequality, as measured by the Gini index, on which a score of 0.0 represents perfect equity and a rating of 1.0 represents perfect inequity. Cambodia's Gini coefficient increased from 0.40 in 1995 to 0.45 in 1999; as a point of comparison, the Gini rating in the United States was 0.41 in 1997 (Asian Development Bank, 2003a; United Nations Development Programme, 2003). The Asian Development Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, and the World Bank all collect data on the quality of life in Cambodia relative to economic growth. With growth, child malnutrition decreased from 52 percent in 1990 to 46 percent in 2000; related per capita nutritional intake increased from 1,830 to 2,011 calories and from 44 to 49 grams of protein per day during the same period. Between the beginning and end of the decade, life expectancy increased by three years, educational participation improved at all levels, and the literacy rate rose for both children and adults (Asian Development Bank, 2003a). By 2000, 30 percent of Cambodians had access to an improved water source, up from only 13 percent in 1995 (World Bank, 1998, 2000). Against these positive developments, however, lie certain setbacks in health. The rates of infant and underfive child mortality rose across the decade, for instance, to 97 and 138 per 1,000, respectively. Perhaps related, the number of births attended by a


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skilled health professional decreased during the same period, from 47 percent in 1990 to 32 percent in 2000 (Asian Development Bank, 2003a; World Bank, 2004). Ethnographers devote specific attention to individual groups that the World Bank and others aggregate for econometric studies. Here too contradictions emerge in analyses of economic change. Recall from Chapter Two Veena Krishnamurthy's The Impact of Armed Conflict on Social Capital (1 999) and John McAndrew's Indigenous Adaptation to a Rapidly Changing Economy (2001). These authors examine the developments that are slowly integrating the Cambodian countryside into wider economic networks. Krishnamurthy focuses on the changes that the spread of market-oriented, monetized economic activity has brought to Kampong Speu Province, notably the decline of provas dei, or communal labor exchange. "Market forces and the cash economy are resulting in the loss of safety nets provided by older networks based on mutual help," she argues. "This trend has negatively affected the poorer and more vulnerable households that are unable to survive in a highly competitive environment" (p. 65). At the same time, she acknowledges the benefits that have arrived in Kampong Speu with economic integration; leaders in one village, for instance, used royalties paid by a mining company to build a village hall and buy an irrigation pump for communal purposes. McAndrew (2001) studies economic change in the remote northeast part of the country. In one village, indigenous people have sold land to inmigrating ethnic Khmers and, in the process, have subverted centuries-old patterns of life. More specifically, McAndrew argues, "the market economy, particularly the land market, has seriously eroded local governance structures and communal solidarity [and] diminished natural resources necessary for sustaining livelihoods" (p. 45). As one village leader commented of the latter dynamic, "If the land sales continue, future generations will have no land to cultivate their crops. How will they survive?" (cited on p. 24). Regardless of these social crises, McAndrew argues that it would be "unfair to state . . . that the market economy has produced only disastrous outcomes" in indigenous villages (p. 45). Indeed, many villagers have "supplement[ed] their livelihoods" by selling agricultural and forest products in the markets established or developed by Khmer migrants (p. 45). Others have benefited more generally from the region's increasing connections with the rest of the country and, in particular, from the arrival of nongovernmental organizations and the agricultural, educational, and health services they provide. I asked an economist at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute how to read data showing both improving and declining social indicators correlating with economic growth. "That's easy," replied Sok Hach. "We

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have had about 4 percent growth per year since 1993 or 1994," he began, but this growth has concentrated in Phnom Penh and in certain sectors, notably the garment industry and tourism, where it affects a relatively small percentage of the national population. "In fact, we could say that only 5 to 10 percent of the population of Cambodia is benefiting from economic growth-from economic integration." Meanwhile, "very little has changed in the 1990s" for the two-thirds of Cambodians who subsist as rice farmers largely outside the market economy. "So, this is how we can explain the contradictory data," he concluded: "Yes, economic growth will bring social benefits, but right now growth is not affecting all people in Cambodia, so some of the data reflect this unevenness and show decreasing social benefits" (interview with Sok Hach, 2001). In other words, Sok Hach argued, negative social indicators in Cambodia are resulting not from economic integration and participation, but from the geographical incompleteness of integration and participation. But Sok Hach's conclusion is itself contradictory, as he acknowledged by reference to "sex tourism," an industry that has arisen in precisely those spatial venues most fully integrated in the global economy (interview, 2001). In Siem Reap, home of the Angkor Wat, most people worked as subsistence farmers and fishers before the Open Skies policy made the province easily accessible to tourists in 1997. After this policy had more firmly connected the region with the world, researchers noted not only a boom in legitimate tourist-oriented economic activity, but also a sharp increase in prostitution among both women and children. It is difficult to define the costs associated with this latter industry beyond the obvious: Women and children whose "poverty [makes them] susceptible to engaging in sexual activities with tourists . . . are exploited, abused and put at risk" (Sok et al., 2001, p. 74). As one specific example, sex tourism has certainly contributed to the spread of HIV/AIDS in Cambodia; according to the World Bank (2004), 2.5 percent of Cambodian women between the ages of 15 and 24 have contracted this virus, and an unknown number have died and left children infected or orphaned by it. No activity more fully illustrates Cambodia's global economic integration-and its contradictions-than garment manufacturing. Though Cambodian garment workers labor for wages in factories they do not control, producing goods they themselves cannot afford to buy, for owners who extract three-quarters of the profits from the country, their economic participation earns them several times the per capita GDP, and they live well above the poverty line set by the World Bank. With their $61 average monthly salaries, young women workers not only support themselves in Phnom Penh, where their accommodation, food, and other expenses ripple positively throughout the local economy, but they send between $20 and $40


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per month back to their families in the countryside, where it may pay for the educational expenses of siblings as well as buy food, medicine, and farm inputs (Asian Development Bank, 2005; Grumiau, 2005). While the young women gain important and potentially transferable skills in garment factories, many who are away from the social support structures of their home villages for the first time also complain of loneliness and isolation, and there is related concern about the increase in sexual activity, and sexually transmitted diseases, among them (Care International, 2001; Maclean, 1999; "Money But No Freedom," 2004). Keeping the contradictions of Cambodia's global economic integration and participation in mind, let us return to English and an updated linguistic imperialism thesis. From the conceptual framework provided by critical globalization scholars, one could argue that English is being promoted around the world by the transnational capitalist class, that its resulting spread facilitates the integration of diverse venues into the global economy, and that subsequent economic participation exploits and disadvantages people in these venues who aggregate transnationally as the global proletariat. To begin analysis in the Cambodian context, it might be possible to define the coalition associated with English as the transnational capitalist class. While members of this coalition demonstrate only a weak tendency toward anglophone national status, they correlate more strongly in another way. Coming together from venues including 8 of the 10 largest economies in the world (United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, China, Italy, and Canada) and the four largest economies in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore), the economic, political, and assistance actors in the coalition appear to be located with significant regularity at the geographically diffuse heart of the global economy (World Bank, 2003b). There is no question that this group is promoting English in Cambodia; whether we call it a global coalition or the transnational capitalist class, it has created and continues to create a context favorable to English language choice by preferring, requiring, demanding, privileging, and teaching the language. Nor is there any question that the subsequent spread of English facilitates global economic integration and participation; indeed, it has been through bilingual Cambodians that local companies have been able to establish links outside the country and that foreign firms have been able to work successfully in Cambodia. The contradictions around these processes complicate the final proposition of the updated linguistic imperialism thesis, however. T o be sure, economic change has brought upheaval, even exploitation, to some Cambodians: to the indigenous people who sold their land and their way of life, to the women and children forced by poverty into prostitution, to the garment workers who with others in a transnational labor force form one of the first links in a global commodity chain that culminates with

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consumers in the richest parts of the world, and undoubtedly to many others in many other situations. But exploitation does not describe the effects for all Cambodians of global economic integration and participation-indeed, even among many of those just mentioned economic change has brought benefit as well as disadvantage. Consider the unspecified groups of Cambodians that aggregate with indigenous peoples, garment workers, and others in econometric analyses published by organizations like the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). UNDP's human development index (HDI) measures "achievement in three basic dimensions[:] a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living" (United Nations Development Programme, 2003, p. 353). Cambodia's HDI rating has increased steadily, from 0.512 in 1990 to 0.556 in 2003, indicating an ascending standard of living across the decade. The gender-related development index (GDI) adjusts the HDI for gender inequalities, with a rising rate indicating increasing equity between men and women. In Cambodia, the GDI rose between reporting periods, from 0.534 in 1999 to 0.551 in 2001 (United Nations Development Programme, 2001, 2003). The education index (EI) aggregates data on educational participation and literacy; Cambodia's EI increased from 0.35 in 1992 to 0.64 in 2003 (United Nations Development Programme, 1995, 2003). Contained in these statistics are data from groups of Cambodians across geographical, socioeconomic, ethnic, and other spectra. While some have been exploited through their contemporary economic participation, others have benefited-in fact, the steadily improving quality of life illustrated by the UNDP indices suggests that more Cambodians have enjoyed the latter than suffered the former outcome. Finally, then, while we can conclude with certainty that the spread of English is leading Cambodians into the global economy, we cannot speak with equal certitude either of the results for Cambodians of participation, or of the ethical shape of this new formation. What we can speak of are the contradictions that characterize Cambodians' experiences, whether these contradictions derive from the incompleteness of integration, the antinomies of participation, or other imperatives: Life has worsened for some Cambodians since economic transition began in the late 1980s, though for others-in fact, the majority-increasing wealth, health, and education indicate a better quality of life.

3.5

Social Stratification

In Cambodia, English has been deeply involved in liberalization and democratization. While these neoliberal processes are transforming the world, we cannot draw unequivocal conclusions about what transformation


26 1

means in Cambodia. Cambodians are not na'ive about the future; they recognize, for instance, the "fierce . . . competiti[onIMthat local producers will face when the ASEAN Free Trade Area begins full operation in 2015 (interview with Sok Siphana, 2000). To date, however, globalization has brought unambiguously positive political results. Participation in economic networks including the global economy, on the other hand, has introduced contradictions; while it might be possible to define some Cambodians as proletarians in a transnational economic formation that rearticulates relations of domination and subordination pioneered in the colonial era, the improving quality of life for others suggests either a different kind of participation, or participation in a different kind of formation. If contradictions forestall broad conclusions at the global level, English language spread may nevertheless integrate with asymmetries on other planes. Moving from the global to the local, linguistic imperialism scholars thus suggest a final outcome of English language spread: "hierarchisation" leading to the inequitable distribution of resources within individual societies (Phillipson & Skutnabb-Kangas, 1999, p. 20). Phillipson (1992), for instance, argues that "English has a social stratificational function" in some settings, in that "success or failure" in various domains may depend on one's ability to speak English (p. 25). Pennycook (1994) continues that English "functions as a gatekeeper to positions of prestige," becoming "one of the most powerful means of inclusion . . . or exclusion . . . in [some] societ[ies]" (p. 14). In the Philippines, James Tollefson (1986) argues as a specific example, English has played a role in "creating and maintaining . . . divisions" within society (p. 186). More generally, Yukio Tsuda (1997) concludes, the spread of English "generates inequality" in many venues around the world by forcing "non-English-speakers [to] become deaf and mute [wlhenever English is used as a common language" (p. 23). In Cambodia, as in any setting where imbalances exist among languages, linguistic skills have contributed to stratification among groups. More fully, in Cambodia unequal binaries have formed around various languages relative to the utilities that enterprises have created for them, with the result being that certain groups enjoy benefits or advantages not available to others. Those students who enter French-stream programs offered by the francophone assistance partners and master the French language, for instance, will have more opportunities to receive university scholarships than other Cambodians, including those who learn English. Cambodians who make the decision to learn Chinese will gain an advantage over others for employment with some regionally oriented businesses. Finally, Cambodians who speak English are more likely than others to be hired by economic enterprises from outside the region and by assistance agencies outside Francophonie; English-speaking Cambodians in the civil service will

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similarly be selected for capacity-building exercises more frequently than their non-English-speaking peers. These various privileged groups ultimately benefit in several ways over others, including symbolically (in terms of increased knowledge and skills) and materially (in terms of increased salaries or improved career trajectories). Stratification specifically related to English carries several tensions, which can be illustrated with reference to the Cambodian civil service. Earlier in the book, I argued that aid organizations have through a variety of English language teaching programs created several groups of bilingual Cambodians. Some Cambodians facilitate communication between the largely monolingual aid community and the largely monolingual community of Cambodians in need of aid, thus allowing assistance organizations to extend their reach into Cambodia. This broad group includes Cambodians hired directly by agencies as employees, as well as civil servants who remain in their government posts while at the same time working as counterparts in assistance projects. Aid organizations additionally teach English to Cambodians who ultimately use their language skills as couriers to reach out of the country, acquire knowledge and ideas relevant to economic and political transition and integration, and then return home with them. All the members of this latter group work as civil servants, most of them at the national or ministerial level. Though many tens of thousands of civil servants have attended English language training courses offered over the years by aid agencies, by no means do all government employees speak English or know the language well. Inevitably, then, some are excluded from engagement with the international aid community, as well as from the advantages that derive from engagement. Recall, for example, the rector of the University of Health Sciences. Educated during the French colonial regime, Vu Kim Por speaks French, but not English. As a result of the latter inability, he reported being marginalized at the Ministry of Health, where meetings with the World Health Organization take place in English. French speakers have been treated similarly at the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport; when an expatriate nominated several francophone Cambodians from this ministry to a training program at the World Bank Institute, for instance, the World Bank replied, "No, they have to be able to speak English" (related by Vincent McNamara, 2000). Being excluded in various ways, these Cambodians lose opportunities to gain new knowledge and skills, among other things. Juxtaposed with the marginalized members of the civil service are others who enjoy the advantages of relinguification. The deputy director general of the Ministry of Planning learned English at least in part as a participant in the Australian Development Scholarship program. Back in Cambodia, Tuon Thavrak now holds what he terms an "unfair advantage" over other Ministry


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of Planning employees, "because I know English." Of greatest importance, he said, he has worked as a counterpart in both Asian Development Bank and World Bank projects, earning approximately $100 per month to supplement his $20 government salary. "I can earn extra money through my skills in English, whereas others who don't know English can't," he concluded (interview, 2000). A Cambodian from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries who had been seconded to the Agriculture Productivity Improvement Project explained a different material value in knowing English. Though young and inexperienced compared to many of his colleagues who had completed graduate degrees in Eastern-bloc countries in the 1980s, this young man had earned a position as their supervisor in the World Bank project, largely on the strength of his English language skills (interviewed with Oscar Perez-de-Tagle, 2000). The tendency of English-speaking civil servants to realize symbolic and material advantages over their peers illustrates precisely the kind of inequity that many linguistic imperialism scholars argue occurs at the societal level with the spread of English. The identification of social stratification does not conclude the discussion, however, but opens the door to subsequent, evaluative analyses. Might the formation of an English-speaking, civil service elite be considered "justified," as Fishman (1969) suggested decades ago, relative to "obtain[ing] and retain[ing] as much tangible aid . . . as possible" (p. 113)? In Chapter Four, I argued that it would be almost impossible for expatriate aid workers to operate in Cambodia-to be able to identify and respond productively to populations in need-without the mediating skills of bilingual Cambodians, including those in government service. In thus integrating with the receipt and distribution of more than $4 billion in aid since 1992, the stratification of the civil service engineered by aid agencies around English language skills might well satisfy the criteria for justifiability. In terms of other measures of effectiveness, however, it seems less justifiable. Consider again the exclusion of senior francophone Cambodians from participation by the World Health Organization and the World Bank-or, for that matter, by any aid agency that runs meetings or gives training courses exclusively in English. Recall for a final time the promotion of the young and inexperienced English speaker in the Agriculture Productivity Improvement Project-or the similar tendency, discussed in Chapters Three and Four, of some ministries to choose Cambodian representatives to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations based on their English language skills rather than their backgrounds or appropriateness for particular committee assignments. Certainly these dynamics distribute advantage and disadvantage to Cambodians who can be aggregated to dichotomous social strata. Equally important, as aid agencies cut themselves off from the valuable

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insights of senior Cambodians who do not speak English, and as Cambodians with credentials centering around English attend meetings and training programs whose ideas they may not understand and cannot relay effectively to their colleagues at home, stratification inhibits the exchange of knowledge and information to near universal disadvantage.

4.

LANGUAGE CHOICE

The Cambodian case study challenges more than affirms the linguistic imperialism thesis relative to the national attachments of English, the international sale of English, the role played by English in ideological diffusion, and the "stratificational" function of English in individual societies. Linguistic imperialism scholars have not followed critical inquiry in other fields toward a reconceptualization of the contemporary world; the contradictory results for Cambodians of globalization-and of liberalization in particular--caution against the blanket application of my own suggestion for linguistic imperialism in the transnational era. The language choice tradition both predates the linguistic imperialism thesis and has advanced under its critique. Early studies of language choice such as Fishman, Cooper, and Conrad's The Spread of English (1977) focused almost exclusively on the national-level contexts in which people in the developing world make language choices. In this approach, linguistic imperialism critics argue, "there is little attempt to come to grips with global inequality and its structural determinants," and there is little examination of the "relations between global inequalities and the English language" (Phillipson, 1992, p. 85; Pennycook, 1995, p. 35). Responding to such criticism, language choice scholars have begun to position their inquiry more broadly, if not critically. In Post-Imperial English, for example, the editors requested empirical studies of English language spread relative not only to "the English mother-tongue world," but to at least one group of transnational actors, those "multinational corporations whose pursuits can no longer be specifically related to any one country" (Fishman, 1996, pp. 3, 4). In another recent volume, contributors examine one specific aspect of "the spread of English as a global language": the dominance or prevalence of English as the language of science around the world (Ammon, 2001b, p. v). While today acknowledging that people make language choices in international and global-as well as national-contexts, scholars in this tradition tend to resist the idea of English language promotion. In some cases, they simply refuse to accept that individuals' language choices might be conditioned by the actions of others, especially external enterprises. Bonifacio Sibayan and Andrew Gonzales (1996), for instance, argue strenuously that


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people in the Philippines "are doing with English what they want to do and not from any dictation of outsiders." Today, these scholars conclude, "Filipinos have taken over their own affairs including what to do with English" (p. 165). In other cases, scholars go to incredible lengths to diminish the influence of external actors on people's English language choices in the developing world. Witness, for example, the tortuous attempts by James Alatis and Carolyn Straehle (1997) to minimize the extent of U.S. English language promotion efforts in the post-Second World War era. The theme Robert Kaplan (2001) has been developing for years-that "the spread of English is largely accidentalu-similarly deemphasizes promotion in the calculus of English language spread (p. 17; also see Kaplan, 1990). The Cambodian case study illustrates the incompleteness of this approach. Certainly Cambodians have chosen English, as the educational decisions discussed in Chapter Six illustrate. Recall first the institutional language policy choices at Cambodia's public universities. Through massive aid activities, the francophone assistance partners have created an educational utility for French at the tertiary level. Despite the availability of professors, scholarships, and other educational resources for francophone programs, however, Cambodian university administrators have taken every opportunity to move their institutions away from French, toward English. At the National Institute of Management, for instance, the dean abandoned the use of French and implemented English language programs as soon as resources became available to do so by way of Georgetown University and the University of San Francisco. At the Faculty of Law and Economics, the dean hired Cambodian English language teachers and commenced Englishas-a-foreign-language classes with tuition monies from the French-language bachelor of business administration program. Lacking resources to challenge French language policies directly, the rector of the University of Health Sciences worked through anglophone doctors at teaching hospitals to provide some students some exposure to English. Cambodians have embraced English individually as well. In the early 1990s, the language-resource imbalance favored French and inhibited the learning of English by Cambodian students. As Cambodians began to graduate from British and Australian English teacher education programs and enter secondary schools and university English departments, however, the imbalance righted. Freed from constraint, students have chosen English with remarkable consistency. When the Royal University of Phnom Penh revised its language policy and began allowing students to choose their own foreign language option, 80 percent chose English. Eighty-four percent chose English when the Faculty of Law and Economics instituted a similar language policy change. In secondary schools, testing data suggest that the percentage of students studying English increased from 36 to 66 percent

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between 1996 and 2000. Of course, Cambodians have chosen English outside formal education too, with this tendency being most clearly illustrated through the remarkable growth of private English schools in the country. While perhaps a few dozen such institutions existed in the early 1990s, today there may be 600 schools serving a population of 500,000 Cambodians. It is impossible to discuss Cambodians' English language choices, however, without referring to the external enterprises that have both facilitated and conditioned those choices-indeed, I have not been able even to summarize the shifting tide of language choice without doing so. The dean of the National Institute of Management (NIM) abandoned French in the early 1990s, for example, only after the United States Agency for International Development had sent two U.S. universities to his institution with significant educational resources; after 1997, NIM continued to privilege English without external support. The language-resource imbalance that constrained choice in secondary schools and universities was both created and righted by assistance agencies from outside Cambodia. Today, Cambodians can choose to study English in secondary schools thanks largely to the success of English teacher education programs that began as the Britishfunded Cambodian Secondary English Teaching Project and the Australianfunded Bachelor of Education in Teaching English as a Foreign Language program at the Institute of Foreign Languages. Graduates of these programs also teach at the tertiary level, often in departments established by other assistance agencies. Some teach at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, for example, in a program initiated and supported by a consortium of nongovernmental organizations based for the most part in the United States. All of these programs promote English; to paraphrase one aid worker, they are all trying to get Cambodians to learn the language (interview with Luise Ahrens, 2000). As the team leader of the British teacher education project clarified, however, "We are promoting the English language not because we are interested in promoting English, but as a means" to other things (interview with George Taylor, 2000). Note that the reasons agencies give for teaching English correspond perfectly with the utilities that other external actors have created for English through activities that also cluster under the rubric of language promotion: Aid organizations teach English so that Cambodians can work for foreign economic and assistance enterprises, nearly all of whom demand knowledge of English; so they can communicate internationally, and particularly within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which uses English and requires knowledge of it; and so they can participate in further education, notably in capacity-building ventures in which funding agencies like the European Union, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank privilege English in programming both in


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Cambodia and at institutions and universities in other countries. From a historical perspective, it is somewhat difficult to say which of these promotion activities-the creation of utility for English, or the teaching of English for utility-came first. Certainly agencies were teaching English to Cambodian civil servants in anticipation of membership in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations well before the country formally joined ASEAN in 1999. When Quaker Service Australia began teaching English at the Institute of Foreign Languages in the mid-1980s, on the other hand, a small number of nongovernmental organizations had already introduced English to Cambodia as an important language in the international assistance enterprise. Regardless of which came first, however, both forms of promotion preceded and informed Cambodian language choice. Indeed, when asked to explain their institutional and individual choices in favor of English, Cambodians invariably refer to the same utilities that educational assistance agencies teach toward and that other enterprises continually create. Cambodians favor English, as numerous informants reported in Chapter Six, so that they can "find jobs," "continue higher education abroad," and "participate in ASEAN meetings." Earlier in this chapter, I argued that the spread of English does not subordinate Cambodia within dependency relations to imperial, anglophone nations, as some linguistic imperialism scholars continue to suggest. Neither, however, is it "accidental," as some language choice scholars would have us believe. To be sure, English has spread into Cambodia because individuals and groups have chosen it, but Cambodians have chosen the language because a diverse coalition of actors has created a context favorable to English language choice in the country. As the Cambodian case study illustrates, understanding the spread of English requires engagement not only with the language choices made by people outside the anglophone world, but with the language promotion activities that create and facilitate the utilities to which choice responds.

5.


This book has examined language choice in Cambodia. Beginning in the 1980s, Cambodian governments directed the country away from central economic planning toward the free market, and away from the communist system of political organization toward liberal democracy. Economic and political transition and subsequent integration into larger networks have brought certain languages into the country. While most Cambodians use their native Khmer for national-level economic and political interactions,

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diverse economic, political, and assistance enterprises have demanded, required, preferred, taught, or otherwise promoted Chinese, French, and English for use in regional, international, and global contexts. Cambodians have responded to the various utilities that external actors have created for these languages by making institutional and individual language choices. Today, Cambodians are learning Chinese so they can work with or for firms owned or managed by Chinese speakers. They are learning French so they can study in Cambodia and in francophone nations. They are learning English for jobs in the private sector and with assistance organizations; for regional and international political communication, notably in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations; and in anticipation of education, including in the global infrastructure of English-language universities with sponsorship from aid agencies. The greater utility created by external actors for English than for Chinese or French has influenced Cambodians' language choices and led to what scholars refer to as the spread of English. In this chapter, I have argued that the specific dynamics of the Cambodian case study confirm neither the language choice model of English language spread nor the linguistic imperialism thesis. Scholars in the former tradition focus on the choices to learn English made by people outside anglophone settings. In Cambodia, however, exclusive attention to language choice would have missed vital elements of the process whereby English has come into use. As we have seen, Cambodians make language choices in the context created by external actors; Cambodians' decisions to learn English respond to the promotion of English and to the related introduction of utility for the language by diverse economic, political, and assistance enterprises. T o put it simply, English language promotion, utility, and choice form a comprehensive whole that cannot be separated in Cambodia. Paraphrasing Sibayan and Gonzalez (1996), Cambodians are doing with English what they want to do, but at the same time they also seem to be doing with English what other actors want them to do. That said, evidence that the spread of English has exploited or disadvantaged Cambodians, as linguistic imperialism scholars would argue, is equivocal at best. English has been widely promoted in Cambodia by a diverse coalition of economic, political, and assistance enterprises based in anglophone countries, in other polities, and in global or transnational architectures that underlie (or overlay) the system of national political organization in the world. While certain actors associated with anglophone nations have benefited from their control of English as an institutional instructional commodity in Cambodia, however, the geographical diffusion of the coalition suggests that English language spread does not integrate with nationally specific, colonial-like relations. Developments in Cambodia frame


269

a more complicated conclusion relative to globalization. Accordingly, English has been deeply involved in liberalization and democratization (if not essential to the dissemination of associated ideas), and these globalization processes have introduced results that, though aggregating toward amelioration, run the gamut from beneficial to exploitative for various groups of Cambodians. Indeed, inequity associated with English emerges unambiguously only at the national level, where the formation of an elite class based on English language skills may in some cases be justifiable. If the Cambodian case study could be generalized toward an explanatory or predictive statement about English language spread in the contemporary world, it would suggest a synthesis of the language choice model and the linguistic imperialism thesis. Regarding the former, the Cambodian experience reinforces the importance of choice in the calculus of English language spread, while at the same time clarifying the significance of language promotion in that process. That English is being promoted in Cambodia by external actors confirms a fundamental tenet of the linguistic imperialism thesis, though the consequences of promotion and spread in Cambodia challenge others. While the spread of English has benefited actors from anglophone states in a limited way and disadvantaged some Cambodians at the national level, it has not drawn the nation into neocolonial subordination, but toward systems and practices that have contradictory, if generally positive, effects for different groups. If we could generalize from the Cambodian experience, then, we would conclude that English is spreading as a result of both choice and promotion, that it integrates with (though is not integral to) the restructuring of the world toward globalization, and that it introduces both advantage and disadvantage for people in spread venues. In an earlier contribution, I referred to a similar statement as a "syncretic theory" of English language spread, in that it draws together the two major positions of language policy scholars about the phenomenon (Clayton, 2002, p. 20). More accurately, it constitutes a syncretic hypothesis, for we cannot of course generalize to the level of theory from a single case study. The full hypothesis may be particularly relevant for inquiry in other settings that are experiencing changes similar to those occurring in Cambodia. Many nations in the world have embarked upon economic and political transition since the end of the Cold War, and some have coupled liberalization and democratization with recovery from war or other periods of human and physical destruction. Vietnam has followed this path in recent years, for example, though the Indochina Wars introduced relatively less damage there than in Cambodia. In a brief study of language developments transitional Vietnam, Sue Wright (2002) argues in somewhat different terms that the utilities created for English by economic, political, and assistance actors have conditioned

270

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Vietnamese language choice and facilitated the spread of English. In other settings where English is spreading but where the context for language choice derives from processes and dynamics other than economic and political transition and integration, the Cambodian study will be less directly relevant. Culture, for instance, appears to be informing Cambodians' language decisions only on a very limited scale. Some ethnic-Chinese Cambodians have chosen to learn their heritage language, though these decisions appear to be informed at least as much by economic as by cultural considerations. While it might be possible to read a cultural resistance in the rector of the Royal University of Phnom Penh's concern about the future vitality of Khmer relative to English in education, the rector alone among hundreds of informants expressed this sentiment. Elsewhere, however, it is precisely this contextual feature that centers discussions of language choice. In France, for example, scholars have found it both appropriate and meaningful to explore the connections between the spread of English, on one hand, and attitudes toward or promotion of American and British culture, on the other (see Flaitz, 1988; Sonntag, 2003). If the specific dynamics of the Cambodian experience hold less relevance for English language spread in settings where factors beyond economy and politics figure prominently in creating the context for language choice, the individual conclusions from the Cambodian case study may nevertheless resonate for researchers in these settings. Scholars in some venues may find it productive to examine the complex symbiosis between English language promotion and English language choice. In other locales, it may prove useful to embrace the contradictions of English language spread, exploring both the advantages and disadvantages that the introduction of English may bring to various constituencies. In yet other locations, scholars may wish to build on the platform begun by Fishman, Conrad, and Rubal-Lopez (1996) and continued here, by examining the evolving attachments of English in the contemporary world, particularly the post-imperial and post-national association of English with global or transnational architectures whose borders are not coterminous with political boundaries. With ideologically unencumbered inquiry in multiple settings, the Cambodian case study may ultimately contribute to a resolution of the academic debate about English language spread and, importantly, to a broader and deeper understanding of this contemporary phenomenon involving everincreasing numbers of people in the world.

Interviews and Personal Communications

Ahrens, Luise: Coordinator, English Language Program, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Catholic Mission Society of America (Maryknoll), Phnom Penh (interviews 2000, 2001). Alcorso, Simone: Coordinator, Interpreter Training Program, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Phnom Penh (interview 1991). Allegra, Theodore: First Secretary, United States Embassy, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Arrif, Youssef: Teacher Trainer, University Programs, Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Baars, Patricia: Law Professor, University of San Francisco Community Legal Education Center, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Babon, Andrea: Public Relations Advisor, Maharishi Vedic University, Australian Aid for Cambodia Fund, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Ball, John: English Teacher, Royal University of Phnom Penh, New Humanity, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Barbarit, Anne: Coordinator, Primary Inspector Training Program, Faculty of Pedagogy, Cooperation Fran~aise,Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Ben Visnou: Secretary, Office of the Minister of Education, Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, Phnom Penh (interview 1994). Bezeruk, Lydia: Second Secretary, Australian Embassy, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Boediono, Lestari: Secretary, Office of the Ambassador, Cambodian Mission to the United Nations, New York (communication 2004). Boring, Don: Program Officer, Mekong Project Development Facility, International Finance Corporation, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Boyle, Conor: Director of Studies, Cambodian-British Centre, Centre for British Teachers, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Bussi-Galloway, Marie: Coordinator, French Language Program for Law Students, Faculty of Law and Economics, Coopiration Fran~aise,Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Buy Vanny: Economics Professor and Director of the Economics Internship Program, Faculty of Law and Economics, Phnom Penh (interview 2000).

Personal information accurate at the time of interview or communication.

272


Bywater, Margaret: Library Advisor, Asia Foundation, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Carter, Bill: Program Officer, United States Agency for International Development, United States Embassy, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Chan Nareth: Rector, Royal University of Agriculture, Phnom Penh (interviews 1992, 1994, 2000). Chan Savary: Economics Professor, Faculty of Law and Economics, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Chap Suon: Program Officer, Royal University of Fine Arts, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Chau Sa: Public Affairs Assistant, United States Embassy, Phnom Penh; former Chief, Planning Office, Phnom Penh Municipal Department of Education (interviews 1994, 2000). Chea Leang Kheng: Staff, Reproductive and Child Health Alliance, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Chem Vijia: Senior Civil Servant, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Cherry, Helen: Director, Australian Centre for Education, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Chhay Yiheang: Head, Philosophy Department, Royal University of Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Chheng Saroeun: Deputy Director General, Ministry of Commerce, Phnom Penh (interview 2001). Chhieng Yanara: Secretary General, Cambodian Rehabilitation and Development Board, Council for Development of Cambodia, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Chhit Srey Peov: Administrator, Regent School of Business, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Chhiv Yiseang: French Teacher, French Department, Institute of Foreign Languages, Royal University of Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Chhuon Chan Than: Director, International Institute of Cambodia, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Clayton, Stephen: English Language Teacher Trainer (former), Voluntary Service Overseas (United Kingdom), Takeo Province (communication 2004). Cormorand, Murielle: Teacher Trainer, University Programs, Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, Phnom Penh (interview 2001). Coyne, Geoffrey: Consultant, Cambodia Australia National Examinations Project, Australian Agency for International Development, Phnom Penh; former Team Leader, Bachelor of Education in Teaching English as a Foreign Language Project, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Australian Agency for International Development, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Curtis, Grant: Senior Program Officer (former), Rehabilitation and Economic Affairs Component, United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (communication 2003). Darch, Peter: International Studies Professor, Regent School of Business, Phnom Penh (communication 2003). Dareau, Vincent: Coordinator, Lower-Secondary French Teacher Education Program, Faculty of Pedagogy, Cooperation Fran~aise,Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Defossez, Hubert: Advisor, Institut de Technologie du Cambodge, Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie and Cooperation Fran~aise,Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Demblom, Richard: Director of Human Resources, British-American Tobacco, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Desbarats, Jacqueline: Research Coordinator. Cambodia Development Resource Institute, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Div Sean: English Language Teacher Inspector, Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Duy Chandina: Economics Professor, Faculty of Law and Economics, Phnom Penh; Small


273

Business Owner, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Eak Khun: Education Program Officer, Australian Embassy, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Ek Sam 01: Member of Parliament, Kingdom of Cambodia: former Director, Higher Education Department, Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, Phnom Penh (interview 1994). Fowles, Jane: Consultant, Cambodian Secondary English Teaching Project, Centre for British Teachers, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Frankenberg, Anders: Second Secretary, Swedish Embassy, Phnom Penh (interviews 2000, 2001). Calmard, Eric: Coordinator, French Teacher Education Program, French Department, Institute of Foreign Languages, Royal University of Phnom Penh, CoopCration Fran~aise, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Gerard, Jacques: Country Director, Cooperation Fran~aise,Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Cirard, V : Coordinator, French Language Program, University of Health Sciences, CoopCration Fran~aise,Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Glodas, Henri: Coordinator, University of Lyon I1 Economics Project, Faculty of Law and Economics, CoopCration Franqaise, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). GuCrin, Mathieu: Coordinator, French Language Program for Economics Students, Faculty of Law and Economics, Cooperation Franqaise, Phnom Penh (interview 2000; communication 2003). Hap Phal Thy: Chemistry Professor and English Teacher, Faculty of Pedagogy, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Hean Sahib: Director, Economics and Finance Institute, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Heang Siek Ly: Deputy Director General, Ministry of Planning, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Hong Try: Administrator, Faculty of Law and Economics, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Im Sethy: Secretary of State, Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, Phnom Penh (interviews 1994, 2000). Iv Thong, Dean, National Institute of Management, Phnom Penh (interviews 1991, 1992, 1994, 2000). Jinnai, Teruo: Culture Program Specialist, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Kao Sam 01: Head of Administration, Norton University, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Kao Sophal: English Teacher Trainer, Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Kaplan, Jeffery: Manager (former), Preparations for Cambodia's Membership in ASEAN Project, United Nations Development Programme, Phnom Penh (communication 2004). Kato, Toshiyasu: Economics Research Fellow, Cambodia Development Resource Center, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Keng Sopheak: English Teacher, English Department, Institute of Foreign Languages, Royal University of Phnom Penh (communication 2004). Kim Savun: Economics Professor, Faculty of Law and Economics, Phnom Penh (interviews 2000,2001). Kim Sovanna: Public Affairs Assistant, United States Embassy, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). King, Janet: Director, University of San Francisco Community Legal Education Center, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Koy Neam: Program Officer, Asia Foundation, Phnom Penh (interview 2000).

274


Lachat, Nadine: Teacher Trainer, University Programs, Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Ladian, Marc: Country Manager, Transpo International, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Lambiotte, Paul: Coordinator, Bilingual Classes Program, Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Lang, Graham: Deputy Director, Voluntary Service Overseas (United Kingdom), Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Lav Chhiv Eav: Associate Rector, Francophone Programs, Royal University of Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Leignel, Lionel: Coordinator, Department of Special Programs, Centre Culture1 Franfais, Cooperation Fran~aise,Phnom Penh. Lindquist, Wes: Country Coordinator, Assemblies of God, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Lok Kim Lun: Program Associate, United Nations Development Programme, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Lubke-Dreyer, Stefanie: Manager, Asia Pacific Resources, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Lusted, Viv: Country Director, Agency for Personal Service Overseas (Ireland), Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Macaskill, Shona: Advisor, English Language Section, Institut de Technologie du Cambodge, New Zealand Volunteers, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Malloy, James: Librarian, Royal University of Fine Arts, Agency for Personal Service Overseas (Ireland), Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Man Monden: Chief Librarian, National Institute of Management, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Mao Ngyhong: Senior Administrator, Royal University of Fine Arts, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Marguerite, Solange: Country Director, French Language Programs, Cooperation Franqaise, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Marshall, John: Program Manager, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australian Centre for Education, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Marston, John: Staff (former), Information/Education Division, United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (communication 2003). Mbida-Essama, Bonaventure: Chief, World Bank Cambodia Office, Phnom Penh (interview 2001). McNamara, Vincent: Chief Technical Advisor, Education Quality Improvement Project, World Bank, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Merlet, Patricia: Coordinator, French Language Program, Institut de Technologie du Cambodge, Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie and Cooperation Franqaise, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Moore, Stephen: Coordinator, English Language Training Center, Cambodia Development Resource Institute, Phnom Penh; former Director of Studies, Australian Centre for Education, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Nay Chhuon: English Teacher, English Department, Institute of Foreign Languages, Royal University of Phnom Penh; former English Teacher, Cambodia Development Resource Institute, Phnom Penh; Recipient of National University of Singapore ASEAN Scholarship (interview 2000; communication 2003). Neak Chandarith: English Teacher, English Department, Institute of Foreign Languages, Royal University of Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Neang Muth: National Director, Programme d'Appui au Secteur de 1'Education Primaire au Cambodge, European Union, Phnom Penh; former Dean, Ecole SupCrieure de Gestion des


275

Cadres de I'Education (Faculty of Pedagogy), Phnom Penh (interviews 1992,2000). Neil, Liz: Coordinator, English for Academic Purposes and Predeparture Programs, Australian Centre for Education, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Ngorn Saing: Accounting Manager, R.M. Asia Company, Phnom Penh; Graduate of the Bachelor of Business Administration Program, Faculty of Law and Economics, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Ogawa, Yoshiko: Japanese Teacher, Institute of Foreign Languages, Royal University of Phnom Penh, United Nations Volunteers (interview 2000). Om Nhieu Sarak: Dean, Kampuchea-Soviet Friendship Higher Technical Institute (Institut de Technologie du Cambodge), Phnom Penh (interview 1992). Om Sethy: Deputy Director, Department of Cultural Relations and Scholarships, Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, Phnom Penh (interviews 2000, 2001). Ouk Chhieng: Director, Special Professional Department, Royal University of Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Ouy Vanthon: Dean, Institut de Technologie du Cambodge, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Paterson, Stephen: Business Professor, National Institute of Management, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Pattnaik, Abhay: Director, International Programs, Annamalai University (India), Phnom Penh (communication 2004). Pen Bory: Coordinator, English Language for Ministry Officials (ELMO) Program, Australian Centre for Education, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Perez-de-Tagle, Oscar: Training Management Advisor, Agriculture Productivity and Improvement Project, World Bank, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Pich Sophoan: Director General, Higher Education Department, Ministry of Youth, Education, and Sport, Phnom Penh (interviews 1994, 2000). Pit Charnnan: Rector, Royal University of Phnom Penh; former Dean, Institute of Foreign Languages, Royal University of Phnom Penh (interviews 1992, 1993, 2000). Pou Vanny: Librarian, Hun Sen Library, Royal University of Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Prach Chan Sokha: Manager, National English Teaching Resource Centre, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Prak Polla: English Language Teacher Inspector, Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Prasertsri, Supote: Education Program Specialist, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Phnom Penh (interview 2000; communication 2003). Preese, Stefan: General Manager, Burns Associates, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Proeung Chhieng: Associate Rector, Royal University of Fine Arts, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Ratcliffe, Mike: Consultant, Basic Education Textbook Project, Asian Development Bank, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Rendall, Matthew: Law Professor, University of San Francisco Community Legal Education Center, Phnom Penh (interview 2001). Royal-Dawson, Lucy: Consultant, Cambodian Secondary English Teaching Project, Centre for British Teachers, Phnom Penh (interviews 2000, 2001). Sainte-Marie, Denis: Coordinator, University of Lyon I1 Law Project, Faculty of Law and Economics, CoopCration Franpise, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Salgarolo, Patrice: Coordinator, Programme d'Appui B la Formation Agricole au Royaume du Cambodge, Royal University of Agriculture, Caisse Franpise de DCveloppement, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Santini, Dr. Jean-Jacques: Advisor, University of Health Sciences, CoopCration Franfaise,

276


Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Schaefer, Marrie: Public Affairs Officer, United States Embassy, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Schmidt, Andre: Director, Centre Culture1 Fran~ais,Coopiration Fran~aise,Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Seng Lim Neou: Vice Minister, Ministry of Health, Phnom Penh (interview 1992). Shimizu, Kazuki: Education Advisor, Japan International Cooperation Agency, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Sim Sieng Pav: President, Association of French Professors of Cambodia; former Head, French Department, Institute of Foreign Languages, Royal University of Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Singh, Raaj: English Teacher, Australian Centre for Education, Phnom Penh (communication 2003). Slade, Peter: Director, Asset Management, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Socheat Chi: Manager, Reproductive Health Programme, CARE Cambodia, Phnom Penh (communication 2004). Sok Hach: Economic Advisor, Cambodia Development Resource Institute, Phnom Penh (interviews 2000, 2001). Sok Keang: Philosophy Professor, Royal University of Phnom Penh (interview 2001). Sok Siphana: Secretary of State, Ministry of Commerce, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Sorn Samnang: President, Royal Academy of Cambodia, Phnom Penh (interviews 2000, 2001). Strickley, Carol: Director, Cooperation Committee for Cambodia, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Summers, Jon: Representative, Asia Foundation, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Suos Man: Head, English Department, Institute of Foreign Languages, Royal University of Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Taylor, George: Team Leader, Cambodian Secondary English Teaching Project, Centre for British Teachers, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Thao Sokmuny: Chief, World Bank Division, Department of Investment and Cooperation, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Phnom Penh; former Economics Professor, Faculty of Law and Economics, Phnom Penh (interviews 2000, 2001). Thor Sor: Dean, Faculty of Pedagogy, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Thorne, Dennis: English Teacher, University of Health Sciences, World Concern, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Thureau, Michel: Coordinator, Cultural Activities, Alliance Fran~aise,Phnom Penh (interview 1992). Touch Sunnary: Owner and Executive Director, Institute of Technology and Management, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Tuon Thavrak: Deputy Director General, Ministry of Planning, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Ung Rotta: French Teacher, Faculty of Law and Economics, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Van Buntheth: Associate Director, Ecole Royale d'Administration, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Vann Chanty: Commercial Executive, Royal Air Cambodge, Phnom Penh; Graduate of the Bachelor of Business Administration program, Faculty of Law and Economics, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Var Simsamreth: Rector, Phnom Penh University, Phnom Penh (interview 1994). Vendramin, Toni: Director, New Humanity, Phnom Penh (interview 2000).


277

Visalsok Touch: Agricultural Science Professor and English Teacher, Royal University of Agriculture, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Vonthanak Saphonn: English and French Interpreter (former), United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (communication 2003). Vu Kim Por: Rector, University of Health Sciences, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Walton, Tim: Consultant, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Webber, Richard: Consultant, Programme d'Appui au Secteur de I'Education Primaire au Cambodge, Centre for British Teachers, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Wendling, Kenneth: President, English Language Institute (San Dimas, California), Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Winckler, Denis: Training Manager, Training Project for Officials, European Union, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). You Rith: Assistant Coordinator, Private Programs Division, Australian Centre for Education, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). You Tony: French Teacher, Faculty of Law and Economics, Phnom Penh (interview 2000). Yousos, Dahlane: Program Associate, United Nations Development Programme, Phnom Penh (communication 2000). Yuok Ngoy: Dean, Faculty of Law and Economics, Phnom Penh; former Associate Dean, Economics Institute (interviews 2000, 2001; communication 2003).

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Index

ACNielsen, 46 Action Contre la Faim, 87 Action Nord Sud, 102 Administration and Judicial School, 182, See Faculty of Law and Economics Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Programme in the Garment Sector, 85, 108, 144 AEA International, 42 Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF), 6, 102, 103, 157, 163, 164, 165, 169, 170, 172, 173, 174, 178, 179, 180, 190, 192, 194, 203, 217, 220,224,234,253 Agency for Personal Service Overseas (Ireland), 99, 121-22, 123, 142, 182, 244,248,249 Agriculture Productivity Improvement Project, 101, 134-36, 144, 145, 146, 263 Air France, 40 Alcatel, 31, 35, 43 Alliance Franyaise, 39, 163, 165, 174, 216 American Red Cross, 109 Angkor Borei Center, 225 Angkor Empire, 7, 8 Angkor Wat, 7,23, 181, 193,258 Annamalai University, 226 ASEAN Free Trade Area. See Association of Southeast Asian

Nations (ASEAN) AsiaFoundation, 96, 109, 160, 166, 170, 177, 179, 182, 184, 185, 189, 195, 201,229,244 Asia Pacific Resources, 3 1, 42 Asian Development Bank, 55, 80, 8 1, 85, 86, 90, 91, 93, 96, 98, 99, 100, 109, 110, 114, 119, 133, 138, 142, 156, 235,256,263 Asian economic crisis, 14 Asian Institute of Technology (Thailand), 137, 172, 183 Assemblies of God, 96, 108 Asset Management, 31 Assistance (to Cambodia). See also Australia and France and Japan and United Kingdom and United States aid dependency, 90 aid market, 88, 90-91 bilateral agencies, 79-80, 82, 83, 88, 90,99- 100 budgetary aid, 8 1, 82-83, 85, 87, I 18 dedicated to economic and political change, 8 1,82-83,92-94,95, 112-13, 115, 120, 121, 126, 12728, 133, 134-35, 136, 139, 140, 141, 144, 146-48, 149, 174, 17778, 182, 189, 199-200,202,204, 205,209,210,251,252-53,262 educational assistance, 6, 95-96, 150205,210-1 1

Index emergency relief, 83, 85, 87, 118 facilitative of participation in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), 94, 124, 126, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 136, 139, 145, 146, 147,251,252 history, 5-6, 77-95, 117, 197, 209, 263 humanitarian motive for, 92, 95, 113, 209 internationallregional financial institutions, 80-81, 82, 88, 90, 99, 100-101 investment projects, 8 1, 83-85, 93, 118 multilateral agencies, 80, 82, 88, 90, 99, 100 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), 77, 78, 81-82, 87-88, 90, 93,96, 101-2, 161, 197,267 salary supplementation, 91, 105, 125, 137, 139, 142, 156, 157, 159, 160, 162,164, 169, 170, 172,174,177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 184, 186, 187, 189, 192, 194, 198, 210, 220, 227, 232,263 sector-wide approach, 91-92, 95, 156 self-interest of donors in, 92, 94-95, 113,221, 253 substitution technical assistance, 86, 88,95, 106, 114, 152, 170 technical assistance, 39, 78, 85-86, 88, 90, 93, 94, 95, 101, 118, 155, 170, 209, See also Capacity building and English and French and Khmer Association des UniversitCs Partiellement ou Entikrement de Langue Fran~aise (AUPELF), l , 2 , 6, 157, 169, See Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) Association of Cambodian Local Economic Development Agencies, 101 Association of French Teachers in Cambodia, 2 19 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). See also Assistance and English

ASEAN Free Trade Area, 21, 47, 60, 74, 129,207,245,261 economic relations with Cambodia, 12-13, 17, 18,21-22,27,207, 231,235 educational exchange within, 70-7 1, 74 history of, 59-60 language policy in, 69, 74, 130, 136, 201,209,222,230,239,254,266 linguistic diversity in, 68-69 opposition to communism, 59-60 political history with Cambodia, 5, 21, 52,54-55,56-57,59-61,62-63, 64, 66, 68, 72, 74, 75, 103, 129, 202,204,208,209,230,267 structure of, 69-70 use of common law, 6 1,203,204,221 use of International Accounting Standards, 60, 203, 204, 22 1 Assumption University (Philippines), 170 Ateneo de Manila University (Philippines), 138, 170 Auckland Institute of Technology, 2, 174, 249 Australia, 81, 235, See also Australian Centre for Education assistance, 5, 6, 4 1 4 2 , 80, 82, 84, 93, 96,99, 104, 109, 113, 119, 12426, 134, 13840, 142, 143, 145, 146, 147,209,248,251,262 assistance to education, 160-62, 168, 174, 187, 192, 194, 227, 244, 249, 265 economic relations with Cambodia, 13, 14, 17 participation in the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), 65 political relations with Cambodia, 41, 55 Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), 5, 6,41,42, 80, 96, 99, 104, 109, 124, 125, 126, 134, 139, 142, 192,244,248 Australian Aid for Cambodia Fund, 187 Australian Business Exposition, 29 Australian Catholic Relief, 107 Australian Centre for Education (ACE),

Index 25,41-43, 45, 50, 116, 120, 121, 143, 215,225,249 language teaching subcontractor, to assistance agencies, 109, 110, 116, 124, 125, 135, 138-39, 181, 193,225,234,248-49, 25 1 to economic enterprises, 38, 4243,50,225,245,248 to the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), 68 Australian Development Scholarships, 126, 138-40, 142, 147, 187,244,262 Australian Expert Service Overseas, 187 Australian Youth Ambassadors, 187 Bachelor of Arts in English, 162 Bachelor of Education in Teaching English as a Foreign Language, 16162, 174,266 Banana Center, 225 Baptist Cooperation Service, 169 Basic Education Textbook Project, 101, 110, 156 Bates Cambodia, 42 Book Aid International, 182 British Council, 1 1 1, 242 British-American Tobacco (BAT), 13, 28, 29, 30, 36, 37, 44 Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party, 54 Caisse Franpise de DCveloppement (French Development Fund), 178, 191, 196,200 Calmette Hospital, 84, 111, 166, 167 Caltex, 28-29, 30, 42, 46 Cambodge Soir, 26,97 Cambodia (history, land, and people). See also Assistance and Economy and Education and Politics civil service, 5-6, 8, 59, 68, 77, 83, 91, 127, 130, 131, 135, 188,See also English and French demographics, 7 , 26 ethnic Chinese in, 7, 27, 32-34, 57, 58,215,236, 270 ethnic minorities in, 7 , 19, 58, 212-13 ethnic Vietnamese in, 7, 57, 58 evolution of legal system, 60-61, 94, 204,222

geography, 7 history, 7-9 quality of life, 256-57, 260-61 Cambodia Area Rehabilitation and Regeneration Project, 84, 85, 89 Cambodia Assistance to Primary Education Project, 199 Cambodia Beverage Company, 3 1,46 Carnbodia Brewery, 13, 31,46 Cambodia Daily, 26, 97 Cambodia Development Resource Institute, 3, 5, 15-16, 64, 68, 89, 96, 106, 108, 119, 120, 121, 127, 129, 131, 137, 138, 142, 143, 146, 151, 245,248-49,25 1, 3 1 1, See also English Language Training Center (ELTC) Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, 82 Cambodian People's Party (CPP), 54, 56, 6 1-62, l26,25 1 Cambodian Red Cross, 101 Cambodian Secondary English Teaching (CAMSET) Project, 44, 124, 158-59, 193, 194,220,227,244,249,266 Cambodian Tobacco Company, 13, 28 Cambodians Hotel, 3 1 Cambodian-British Centre (CBC), 43-45, 50, 116, 120, 121, 143, 158,249 language teaching subcontractor, to assistance agencies, 44, 45, 109, 110, 116, 122, 123, 124, 12930, 131, 134, 138, 141,248 to economic enterprises, 38, 4445,50,248 Cambodian-Chinese Association, 214, 215 CamEd, 134 Canada, 14, 65, 80, 99, 109, 113, 120, 235,244,248,259 Canadian International Development Agency, 99, 109,244 Capacity building, 5, 6 , 78, 85, 86, 88, 95, 107, 117, 118, 119, 122, 123, 124, 126, 127, 130, 132, 135, 136, 138, 140, 143, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 155, 170, 181, 188, 199, 205, 210,234,251,253,262,266 Capacity Building in Education and

Index Human Resources Sector Management Project, 136-38, 142, 145, 146, 147-48,252 CARE International, 85, 108, 110, 144 Catholic Mission Society of America (Maryknoll), 5, 115, 162, 169, 170 Catholic Relief Services, 87 Catholic University of Milan, 170 Centre Culture1 Fran~ais,39-41, 43, 44, 163,216, 220 language teaching subcontractor, to assistance agencies, 11 1, 116, 159, 179 to economic enterprises, 38, 4041,50 Centre for British Teachers (CjBT), 44, 45, 111, 116, 123, 156, 158, 159,244. 248,249 Centre for International Education in Economics (University of London), 127 Centre International d'Etudes PCdagogiques, 1 11, 156 Chambers of Commerce, 24, 33,45 Chinese language and economic integration, 49 and the dissemination of ideas, 32 choice of, 4, 21415,236,237,23839,261,270 demand for, by economic enterprises, 26,27-28,3 1-34,35,36,47-48, 103, 192, 208, 215, 236, 238, 245, 255,261,268 prohibition against, 32-33, 214, 236 schools, 32, 2 1 4 1 5 , 236 English language in, 214 Khmer language in, 214 sinophone national status of, 34, 4748,237,239 teacher education, 214-15 uses of, in business, 3 6 3 7 , 48-49, 208,215,236 utility of, 215, 236, 237, 238, 246, 261,268 Christian Outreach Relief and Development, 106 Church World Service, 8 1 Civil law, 60-61, 94, 182, 189, 203, 204, 22 1

Classes bilingues, 157, 164, 190, 217 Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK), 5 1-52 Coca-Cola, 31 Common law, 61,94, 175,203,204,221 Compagnie Cambodgienne des Carburants, 29 Concern, 81, 101, 109 Constituent Assembly, 53, 54, 55, 72, 73, See also National Assembly Constitution Cambodian, 2, 12, 23,46, 53, 54, 55, 57-59, 61, 64, 72, 207, 208, 212, 213 United States, 140 Consultative Group, 79, 93 Cooperation Committee for Cambodia, 81,97 Cooperation Franpise (French bilateral assistance), 6, 34, 39, 40, 50, 80, 94, 96, 111, 112, 113, 156, 157, 159, 160, 163, 164, 165,166, 167, 168, 170, 175, 178, 179, 180, 183, 184, 185, 189, 191, 192, 195, 203, 217, 220, 221,222,223,253 Coopiration Internationale pour le DCveloppement et la SolidaritC, 96, 101, 109 Cooperazione e Sviluppo, 88, 101 Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, 11,49 Council for the Development of Cambodia, 86, 100, 127, 133 Council of Ministers, 123 Credit Agricole Indosuez, 30, 35, 36 Cuba, 153, 177, 190 Dan Church Aid, 81, 101 Danish International Development Agency, 100 De La Salle University (Philippines), 137 Democratic Kampuchea as government of Cambodia (19751979), 11, 51, 77 as resistance faction (after 1979), 52 Denmark, 55, 82, 100, 114, 119, 120, 138, 142, 143,235,248 Department for International Development (United Kingdom), 6, 43, 87, 96,99, 109, 123, 142, 248,

Index 249,250

Development assistance embargo, 78, 79, 82,90, 112, 153, 160

DHL Worldwide Express, 33, 48 Directorate of Rubber, 120 Directorate of Tourism, 120 Distance Learning in Financial Economics Project, 127-28, 146, 245, 25 1

East Germany, 78, 139, 153, 182, 190, 232

Ecole Franqaise dlExtrCme-Orient, 218 Ecole Royale d'Administration, 131, 132, 147, 155, 188-89, 192, 199,200,201, 216,220,221,252

Ecole SupCrieure de Gestion des Cadres de I'Education, 186, See Faculty of Pedagogy Economics and Finance Institute, 90, 132-34, 144, 146, 147,251,252

Economics Institute, 27, 153, 174, 175, 190, See National Institute of Management Economy (Cambodian). See also Garment industry agriculture, 18-22,47, 135, 207, 258 aid dependency of, 90, 106 comparative advantage, 20-23, 207 evolution of accounting practices, 60, 94,204,222

history, 4, 8, 11-24, 34, 46-47, 78, 95, 103, 112, 161,207,209,256,267

rural economic life, 18-20, 23, 26, 46, 207,257-58

tourism, 22-23,258 Education. See also Assistance and Language schools fees and tuition, 40, 41, 42, 45, 155, 162, 171, 176, 177, 179, 183, 184, 185, 195, 214, 215, 220, 223, 224, 225,226,227,23 1,248,265 for ethnic minorities, 212-13 history, 8, 91, 15 1-54, 155-56, 160, 163, 165, 168, 171, 174, 177, 180, 182, 186, 188, 190, 197 language policy in, 1-2, 6, 104, 132, 150, 151, 152-53, 154, 156, 157, 158, 1 6 4 6 5 , 166, 167, 170, 173, 177, 180, 190, 191, 194, 196, 203,

204,2 13,218,223-24,265, See also English and French and Khmer primary, 154, 156-57 private primary schools, 214-15 scholarships, 153, 155, 161, 163, 167, 168, 169, 170-71, 172-73, 174, 175-76, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 183, 185, 187, 192, 1 9 k 9 5 , 19798, 199,219,220,229-30,236, 244, 261, 265, 268, See also Australian Development Scholarships secondary, 154, 158-64, 216, 217-18, 220,22425,227,237,266 stipend to students from assistance agencies, 167, 169, 173, 178, 180, 187, 192, 198 structure and demographics, 6, 15455 teacher education, 152, 156, 166, 16971, 174, 178, 181, 186, See also Chinese and English and French tertiary, 151, 155, 1 6 4 8 9 , 213, 21617,218,224,237 private universities, 41, 45, 155, 225-27,232,237 Education and the Politics of Language: Hegemony and Pragmatism in Cambodia, 1979-1 989, 15 1, 3 11 Education Quality Improvement Project, 156 Election Law (1997), 58 Elections, 5, 12, 14, 53-54, 55, 57, 58, 61-63, 65, 67, 68, 72, 73, 74, 78, 79, 93, 129,208 ElectricitC du Cambodge, 42 Enfants du Cambodge, 102 English for Academic Purposes Project, 125-26, 139, 142, 145,248 English in Ministries Project, 121-22, 123,248 English language. See also Global infrastructure of English-language universities and economic integration, 49, 256, 259 and political integration, 74-75, 254 and the dissemination of ideas, 73,

Index 127, 137, 146-47, 149, 154, 161, 201, 204, 205, 210, 251, 252, 262, 264,269 and the provision of assistance, 11415,263 as colonial language in Southeast Asia, 69 as instructional commodity controlled by anglophone actors, 50, 116, 143, 193,208,248-50,268 as official language of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), 69,74,254 as official language of the Cambodian delegation to the United Nations, 75 as the language of business, 28, 31 as threatening to Khmer, 213, 236, 270 attitude toward, by francophone assistance actors, 173, 183-85, 189, 195-96,202,224 choice of, 1-2, 3, 4, 102, 112, 184-85, 187, 195, 196,215,218,220-21, 222-35,236-39,246,261-62, 265-66,267,268,269,270 civil service, in the, 3, 119, 120, 121, 123, 124, 125, 126-27, 129-30, 131-32, 134, 136, 138, 139, 14345, 146, 1 4 7 4 8 , 149,204,205, 210, 21 1, 229, 232, 234, 262, 263, 267 demand for, by ASEAN, 65,69,71-72,74, 124, 126, 145,201-2,205,209, 21 1,230-31,234,235,236, 238,245,263,266,268 by assistance agencies, 98-102, 106, 113-14, 117, 147, 149, 156, 162, 205, 209, 2 1 1, 222, 227, 232, 234, 238, 245, 248, 261,263,266,268 by economic enterprises, 26, 27, 28-31,33,35, 38,42,48, 103, 162, 192, 201, 202, 205, 208, 21 1,227-28,234,238,245, 248,255-56,261,266,268 by francophone assistance agencies, 103, 114, 209

by French economic enterprises, 30, 35, 36, 208, 245 by the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), 65, 67-68,72,73, 208-9,234,245,254 education (for studentslteachers), by assistance agencies, 2, 150, 158-59, 160, 162, 167, 169, 171, 174, 175, 177, 181, 182, 183, 184, 187, 190, 192-94, 195, 196, 197, 198,201-2,203, 204, 210, 234, 236, 238, 244, 245,249,250,265,266 by Cambodians, 154, 158, 159, 162, 171, 176, 179, 180, 18485, 186, 189, 192, 193-94,204, 217-18,223-24,231,234,236, 265 inspectors, 159, 186 policy, in education, 2, 30, 46, 72, 150, 158, 160, 170, 173, 177, 185, 214,217,223,226,228 post-anglophonel-national status of, 30, 34, 48, 50, 99-100, 114, 116, 117, 142-43,209-10,233-35, 237, 238, 239, 245-47,248,264, 267,268,270 prohibition against, during the Vietnamese occupation, 153-54, 161, 190, 197,217 rationale for use of, by assistance agencies, 103-5 schools (proprietary), 38-39, 50, 122, 153-54, 159, 162,225,226,227, 231,237,248,266, See also Australian Centre for Education (ACE) and Cambodian-British Centre (CBC) and English Language Training Center (ELTC) and Regent School of Business teacher education, by assistance agencies, 154, 15859, 161-63, 168, 186, 192, 194, 244,249,250,265 by Cambodians, 159, 162, 185, 193,266 teachers, 2, 41, 44, 46, 50, 116, 120, 121-22, 123, 125, 143, 151, 154,

Index 158, 160, 161, 162-63, 169, 170, 171, 174, 176, 177, 179, 180, 182, 183, 184-85, 186, 187, 189, 192, 194, 195, 217, 223, 225, 227, 236, 237,248-50,265 technical assistance projects, in, 11948, 149, 150, 171, 199, 204, 210, 2 11,233,234,245,248-49,251, 252,261-62,263,266-67,268 texts and textbooks, 99, 104, 106, 126, 137, 159, 160, 162, 166, 170, 177, 179, 182, 184, 185, 187, 189, 195, 196, 198, 201, 210, 228, 232, 233, 236,244,249 training (for employees/counterparts), by assistance agencies, 42, 108-10, 116, 118-19, 120-27, 128, 129-30, 131-32, 134, 135-37, 138-39, 142, 143, 144-46, 149, 204, 205, 210, 234, 244, 245, 248-49,250,25 1,262 by economic enterprises, 38, 4243,44-45,46, 50, 206, 208, 234,245,248,249 by UNTAC, 68,74 uses of, in ASEAN, 71,74,254,264 in business, 36-38, 42, 4 8 4 9 , 208, 256,259 in the assistance enterprise, 98, 99, 101, 106-8, 110, 112, 114-15, 116, 161, 167, 186, 197, 204, 210,230,232,262,263,267 in UNTAC, 66,67-68,74,254 utility of, 150, 173, 181, 183, 195, 196-99,2OI-2,204,205-6,2lO11,223,227-31,235,23&37, 24 1,246,261-62,266-67,268 English Language for Ministry Officials (ELMO) Project, 41-42, 124-26, 139, 142, 145,248 English Language Institute, 185, 249 English language spread (concept of), 67,241-43,254,259,260,261,263, 264,265,268,269,270 English Language Training Center (ELTC), 120-21, 127, 128, 143, 151, 249,311 language teaching subcontractor,

to assistance agencies, 121, 129, 131, 136-37, 138 to the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), 68 English Language Training for Cambodian Key Ministries Staff Project, 123-24, 248 English Teaching Fellows (United States Information Agency), 169, 193 European Union as assistance organization, 5, 80, 84, 87, 88, 89, 91, 93, 96, 98, 102, 109, 111, 114, 119, 131, 132, 142, 146, 156, 189, 226, 232, 235, 245, 249,25 1,252,266 as economic bloc, 21 economic relations with Cambodia, 15, 17, 18, 22, 207 language policy in, 69 political relations with Cambodia, 55, 62 F.Y. Cambodian Fashions Ltd., 32 Faculty of Law and Economics, ix, 3, 2425, 29-30, 97, 127, 151, 155, 174, 175, 182-85. 192, 195,200,201,203, 212,216,217,218,220,223-24,227, 228,229-30,23 1,249,265-66, 3 1 1 language policy struggle at, 184-85, 195 Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, 152, 153, 165, See University of Health Sciences Faculty of Pedagogy, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 186, 194,216 Filibres francophones, 169, 178, 179, 180-81, 191 Food and Agriculture Organization, 79, 99, 179 Foreign Language Institute (Hanoi), 161 Forte Insurance, 3 1, 245 Forum Syd, 101 France, 80, 81, 101, 203, 235, 242, 259, 270, See also Centre Culture1 Fran~ais assistance, 6, 34, 39, 40,43, 50, 7980, 82, 84, 86, 92, 94, 96, 98, 99, 100, 102, 103, 104, 105, 111, 113, 116, 136, 204, 209, 245, See also CoopCration Franlaise

Index assistance delivered through the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, 1, 80, 190, 224 assistance to education, 1-2, 40, 95, 103, 132, 151, 156, 157, 159-60, 163-64, 165-67, 168, 172-75, 177-79, 180, 182-85, 188-92, 194, 195, 197-98, 199,200,203, 205,210,216,217,220,221-23, 234,236,253,261,265 colonial history in Cambodia, 8, 34, 84,92, 105, 182, 188, 195, 198 economic relations with Cambodia, 13, 14, 17, 18, 34-35, 94, 219, 221 participation in the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), 53, 65,66, 68 political relations with Cambodia, 39, 55,9495,202,2034,221-22, 233,236,253 France LibertC, 163, 197, 200, 205 Francophonie. See Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie French language and economic integration, 49 and the dissemination of ideas, 147, 154, 163,200-201,205,252,253 and the provision of assistance, 11415 assistance tied to use of, 2, 165, 166, 167, 168, 175, 191,218 attitude toward, by anglophone assistance actors, 202-3 choice against, 1-2, 3 , 4 , 102, 112, 218,220-21,222,223,226,227, 229,236,265,266 choice of, 215-20,222-23,230,236, 237,238-39,261 civil service, in the, 3, 136, 147, 222, 262-63 demand for, by assistance agencies, 98, 99, 100, 102-3. 106, 107, 113, 117, 156, 164,205,209,238-39,268 by economic enterprises, 26, 3 4 35,47, 48, 164, 205, 208, 219, 255-56,268 by the United Nations Transitional

Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), 67-68,73,208,254 during the colonial period, 8, 34, 69, 104, 152,222,233,262 education (for studentslteachers), by assistance agencies, 1-2, 103, 112, 132, 150, 152, 157, 160, 163, 164, 165-67, 169, 171, 172-73, 175, 177, 178, 179, 180, 183-84, 185, 189, 190-92, 193-94, 197-98,200,202,203, 204, 210, 217, 222, 224, 23 1, 238,261,265 by Cambodians, 8, 154, 158, 171, 179, 180, 186,204,217-18 francophone national status of, 48, 113, 116, 193,209,234,237,239 inspectors, 160, 186, 190 policy, in education, 1, 30, 72, 104, 132, 150, 152, 158, 160, 166, 170, 173, 185, 189, 217, 219, 224, 226, 253,265 prohibition against, during the Khmer Rouge regime, 8 during the Vietnamese occupation, 153-54, 190, 197,217 rationale for use of, by assistance agencies, 103-5 schools (proprietary), 153-54, 216, 220 teacher education, 154, 157, 159-60, 163-64, 168, 169, 184, 186, 190, 192, 193-94,217 teachers, 40, 151, 154, 157, 158, 15960, 163, 166, 168, 172, 174-75, 177, 179, 180, 183, 184, 186, 189, 192,217,220,227 technical assistance projects, in, 119, 132, 141, 147, 149, 171,252 texts and textbooks, 100, 111, 160, 163, 164, 166, 168, 170, 172, 174, 178, 179, 182, 185, 189, 192, 195, 198,201,218-19 training (for employeeslcounterparts), by assistance agencies. 1 1 1-12, 1 16,204,205,210 by economic enterprises, 4 0 4 1 , 50 by UNTAC, 68,74

Index uses of, in business, 37, 48-49, 208 in the assistance enterprise, 103, 1 0 6 8 , 111, 1 1 6 1 5 , 167, 197, 204,2 10 in UNTAC, 66,67-68,75 utility of, 8, 34, 35, 103, 150, 173, 192, 194, 195, 196-99,200,202, 203,204,205,210,218-20,223, 236,237,238,246,261,265,268 Front Uni National pour un Cambodge Indtpendent, Neutre, Pacifique, Et Cooptratif (FUNCINPEC), 5 1, 52, 54, 56, 57, 61, 62 Fulbright Program, ix, 3, 24, 64, 140, 229, 31 1 Gap (The), 16 Garment industry, 15-18, 22, 47, 48, 144, 207,208,215,236,245,258-59 demand for Chinese in, 32, 34, 36, 47 demand for English in, 31, 32, 34 General System of Preferences, 15 Georgetown University Management Education Development Project, 17576, 192-93, 195, 199,200,203,223, 244,265 German language, 105, 153, 190,232 Germany, 17, 18, 55, 65, 80, 81, 82, 93, 99, 100, 109, 114, 119, 138, 142, 143, 235,259 Gesellschaft fiir Technische Zusammenarbeit (German bilateral assistance), 100, 109 Global economy, 12, 48, 81, 114, 120, 202,205,235,247,251-52,255,258, 259,260,261 Global infrastructure of English-language universities, 105, 136, 137, 138, 14041, 14243, 146, 185, 198-99,205, 210,229,235,245,246,267,268 Global Logistics, 3 1 Globalization, vii, 252, 253-61, 264, 269 Groupe de Recherche et d'Echanges Technologiques (GRET), 96, 102, 177-78, 179 Halo Trust, 109 Handicap International, 102, 110 Health Sector Reform Project, 89-90, 91 Health Unlimited, 110

Helicopters Cambodia, 3 1 Hilfswerk der Evangelischen Kirchen der Schweiz, 8 1 Hong Kong Garment, 3 1 Hotel Inter-Continental, 23, 31, 37, 43 Hotel Le Royal, 23, 31 Hun Sen, 14, 52, 54, 56, 57, 62, 172, 176, 199 Hun Sen Library, 170 IDP Education Australia, 4 1, 42, 161, 249 IMF (International Monetary Fund) Institute, 141, 147 Impact of Armed Conflict on Social Capital, 19, 107, 257 Implementing the National Programme to Rehabilitate and Develop Cambodia, 12,88 Indigenous Adaptation to a Rapidly Changing Economy, 19-20, 107,257 Indonesia, 13, 53, 59, 65, 68, 69, 130, 132,235,259 Institut Aminuddin Baki (Malaysia), 137 Institut de Technologie du Cambodge, 12, 153, 155, 171-74, 184, 193, 196, 203,216,218,220,222,227,244 language policy protests at, 1-2, 3, 173, 191, 195,222,224 Institut International d'Administration Publique, 188 Institute of Foreign Languages, 153, 154, 155, 160, 161, 163, 166, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 174, 176, 180, 185, 186, 190, 193. 194, 200, 212, 216, 217,219,225,227,244,249,266,267 Institute of National Language, 104, 115, 213 Institute of Social Studies (the Hague), 127, 147,252 Institute of Technology and Management, 226 International Accounting Standards, 60, 190,203,204,221 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 55, See World Bank International Committee for the Reconstruction of Cambodia (ICORC), 79, 86, 88, See Consultative Group

Index International Committee of the Red Cross, 77 International English Language Testing System (IELTS), 125, 139 International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 101-2, 108 International Finance Corporation, 13, 25, 27, 100 International Institute of Cambodia, 22526,232 International Labour Organization (ILO), 99, 100, 101, 109 lnternational Management Investment Consultants, 3 1 International Monetary Fund (IMF), 22, 55, 59, 80, 81, 82, 83, 93, 96, 99, 100, 114, 119, 121, 133, 134, 141, 142, 144, 146, 188,229,235,251,252,266 International Organization for Migration, 109 International Rice Research Institute, 109, 179 International Visitor Program, 140, 146 International Volunteers of Yamaguchi, 81 Ireland, 99, 113, 121, 123, 142, 143, 182, 193,209,235,244,248,249 J.C. Penney, 31 Japan, 13, 80,81,235,259 assistance, 79, 82, 84, 86, 93, 94, 96, 100, 102, 105, 114, 119, 140, 142, 143,210,229 assistance to education, 166, 168, 181, 184, 185, 186, 193, 194, 195, 199, 20 1 economic relations with Cambodia, 13,94 participation in the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), 65 political relations with Cambodia, 55, 62 Japan lnternational Cooperation Agency, 80, 84, 93, 96, 140, 168, 186 Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, 168 Japanese language, 168, 180 Kampuchea Krom, 8 Kampuchea-Soviet Friendship Higher

Technical Institute, 1, See Institut de Technologie du Cambodge Khemara, 82 Khmer language, 7, 113 and the dissemination of ideas, 147, 252-53 as language of education, 8, 152, 153, 160, 164, 169, 172, 175, 177, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 185, 186, 187, 189, 190, 194, 201, 205, 213, 214, 226,236 as official language of Cambodia, 26, 72,212, 213 bilingual education initiative for ethnic minorities, 212-13 choice/maintenance of, 4, 212-14, 236 demand for, by economic enterprises, 26-28,31,35,47,208,236,267 education (for nonnative speakers), 115, 168 in national (political) life, 1, 65, 7273, 75, 103, 192, 209, 212, 236, 254,267 Khmerization (of education), 8, 152, 153, 168, 174, 190 planning, 104, 115, 213 policy, in education, 156, 158, 177, 212,213 technical assistance projects, in, 119, 130, 134, 137, 144, 145, 147, 148, 149, 171,252-53 texts and textbooks, 160, 170 utility of, 212, 213, 214, 236 Khmer People's National Liberation Front (KPNLF), 5 1, 52 Khmer Republic (1970-1975), 214 Khmer Rouge, 8-9, l l , 32, 51, 52, 53, 56, 59, 77, 84, 92, 151, 152, 158, 159, 163, 164, 165, 168, 171, 177, 180, 182, 188,214,254 Khon Kaen University (Thailand), 138 Kingdom of Cambodia (1993-), 4, 1 I , 12, 18, 23, 39, 46, 54, 55, 56, 57, 60, 72, 75, 83, 88, 139, 208 Krom samaki, 11 La Trobe University (Australia), 234 Lafayette College (United States), 140 Language choice (conceptual thesis), 6-7, 242,243,26465,268,269

Index Language choices by Cambodians. See Chinese and English and French and Khmer Language demands for Cambodians. See Chinese and English and French and Khmer Language education for Cambodian students and teachers. See English and French Language policy in Cambodia. See Education and English and French and Khmer Language schools. See Chinese and English and French Language teacher education in Cambodia. See English and French Language training for Cambodian employees and counterparts. See English and French Law on Investment (l994), 12-13,29, 47,49,207 Law on Nationality (1996), 57, 58, 64, 72 Law on Political Parties (1997), 58 Law on Press Regime (1995), 58 Legal Aid of Cambodia, 102 Levi-Strauss, 16 Linguistic imperialism (conceptual thesis), 6, 242-44, 246, 247, 250-51, 252, 253, 255, 259, 261, 263, 264, 267,268,269 Lutheran World Federation, 109 LycCe Sisowath, 186 Maersk International Shipping, 30, 42 Maharishi Vedic University, 155, 18687, 191, 194;201, 224 Malaysia, 13, 14, 53, 55, 59, 65, 68, 69, 70, 130, 137,259 MCdecins Sans Frontikres, 81, 102 Mekong Project Development Facility, 100 Mekong River Commission, l I0 Mennonite Central Committee, 169 Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency, 136 Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, 60, 120, 123, 125, 135, 136, 139, 147 Ministry of Commerce, 60, 120, 121, 127, 129, 131, 133,226

Ministry of Economy and Finance, 60, 86, 90, 101, 120, 127, 129, 131, 132, 133, 134, 136, 147,226,251 Ministry of Education (People's Republic of KampucheaIState of Cambodia), 152, 155, 163, 172 Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, 3, 40, 70, 71, 72, 111, 123, 125, 136, 138, 139, 147, 155, 158, 159, 175, 187, 191,212,213,214,224,225,262 Ministry of Environment, 138 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 122, 123, 129, 131, 226 Ministry of Health, 89, 91, 122, 136, 139, 222,262 Ministry of Industry, 120 Ministry of Interior, 125 Ministry of Justice, 60, 125 Ministry of Planning, 86, 120, 127, 133, 136,262-63 Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, 42, 122 Ministry of Public Works and Transportation, 139 Ministry of Rural Development, 125 Ministry of Social Affairs, 89, 122 Ministry of Tourism, 23 Mith Samlanh (Friends), 82, 102 Mobitel, 30, 42, 43,45, 46 Most Favored Nation status, 15 Moulinaka Party, 54 Nagoya University, 140, 185, 230 National Archives, 195, 198, 218 National Assembly, 54, 57-58, 61, 62, 72,73 National Bank, 82, 85, 120, 127, 133 National English Teaching Resource Centre, 159 National Higher Education Task Force, I65 National Institute for Public Health, 138 National Institute of Law, Politics, and Economics, 182, See Faculty of Law and Economics National Institute of Management, 25, 29-30,43, 127, 155, 174-77, 182, 184, 190, 191, 192-93, 194, 199,200, 202-3,221,223,224,228,23 1,244, 265,266

Index language policy protest at, 190 language policy struggle at, 175, 191, 195 National Institute of Statistics, 85 National Library, 198 National Petroleum Authority, 43 National Programme to Rehabilitate and Develop Cambodia, 12, 86, 88 National University of Singapore, 70-71, 134 Neoliberal agenda, 251-52, 253, 260 Nest16 Dairy (Cambodia) Ltd., 28, 29, 30, 36, 38, 45,245 Netherlands, 53, 55, 65, 80, 82, 99, 100, 114, 120,210,235,248 Netherlands Organization for International Development Cooperation, 99, 100 New Humanity, 96, 170-71, 193, 200, 245 New Zealand, 2, 99, 113-14, 119, 138, 142, 143, 174, 193,235,244,249 New Zealand Volunteers, 2, 99, 174 NGO Forum on Cambodia, 102 Nike, 16 Norodom Ranariddh, 14, 54, 56, 57, 62, 195 Norodom Sihanouk, 8, 5 1,54, 165 North American Free Trade Agreement, 21 Norton University, 226 Norway, 80,93, 114,235 Norwegian People's Aid, 101 Old Navy, 16 Open Skies policy, 22, 258 Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, 1, 80, 96, 102, 113, 114, 116, 165, 169, 191, 195, 196, 202-3,221-22,223,233,236,239, 245,246,253,261 Overseas Development Administration (United Kingdom), 43, 123 Oxfam, 101, 179 Paris Peace Accords (1991), 5, 52, 53, 55, 56, 62, 63, 64, 66, 78, 79, 165, 190, 192, 199,208 Partners for Development, 87 Pasteur Institute, 84, 166 People's Republic of China, vii, 13, 17,

22, 32, 48, 51, 52, 5 6 5 5 , 56, 62, 65, 6 6 , 8 1,214,235,259 People's Republic of Kampuchea (19791989), 8, 11, 51-52, 54, 55, 78, 112, 160, 197, 200,208, 214 Perestroika, 52 Petronas, 3 1, 43 Pharmaciens Sans Frontikres, 102, 107, 109, 111, 114 Phnom Penh Media Company, 30,37 Phnom Penh Post, 26,97,218 Phnom Penh University, 165, 168, 174, 175, 182, 188, See Royal University of Phnom Penh Pierre Fabre MCdicament, 165 Plan Coinptable General (French General Accounting Plan), 60, 189, 190, 203, 204,221 Pol Pot, 8, 56 Politics (Cambodian). See also Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Elections and United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) "coup" of 1997, 14. 56-57, 61, 62, 63, 93, 131, 176, 199,208 history, 5, 8, 51-63, 73-75, 78, 95, 112, 161,208,209,267 political recognition, 5 6 5 6 , 62-63, 208 rights of citizens, 57-59 Preparations for Cambodia's Membership in ASEAN Project, 129-30, 144-45, 146, l47-48,251 PricewaterhouseCoopers, 25, 3 1,46, 228 Programme d'Appui 2i la Formation Agricole au Royaume du Cambodge (PAFAARC), 178-79 Programme d'Appui au Secteur de 1'Education Primaire au Cambodge (PASEC), 98, 11 I, 156,232 Projet de RChabilitation et d'Appui au Secteur Agricole au Cambodge, 84, 89,91, 102, 109 Provas dei, 19, 26, 257 Quaker Service Australia (QSA), 101, 158, 159, 161, 192, 197,205,249,267 Redd Barna (Save the Children Norway), 108, 110

Index Regent School of Business, 45-46, 50, 1 16, 120, 143,225 language teaching subcontractor, to assistance agencies, 109, 110, 116, 135,225,234,248 to economic enterprises, 38, 46, 50,225,248 Regional English Language Centre (Singapore), 159 Regional teacher training colleges, 152, 156, 159-60 Reproductive and Child Health Alliance, 102 Reproductive Health Association of Cambodia, 110 Research, Standardization, and Promotion of the Khmer Language Conference, 104,213 Royal Air Cambodge, 30 Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, 25, 32, 41 Royal Technical Institute, 171, See Institut de Technologic du Cambodge Royal University of Agriculture, 153, 155, 177-79, 180, 190, 191, 194, 196, 200,2 16,220,227-28 Royal University of Agronomic Sciences, 177, See Royal University of Agriculture Royal University of Fine Arts, 155, 18082, 193, 194, 199,216,219,244,249 Royal University of Phnom Penh, 25, 70, 155, 168-71, 178, 180, 193, 194,200, 202, 21 6, 220, 222, 224, 232, 245, 265.266 Rule of law, 58, 59, 93, 132, 144, 25 1 , 252,254 Rural Development Bank, 35, 37, 48 Russian language, 233, 238 in education, 1, 9, 104, 153-54, 156, 162, 170, 171-72, 174, 177, 190, 232,233 teachers, 120, 155, 158, 169 Salary supplementation. See Assistance Sam Rainsy Party, 61 Samart, 3 1, 36, 37, 38 Sanskrit language, 7, 187 Sears, Roebuck, 16 Secondary Science and Mathematics

Teacher Training Project, 186 Senate (Cambodian), 62 Services of Health in Asian and African Regions, 101 Sex tourism, 23,258,259 Shanghai Institute of Finance and Economics, l41,25 1 Shell Company of Cambodia, 28, 29, 30, 36, 37, 42,45, 46 Shinawatra, 3 1, 42 Siam Cement, 30 Sihanouk Hospital, 167, 195 Singapore, 13, 33, 59, 68, 69, 242, 259 Sisowath High School, 164 SociCtC Khmere des Distilleries, 30 Socio-Economic Survey of Cambodia, 19 SOS Children's Village of Cambodia, 101 Soutien B 1'Initiative PrivCe pour 1'Aid a la Reconstruction, 111 Soviet Union, vii, 1, 9, 11, 12, 51, 52, 55, 56, 78, 112, 152, 153, 154, 156, 171, 174, 177,208,233 Spanish language, 153 State of Cambodia (1989-1993), 12, 52, 54, 55, 78, 214 State University of New York at Albany, 170 State University of New York at Buffalo, 3, 64, 68, 120, 121, 143, 151, 311 Stichting Benevolentia, 138 Structural adjustment, 59, 81, 82-83, 93, 188 Summer Institutes, 140 Sweden, 5, 68, 80, 82, 85, 96, 99, 100, 105, 109, 114, 119, 120, 127, 141, 142, 143, 147, 156, 179, 210, 235, 245,248,251 Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, 5, 68, 80, 8586, 96, 99, 100, 109, 120, 127, 128, 141, 142, 156, 179,245 Swiss Samlanh, 102 Taipei Overseas Peace Service, 101 Teachers' Training College, 152, 168, See Royal University of Phnom Penh Telstra, 3 1, 42 Test of English as a Foreign Language, 128, 182,229

Index Thai language, 7, 29, 68 Thai Pore Garment, 3 1 Thailand, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 21, 23, 51, 52, 53, 59, 65, 68, 110, 130, 132, 137, 259 Tiger Beer, 13, 3 1 Tilleke and Gibbins, 31 Total, 28, 29-30, 35 Trade embargo (1980s), 12 Training for National Capacity Building for the Conservation of Cultural Monuments Project, 181, 193, 194, 249 Training Project for Officials, 131-32, 146, 189,226,251 Transnational Law and Business University (Seoul), 185, 230 Transpo International, 3 1 Tricelcam, 45 Ukrainian Agricultural Academy, 177, 200 UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), 78, 80, 96, 100, 109, 119, 136, 138, 140, 142, 146, 147-48, 172, 176, 181, 182, 194,249,252 UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund), 78, 80, 96, 99, 100, 109, 156, 235 Unilever, 3 1 United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, 138 United Kingdom, 44, 59, 61, 80, 81, 94, 233, 235, 241, 242, 243, 244, 246, 247, 248, 259, 270, See also Cambodian-British Centre assistance, 6, 43-44, 82, 87, 96, 99, 109, 114, 116, 123-24, 142, 143, 209,248 assistance to education, 44, 158-59, 162, 177, 186, 192, 193, 194, 227, 244,249,250,265 economic relations with Cambodia, 13, 14, 17, 18 participation in the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), 65,66 political relations with Cambodia, 4344,55

United Nations, 52, 55, 56, 57, 62, 69, 75, 77, 78, 80, 83, 89, 90, 113, 114, 120, 143, 197, 245 language policy in, 69 United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS), 100 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 5, 78-79, 80, 83, 84, 85, 86, 89, 96, 100, 109, 110, 119, 125, 129, 130, 132, 136, 142, 144, 145, 146, 147-48, 172,235,245,249,251,256, 260 United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, 67 United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR), 100 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 100, 109 United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), 100, 109, 1 10 United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), 86, 100, 109 United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), 5, 1 I , 53-54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 63, 64-68, 72, 73, 74, 79, 86, 88, 91, 95, 208, See also English and French debate about language in, 65-66 language policy in, 66, 73, 208, 254 linguistic diversity in, 65 United Nations Volunteers, 53, 168 United States, ix, 14, 21, 52, 61, 80, 81, 94, 233, 235, 237, 241, 242, 243, 244, 246,247,248,251,256,259,265,270 as instigator of development assistance embargo, 78 assistance, to education, 160, 169, 175-76, 189, 190, 193, 195, 199-200, 203,223,244,266 to the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea, 5 1 to the Kingdom of Cambodia, 6, 80, 84, 93, 96, 99, 102, 114, 119, 140, 142, 143, 144, 14647 economic relations with Cambodia, 13, 14, 15, 16-17, 18, 22, 207

Index political relations with Cambodia, 5 4 . 55, 56, 62, 66 United States Agency for International Development (USAID), 6, 80, 96, 99, 102, 144, 160, 175, 189, 193, 203, 244,266 Universal English School, 225 Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (Malaysia), 45 Universiti Utara Malaysia, 176, 231 University of Bologna, 170 University of Canberra, 16 1, 249 University of Economic Sciences (Vietnam), 174 University of Hawai'i, 18 1-82 University of Health Sciences, 151, 155, 165-67, 191, 194, 195,203,216,218, 223,224,265 University of London, 127, 128, 146, 245,251 University of Lyon 11, 182, 183, 203, 231 University of Michigan, 185, 230 University of Pisa, 170 University of Reading, 159 University of San Francisco Community Legal Education Center, 93, 96, 104, 110, 144, 176 University of San Francisco Law Education Project, 175-76, 184, 193, 195, 199,200,203,223,244,265 University of Southern Queensland, 45 University of Technology Sydney, 139 VCtCrinaires Sans Frontikres, 178 Vietnam, 7, 8, 21, 52, 56, 59, 60, 62, 68, 69, 110, 128, 130,232,269-70 assistance to the People's Republic of

Kampuchea, 9 , 5 2 , 7 8 , 152-53, 154, 155-56, 168, 174, 177, 180, 182, 186, 190, 191, 197,200 occupation of Cambodia (1979-1989), 8-9, 11, 51-52, 53, 55, 77-78, 95, 112, 152-54, 161, 164, 165, 203, 214,254,311 Vietnamese language, 7, 68 in education, 9, 104, 152-54, 156, 162, 170, 174, 190,232 teachers, 155, 158, 169 use of, in business, 27 Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) (United Kingdom), 99, 115, 159, 16263, 177,249 Wearwel Garments, 30 World Bank, 5, 13, 25, 55, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 86, 87, 89, 90, 93, 96, 98, 99, 100, 101, 109, 114, 119, 120, 121, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 142, 144, 145, 146, 147, 156, 157, 235, 245, 249, 251, 252, 255, 256, 257, 258, 262, 263,266 World Bank Institute, 147, 262 World Concern, 87, 167 World Education, 109 World Food Programme, 78, 100, 109, 125 World Health Organization (WHO), 79, 80, 87, 96, 99, 100, 110, 222, 235, 262,263 World Trade Organization (WTO), 22, 47 World Vision, 23, 101, 109 Youth with a Mission, 87 ZOA Refugee Khmer, 101

Author

Thomas Clayton is Associate Professor of English and Linguistics at the University of Kentucky, U.S.A., where he teaches classes in applied linguistics and directs the Master of Arts in English with a Concentration in Teaching English as a Second Language Program. In 1991, Clayton established the first U S . university educational program in postwar Cambodia, the English Language Training Center for the State University of New York at Buffalo at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute. In 2000, he taught at the Faculty of Law and Economics in Phnom Penh as the first-ever Fulbright scholar to Cambodia. Professor Clayton has published more than two dozen articles on language and educational policy issues, often in the Cambodian context, in books and journals such as the Comparative Education Review, the History of Education Quarterly, the International Journal of Educational Development, Language Policy, Language Problems and Language Planning, and South East Asia Research. Clayton's first book, Education and the Politics of Language: Hegemony and Pragmatism in Cambodia, 1979-1989 (Comparative Education Research Centre, University of Hong Kong, 2000), examines language and education in Cambodia during the Vietnamese occupation. Professor Clayton welcomes correspondence at [email protected].

Language Policy 1. M.H. Amara and A.A. Mar'i: Language Education Policy: The Arab Minority in Israel. 2002 ISBN 1-4020-0585-7 2. R.B. Kaplan and R.B. Baldauf Jr.: Language and Language-in-Education Planning in the Pacific Basin. 2002 ISBN1 -4020- 1062-1 3. L.A. Grenoble: Language Policy in the Soviet Union. 2003 ISBN1 -4020- 1298-5 4. M. Zhou (ed.) Language Policy in the People's Republic of China: Theory and Practice Since 1949. 2004 ISBN 1-4020-8038-7 5. T. Clayton: Language Choice in a Nation under Transition: English Language Spread in Cambodia. 2006. ISBN 0-387-3 1 193-9 6. A.L. Rappa and L. Wee: Language Policy and Modernity in Southeast Asia: Malaysia, the Phillipines, Singapore, and Thailand. 2006. ISBN 1-4020-4510-7

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