Interview with Santel Phin, founder of KhmerBird

As people say, that Santel Phin is the Social Media Guru in Cambodia, we are very happy about this interview he gave to us. His Blog KhmerBird is one of the most read Cambodian blogs (Star bloggers in Cambodia the top five in the Phnom Penh Post) with different topics all about how to think in modern way and how to change people´s mind to get a better chance in their future. All his articles are not only interesting for locals – even foreigners can be inspired a lot when he informs how to move to Cambodia for example. So we invite you to read his interesting answers to our questions.

1. Please describe yourself: What is your goal, your vision?

My goal right now is to build a platform where travelers around the world could find information directly from local Cambodian people. I observed that many Cambodian people want to promote their business, services but they don’t have a good platform to send the message. I also noticed people are looking for more information related to Cambodia but there is no much place they can find such information.

My vision is to provide a free platform for them to exchange the information. I explained more details on my Blog Khmerbird

2. What was your inspiration to start with your blog KhmerBird?

I noticed people from outside world didn’t really know what was happening in Cambodia. I used my blog to publish my short stories, news related to Cambodia, culture and art events etc. Until today, my vision for KhmerBird remains the same.

It’s a place where people can find information about Cambodia. I decided few weeks ago to make KhmerBird as a free platform for everyone who want to promote Cambodia, their business and services. I want the platform to be a good place for exchanging information between travelers and Cambodian local people.
The vision is now clearly defined and I will commit myself to make this platform more accessible and have more useful contents about Cambodia travel guides.

3. What do you think about intercultural dialogue?

I believe people have a good advantage to communicate with Cambodian people because most of us can speak English. I learned English when I was in high school. I paid 500 riels per hours. And to be frank I never have any English official degree.

When I wrote my short stories, I always check the dictionary. I try to explain things in a very simple way because my English is limited. I might make mistake in typing and in grammar but so far, I think most of the people understand my messages.

But I heard a lot of stories related to foreigners who start to communicate with Cambodia people and have some baring things to take care. For example, we like to ask: are you single? how much salary you get? or even how old are you? etc … In some other countries, I believe those questions are not so good to asked, people might feel disturbed but this is Cambodian way, we like to ask the age, because we want to know if the person is older than us or not, because we change the language according to the ages.

So I think there are few things that foreigners need to know before they come to Cambodia.

4. What do you think about entrepreneurial thinking regarding to young people in Cambodia?

Cambodia is a developing country. We need to work very hard to survive and support family. We don’t have yet a good system which will help us to find job, live a sustainable life etc. We need to figure out on our own. And the most important thing, a lot of young people don’t have money to start their business. That what I was facing when I start to think of getting my own business. My father already said to me, he has nothing to give me. all he can give is to support me to have high education as much as he can, the rest I need to figure out myself.

He is a good father. He has done everything to provide educations to his children.
I think entrepreneur would be a good business model for Cambodian young generation. We can start a business with 100$ or less. That’s what I am trying to share on my new blog 4-Hour Workweek Blogger

5. Which grassroots activities could promote entrepreneurial thinking?

Show them the example. Show them what we have done to make that success. That’s also the reason I start my second blog 4-Hour Workweek Blogger. We need to show people how to become an entrepreneur, prove them step by step that this thing is going to work.

As soon as you set your goals and work hard for it, you will get rewards. That’s what I love about blogging, because blogging allow me to share what I was doing behind the scene, so that people can learn and be sure that they won’t waste their time in starting to help people, share their knowledge and networking with others entrepreneurs.

6. Is there anything else you want to tell us?

I restart my series of post called: KhmerBird Sunday Edition. What I plan to provide in those series of posts are the collections of good links related to Cambodia, to give you an idea of what was happening during the week. I plan to include things to do or things to check for the upcoming week etc. Make sure you subscribe to KhmerBird Our mission in the next couple of months is to provide travel guides to help people to spend less, stay longer and explore more of Cambodia.

Thank you very much Santel Phin for your interesting answers!

For all of our readers who want to learn more from him, we invite you to like his Facebook-page and to follow him on Google+. 

Update 1.1.2013: Interview with Santel Phin on Khmer 440
Update 18.01.2013: Cambodia Daily News by Santel Phin on paper.li

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