Happy/Merry Christmas
January 2007
Kampong Speu province
Archive for the ‘Cambodia’ Category
Christmas in Cambodia
Thursday, December 18th, 2008J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter in Khmer language
Sunday, October 26th, 2008An advertisement appeared in a recent issue in The Cambodia Daily says copies of the first book of Harry Potter (in large font size and capital letter that says MAGIC!) in Khmer language is priced at $2.50 (about ten thousand in Cambodian Riel). Khmer version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone are available at Monument Bookstore.
A few years back I grabbed a copy of the book from a bookshop on Monyvong Boulevard for my younger sister, who found it good read; she still asks me for the second book. Recent ads attracted my attention since I thought the second and third books may have just been translated, but then I realized that it’s yet the same one. This time, though, Phnom Penh’s largest bookstore run the ads in the print newspaper.
Sokunpanha You, a Cambodian fan of British author J. K. Rowling, told the BBC that:
I grew up in a country where English wasn’t even the second language. The world of Harry Potter was introduced to me rather late when I was in high school. From the first page, I haven’t really grown too old for what are otherwise supposed to be children’s books.
For me, Harry Potter was the starting point of not just a hobby, but a passion. By the time I read the first Potter book, I’d already been an avid reader, but I did most of the reading in my native Khmer language.
Harry Potter books were what got me into reading in English. I have since then ventured to enjoy both classic and contemporary English literature such as the work of Dickens, Austen, the Bronte sisters, Hugo and many more.
I can now hardly go through a day without doing some reading. And all this started by a bespectacled boy living in a broom shed under the stairs.
The Harry Potter series of fantasy novels have been translated from English into more than 50 languages. The availability of the Khmer language version of the children’s favorite book is credited to The Cambodia Daily publisher Bernard Krisher, who wrote the British author.
In a recent Phnom Penh Post news article, reporter Eleanor Ainge Roy discussed an issue of readership (Young literati delve into the foreign classics) in Cambodia, a country where young people like listening to radio and watching television than reading books.
“For Cambodia’s literature lovers, reading Western classics like Oliver Twist or Les Miserables in the original language is a labour of love…”
I’ve been wondering what could be an important factor to improve readership in the country. I understand that increasing literacy is a significant step to take. However, as pointed out in the article, young people don’t find reading for pleasure, but what they have to.
Some questions came to my mind at the time of writing this:
- Is it because Cambodian literature has too little to offer?
- Or new generation has not born yet to produce some great work that catch up with a large segment of the Cambodian market?
- Is the market of readership too small for writers and publishers to take it aggressively?
- How can we produce quality print books cheaper (print a large amount of copies)?
- Is it true that non-Khmer language speakers couldn’t find Cambodian literature in English much to read?
- Can both the Internet and technology help writers to get their works sold out?`
- How can we see the comeback of rich and great Cambodian litature in this generation?
Why BarCamp in Phnom Penh?
Monday, September 29th, 2008I didn’t write much (on my weblog) about why I chose to run BarCamp Phnom Penh (BarCampPP), an open source-inspired concept of all things technology conference. Not that I didn’t want to, but that I had not discovered yet what it really is until some time after the conclusion of the event itself.
About a year ago, I learned about a concept of how tech people, in many other parts of the world, plan and run an impromptu conference, where participants are open to take part in presenting and discussing technology-related topics.
I have a black color T-shirt that bears ‘BarCamp Paris’. I googled the Web, and learned a bit more about how to plan and run the unconference. Actually, I like the concept for one thing: it’s completely a new cultural concept here in Cambodia to have such an open and participatory convention, where everyone has their own privilege to take part in making presentations, discussions, and such. Also, it’s relatively challenging to introduce it to Cambodia tech enthusiasts, not to mention to the people who help in planning and organizing the event.
Just a couple of weeks into September the 20th of this year, the fixed date of this Cambodia’s first BarCamp, people kept asking me: how would things be organized at BarCamp Phnom Penh ‘08. I had my own version of response; I don’t know because I’ve never attended one. Why do you run it, people kept asking me. I told them that I thought it’s fun; and of course it’s born from the so called: desire; or I’d rather call it a brainchild. After all, it’s fun; it’s as if you work on planning for several months to throw a party for your fellow friends (and many self-claimed geeks); or an important event (grand work) you could do for someone so important to you, even though she was not there.
It turned out to be an amazing experience for me for it’s one of my first initiatives I’ve implemented so far. So many new things came to me time after time, and that I was ready to handle every issue, not to say that I had to keep up with pressure. I told my BarCampPP organizer fellows that I do as much as possible to get sponsorship as well as to spread the word, particularly to make it known to people outside the country, so that they might be interested in coming to the Cambodian capital for the unconference. I did learn and remember one phrase (about how to get an important thing done) by heart: I’ll “crawl, beg, and offer to dance on the table”. Thank Eduardo Jezierski (Edjez) for telling me this; even though you couldn’t get (I knew you did your best) that prototype of Google’s Adroid-power cellphone to show off at BarCamp Phnom Penh, you helped me to realize that I’d anything possible to ensure that the BarCamp would really take place and all things necessary would be available. I thought I did it all when I was told, just some days before the BarCamp, that we couldn’t have an Internet connection available for the day-long gathering. What’d it be like for a geeky conference not to have Wi-Fi available. Fortunately, we could shift the situation.
I like telling people who involved in running BarCampPP that we have to run this at low-cost, so that the concept can be easily taken and that it can be easily carried out by other people to run it, especially it can be taken place in other parts of Cambodia. Not anyone convinced.
One more thing I was so pleased: every participant helped making BarCampPP a great event, probably one of the most exciting tech events ever happened in the country. I didn’t expect that a few people who run BarCampPP would have made everything completely done. But it was until this untraditional gathering took place that I realized that it’s the role of the participants, not the organizers, to fill the gap, and to conclude the colorful day.
Financially, we had about US$1000 (sponsored by both corporate and individual) in cash to spend on renting a venue at Cambodian-Japan Center for Cooperation, partially on T-shirts, stationaries, banners, and a few other things. Lunch, refreshment for two sessions (morning and afternoon), Internet, drinking water, and some other give-away stuff were well-covered by BarCampPP’s generous sponsors. My thank to both Ramana and Virak for making it happened.
All in all, BarCamp Phnom Penh ‘08 was featured in the front-page of Cambodia’s oldest English-language newspaper, in its very national news section. Reporter Eleanor Ainge Roy wrote that:
The event was certainly informal. The mostly youthful crowd wandered in and out of the convention hall, dipping into discussion groups in the garden about the best programming language or crowding excitedly around some fine new piece of technology.