Cambodian Language Reading Books
Participants in a forum in Phnom Penh organized by the National Library of Cambodia and the Australian Embassy said yesterday that Cambodia lacks a culture of reading.
“Cambodia society is a society whose people do not like reading very much, and we have some reasons for this problem,” said Pal Vannrirak, director of the development of the Book Sector in Cambodia, a local NGO.
Ms Vannarirak cited poverty as one impediment ot widespread reading.
“Buying rice is necessary, not buying books for reading,” she said in her talk at the two-hour forum held at the National Library. “And if they read, they read what relates to their skills, and intellectuals only read books in the form of international languages.”
Ms Vannarirak also cited illiteracy as a stumbling block. Literacy has risen sharply since 1998, but Cambodia still trails most of its neighbors in Southeast Asia, according to the result of the government’s 2008 census, the most recent data available. The number of literate Cambodians jumped from 62.8 percent in 1998 to 78.5 percent in 2008.
In a telephone interview after his talk at yesterday’s forum, Heng Sreang, a lecturer with the Royal University of Phnom Penh’s Department of Philosophy, agreed that Cambodia lacks a culture of reading.
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