Category - Personal Interest/Experience

Cambodia Circles – a new website specially designed for Cambodians

August 19, 2011
Dara Saoyuth
Personal Interest/Experience
Page-from-cambodiacircles
Page-from-cambodiacircles

Sample page from cambodiacircles.com

Social networking sites have evolved and gotten recognized by the fact of keeping people from every corner of the world to stay connected; however, Cambodiacircles.com is more than that. The site comes from the word Cambodia + Circles, and according to the dictionary, the word circle means: A group of people sharing an interest, activity, or achievement.

Founded earlier this year by initiative members living in foreign country with the support of Cambodian taskforce in term of content providing, Cambodiacircles.com is struggling to be more than a social networking site for Cambodians by gathering 6 groups of people who share the same interest, activity, or achievement. They are professional group, civil servants, NGOs, Academics, Business Owners, and the rest of us who are still studying or unemployed.

Imagine that you were a student in a particular subject and want to get some advices from experts to solve your academic problems or want to seek for a job, where would you go for it? To deteriorate ever-experienced difficulties in searching for a particular group of people, Cambodiacircles.com provides easy platform for Cambodian to get to know each other and keep up with that relationship by chatting, messaging, documents sharing, etc. All Cambodiacircles.com members have to express their current position or expertise so that it’s easier for its users to look for a particular group of people.

More than that, Cambodiacircles.com provide variety of local news contents concerning with social development, technology, business, education and experience sharing from experts from different fields.

We strongly believe that knowing a lot of information will minimize your risks in making decision on everything.

27/07/2011
By: Dara Saoyuth
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Attended a lecture by Ralph J. Begleiter

July 1, 2011
Dara Saoyuth
Personal Interest/Experience
Attended a lecturer by Ralph J. Begleiter

Attended a lecturer by Ralph J. Begleiter / by: Tith Chandara

That’s a great chance for me yesterday to have chance joining a lecture by Ralph Begleiter, director (Center for Political Communication) and former CNN world affairs correspondent.

I have learnt a lot in the  4 hours and a half lecture. The three main topics were being discussed in the lecture are: 1. Media “independence” – what it means/how it works, 2. Is Seeing Believing? – Photo ethics, photo manipulation, and 3. Broadcast News/ Broadcast News Documentary.

This lecture was hosted at the Department of Media and Communication (DMC), and attended by most of DMC students and lecturers.

Below is a short biography of Ralph Begleiter extracted from the website of University of Delaware:

Ralph Begleiter is Director of the Center for Political Communication at the University of Delaware. He brings more than 30 years of broadcast journalism experience to his award-winning instruction in communication, journalism, and political science. During two decades as CNN’s “world affairs correspondent,” Begleiter was the network’s most widely-traveled reporter. He has worked in some 97 countries on all 7 continents. He continues to travel with UD students, and conducting media workshops in several countries under the auspices of the U.S. Department of State. Begleiter teaches undergraduate courses in “Broadcast News,” “History of TV News Documentary,” “Broadcast News Documentary,” “Global Media & International Politics,” and special courses such as a study abroad program in Antarctica and South America in photojournalism and geopolitics (2003, 2005), in Turkey (2008) studying the “Geopolitics of the Mediterranean,” and “Road to the Presidency” during election years. He also directs the university’s “Global Agenda” public speaker program, and in 2006 and 2009 his “Global Agenda” class met weekly by videoconference with students in the Middle East to discuss cross-cultural and media issues. In 2002 he took UD students to Cuba for the 40th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

At CNN during the 1980’s and 1990’s, he covered U.S. diplomacy, interviewed countless world leaders, hosted a global public affairs show, and co-anchored CNN’s “International Hour.” In 1998, Begleiter wrote and anchored a 24-part series on the Cold War. He covered historic events at the end of the 20th century, including virtually every high-level Soviet/Russian-American meeting; the Persian Gulf Crisis in 1990-91; Middle East Peace efforts; and many UN and NATO summit meetings. Since coming to UD, he has hosted the Foreign Policy Association’s annual “Great Decisions” television discussion series, an international affairs program on Public Broadcasting System stations. in 1994,he received the Weintal Prize from Georgetown University’s Graduate School of Foreign Service, one of diplomatic reporting’s highest honors. In 2008, the Delaware Press Association named him “Communicator of Achievement.” In 2009, he earned the University of Delaware’s College of Arts & Sciences “Excellence in Teaching” award.
He holds an Honors B.A. in political science from Brown University, an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, and is a member of the National Honor Society, Phi Beta Kappa.

07/01/2011
By: Dara Saoyuth

Join Internet Talk at CTN

June 29, 2011
Dara Saoyuth
Personal Interest/Experience
2 Comments

Last Thursday, Tivea Koam and I were invited to share experiences after working as Cambodian news reporters for more than a year. At the same time, we got a chance to briefly talked about some of our school projects we have completed since year 1 to year 3. The projects include the establishing of KON magazine, and 9 video documentaries we just produced. Below is the interview clip I just got from the station. Cheers,

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmFZsuz7gV4&w=425&h=344]
29/06/2011
By: Dara Saoyuth
Footage recorded on 23/06/2011
 
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My interview with Radio Australia

June 22, 2011
Dara Saoyuth
Personal Interest/Experience

Yesterday, I was interviewed by Radio Australia in a topic related to DMC batch 08 video production as well as today press conference of the documentary launching. I’ve attached the full interview clip below for you as a fan of Student Blog. Cheers,

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTtRK17vwcA]
22/06/2011
By: Dara Saoyuth
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New look for my study table

June 8, 2011
Dara Saoyuth
Personal Interest/Experience
2 Comments
My study table

My study table / by: Dara Saoyuth

I was sweating buckets after taking almost 2 hours cleaning and reorganizing materials on my table. I realized that I didn’t have any feeling to read books or use my computer on my untidy table, so I took action this afternoon after leaving class. Now, I feel so fresh and I am typing from my computer which I put on my well-organized table.:D

My dad always says to me that things will spread over my table again a few weeks after I organize it. Until now, I have to agree that what he said is true, but I don’t know why it is still like that…

This is some recommendations to all of you. “Please make your learning environment becomes more friendly to you so that you’ll make progress in studying.” “When you misplace a small thing on your table, sooner or later, your table will become messy with the other things.”

Notice: I myself is struggling to keep up doing the above recommendations.

08/06/2011
By: Dara Saoyuth

DMC Film Premiere Screening of “Until Today”

June 5, 2011
Dara Saoyuth
Personal Interest/Experience
in Battambang

Preparing films screening in University of Battambang / by: Dara Saoyuth

Starting from Monday to Thursday, my TV production lecturer and all students in DMC batch 08 had brought 9 short documentary videos to screen in 3 provinces in the Kingdom.

“Until Today” is a DMC Video Project focusing on outgrowing the shadow of Democratic Kampuchea. Throughout the 9 videos, you will know ‘how do events from the past shape our future?’ and ‘how does that affect our daily lives today?’.

Short descriptions of these 9 videos are: A Child Soldier disperses the ghosts of his past with music; After more than 30 years, a man is reunited with his family; Men and women abandon Buddhism to avoid punishment for their sins; Ruined villas of Kep are waiting to take their place among the national heritage; After her abuse under DK, a transsexual now tells her story at the ECCC; A woman joins a mine squad to save others from her own fate; Indigenous tribes in Ratanakiri remember how they turned from friend to foe; The hunt for lost manuscripts as a treasure of the past is on; and The prosecution of intellectuals under DK – reason of unoriginality today?

To produce these videos, my classmates and I had to go to different places in Cambodia talking to various people and capturing everything we thought it would help making our videos good to see. All of us had one week for shooting and around three weeks for editing.

With the financial support from GIZ Entwicklungsdienst, we successfully achieved these 90 minutes video consisting of 9 stories on different topic. Sooner after finishing editing, we had brought these videos to screen at French Cultural Centre in Siem Reap, University of Battambang in Battambang province, and Apic Arts in Kampot province.

04/06/2011
By: Dara Saoyuth
Consult the screening announcement written by GRIGO Andreas, a TV production lecturer at DMC

I’ve just lost my beloved editor, Colin Meyn – part one

May 27, 2011
Dara Saoyuth
Personal Interest/Experience
2 Comments

It might be a surprise for LIFT fans to know that our editor, Colin Meyn, has just resigned from his work after finishing his contract with the Phnom Penh Post. However, I’d better not say that he resigned because he told me that he could not renew his contract though he still loves working there.

It’s a bit hard for me to accept this fact because I always appreciate his contribution to LIFT and I’d say that “without Colin is without LIFT today”. I dare to say that no one else know well about the development and improvement of LIFT magazine besides from Colin Meyn, Tivea Koam, and me because we used to work with each other very closely and conduct plenty of meetings to improve our magazine quality.

LIFT magazine is an educational supplement of the Phnom Penh Post for Cambodian youth. 1st issue of LIFT  was published on January 6, 2009, and so far, there are 72 issues of LIFT.

This post is written to remind me of good memories I have with my beloved editor, to address his involvement in LIFT, and also my contribution to this magazine. Hope to receive some comments from my dear readers after you guys finish reading this opinion piece…

My involvement  in LIFT magazine

My editor and I when joining barcamp 2010

My editor and I when joining barcamp 2010

June 2, 2010 is the first time I had chance to have an article published in LIFT magazine, but actually, I have involved in LIFT a bit early than that by joining its’ weekly newsroom meeting.

I can still remember that at that time, I don’t know much about how to write an article so I made a lot of mistakes in writing and Colin edited most of what I’ve sent to him. I was only a normal contributor to LIFT and in some issues, I didn’t even have my name in writers and reporters list. I used to be very disappointed once and a bit envy with some of my friends who had their names published at that time, so I sent a short mail to Colin saying that I will struggle to get my name in the list and you know what his reply is? He said that it’s just my beginning and if I keep holding this commitment, he assured that one day, my name will appear on the list.

From that day, I’ve committed to get byline by working hard, and trying to improve my writing and professionalism. Every single idea I came up, I would raise it to Colin to get some suggestions from him.

If I’m not wrong, about 3 weeks later, I got my name published on LIFT magazine. I was very happy at that time, and I guess this feeling is true for every reporter who has their article published for the first time.  I bought a copy of it to keep until today and even called to my mum in Kampot province to buy a newspaper because her son’s name was on it.

I keep doing my best for LIFT and as a result, a few months later Tivea and I were promoted to be deputy editors, so we start working to help other writers producing good stories by giving them suggestions to their story angles as well as commenting on their writings.

At that time, I was doing my internship with Agence-France Presse (AFP), so I was very happy since I can use what I’ve learnt from an international news agency to help improving LIFT magazine. I have tried my best to contribute to LIFT and have received a lot of feedbacks from Colin in term of writing, interviewing, and organizing a magazine. I even learn some layout design from him. That’s when I know a lot about complex structures in a newsroom.

Later, Tivea and I start having our name put into senior writers list, so it means that we are eligible to write opinion piece in Constructive Cambodian section. So far, I’ve written two of them: Why traffic jam exists in Cambodia? and Getting passport in Cambodia.

Now, I am still a senior writer for LIFT magazine, but I don’t know what the future is. I believe that some structures will be changed after Colin left; however, I am still happy to contribute what I’ve if they still need me.

Please stay tune because I have two more points to write about: Colin Meyn involvement in developing LIFT magazine + My memories with my beloved editor… I’m thinking of updating this post or create another post for these two points… Thanks for reading my opinion piece...

27/05/2011
By: Dara Saoyuth

Photos for remembering our friendship

May 24, 2011
Dara Saoyuth
Personal Interest/Experience

Spending almost 3 years with DMC batch 08, I feel that I’ve learnt a lot more than acquiring new knowledge from our beloved lecturers but also learn to know the meaning of truly friendship.

Currently, we have 19 members in the batch including one that just finished his exchange program in the United State. But…the other six people including me will leave soon for their international internship. And after finishing the internship, two among the six people will leave all of us for learning in Italy for another 6 months.

Looking from outside, this is such a great opportunity to have chance going abroad and of course it is. However, if we talk about emotion, you might understand how we goona miss each other so much…

We have been to many places and enjoyed a lot of great time together…

To keep this feeling inside, I’ve decided to create some photo albums and post plenty of photos on my Facebook account, so please check it out!

1. Study Tour to Siem Reap (20-23 May, 2010)

2. First launching of KON magazine (15 October, 2010)

3. Our Trip to Chambok Resort (20 November, 2010)

24/05/2011
By: Dara Saoyuth

My first guitar lesson

May 10, 2011
Dara Saoyuth
Personal Interest/Experience
My guitar

My guitar / by: Dara Saoyuth

Having bought a guitar for almost two weeks, I still cannot play even just a song. At first, I think that it’s an easy thing that anyone can learn by just watching some video tutorials on YouTube and some E-learning software. However, it’s not that easy. I’ve spent a few hours watching E-learning software on my computer, but I still cannot catch up with what they are teaching.

Because of this, I’ve decided to take up a guitar course at Sinsisamoth Association, where I can learn from the son of my favorite and long-lasting famous Cambodian singer, Sinsisamoth.

I started my course last Sunday with around 10 people in a class. I was fascinated by my classroom design which I can see photos of famous signers during 1960s and 1970s plus different musical instruments around me.

I study from 9amto 12pm — 90minutes for learning music notes and other 90minutes for instrument practice.

I really want to be able to play it as soon as possible but my teacher said at least students have to study for 3 months to be able to play and they can continue the course if they want to know more about how to read musical note as well as writing it.

Another Sunday is upcoming, so I have to practice what my teacher has taught me; otherwise, i won’t be able to proceed the next lesson.

If any of you also has the same interest as me or knows how to play a guitar or other musical instrument, please kindly share your experience here. I believe that the other visitors as well as me would be happy to read your experience sharing.

By: Dara Saoyuth
10/05/2011