Editor's note: Mr Nico Eckardt completed his studies of English and music at the PH Karlsruhe in the Secondary School Degree in January 2020 and took part in my Global English(es): Teaching English in Asia class in the summer term of 2018. As he got quite interested in concepts of education for the 21st century and "Future Skills", he turned...

Editor's note: Ms Shirin Ud-Din finished her Master's Degree for teaching English and biology at secondary school in January 2020 and went started her 18-month teacher traineeship in February 2021. She concluded her studies during Covid-19 and therefore chose to write her Master thesis about "Emergency Remote Teaching: Challenges and benefits for German lower secondary schools in the region of...

Editor's note: Jessica Weigelmann is a student of English and Art in the Bachelor's Degree for secondary school and currently in her 6th semester at the University of Education Karlsruhe. She enrolled in my seminar "Global English(es,) Global TEFL & Global Citizenship Education" in the digital winter semester 2020/21 and signed up for the topic "Global Citizenship Education" because this...

Editor's note: Ms Francesca Diligu is studying the English teaching degree for secondary schools at the University of Education Karlsruhe as an international student and speaks several languages, Italian being her L1, German her L2, and English her L3. She took part in my "Global English(es), Global TEFL & Global Citizenship Education" seminar in the summer of 2019 and researched...

Quiet time on this blog (May to July 2021) The pandemic has prevented tandem-teaching for our Lao and German project participants since March 2020, with one notable exception: Leya Hoenicke from Team XI.5 made it over to Vientiane in March 2021 (and wrote a nerve-wracking report on that experience), then did online teaching with her tandem-partner Ms Moukdala Keomixai, and...

“Call for Applications“ for students and graduates of ALL subjects (not only English): Team XII (October - January 2021/22) and Team XIII ( February - March 2022, or longer) Laos, like many other countries, has learnt to live with Covid-19 by now. There are now a clear set of rules in place controlling infections, local "red zone lockdowns", the immigration...

Editor's note: As we completed a year-long Covid-rollercoaster ride in Germany last month and just entered our third lockdown, this past week saw Laos entering its first. Three infected persons entered the country illegally over the Mekong River to celebrate Lao New Year with friends, and - unsurprisingly - infection numbers have been rapidly rising since - they are in...

Editor's note: As from 6 a.m. Lao time today, a lockdown was ordered on the capital of Vientiane by the Prime Minister, after 26 Covid-26 cases were diagnosed, following illegal border crossings from Thailand over the river Mekong for the Lao New Year festivities, Pii Mai. Our partners had just received their VISA from the German Embassy in Vientiane, after...

Hello! Everyone. My name is Sitsanou Phouthavong, and I hope to fly out of Laos on 28 April so that on 30 April I will arrive in Karlsruhe on my first Erasmus+ Mobility, which was postponed from last year. Today the three of us, Ms Phetsavanh Somsivilay, Ms Somsanouk Xayyavong, and myself, we drove from Savannakhet to Vientiane to submit...

A Day In My Life At Control and Prevention place provided by Lao government during Covid-19 I was so happy to be back home in Laos after waiting for two months in Germany because of there was no flights from Germany to my home country before. Normally, I was a mobility student in the Erasmus+ Programme there only 6 months,...

One year after the start of "The Crack" Today - Thursday, 25 March 2021 - at 8:05 a.m., after one full year of no possibility to travel to or from Laos in our "Bi-directional teaching and learning" project, Ms Leya Benita Hoenicke (Team XI.5) touched down in Vientiane after a two-day flight journey via Doha and Kuala Lumpur.   It...

Editor's note: On 25-28 March 2019, the first conference in Germany about "Educating the Global Citizen: International Perspectives on Foreign Language Teaching in the Digital Age" was hosted by the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. Our project research was represented in two strands: In the strand "Transcultural Identities", Dr Michiko Weinmann presented our joint paper on "Juggling Selves: Navigating Pre-Service Teaching Experiences...

Editor's note: Mr Siegfried Hadatsch, who recently completed his Bachelor's Degree in English and history at the University of Education Karlsruhe, has been an active member of the Lao-German project "Bi-directional teaching and learning" for a number of years now. He took part in my "Global English(es): Teaching English in Asia" class in the summer term of  2017 (the forerunner of my...

I have the great pleasure to announce a new research page on this blog, which features the full-text Bachelor theses (40-50 pp.), Master theses (60-80 pp.), and State Exam theses (70-130 pp.) written since 2017 within our Lao-German "Bi-directional Teaching and Learning" projects (2015 ff.) and/or resulted from my seminars "Global English(es) & Global Citizenship Education" (B.A.) (2017 ff.) and...

Dear Readers, After the project reports and academic articles of this year, here comes my second personal post on this blog. "There's a crack in everything" I wrote on 24 March, quoting Leonard Cohen's famous anthem, as I lay coughing and wheezing on my sofa after two strenuous long-distance flights within a week and my father's funeral, but relieved that...

Editor's note: This is the sequel (and prequel) to Rebecca Dengler's article about "Intercultural barriers in "international" English course books", the second article in our series "Language Education and Global Citizenship" and also the topic of her doctoral dissertation. I first visited Savannakhet University (SKU) on 31 March 2017 during my "Fact-Finding Mission", which was funded by the German Academic...

It is getting colder. We even got the first snow here in the Black Forest in Germany. Days are getting shorter with darkness setting in around 4:40 p.m., and so Christmas lights have started to appear everywhere. Christmas in Germany [1. Christmas is an annual Christian festival celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. In Germany, Christmas is celebrated on Dec,...

Alessandro Pola (https://www.instagram.com/alessandropolaofficial/?hl=de), a former student of English and music at the University of Education Karlsruhe (KUE) and former teaching volunteer in the "Teaching English in Laos" project of KUE and Angels for Children (AfC) in 2015/16 (Team I), is now one of the finalists in the German casting show "Voice of Germany", thanks to his outstanding performance and talent....

We are happy to announce the new page "SKU lecturers" on our “TheLaosExperience” blog, where the lecturers of Savannakhet University who participate in the cooperation between Savannakhet University (SKU) and the University of Education Karlsruhe (KUE) as well as the SKU project leaders and coordinators introduce themselves to our readers.   SKU and the KUE Karlsruhe have been cooperating under...

On 10 July 2020, we had the wonderful opportunity to follow the invitation of Dr. Martin to come together for the 6th annual Lao-German Friendship Feast. Originally the date was set for 8 May 2020, but due to Covid-19 the feast had to be rescheduled. (In July, when the first lockdown eased off, open-air parties up to 70 people were...

During the forced (Corona-induced) hiatus of half a year, the project partners have gained more experience in handling this new situation and the Lao Government's regulations regarding permission to enter the country have also been set down and made known by now. We are therefore pleased to announce that students, graduates, and alumni from all subjects from the University of...

Editor's note: This is the 9th article in our series “Language education and global citizenship“. Ms Celine Victoria Seeger participated in my "Global English(es) and Global Citizenship Education" class last year (winter term 2019/20). Amongst the topics on the syllabus in that term, the concept of Transculturality interested her in particular, as she is a trained tutor for literature and...

List of chapters The beginning of my adventure Invitation to the Crowne Plaza Hotel Meeting new Lao friends (who study German!) Movie night turned into Halloween adventure The making of the “Joker“ My first dance competition — not an easy task! By a hair's breadth A Phoenix has to share its light All's well that ends well   The beginning...

Travelling in 2019 - by Thaithanawanh Keokaisone Hello People Internet Users! I am Thaithanawanh Keokaisone, I am from Lao D.P.R. Last year, I was an international student in the current Erasmus+ Mobilities programme of Karlsruhe University of Education, Germany, and Savannakhet University, Laos, together with my colleagues Mr Napha Khothphouthone and Ms Viengvilaiphone Botthoulath. I heard that many of you...

Friendship without Boundaries The 62-year relationship and friendship between Laos and Germany are worthwhile long relationship since 31 January 1958 onward, and Germany cooperated with Laos in a variety of general and particular cooperations. The German Democratic Republic (East-Germany, 1949 - 1990) and after the re-unification of Germany in 1990, the Federal Republic of Germany cooperated in many fields, for...

A tree is known by its fruit (ພາສາບອກຊາດ ມາລະຍາດບອກຕະກູນ) Lao people have used this motto since ancient until now. Which is meaningful and shows cultivated Lao people preserve the cultural, language and traditional. Of course, language is not just used for communication whether writing, speaking, but on the other hand it is also a symbol that indicates the nationality, uniqueness...

A fresh start (Isabel Martin) In 2017, we started a pilot-project with the Sunshine School in Vientiane with two volunteers from Team III, Ms Julia Kessner and Ms Juliana Kase. Sunshine School welcomes volunteers from all parts of the world and cares very well for them, as you can read in our volunteers' report on their internship of 2017/2018. Our...

Team XI - Preparation in times of the Coronavirus Today we are happy to finally introduce ourselves to you. We are Team XI, a team of five students studying Primary or Secondary Education at the University of Education in Karlsruhe. Team XI includes Anne-Sophie Brunold, Leona Kemmer, Leonie Konstandin, Charlotte O´Dell, and Eleanor Wheeler. Two of us are still in...

Square Dance Calling classes 2019 and 2020 at the University of Education Karlsruhe with Erasmus+ students Editor's note: "Learning Through the Arts" (LTTA) is an approach to teaching which can also be applied to foreign languages. Action songs, dance, theatre, storytelling, and hand puppets (as well as language games) help new learners to overcome their shyness and pick up first...

Two researchers of the Karlsruhe University of Education (KUE) in the field of "STEM" (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) came to Savannakhet University (SKU) for a teaching and training mobility in March 2020 to collaborate with related departments. The framework for this collaboration is the "Erasmus+ Programme" between KUE and SKU. Jun.Prof. Dr. Bernhard Standl is Professor of Informatics Education...

Arrival Frankfurt, 06:00 in the morning, 13 April 2019. I am standing at Frankfurt Airport waiting to board the plane that will take me directly to New York City. At the same time it is my 24th birthday and I can hardly wait to get to know the vibrant city of New York City. In my last post, I described...

Dear readers, Five memorable months to the day have gone by since Team X had to leave Laos on 18 March prematurely because of the worldwide Corona pandemic. In our new "Team X" page, we summarize what the members of our team did in Laos during their internships at the Lao-German Technical College (LGTC) and Vocational Education Development Institute (VEDI)....

As a German volunteer of Team X at the Lao-German Technical College (LGTC) in Vientiane, we also had free time to travel, in which I got to experience the growing tourism in Laos. This blog has a few articles about tourism in Laos, especially about the Vang Vieng Challenge, which offer tourists a great opportunity to experience Lao nature in...

My name is Chanthalakone Souydalay (nickname "Thon"), I am 29 years old and I am a volunteer teacher in Faculty of Linguistics and Humanities, Savannakhet University (SKU), Laos. More specifically, I come from the Southern of Laos, I live near the city of Pakxé that is called the “Land of 4000 islands” ("Si Phan Don"). "ສີ່ພັນດອນ (Si Phan Don)"  ...

Get to know me! Hello, my name is Phongsavang Xaikhongkham (nickname "Don"), I am 27 years old. I am an international student from Savannakhet University (SKU), Laos. I am here undertaken by the Erasmus+ program, the project of the PH-Karlsruhe (Prof. Martin), for doing a Master Degree. I am so proud to be a participant of it because I really...

I am Ye Miaoxing, a PhD candidate supervised by professor Martin Isabel.1 I first wrote to her in August, visited Savannakhet University and met professor Isabel there in October 2019. Subsequently, I applied for a PhD position in Karlsruhe University of Education and got accepted by the Faculty in December. My plan was to go to Germany in February 2020,...

Our favourite café (owner) in Vientiane - Dit and her Amelia Cafe Note: Although roughly 80% of the Lao population are still engaged in agriculture (Nations Encyclopedia, 2020), Laos' economy has been changing and growing towards an expansion of the service sector, industrial sector, and commerce sector in the last years (Vientiane Times via Asia News Network, 2019). Entrepreneurship as...

Sabaidee, hello, and hallo, dear readers! We are happy to announce that our "Team IX" page on this blog is now complete and online, as a closure to our team's "post-phase" (the work-phase after the stay in Laos). It is now published on the page that lists all other team pages of the previous eight teams. On our new team...

Editor's note: This is the 8th article in the series "Language education and global citizenship". Ms Chaeeun Park from Seoul National University of Education was an international student at the University of Education Karlsruhe in the academic year 2018/19. Her majors are elementary school education and English, and she works as a part-time English teacher in "Hagwons" (private tutoring institutions...

Students, graduates and alumni from all subjects from the University of Education Karlsruhe can now apply for an internship in the project “Bi-directional tandem-teaching and learning” for autumn/winter 2020/21 (Team XI) by 7 June 2020. The usual length of stay in the winter term is September/October to January/Feb/March/April, but this is adapted to your wishes or needs. We mainly tandem-work...

Hello and Sabaidee everyone!  My name is Chelsea Hog and I was part of the “Bi-directional Learning and Teaching in Laos” project as a member of Team X, and I worked as a volunteer at the VEDI - the Vocational Education Development Institute in Vientiane from 8 February to 17 March  2020. Unfortunately, my team members and I had to...

Editor's note: This is the 7th article in the series "Language Education and Global Citizenship". Mr Jonas Hoffmann took part in my "Global English(es) and Global Citizenship Education" class in the summer of 2019. He recently submitted his Bachelor thesis on "The Relevance of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the Second Indochina War".   The Sustainable Development Goals Why...

We, Phi Ha Nguyen (PHN) and Laura Jakob (LJ), worked as volunteers at the pilot project “Bi-directional Tandem-Teaching and Learning in Laos” at the Vocational Education Development Institute, short VEDI, in the winter term (Lao winter-spring term) of 2019/2020. The VEDI is an institute for vocational teaching and learning. Students from all over Laos can study a variety of subjects...

Excited to be part of the project "Teaching English in Laos", I arrived in Vientiane on 9 February 2020. It was my first time in an Asian country, so the first time in Laos. Before I left for Laos, I had asked some previous volunteers what it would be like to live in Laos and what life at schools was...

Editor's note: Ms Rebecca Dengler's final report about her 6 months of research and teaching at SKU is posted on the Internships/Final Reports page. Five weeks ago, I suddenly had to leave Savannakhet and Laos. Due to the COVID-19 situation all over the world, borders were being shut, flights cancelled, and schools and universities closed. I had been staying in...

Editor's note: This 6th post in the series "Language Education and Global Citizenship" is by Ms Yvonne-Jacqueline Dyck (née Muss), one of my student helpers. Her task was to organise the collected literature on "Language Education in Asia and Global Citizenship Education" into a "Course Reader", to make this background reading accessible to everyone in my class. This "Course Reader"...

This is an interactive (able to be clicked) map of the campus. By clicking on the map you can get an overview of the sections and buildings at the Lao-German Technical College in Vientiane before seeing it for yourself. Our volunteers from the "Bi-directional tandem-teaching and learning in Laos" project have been working here since the start of this partnership...

Editor's note: A good deal of light comes in through the cracks in the kitchen. Mr Thai's post about the joys of shared meals in Kalsruhe last summer may evoke certain memories and a certain longing. But while we renounce inviting family and friends to our houses and gardens and balconies at the moment - even over Easter - we...

... that's how the light gets in." It took Cohen a decade to finish his anthem ("Anthem" by Leonard Cohen; lyrics). We will also need time and patience. And a lot of solidarity and mindfulness, many examples of which are shining rays of hope through our darker thoughts every new day. PH Karlsruhe and SKU had to interrupt our Erasmus+...

Editor's note: This is the 5th article in the "Language Education & Global Citizenship" series by Rebecca Dengler, a former volunteer (Team IV and Team V) and now doctoral candidate, and it is the second time that an intensive Lao language course was offered by our Lao partners at Savannakhet University (SKU).   "To speak a language is to take...

Hello everybody, we are Team X! We are happy to introduce ourselves to you! “We” stands for five students of Primary or Secondary Education at the University of Education in Karlsruhe: Lena Koch, Chelsea Hog, Christine Blersch, Celine Victoria Seeger, and Morten Bilger. Three of us are still on our way towards completing our Bachelor’s degrees, one is a student...

Editor's note: Our volunteer teams in the bi-directional learning and teaching project in Laos work hard, with a lot of verve and dedication. They study and learn interculturally, teach and tandem-teach, write weekly reports and blog posts, and carry out an individual "Special Task". As the interviews with the returnees and their final reports reveal, they feel they have made...

Frog in the well Editor's note: Mr Napha Khothphouthone went on a "student mobility" in the summer term 2019 in the Erasmus+ Mobility programme (2018 - 2020) between Savannakhet University and the University of Education Karlsruhe. He studied at the "PH Karlsruhe" for his Master's degree for six months, together with Mr Thaithanawanh Keokaisone. "Frog in the well" is Chinese’s...

We are happy to announce a new page1 on our "TheLaosExperience" blog and will conclude our very best Happy New Year 2020 wishes to our readers with some final reports of volunteers about our bi-directional learning and teaching project. The new page features the reports by the last two Teams VII and VIII. All reports - from Team I to...

Job-shadowing of colleagues, lesson observation, and joint research at the Karlsruhe University of Education, Germany Job-shadowing  "Hallo"! I am Viengvilaiphone Botthoulath, a lecturer at the Faculty of Food Science, Savannakhet University, Lao PDR. I had a "staff training mobility"1 under the Erasmus+KA107 for two months at Karlsruhe University of Education, Germany, this year. Dr Martin Remmele was my main partner...

Editor's note: “30 years of teaching English in East Asia: An Appraisal" by Ms Laura Jakob is the fourth research article in the new series “Language education and global citizenship” edited by I. Martin (University of Education Karlsruhe). It summarizes the main findings of the thesis while looking at English education in East Asia from an academic viewpoint.  Ms Jakob's...

Editor's note: Ms Miaoxing Ye is 25 years old and a teaching assistant at the Hubei University of Education (Wuhan, China). She graduated from University College London (England) with a Master's degree in Applied Linguistics in 2017 after having completed a Bachelor's degree in Translation and Interpreting at Hubei University. After gaining some teaching experience at her home university, she...

If you really want to make a friend, go to someone’s house and eat with [them]. (Cesar Chavez)1 Following Prof. Dr. Isabel Martin's invitation to the 5th annual "Lao-German Friendship Feast" on behalf of the entire Laos-project, many former volunteers, current Lao cooperation partners, and other guests came together on 21 June 2019. Amongst them were several students of her...

How our journey to Laos began in October 2018 Seven months flew by after the Academic International Office at the PH Karlsruhe announced the project “The Laos Experience” at its information event by letting former volunteers introduce themselves and their internships. After collecting as much information as possible on the project and finding out that there were still some internship slots available...

Arriving in Laos - a warm welcome & my first invitation to a game of football I arrived in Lao P.D.R. – my very first experience abroad in Asia – on a, needless to say, very hot Tuesday in the middle of February 2019. When we ultimately reached our final destination, the Lao-German Technical College (LGTC), my roommate for the...

Why do a workshop on body language? When the time came for us - Anna-Sophia ten Brink, Siegfried Hadatsch, and Thomas Pelka (Team VIII) - to decide on a topic for our workshop at the Lao-German Technical Collegse (LGTC), we quickly agreed that the topic should deal with the field of “body language”. We found that most of the workshops...

Preparation in the science lab1 For a Bachelor’s degree in Bilingual Teaching2 at the PH Karlsruhe, a stay abroad of 20 weeks is required. There are no specifications where to go, but the chosen country or project has to be connected to one of the two offered target languages at the PH Karlsruhe: English or French. We, Rebekka Vogt and Vanessa...

Already two months ago I, Rebecca Dengler, moved to Savannakhet to do research for my PhD at Savannakhet University. On the one hand the two months flew by very quickly, but it also feels like I have been here for a long time already. Savannakhet almost feels like my second hometown. I have stayed in Laos as a volunteer twice...

Since I - Phi Ha Nguyen - arrived in Vientiane, Laos, on the 26th of October 2019,  I have been taken care of by the staff of the Vocational Education Development Institute (VEDI) in the most lovely manner. Actually, even before I arrived in Vientiane, I was already in contact with two persons from the VEDI. The first one was...

4 years to the day! Today is the 4th anniversary of our first visit to the LGTC and VEDI on 2 November 2015!   First visits to Lao institutions of education with the Angels for Children Foundation in Vientiane, Laos Our delegation visited the Vocational Education Development Institute (VEDI) on Monday, 2 November 2015, after visiting the Lao-German Technical College...

Students and graduates from all subjects from the University of Education Karlsruhe  can now apply for an internship in the project “Teaching English in Laos” for spring 2019 by 24 November 2019 (especially welcome: English, physics, maths, technics). Interviews for all applicants will be held on 28 and/or 29 November 2019. The announcement and details can be found - on the...

Hello everybody, we are Team IX! We are very glad to finally be able to introduce ourselves to all of you out there! "We", that includes Laura Jakob, Annabell Kosalla, Yvonne-Jacqueline Muss, Phi Ha Nguyen, and David Trendl. All of us are or were until recently students of teaching degrees at the University of Education Karlsruhe. When you read this,...

Editor’s note: “A comparison of (travel) guides to Laos" by Ms Lena Koch is the third research article in the new series “Language education and global citizenship” edited by I. Martin (University of Education Karlsruhe). Ms Koch's article is based on her research on both travel guides and culture guides to Laos, which she conducted as a participant of my...

When we, Team VIII, went to Luang Prabang for our holidays in March 2019, we visited the Kuang Si Butterfly Park, located about 300 meters next to the Kuang Si waterfalls about 30 kilometers outside of Luang Prabang. After we visited the waterfalls we spontaneously decided to also pay the Butterfly Park a visit. We had recently heard about it...

It’s not necessary to go far and wide. I mean you can really find exciting things within your hometown. (Daryl Hannah) This quote by the American actress Daryl Hannah is very true  for my tandem-teacher  Ms Khamsee Thanbounheuang and her hometown.  She was born and raised in Sam Neua (sometimes transliterated as Samneua or Xam Neua), the capital of Houaphan Province....

Editor's note: “Intercultural barriers in 'international' English course books" (or: "'What is Mozart'?”) by Rebecca Dengler (Team IV and Team V) is the second research article  in the new series “Language education and global citizenship” edited by I. Martin (University of Education Karlsruhe). The first article by L. Malchow dealt with the topic "Reentry shock - an explanation of an...

My name is Napha Khothphouthone. I was born and grew up with a peasant family in small village in the middle part of Laos.  At that time, I was very happy with my livelihood - went to school on weekday and helped family to work on the weekend - and I believed that my village is the best place in...