The Lao flag ceremony
After having worked here for more than two months now, it was high time to find out what actually happens during the weekly flag ceremonies at the schools we work for. As we are not familiar with the concept of “respecting our flag” from Germany, it was necessary to observe the procedure for ourselves:
Pupils and teachers stand in front of the main school building…
… Mr Bounleud starts the flag ceremony…
… pupils are lined up in a U-shape
Primary schoolers salute while the flag is taken down
The flag is taken down – the weekend starts
It is 8.00 a.m. on a Monday morning. All pupils are lined up in a U-shape on the school yard facing the main school building. The different classes stand closely together but are separated into girls and boys. The bell rings. Everybody attentively watches and listens to Mr Bounleud, one of the teachers at the secondary school, who speaks to the pupils through a microphone.
A few minutes later the bell rings again. On command everybody turns to the middle facing one another. A girl comes to the front and reads out a text. Then two pupils, a girl and a boy, hiss the flag while the rest sings the national anthem of Laos (as we are told later by Mr Khamsing). Grand applause follows.
It is 8.24 a.m. now. The director’s deputy takes over the microphone and speaks to the pupils in a very commanding way. His speech is followed by three girls shyly reading out a printed text in front of the whole school. At 8.35 a.m. the pupils are given the signal to leave, starting with the right wing, then the back row and finally the left wing. Now they have 15 minutes left before their regular lessons start.
Aspects of the political and historical background of Laos
Still, many questions remained due to the linguistic and cultural barriers and our lack of background knowledge. While trying to think of someone who would be able to answer all our questions, we quickly realized that Mr Khamsing would be the ideal interview partner.
Mr Khamsing Nanthavongdouangsy
Mr Khamsing is the school manager of Ban Phang Heng Primary and Ban Phang Heng Secondary School and also the Lao General Manager of the Angels for Children foundation. He is responsible for the cooperation between the local government and AfC. He went to Phang Heng Primary School himself and experienced the flag ceremony as a child. Although the procedure has not changed since, the political background became a completely different one in December 1975 (cf. Johannes Zeck’s earlier post “Education in Laos – Part I”).
Laos had been a monarchy since 1353. From 1893 the country was under French colonial rule and one of the protectorates of the Indochinese Union. This rule ended with the occupation of Laos by the Japanese during the Second World War in 1942. Japan’s capitulation in 1945 left behind a power vacuum, which the former crown prince and a group of Lao intellectuals used to declare Laos’ independence (Roland Dusik 2016, 68ff.) However, the French remained determined to re-establish their rule, and by May 1946, large areas, including the cities Vientiane and Luang Prabang, had been reoccupied.
During the First Indochina War (1946-1954), the Indochinese Communist Party formed the “Pathet Lao” resistance organization. The Pathet Lao fought against the aggressive French Colonial forces with the aid of the Vietnamese independence organization, the Viet Minh. The war ended with the French defeat against the Viet Minh in the “Battle of Dien Bien Phu” in May 1954 – and France withdrew its forces from all its colonies in French Indochina. Laos regained its independence as a constitutional monarchy (cf. Schultze 2003, 112ff.).
In 1955, the US Department of Defense created an office to replace French support of the Royal Lao Army against the communist Pathet Lao as part of the US containment policy (also known as “Cold War“) to prevent the spread of Communism. In the late 1950s the conflict between the communist Pathet Lao movement and the Royal Army supported by the U.S. escalated quickly and led to a Civil War which was to last 20 years.
In addition, Laos was drawn into a proxy war by the “Vietnam War” (“American War”), because the Hồ Chi Minh trail – the most important supply line of the Vietnamese forces in the south – runs through the Laotian jungle and rain forest on the southeastern part of the country.
Between 1964 and 1973, the U.S. dropped two million tons of bombs on Laos in order to interrupt both the transportation of crucial military supplies and infiltration of manpower. During 580,000 bombing missions – equal to a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes, 24 hours a day, for 9 years – Laos was made the most heavily bombed country per capita in history.
Certain parts of Laos suffered tremendously, making regular life impossible. A whole ex-wealthy peasantry in the North lost all their land and livestock and had to live in caves for nine years (schooling was only possible from 5 until 9 a.m. until daylight/bombs) during a war that was not even officially declared on Laos.1
The unexploded ordnance in the country (UXO) produces maimed victims to this day: Eyesight is lost, hands or legs are ripped off, lives are extinguished. Also art, jewelry, and cutlery are made out of molten bomb shells, offered to tourists on the local night markets (“now buy back your bombs”). There are two UXO Lao Visitor Centres in Vientiane and Luang Prabang (“COPE”).
In the early 1970s, the U.S. realized that their remaining chances of winning the war were shrinking and started their military withdrawal. In 1975, the Pathet Lao overthrew the royalist Lao government and forced the king to abdicate. The monarchy was abolished, and the Democratic Republic of Lao was established.
Flag and national anthem of Laos
These major political changes, from monarchy to socialist state, are also reflected in the current flag and the national anthem. Whilst during Mr Khamsing’s school time, i.e. before 1975, the flag of the Kingdom of Laos was hissed, it is now the flag of the Democratic Republic of Laos.
The former flag of the Kingdom of Laos, also called “Land of a million elephants”
Flag of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, which is hissed today
The colours of the new flag indicate the nation’s attitude towards their history, future, and nature. The red two stripes at the top and the bottom symbolize the blood that was shed during the Lao people’s fight against all forms of imperialism and for their freedom and independence. The blue stripe in the middle denotes the richness of the country’s nature – especially the Mekong river. It flows through the whole country and is the nation’s major source of life and prosperity. The white circle in the centre stands for Laos’ development towards modernity and its future that is supposed to shine bright like the moon.
The current national anthem “Pheng Xat Lao” (Lao: ເພງຊາດລາວ, lit. ”Hymn of the Lao People”) of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic has the same melody as the one of the Kingdom of Laos until 1975, but the lyrics were changed. Listen to a recording on this blog of the international “Mekong Polifonia” choir during a concert for the 26th Anniversary of German Unity celebration in 2016, in which Team III also participated. Here is the English translation:
|
Anthem of the Kingdom of Laos |
Anthem of Lao People’s Democratic Republic (1975- today) |
| Lao Nation for ever have been Well-known all over Asia. the Laotians establish relationship United with love care staying together. Love the people, love our country Love the King, the Ancestors, the Old Citizens. Join root join religion ever since the ancestors, protect the soil the boundary. Do not allow any nation to conquer, influence, threaten, take, occupy any thing Anyone steps up enters to conquer, influence, threaten, occupy, fight to the last breath, stand strong against enemies Help, promote, all blood, all races, Empower, together take back everything once for all. (edited) Once our Laotian race in Asia highly honored stood And at that time the folk of Laos were united in love Today they love their race and rally round their chiefs They guard the land and the religion of their ancestors They will resist each foe who may oppress them or invade And such invaders will be met with battle unto death They’ll restore the fame of Laos and through ills united stand. |
For all time, the Lao people Have glorified their Fatherland, United in heart, Spirit and vigour as one. Resolutely moving forwards, Respecting and increasing the dignity of the Lao people And proclaiming the right to be their own masters. The Lao people of all origins are equal And will no longer allow imperialists And traitors to harm them. The entire people will safeguard the independence And the freedom of the Lao nation. They are resolved to struggle for victory In order to lead the nation to prosperity. |
Like the flag, the anthem picks up on the traumatizing past of the country that is deeply marked by imperialism, colonialism, and the fight for independence. It emphasizes the necessity of solidarity towards the state and its people. To ensure a future of freedom and liberty, the people are encouraged to stand up bravely against any kind of threats coming from the outside.2
Through participating in the flag ceremony, the pupils are supposed to learn to respect and value the efforts and struggles of their grand-fathers and -mothers, who fought for their self-governance. Moreover, they are reminded of the paramount importance of sticking together in unity to ensure a better and safer future for the country.3
Uniforms – who wears what
As stated above, keeping the nation united is one of the main goals of the Lao government. Therefore, all schools in Laos conduct the flag ceremony in the same way every Monday morning and Friday afternoon. In addition, everyone wears uniforms: The teachers are dressed in certain colours on different days of the week whereas the pupils always wear white shirts and black trousers or sinhs.
High performers at primary school wear red neckties and blue hats
The “pioneers” and role models stand in a separate line
The morning sun is already powerful
As we watched the ceremony, we noticed that some pupils wore red neckties and others blue shirts instead of the white ones. Mr Khamsing explained to us that only the best and well-behaved pupils get to wear these: The red neckties are for children younger than 16, whereas the older pupils wear the blue shirts. He called them “pioneers”, as they are chosen by their teachers to be role models for the rest of the class. They are also lined up separately and stand the closest to the flag and the directors. The others stand within their classes, boys and girls separately. Looking from the director’s perspective, the grade four pupils form the right wing, grade one the back row and grade two and three the left wing.
The procedure as a whole
The director’s deputy
The director speaks after the flag is hissed
Respect the flag
One teacher is chosen for each ceremony, and he or she is responsible for the coordination of the whole procedure. He or she makes sure that everybody – meaning 500 children at each primary and 700 at secondary school – is paying attention and standing still and then announces the hissing of the flag and the ensuing speech of the director. He also reports about how many pupils and teachers were absent in the past week.
The flag is then hissed by one girl and one boy from grade three or four. They were chosen for working and learning particularly well and practised the hissing in advance. While the anthem is sung everybody stands still and salutes.
Then it is the deputy head’s turn to speak. He or she reminds the children of their duties as pupils and of important behavioural rules such as arriving on time, regularly cleaning the classrooms, studying with great diligence, and always greeting the German teachers politely.
At the end of each month, after the exams, one or two pupils of each class receive prizes such as books, pencils, or flowers during the ceremony for their outstanding scores. Pupils who disobeyed an important rule three times in a row (e.g. not putting on the name badges handed out by the school or not tying up long hair) have to come to the front to present a written promise not to ever ignore that rule again. They are also supposed to practise speaking in front of a big crowd.
Finally, all children leave the school yard class by class. A new week with new goals can start.
On Friday afternoons the ceremony is held in a similar way – the only notable difference being that the flag is taken down again and the director reflects upon the past week. He reports about what worked well and what needs to be improved in the following week.
Conclusion
The weekly flag ceremony serves both the consolidation of the state and the appreciation and honouring of the country’s elders’ efforts in the past. It is supposed to ensure steady improvement and development in the present through regular reflections on the past week and by reminding the children of Lao norms and values.4
The best pupils are frequently set apart and rewarded to encourage the others to also become better students from day to day. This concept of steady memory-, identity-, and nation- building is something we have not really encountered in German schools. We, as Germans, learn rather the opposite, i.e. to develop a critical view of our nation’s past, and the subject of history is mostly dealt with in lessons and not in weekly assemblies.5
During our school time we learn to question and deal with historical and current political issues on the basis of our democratic values. We are also encouraged to develop individual identities whereas in Lao schools the focus lies on identification with the nation. For us, the flag ceremony is an unfamiliar but very interesting ritual, in which the children’s identification with their country as well as behavioral norms are steadily consolidated – two aspects that play but a minor role in German schools by comparison.
Text by P. Faix, M. Frahm & I. Martin
Photos & videos by P. Faix, T. Mayer & sources given below
Notes
1 As this U.S. air raid went largely unnoticed by the rest of the world, these clandestine actions from 1963-1975 are often referred to in Laos as the “Secret War”.
2 Communist countries strive to keep imperialistic or neo-colonial infringements by capitalist countries at bay.
3 As we observed in Chang: A drama of wilderness, the first Lao documentary produced in the mid-1920s, tribal solidarity was always essential for survival. The silent film shows a farmer with his family and tribe in Nan Province in Northern Thailand and their daily struggle to save their homes and their lives from the dangers of the jungle, especially from a herd of wild elephants (“chang” in Thai). The utter importance of social cohesion is deeply marked within the people in Southeast Asia and is still a major priority to this day.
Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness (USA: 1927. R: Cooper, Meria C./Schoedsack, Ernst B.)
4 There are 48 or 49 different (known) ethnic groups in Laos. The “Lao” are the largest group and constitute a little under 50% of the population.
5 Our reflections on German history are dominated by the atrocious actions of Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Not only did Germany start the war but it also committed genocide of millions of Jewish people and other minorities. This is the reason why patriotism is by far not as pronounced as in other nations to this day. Signs of patriotism during the football world cup seem acceptable.
References
Dusik, Roland (2016). Laos – Kambodscha. Ostfildern: DuMont Reiseverlag. (3rd ed)
Schultze, Michael (2003). Laos. Bielefeld: Reise Know-How Verlag. (5th ed)
Websites
Wikipedia. “Laos” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laos (accessed Dec 10, 2018)
Wikipedia. “History of Laos” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Laos_since_1945 (accessed Dec 10, 2018)
Wikipedia. “French Protectorate of Laos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Protectorate_of_Laos (accessed Dec 10, 2018)
Wikipedia. “History of Laos” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Laos (accessed Dec 10, 2018)
Wikipedia. “Flag of Laos” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Laos (accessed Dec 10, 2018)
Dual vocational training in Germany: Six weeks of training at BHS Corrugated – by Saythong Insarn
Editors’ note: Within the Recruitment and Training Programme of BHS Corrugated with the Lao-German Technical College, the company invited five teachers of the college and two apprentices to an eight-week training course in Weiherhammer (Bavaria, Germany) in July and August 2018. For these seven people three different kinds of training courses were offered, to suit their occupational specializations: Electrical vocational training (Mr Bouthavy Siphonephath, Mr Lumphone Kounglavongsa, Ms Siliphone Arnousavanh), Mechanical vocational training (Mr Somphou Khamphila, Mr Soksai Aphaiyalath), and Administration of Dual Vocational Education and Training (Ms Moukdala Keomixai, Mr Saythong Insarn).
The technical training courses consisted of a total of four weeks’ training in the production and assembly facilities of BHS Corrugated and four weeks’ guided training in the ÜBZO (Überbetriebliches Bildungszentrum in Ostbayern gGmbH – Intercompany Training Center in Eastern Bavaria). The scope of each training was customized to the participants’ needs, so there were different modules offered for the apprentices and the teachers. The administrative training course was mainly conducted in the ÜBZO.
Ms Moukdala Keomixai and Mr Saythong Insarn from the department “Cooperation, Development & IT” at the Lao-German Technical College joined the administrative training course in order to gain insights into the ways training is conducted at BHS Corrugated (and in Germany in general). In this post, Mr Saythong Insarn reports on the experiences the group made during their time in Germany.
Seven Lao people had the best experience at BHS Corrugated Company at Weiherhammer Germany in Bavaria region. We are from Lao-German Technical College (LGTC).
First of on we would like to thank you very much to leaders including BHS Corrugated Company’s staffs and UeBZO’s staffs to give opportunity for us to train at UeBZO Training Center and BHS Corrugated Company assembly hall in the BHS Corrugated Company regarding our training requirement, and also thank you very much Johannes Zeck and Sonja Pruell to response our group until completed training.
We would like to introduce ourselves: Mr Saythong Insarn and Ms Moukdala Keomixay, we worked at Cooperation, Development and IT Section, we participated on the Dual Vocational System and Training course, Mr Bouthavy Siphonephat and Mr Lumphone Kounlavongsa, have participated on the Electrical Trade, they worked at Electrical Electronic Department, Mr Somphou Khamphila, he has participated on the Mechanic Trade, and Two students’ name are Mr Sokxay Aphaivalath, he was majority on Mechanic Trade and Ms Souliphone Anousavanh was Electrical Trade.
We are very proud to have an opportunity to participate in the training in Germany between July and August 2018. It is a project supported by BHS Corrugated Company and the Lao-German Technical College. The training improve knowledge, competency skills and experience to the participants from Laos because Germany is a developed country with updated technology and high industry development.
Get ready for the flight!
Our first visit at the BHS Corrugated company
We went to the training as a group of seven people, two people are students and five people are teachers. We left Vientiane at 20:30pm on June 30th, 2018 and arrived in Germany on 01 July at 9:00 am. We were very happy when we first arrived in Germany. After the immigration check, we walked out and saw a person who picked up us at the airport holding a sign “BHS welcome” at the airport. The man took us to the apartment that we would stay during our training. Then we met Johannes Zeck, and he took us to the company and had lunch in the company’s restaurant.
We started participating the training on Monday July 2nd, 2018. We woke up early and walked to the company, it is around one kilometer from our apartment to the company, and we were very excited to see the BHS Corrugated Company as it is very beautiful, and it is operated with high technology in the first time. At the company, we were warmly welcomed by Johannes Zeck who gave us advice and information of the company. He took us to walk around and see the assembly hall in the company, and we learned that the company has been established about 301 years ago. We were very impressed by the beautiful landscape and ponds in front of the company, and the days after we got a nice bicycle per one of us.
Tour throught the BHS Corrugated site
Our training were majored on practical on the UeBZO workshop and paralleled with on job training in the company as especially in the assembly hall, and studied tour to BHS Corrugated Company’s customers companies, we also have learned the way of teaching and learning and how the staffs at UeBZO Center work. We had training from Monday to Friday. On Saturday and Sunday we relaxed, and we had a chance to sightseeing the beautiful nature around our apartment. We had a good time seeing mushrooms, feeding ducks, geese and so on… and we also have an opportunity to learn German culture too.
Mr Lumphone in action!
Mr Bouthavy and Mr Lumphone in the assembly hall of BHS Corrugated
It could be seen that we had a good time and have learned new experience and knowledge from the training in BHS Corrugated Company in Germany which is supported by a cooperation project between BHS Corrugated Company and Lao-German technical college. We believe that we will share this new experience and knowledge with our colleagues and improved teaching and learning to help our students at Lao-German technical college to be better in the future.
Training Outcome and Achievements
On our training we separated into 3 groups of our straining:
- First group was trained on the Dual Cooperative and Training, this group had 2 persons as well as: Mr Saythong Insarn and Ms Moukdala keomixay, why we were requirement to train this topic Because it was regarding our responsibilities in our college, we responded for creating Dual Vocational Education calendar between LGTC and private sectors, we also tried to adapt from Dual Vocational Education system in Germany and we are coordinators of LGTC and what we achieved from our training at BHS Corrugated Company and UeBZO Training Center.
- Dual Vocational Education system, and we will adapt and improving our Dual Vocational system in LGTC regarding industries needed.
- Orientations for enrollment students from UeBZO Training Center, we will adapt this orientation to prevent our students drop out in LGTC.
- Overview of IHK Standard and what they have done in the UeBZO Training Center
- Coordinator Tasks, Mentoring and Monitoring Tasks for follow up our apprenticeship in the companies
- Second group and third group were trained on the Electrical Trade and Mechanical Trade, they have trained in the UeBZo workshop by trainers from UeBZO Training Center and combined with training in the BHS Corrugated Assembly Hall regarding to the training schedules, they trained base on the practical (On job training) and they got many experiences to enhance their teaching skills on practical ways, they also tried to test the test projects of IHK standard:
A BHS employee explains Mr Sokxay how the machinery works
Mr Somphou in action at the General Mechanics section…
…as well as Mr Bounthavy and Mr Lumphone at the electrical section
Ms Souliphone shows her skills she acquired at the LGTC
Study tour Activities
We visited the customer company of BHS Corrugated Company, they were produced the packaging box for keeping goods, Visited the MANN+HUMMEL Company in Marklkofen and visited the Joseph-von-Fraunhofer Berufsschule 1 in Straubing, this vocational school was very active to cooperate with private sector in the region.
The Lao partners visit the MANN+HUMMEL company…
…and the a German vocational school…
…which has good eqiupment to offer
Culture Tour Activities
We visited Munich City, we went to the city tower to see over view of the city, it was very nice view and we visited Johannes Zeck in the Würzburg City, we saw beautiful bridge, river and beautiful Castle, we were very pound to joint traditional festival in Straubing city and visited Weiden City.
A stroll through the city of Munich
Reunition with Team V!
Sightseeing in the city of Munich
To have a break should not be forgotten in a busy day of sightseeing!
We were appreciated to get invitation from Madame Gerlinde Engel with her neighbor,to visit her house, and we have tried German foods and they were very delicious.
At Madame Engel’s house…
…enjoying drinks and delicious German food
And also we have opportunity to fly with very nice pilot, we called him “Mr Jo”, he was working at UeBZO Training Center, he took us to the small airplane to see the BHS Corrugated Company in bird view and sign seeing the city.
Get ready for a thrilling flight with the UeBZO staff
Ms Moukdala, ‘Mr Jo’, Mr Saythong and Mr Somphou moments before going up in the air
Text by S. Insarn
Photos by S. Insarn
Eat, dance, laugh (and be sick) – our first weeks in Laos
Arriving in a country which is a quarter of a planet away from our home, we were overwhelmed by the impressions we experienced. Practically, to start with, however, the most impressive feature was our packed schedule. For the first few weeks we were invited to many celebrations and had a lot of fun, but being so far away from home can also lead to homesickness and other minor sicknesses. This may well happen when one has to adapt to a completely different environment. To give our readers an insight into our experiences, I picked three major celebrations we took part in and will tell you a little story about our sicknesses.
Eat, dance, laugh (1): “Trio summer party”
On 29th September, shortly after our arrival and when Prof. Martin was here, we were all invited to Trio (Lao)’s summer party in Ban Sikeud. Trio (Lao) Export Co., Ltd Garment Manufacturers Industry is an Austrian company for which Madame Engel had worked before in China and for whom she set up a factory in Ban Sikeud in Laos in 1994. When first opened, the company was the largest private employer in Laos, and one that offered German-style working conditions1 for their workers at that. Besides providing unusual job opportunities for the residents of Ban Sikeud and the surrounding area, Madame Gerlinde Engel and her sister-in-law Ingrid Engel (AfC foundation) decided to rebuild the three local schools: Ban Sikeud Primary School, Ban Phan Heng Primary School and Ban Phang Heng Lower Secondary School, to ensure a good education for the employees’ children.2
When I first heard about the party, I imagined a large buffet, people sitting and talking to each other while having cold drinks and maybe a group of Lao dancers showing traditional dances, i.e. a nice get-together. I was a little nervous as I did not know the people there. Also, I had never been invited to such an event before. I did not know how to act suitably. I was afraid of doing or saying something wrong. I had only been to German summer parties before, so I just had the German picture of a summer party in my head.
Our team group from the LGTC in Vientiane had come to Ban Sikeud that weekend to spend a relaxing two days away from the city, and on the morning of the 29th we all had a special pancake breakfast with lots of fruits. Astonishingly, our Saturday in the village would turn out to be much wilder than our Saturdays in the city. At around 4 p.m., when everyone in the villa was in the midst of getting ready for the night, my excitement rose. Where exactly would the party be? What would it be like? Who would be there? I had all those unanswered questions on my mind.
Only a few minutes before 6 p.m., we set off to Madame Engel’s house. We would meet her there and walk together to the party, as the current representatives of the PH Karlsruhe and the AfC foundation. Earlier that day, we had already passed by the Trio company compound. The party was to take place on the opposite side of the company building where the workers live in a huge compound of dormitories, and on hearing the loud music, we knew it had already started.
Team VII volunteers are ready…
… to meet the Trio employees at the party…
… where the dancefloor is already crowded…
… and the mood rises…
… towards the climax!
Entering the gate, I was stunned: On the left of the court, there was a DJ playing American party songs. A large crowd in front of him moved wildly to western beats that sounded familiar to me. On the right-hand side, hundreds of employees were seated on party benches in front of the dormitories, and on the left-hand side the VIP guests had their own seating area. Looking around, I saw one non-Lao person dancing in the crowd. He was at least two heads taller than the people dancing around him. After several guesses about who this person might be, it turned out he was the owner of the company. It was special to see an employer mixing like this dancing with his employees.
Suddenly, the DJ turned down the volume of the music: A group of Lao women – workers from the factory – dressed in traditional outfits, got themselves ready for their performance. Gradually, the dancefloor emptied and nearly everyone at the party gathered around to watch. It was a most beautiful sight: Lao women dancing to the sounds of traditional Lao music, all with smiles on their faces.
The Lao dancers enter the dancefloor…
…and give a beautiful performance
Right after the performance, the DJ did not play western music anymore, but traditional Lao music, and everyone could join dancing. We also joined them, carefully watching their synchronized steps. I genuinely enjoyed this group dance, and it was easy to learn on the spot, so I did not miss many of steps whilst dancing along.
Our day ended after all of us having heaps of fun on the dance floor as we danced for hours and took photos with a lot of people. This party was not what I expected it to be. Contrary to my initial worries, it was so much fun to eat, laugh, and dance with all the people there while not being able to exchange one single word with them, and it is definitely a unique memory I will always remember.
Eat, listen, laugh (2): 60 years of Lao-German diplomatic relations
Next, we were invited to the 60-years-celebration of Lao-German diplomatic relations hosted by the German Embassy in Laos. All of us were thrilled. On the 3rd of October, at approximately 6 p.m., we got picked up by the AfC foundation’s driver, Mr Viengkham, who came to fetch us in the van already half-full with the volunteers from Sikeud. Arriving at the location where the celebration would take place, we could not hide our excitement: The Crowne Plaza Hotel, a huge and very new building in the city of Vientiane, looked remarkable with a big banner in front of its entrance saying: “Day of German Unity 2018”.We just could not resist taking a picture in front of the banner between two brand-new BMWs. Then we entered the hotel and made our way to the ballroom. In front of it, different companies arranged stalls to provide information about their work here in Laos.
As Shirin Ud-Din already described in her post on this event, when we entered the big ballroom, we were greeted by His Excellency Mr Jens Luetkenherm and his staff from the German Embassy. We were astonished about the fact that we just shook hands with the Ambassador himself and were actually there at this official party. While we were still chatting, the party started with a speech by the Ambassador and the Vientiane International Choir singing the two national Anthems of both our countries. The party continued with Pianotainment playing different interpretations of the familiar song “Happy Birthday” on the piano. They then opened the buffet for everyone and you can be sure that we were anticipating this part of the party the most: Eating German food again after nearly three weeks! Sauerkraut, Leberkäs, pretzels, and apple strudel – there was everything that we wished for, especially the pretzels! The evening ended with all of us laughing, chatting with other people, and having a lot of fun taking in the atmosphere and savouring the occasion.
I would like to thank His Excellency Mr Jens Luetkenherm for inviting us to this special event!
Invitation card for the 60 years of Lao-German diplomatic relations celebration
Team VII in the ballroom of the Crowne Plaza Hotel: Meike Weis, Pauline Faix, Dilara Erdogan, Nicole Wiesa, Patricia Hopp, Jasmin Unterweger, Shirin Ud-Din, Malin Frahm & Martin Schöbinger
LGTC volunteers Nicole and Patricia at the event
Eat, dance, laugh (3): Teachers’ Day
Here in Laos, Teachers’ Day is celebrated on the 7th of October. Two former volunteers already reported about this special event on this blog before (cf. Denise Burkhardt and Ariane Kummetz). Since the day fell on a Sunday this year, celebrations took place on Friday, 5th of October. As praise culture is not a strong feature in Germany, Teachers’ Day largely goes unnoticed at home. We therefore had no prior experience of this festivity and did not know what to expect. We were told to come to the campus of the LGTC at 8 a.m. and let ourselves be surprised. So we did. Walking along the little pathway between our bungalow and the campus, we were greeted by many happy faces. Not that being greeted by happy faces would be unusual in Laos – it is definitely not – but today it felt different. We were told to sit at one of the desks arranged on the yard. We assumed that a game would be played soon, due to the constellation of the desks and a Whiteboard in front of them. Our hunch was correct. There were student teams of every Section of the College: General Mechanics, Electrical section, Automotive section, Welding section and Heavy-Agriculture. Every team consisted of two students answering questions asked by the teachers. At the end of the game, it was the General Mechanics’ team who won and received the prize. Even though we volunteers did not understand a word, we still had fun deciphering the students’ faces on whether they scored a point or not, and cheered with them.
When the game ended, we were led to the location where the ceremony would take place right across the yard. Rows of seats were set up for the teachers and students, separated by a passage to the speaker’s podium. To our surprise, even retired teachers were invited and attended the ceremony. We were moved by the thoughtfulness that even after retiring one would be invited to such a celebration and get honoured. During the ceremony, teachers were called to the front to receive gifts. While watching the spectacle curiously, we suddenly heard our names called out, too. At first, we did not know how to react. We never anticipated being called to the front to receive gifts ourselves. But we did and are grateful for the honour. Each of us received a blue LGTC shirt and a neatly wrapped gift.
Once every teacher got their present and the ceremony was over, the students were excused for the day – but the fun part for the teachers was yet to come. We went back to our bungalow for a quick change of outfits to wear our newly attained LGTC T-Shirts, as we wore our daily attire during the ceremony. After having put on the new LGTC shirts we went back to the location where the ceremony took place, just to see that they changed the seats and the pathway to the podium into many round tables and a large buffet on the side. So it was finally time to eat some delicious Lao food.
While we volunteers were still wondering what we should eat, as there was a variety to choose from, some of the teachers already started dancing and asked us to join them. We danced to some Lao songs, in which the dancers include a couple, a female and a male. So our dancing relay began: Each and every time a new song was played, we volunteers always ended up on the dancefloor. We were continuously asked to accompany the male dancers, and we were happy to oblige. We ended up dancing the whole afternoon. In the end, we were confident enough in our dancing that we even did our own interpretations and had a lot of fun with the teachers of the LGTC.
BHS students of the LGTC wait for their question
The quiz participants
After the handover of gifts, the souvenir photo!
Volunteers and teachers in their new T-Shirts
Presents for the teachers… and us volunteers!
… and be sick
Our first weeks here in Laos were not only shaped by celebrations but – unfortunately – also by several sicknesses. My personal major sickness was a bad case of homesickness, which lasted for nearly three weeks. Strangely, although I do not travel much apart from visiting my family in Turkey once every few years, wanderlust is not unfamiliar to me. (I do not count my trips to Turkey as “traveling”, as I go there to visit family.) I want to see different countries, gain experience, and broaden my horizon in any aspect of my life, so I never worried about homesickness while applying for this internship and preparing for my five-month-stay in Laos, not even whilst traveling here. It was never an option for me to even consider even having homesickness. But, well… my experiences here of being without my family and having to adapt to a wholly different way of life showed me what homesickness feels like.
When we first arrived at Wattay airport in Vientiane and drove to our bungalow – our home for the next few months – everything was still alright. We were a little jet-lagged but still energetic enough to absorb every little first impression of Laos. However, I felt more odd day by day.
First, I did not know what that feeling was. I could not describe it, I just felt miserable without any particular reason. When after a week, I started bursting into tears whenever I did not feel well, I knew that I was homesick. I started to tell myself that I just wanted these five months to be over and that I would be back in Germany soon enough, reunited with my friends and family. I did not care about my time here, let alone enjoy it. But what I learned about homesickness during this difficult time was that it just takes time to disappear. And when it is gone, it is gone – as if nothing ever happened. And that is what actually happened: From one day to another – however simple it may sound – I did not feel sad anymore and started to really enjoy my time here in Laos. Now, I do not even want to think of saying goodbye to all those people I met here. It really feels like home here and it makes me sad to know that I will be back in Germany in a couple of months.
Connected to homesickness, the first weeks were also filled with physical sicknesses. Stomach-ache, headache, or feeling nauseous was on our daily schedule, moving from person to person like in a relay. Luckily, we were never sick all at once. It was always only one of us who felt a bit sick every now and then. At first, we were thinking about food poisoning or something similar. Later, we realized that our discomfort was due to homesickness, paired up with stress: “TheLaosExperience.” You cannot imagine what it is really like here when you are at home still, preparing for this, not even after the best preparation from the project leaders and all the endless counseling, workshops, and the 130-page-“Laos Project Reader” we got. They did tell us that this could happen. We did not understand it at the time. The foil was missing. And now it was there.
It is nothing unusual to be a little stressed-out when traveling to a new country and getting everything ready to spend many months there. A big stress factor for us was getting used to the different food and environment. On our first days, we were overcautious about everything: We even brushed our teeth with bottled water not using the water from the tap. As time went by, we realized that we were exaggerating a bit and eventually got used to using the water from the tap. We do not drink it, but for brushing our teeth and washing the dishes it is just fine.
Another major stress factor, of course, was being in charge of so many tasks and classes all at once. Preparing for two students classes and one teachers class, organizing our time table and bungalow matters, conduct meetings, getting used to our special task…our first weeks were not boring not in the least! Again, we had received the “Starter Kit” and all the other information packs plus access to the project CMS (Content Management System) alfresco and did prepare in detail, but it is one thing reading about challenges and another thing facing them all by yourself when the first course leaders’ visits and Skype consultations are over.
Lastly, I want to emphasize that we have been having a great time up until this day during our stay here in Laos (which is very likely to continue!), and I hope and trust that we will experience much and much else up to the day of our departure!
Text by D. Erdogan, notes by I. Martin
Photos & videos by D. Erdogan, Team VII & I. Martin
Editor’s Notes
1 The Trio company is renowned in Laos for its exceptionally good working conditions. Employees work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with a lunch break of one hour, they can earn more if they work quickly and effectively, and working overtime is payed by 25% more hourly wages. The employees also get “rice money”, another bonus to cover their basic dietary needs so they can use their salary for other expenses. There is also a high standard of hygiene at the workplace. The halls are kept clean and insect-free – no food can be brought inside. White-tiled washrooms are also provided.
2 The company grew quickly, workers came from other parts of the country, then also guest-workers from Viet Nam, and the schools grew accordingly. Apparently, many families are moving to Ban Sikeud so their children can attend the AfC-supported schools.
“Team VII” revisited
Hello & sabaidee, dear readers,
Our Team VII page is now complete and from now on permanently to be found here, along with all the other team pages. On this page, the volunteers who are currently placed in Laos describe their tasks and roles within the team.
Also, more posts about our experiences and adventures will follow shortly!
Team VII in the German Embassy gardens: Pauline Faix, Jasmin Unterweger, Patricia Hopp, Meike Weis, Natalie Wickmann, Nicole Wiesa, Marleen Linder, Malin Frahm, Anja Schuler & Dilara Erdogan
Our experiences in Germany – by apprentices Ms Siliphone Arnousavanh and Mr Soksai Aphaiyalath
Our experiences in Germany
Editor’s note: Within the Recruitment and Training Programme of BHS Corrugated with the Lao-German Technical College, the company invited five teachers of the school and also two apprentices to an eight-week training course in Weiherhammer in July and August 2018, with full expenses paid. For these seven people three different kinds of training courses were offered, to suit their occupational specializations: Electrical vocational training (Mr Bouthavy Siphonephath, Mr Lumphone Kounglavongsa, Ms Siliphone Arnousavanh), Mechanical vocational training (Mr Somphou Khamphila, Mr Soksai Aphaiyalath), and Administration of Dual Vocational Education and Training (Ms Moukdala Keomixai, Mr Saythong Insarn).
The technical training courses consisted of a total of four weeks’ training in the production and assembly facilities of BHS Corrugated and four weeks’ guided training in the ÜBZO (Überbetriebliches Bildungszentrum in Ostbayern gGmbH – Intercompany Training Center in Eastern Bavaria). The scope, level, and content of each training unit, of course, was customized to the participants’ needs, so there were different offers made to apprentices and teachers. The administrative training course was mainly conducted in the ÜBZO.
In this article, the first two Lao apprentices of BHS Corrugated to train in Germany, Ms Siliphone Arnousavanh (electrical) and Mr Soksai Aphaiyalath (mechanical) report on their experiences in Germany. Although Mr Soksai Aphaiyalath had already worked at a customer’s plant of BHS Corrugated in Khon Kaen (Thailand) for two months before, it still was – for both of them – the first time to travel that far and outside Asia. They were offered this training on the basis of their technical skills and general high performance levels at the LGTC, but also for their English communication skills and overall motivation. After the offer of going to Germany this year was made in March, both of them instantly said yes – a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
From July 01, to August 25, 2018 BHS invited us, MISS SILIPHONE ANOUSAVANH and MR SOKSAI APHAIYALART to come to Weiherhammer in Germany. We did a practical training.
Ms Siliphone Arnousavanh and Mr Xokxay Aphaiyalath in the corrugating rolls workshop of BHS Corrugated in Weiherhammer
The invitees from the LGTC together with AfC-Assistant Ms Bouangeun and Mr Boontee Hanthavong and their son Thonee in the new assembly section of BHS Corrugated
The Lao group with Lars Engel, Managing Director of BHS Corrugated and member of the Foundation Council, on top of the BHS Lifecycle Building
On the first day, We went on a company tour with JOHN (Johannes Zeck). We work a lot at BHS, We rebuilt a wire model. We learned a lot about it. Our trainer explain about the machine, For Example: This machine what is working and that machine what is working. After that we went to UBZO training center and next day we learned in UBZO training center, when we learned in UBZO about three weeks. We had three examination. It’ s very hard, because it is standard of Euro but we try to do the best according to standard. When we learned in UBZO everybody are friendly and help our everything about the machine and read the drawing we thought. We lucky, if we learned in UBZO training center.
Ms Siliphone Arnousavanh and her teacher Mr Bounthavy Siphonephath in the electrical workshop of the UeBZO
Ms Siliphone practises for an examination according to the German “IHK” standards during the visit of the new LGTC volunteers (Team VII): Ms Patricia Hopp, Ms Nicole Wiesa, and Ms Dilara Erdogan
One team – Soksai Aphailyalath together with employees of BHS Corrugated in the assembly site in front of a new machine
On a Monday we went to picnic with JOHN (Johannes Zeck), at the lake of WEIHERHAMMER.
Going for a swim in the nearby pond in Weiherhammer…
… to the BHS annual company festival in late July…
… and to the summer serenades in the Max-Reger Park in Weiden
We went to concert with Sonja Pruell in Weiden. The name of concert is “ 35th Annual Summer Serenades In Weiden “ It’s happy day, we were ate something and drank something.
Every Wednesday we went to the market for buy something for made a food.
One evening, we went to visit MR CHRISTIAN ENGEL manager director of BHS corrugated. We had a BBQ.
Mr Soksai Aphaiyalath hands over a silver work picture of the LGTC logo to Christian Engel, Managing Director of BHS Corrugated and chairman of the AfC foundation
At the annual AfC festival in Weiherhammer: Christian Engel (Managing Director of BHS & AfC Chairman), Prof. Isabel Martin (University of Education Karlsruhe), Nicole Wiesa, Dilara Erdogan, Patricia Hopp (Team VII), with Johannes Zeck (BHS & AfC) at the back…
… and all the Lao partners…
… enjoying our first evening together!
Several times we were also invited for dinner by “Madame” Gerlinde Engel together with her neighbor Sieglinde “Oma Siegi” Sommer to her house in Floss.
Another invitation…
… to Madame Engel’s house
![Ms Moukdala Keomixai and Ms Siliphone Arnousavanh enjoy traditional German "Bratwurst [sausage] and Sauerkraut" in the company restaurant of BHS Corrugated](https://i0.wp.com/www.thelaosexperience.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/20180703_121734.jpg?w=359&h=201&ssl=1 "20180703_121734")
Ms Moukdala Keomixai and Ms Siliphone Arnousavanh enjoy traditional German “Bratwurst [sausage] and Sauerkraut” in the company restaurant of BHS Corrugated
When we went to Germany we will known about difference of culture, traditional and religion of each country are development.
THANK YOU UBZO Training and to BHS Company for the wonderful time.
Text & photos by S. Arnousavanh & S. Aphaiyalath
How I fell in love with Germany – a training-and-travel report by Ms Moukdala Keomixai
Editors’ note: Within the Recruitment and Training Programme of BHS Corrugated with the Lao-German Technical College, the company invited five teachers of the college and two apprentices to an eight-week training course in Weiherhammer (Bavaria, Germany) in July and August 2018. For these seven people three different kinds of training courses were offered, to suit their occupational specializations: Electrical vocational training (Mr Bouthavy Siphonephath, Mr Lumphone Kounglavongsa, Ms Siliphone Arnousavanh), Mechanical vocational training (Mr Somphou Khamphila, Mr Soksai Aphaiyalath), and Administration of Dual Vocational Education and Training (Ms Moukdala Keomixai, Mr Saythong Insarn). The technical training courses consisted of a total of four weeks’ training in the production and assembly facilities of BHS Corrugated and four weeks’ guided training in the ÜBZO (Überbetriebliches Bildungszentrum in Ostbayern gGmbH – Intercompany Training Center in Eastern Bavaria). The scope of each training was accustomed to the participants’ needs, so there were different modules offered for the apprentices and the teachers. The administrative training course was mainly conducted in the ÜBZO.
Ms Moukdala Keomixai and Mr Saythong Insarn from the department “Cooperation, Development & IT” at the Lao-German Technical College joined the administrative training course in order to gain insights into the ways training is conducted at BHS Corrugated (and in Germany in general). In this post, Ms Moukdala Keomixai reports on the experiences she made during her six weeks in Germany.
Hello, ladies and gentlemen! Moukdala is back if you are a real fan of “The Laos Experience” blog you probably have read my article on that page. If you have not read the article, please go back and find the article, “Letter from Laos – Hello, I’m Moukdala”. I said at the end of the “Letters from Laos”: “in the future I will get new experience at somewhere in abroad and I will let you know again.”
You know what? My dream came true. I had an opportunity to go to Germany. The trip was supported by BHS Corrugated Company (BHS) and it was six weeks long (four weeks of training and two weeks of traveling). I was very happy when I heard “Mouk, You are going to Germany!” I was in shock and my hands were cold. I could not stop smiling for whole day.
In July of 2018, my Germany trips began; I went to Germany with four teachers and two students. We flew from Laos airport to Thailand airport and then from Thailand to Munich. It took 11 hours from Thailand to Munich airport and it was a very long flight. BHS’s staffs picked us up from the airport. It took another two hours by car from the Munich airport to guesthouse. We had a pretty long day. When we arrived at the guesthouse, we saw Johannes Zeck was standing in front the guesthouse. We were very happy to see him!
I work as a coordinator at LGTC. In our school, we conduct Dual Cooperative Training (DCT) system for students and BHS in Germany has a very good DCT system. I had a chance to go to Germany to learn and observe DCT system on how they do what they do and why they have a good system. I had trained in UeBZO Center at the BHS in Weihammer in Bavaria.
Johannes Zeck gave us tour at BHS on the first day. BHS was huge. BHS has high technology system and it was built in modern style. BHS also has good working system and it is very organized. Every workers have to follow every process that BHS has. I have seen many high technology machines, and have learned a lot of new things for first time visited BHS. People at BHS are nice and friendly. They say Hello, Morning, Morgen,… (Greeting) every time we passed each other. I saw one program (vocational orientation course in the field of electrical, mechanics and IT) that I really like at BHS. BHS gives students hand on training for the field that students are interested in studying when they go to college or university. If in Laos gives the similar program to high school students. I think it would be a great benefit for students because some students might not like what they do and it would not be too late to change their mind.
Vocational orientation days for high school pupils at the UeBZO and BHS Corrugated in Weiherhammer
Teamwork and soft skills
In the electrical workshop of the UeBZO
Task: “Set up an electrical system according to a wiring plan”
As I mentioned, BHS is huge however, there are not many staffs because it was full of working materials and high technology machines. The high technology machines help BHS to do a lot of things. For example, it has a lifter to move the heavy things. If Laos has a huge company like that it would have more than 1000 persons.
The Lifecycle Building of BHS Corrugated in Weiherhammer
The assembly and production workshops of BHS Corrugated
Everything during the training was organized by Ms Sonja Pruell; Sonja Pruell organized what we have to do and where we should stay. Sonja Pruell also planned some activities for us. Sonja Pruell was nice, and she took us to the market to buy food and other things. There was only one supermarket that is near the guesthouse, but was quite expensive. It was a small supermarket and it didn’t have all of the things that we wanted, e.g. special seasoning for Asian food or shavers for the men. So, we went to a bigger supermarket in Weiden once a week. The guesthouse was pretty near to BHS. We bike to BHS everyday. It was so convenience.
The training was four weeks. During the training we went sightseeing in several places around the city on the weekends. We were invited to Madam Gerlinde Engel’s house because she made a birthday party for foundation assistant Ms Bouangeun Hanthavong’s husband (Mr Boontee Hanthavong).1 Johannes Zeck organized the van and drove us there. We had snacks and chatted. And then we all went to a nice restaurant for dinner and the food was amazing.
“Sauerbraten mit Kloessen”: Marinated pot roast with potato dumplings – a very traditional Bavarian dish
The whole group at Madame Engel’s house in Floss
A week later, Johannes Zeck invited us to visit Wuerzburg. The city where he lives at the weekend – he is working in Weiherhammer during the week and commuting to Wuerzburg on the weekend. He guided tour us through the city. It was big city, and there are many big shops. I saw many people were standing and enjoying their time on the bridge. Some people were drinking beer and wine and some of people were there to enjoy the nice weather. I was very surprised to suddenly see two beautiful ladies there (Ariane Kummetz and Sandra Uhlig of Team V). They knew we were coming to visit Johannes Zeck and they came to meet us as a surprise. We had lunch together. We went up to the castle to see the city overview, and the castle was beautiful in the inside and out.
Visiting the castle in Wuerzburg together
Ariane Kummetz, Moukdala Keomixai, Sandra Uhlig
View from the castle over Wuerzburg
Moukdala Keomixai on the old Main bridge (Main is the river flowing through Wuerzburg). The bridge is a famous spot in town.
The day after, on Sunday, we went back to Munich with Ms Sonja Pruell to explore the main city in Germany. Unfortunately, the shops were closed and we walked around the church in Munich and took some pictures. We went up to the town of the church called Old Peter It was beautiful to see overview of the church and the city. We saw the place to sit and watched football that day was a final match for world cup.
On top of the church
In front of the Marien church at the main square in Munich
City guide Sonja Pruell
My time in Weihammer has been almost three weeks. I met Prof. Dr. Isabel Martin and the three new volunteers (Team VII: Dilara Erdogan, Nicole Wiesa and Patricia Hopp) when they came for a meeting to Weiherhammer. We had lunch at a restaurant in BHS. Later during that day, the three volunteers gave a presentation to get to know each other. Saythong and I also presented about LGTC.
The Lao group and the new volunteers in Weiherhammer
We exchanged ideas and experiences with the new volunteers of Team VII
Meeting with Prof. Dr. Isabel Martin, Sonja Pruell, the new voluneers, and Johannes Zeck
The Certificate for the training course by the UeBZO: Hand-over by Sonja Pruell to Moukdala Keomixai and Saythong Insarn
I could not believe that I spent four weeks in Weihammer already, time went by so fast. I still had two more weeks to travel. I had a plan to meet a friend (Sandra Uhlig from Team V) in Karlsruhe. Luckily, I didn’t have to travel from Weihammer to Karlsruhe by myself because Johannes Zeck had a meeting there. Right after we got there, Johannes Zeck had to go a meeting and Sandra Uhlig was still at work. I went to a mall alone to kill my time while I was there; I was excited and scared at the same time.
I stayed at Sandra Uhligs’ place for three day. I met some great new and old friends from different teams (Patricia Hopp (Team VII), Anna-Lena Hajek, Tasja Reule (both Team VI), Ariane Kummetz (Team V), Amelie Reiling, Christiane Morlok (both Team IV), Lena Wink (Team III). We spent some time together. we went to castle in Karlsruhe and watched the lights show.
The castle of Karlsruhe at night
Sandra Uhlig and Moukdala Keomixai
Picnic in the park with Sandra Uhlig, Ariane Kummetz, and Lena Wink
After three days in Karlsruhe, Sandra Uhlig and I went to visit her mom in Brigachtal. Sandra’s mom was amazing. She treated me like her own daughter. She cooked food for us, and she took care of everything. Sandra’s mom took us to different places in town, but the Black Forest and a park were my favorite. I heard the name of the Black Forest before, at that time I thought in my mind Black Forest would be only black trees, but when I was there, the Black Forest was a wonderful place that I have ever seen. The Black Forest was actually green!
There were a lot of trees and the shape of some of the leaves were very tiny like a needle. The park we went looked like any other parks just one thing was different. The park had “Kneippen”. The Kneippen is a small pond. The pond fills with cold water about knee deep water and the cold water flows from mountain. People here believe that walking in the cold water will help improve their bodies and make they feel healthy. I walked in the pond two rounds and water was cold as ice. I liked it but I don’t think that I can walk more than two rounds. I would go visit that park again when I go to Germany.
We enjoyed..
… the landscape in Southern Germany
Sandra Uhlig, her mother, and me
Home for dinner
Kneipp basin: walk through cold water in order to stimulate the blood flow
Three days later, I took the train back to Karlsruhe to meet some old friends (Denise Burkhardt, Lena Wink, and Juliana Kase, all from Team III). Denise picked me up at the train station, and we had dinner in Karsruhe. It was very nice to see all of my friends again. The last day in Karlsruhe, we watched the lights show at castle in Karlsruhe again.
Denise and I then went to Denise’s house, her family was so kind. I stayed at Denise’s house for a week; her family treated me I am a part of the family. Denise took me different places (Heidelberg, camping, theater, cave, and zoo). Denise introduced me to her good friends, and they were very friendly to me. I liked every places that Denise took me but I liked camping the most because I’ve never been camping before. It felt good to get away from the city and got some fresh air.
Denise Burkhardt of Team III, Moukdala Keomixai
The pioneers of Team III reunited: Lena Wink and Denise Burkhardt with Moukdala Keomixai
Preparations for camping…
… at the camp site
Ttraditional South German house in the Black Forest
My new friends
The last week in Germany, I stayed at Mr Bernhard Fuerst’s house in Bogen. Mr Fuerst gave me very warm welcome. I’ve worked with Mr Fuerst for awhile in Laos and I felt so grateful to finally met his family.He invited all of us to come to “Gaeubodenfest” in Straubing. It is one of the biggest festivals in Bavaria. There is a big agricultural exhibition there. I met Sandra Uhlig again. Sandra Uhlig came to say goodbye to us. Mr. Fuerst kindly drove us to the airport.
Parade during “Gaeubodenfest” in Straubing
Bernhard and Barbara Fuerst with Saythong Insarn and Moukdala Keomixai
Traditional costumes
Re-enactment of Roman history in Southern Germany
Last photo together in Germany!
I was sad and happy to come back home. I wanted to explore the country more and spend more time with my old and new friends. At the same, I was excited to see my family and eat Lao food.
Last but not least, I would like to thank everyone who made this trip was amazing and unforgettable! I have done and seen a lot of things that I’ve never done or seen in my entire life. It was great learning experiences. I will apply what I gain from this trip to develop our school and my life. I would love to go back to Germany again because they are other things that I have not done. I am sure that every time to go there I would gain new experiences.
Fell in love with Germany!
Back in Laos!
Text & photos by M. Keomixai
Note
1 Editor’s note: The Hanthavong family, including 10-year-old Thonee, were invited by Angels for Children to Germany for one month for a holiday and in order to discuss the foundation’s further development. Mr Boontee Hantavong is a pediatrician currently working in a governmental medical plantation in Huaphan province, in the north of Laos. After graduating from his state-financed medical studies two years ago, Mr Boontee Hanthavong was sent there to supervise the project activities as part of his governmental duties. He is planning to return to Vientiane soon, in order to work in a public hospital and to open up a private pharmacy in Ban Sikeud.
First cooperation between the University of Education Karlsruhe and Savannakhet University – meet our new partners! 3/3
Hello, Everyone (Sabaidee Thouk Khon) it’s the first time for me to writing a post, I’m very happy to introduce myself to you. My name is Boutsaba LATTANATHONGXAI, I am 30 years old, I work in faculty of Business Administration for 6 years. Teaching and learning are used English in Savannakhet University, There are many teachers who graduate from abroad and They work at different faculties, and they can teach English language for English students and international students all of classes have in English. Students learn English. However it is difficult to plan for teacher. Due to the level of their English still poor. I think that it should rearrange the teaching method.
Hello, my name is Souksomboun INTHAVONG. I am 33 years ld, I live in Savannakhet Province. I am a teacher, I work in Savannakhet University, I teach English subject with year two students. I enjoy my job because I love teaching and working with students. For me the perfect teacher teaching at Savannakhet University should have excellent in qualifications and profession in some skills. They should have working plan or create lesson plan every hours. In addition, the teacher should be well-organized individuals with strong communications skills, and non-stop to develop technique in teaching or develop themselves to upgrade their knowledge in teaching every day, because if teacher good at pedagogical it will make students good at learning too.
Hello, my name is Oudonexay I am 30 years old, I am from Nonsavath Village, Kaisonphomvihan district savannakhet Province. I am a teacher at Savannakhet University, faculty of food science as My responsibility is teaching and researching as well. I will teach my students with doing research together which is very important for their learning in field study and also they have known the real situation in their study. Some students do experiment but some of them aren’t because it’s not enough Laboratory equipment to use.
Hello, everyone. My name is Souvannaly xayaseun, 31 years old. I was born in 1987, at Xonbouly district, Savannakhet province, Lao PDR. I have been working as a Students affair office in Savannakhet University for six years. I works in the Dormitory‘s students Unit at the University and be responsible for inspect students’ living and lead the students do activities and teach the Tour Business Management and Tour Guide Subject also. I have a Bachelor of English degree for Tourism and Hotel from Sousavath Collage, Vientiane Capital, in 2011. And Master degree of Tourism Development from Maejo Uniersity, Chiang Mai province, Thailand, in 2018.
Hello, I am Vixai Kethphommavong. I did a bachelor of education, majoring in English from Savannakhet Teacher Training College. I have been working in Faculty of Food Science, Savannakhet University since 2012. I am responsible for International Relation and teaching English for undergraduate students. For me, being a good teacher is not only to motivate students to maximize their results of learning, but also to encourage them for lifelong learning. Additionally, the good teacher should support students to express themselves in life and contribute good things to society as well.
Hello my name is Phetphouthone PHOMMACHAN. I’m 36 years old. I’m working in faculty of linguistics at Savannakhet University. I am a English teacher. I Teach reading subject for the English classroom. I’m teaching for year two and year three. I Teach 4 hour per week. At savanakhet University many activities. But I would like to tell you some activities. Like There is a sport competition, There is an art competition, Make short story, National teacher’s day, National arbor’s day and show for is faculty has product. I am very happy and thankful David that get me join to this class English club. I’m very much enjoying for learn. Everyone is very friendly and open the idea to share.
Hi! I am souphaphone KHANSOURIVONG . I am 30 years old. I have taught English subject at Savannakhet University for 7 years. I very like learning because the current education is a key of life to develop people especially my university. All teachers have the same role player.
Hello, everyone. I’m Souksakhone KHAMPHOUNAVONG . I graduated from SKU, department of English and I graduated from Savan administration Business College,and major is account. Now I work in the finance office at SKU, moreover I teach general English for 4 hours a week. I am a volunteer for one year and six month at SKU. I would like to talk about location of SKU. There are two campuses for Savannakhet University in Kaisone city, Savannakhet province. The first campus is at NASENG village. The second campus is at NONGPHEU village with two faculties Food Science and Agriculture.
Hi, I’m Koungnang SINGKHAMPASERT. I’m 26. I live in Xaiyamoungkhoun village, Outhoumphone (SENO) district, Savannakhet province. I graduated from Teacher Training College. Now I’m a volunteer teacher in Faculty of Linguistics and Humanities, Savannakhet University. I have worked here for 3 years. I’m responsible for certificate and students’ scores of the faculty. Passed working and teaching in this university, I have good colleagues and good experiences. Thus in every task, there are different problems. Some I can do it perfectly, but some I need a good colleague to help and work together. When I don’t understand about working, they can help me with a good advice, easy way to work and help me about my teaching. I also teach 4 hours for “English for Mass communication” and 6 hours for “Language Practice” in a week. So it’s hard to work and teach at the same time.
Learning to walk in a different pair of shoes (David Schrep)
Being in the position to cooperate with our Lao partners at Savannakhet University challenges me in lots of ways. Coming here, it took weeks to find out which teachers would benefit the most from my English course. Together with Prof. Martin, I spent weeks packed with meetings, the organization of a written “QPT” (Quick Placement Test) conducted with more than 140 staff, interviews with 43 of those university teachers, all this while dealing with all these new impressions I am not used to, and, of course, more meetings. I remember asking myself if I was ever going to teach here one day, or if this preparatory process would take forever.
Even though Prof. Martin had already done a lot of groundwork and paved my way to Savannakhet, I underestimated the difference between Lao school- and Lao university-life.1 I had not anticipated such a vast number of teachers who would want to learn English with me. I had to tell partners who actually wanted to learn English that they could not all learn English with me, which was heartbreaking, as this was not the reason why I had become a teacher, nor why I had come to Savannakhet – and you can be sure, we did not make these decisions lightly.
After all this preparation, the times I stumbled, fell, and got up again trying to find the best possible way, all the discussions and all these meetings, I am now enjoying my work with my new Lao partners tremendously. I am very impressed by their motivation and work ethic, also thankful for the importance they attach to my English course. I do not take it for granted that young teachers who teach several hours per week and who also have to shoulder additional administrative paper work duties of the university and who – mostly – have a family to care for and who also have part-time jobs in the evening or on the weekend devote their precious free time to work with me not only on improving their English proficiency, but also to improve their English-teaching skills.
Reviewing all these experiences from the last months and weeks together, I can truly say that all this extra effort during my (already very work-intensive) teacher-traineeship (Referendariat) to prepare my stay here – the extra work as a part-time waiter and working extra hours at school to save up money for the months ahead, the discussions with my friends and family who sometimes could not understand why my fiancée and I were so bent on doing this, as well as all the stress and energy it took to come here – it was definitely worth it!!
Text & photos by David Schrep & tandem-partners
Note
Note by the editor: David Schrep was a volunteer in Team III and worked at the secondary school in Ban Phang Heng in 2016/17.
First cooperation between the University of Education Karlsruhe and Savannakhet University – meet our new partners! 2/3
My name is Boualiane KEOPHOXAY, I was born on 04 September 1988, I am from Khammouane province, I graduated at STTC (Teacher Training College) as an English pedagogy, now I work at SKU (Savannakhet University) in Faculty of Linguistics and Humanities, I responsible for QA (Quality Assurance) it is quite work hard in working in the office and teaching in the same time. I think working at SKU (Savannakhet University) have more chances to develop myself because our university has cooperated or has MOU with many university and other organizations in the region and the world, especially cooperate to developing the education such as applying the scholarship to study the master and doctoral to upgrade our education and exchange the education and culture. So working with the higher education institute is to give chance and help social in education.
Hello, my name is Sompasong Khemmarath I have been working for SKU University as assistant of teaching and research ,my responsibility is to conduct field survey on reward house hold development , business promotion and international business in Laos PDR , I prepare course for teaching in the Department of Rural economic development , the faculty of food science ,course I prepare is World trade organization.
Hello, Everyone (Sabaidee Thouk Khon) it’s the first time for me to writing a post; I’m very happy to introduce myself to you. My name is Phongsavang Xaikhonkham (Done). I am 25 years old. I work in Department of English, Faculty of Linguistics and Humanities, Savannakhet University (Lao PDR). I come from Phineua Village, Outhoumphone District, Savannakhet Province.
Like we know the education is very important for everyone, who lives in urban and rural area. I believe that the education can help us to have the new idea to solve all the problems that come in to our life, beside education help us to see the new world.
Presently, I am a volunteer an English Teacher in Savannakhet University for day shift, after SKU’ volunteer I am a receptionist for Aura Residence. I’m really love both job, because all of them provide me the good experience; like teaching and practicing my English speaking skill, however I would say like ‘Education is the key of life’.
Good afternoon!…everyone. I am pleased to introduce myself, I’m Mr. Vannasinh Bouttathep, 28 years old, I am a bachelor degree holder with two majors: General English, and Tourism Management, I now work at General Affairs and Cooperation Office. In addition, I am also an academic staff and teach temporarily the General English Subject at Faculty of Business Administration.
I would like to kind introduce you to know about SKU background. SKU is Savannakhet University as an official name, and situated in the middle part of Laos. It is one of four public universities in Lao PDR. It was established on 12 October 2009. SKU has staff member of 449 people with 4,454 students in 7 faculties and IT center.
Hello, I am Thanousone Sangthongphet and I am 26 years old. I am from Thakhek District Khammouane but now I live in Savannakhet Province. In my free time, I like to read a book, listen to the music, but sometimes watch football match on TV and cook for my family. I graduated in 2015 in the Faculty of Linguistics and Humanities at SKU and I am now working here. My working experience in SKU was to teach students. I taught General English for beginner classes and English for reading for elementary classes. My teaching methods were most of leading students to speak with playing games. I was very happy that I got the opportunity to work and teach here SKU.
Hi! My name is Manysone VIPHAKONE, I was born in July, 11th 1991 in the southern part of Laos in rural of the Khongxedon district, Salavan province, but now I live in Savannakhet province. I stay at the rental house with my sister and brother. I finished to study from the SKU, majoring in Tourism and hospitality management in faculty of Business Administration for the normal course and special course is General English, faculty of linguistic and humanities.
My topic I have chosen is working experience. After graduated in 2014, I applied to work in the Savannakhet Travel Company, I work as a guide and marketing assistant; I have work for 2 years. Then in January, 2016 I started working in SKU as a volunteer English teacher. The reason why I need to be an English teacher because I really like to work with students, and I’m very pleasure when I have class, I enjoy while I’m teaching, and my expectation is my students can speak English well and can use English for their further education or occupation in the future. My Facebook name is Pouy Manysone.
Hello! Everyone First of all, I would like to thank you for giving an opportunity to introduce myself.
My name is Chanthalakone Souydalay. I am 27 years old and I’m a teacher for teaching English in Faculty of Linguistic and humanity. I am from Khongzedon District, SAravan province and I have ever been to live in Israel, Singapore and Hongkong. Currently I’m living in Naxeng Village, Kaisone City, Savannakhet Province. I have finished at Savannakhet University 4 years ago and I was a teacher in 2015. Besides that I have a part-time job such as referee in football stadium in everyday evening but I love a teacher more. I am a hard-working, creative and friendly with others people. I like reading Vientiane time newspaper, playing guitar, football and listening music when I have free time. I love an English teacher because I would like to motivate Lao students to become more international and I want to open my mind over the world. Facebook: Chathalakhone Souydalay
Sa Bai Dee!!! My name’s Pathana INTHAPHOUTHONE. You can call me Nette. I have worked for Academic Affairs Office at SKU. Nowadays, SKU provides 44 programs with 37 for Bachelor normal programs, 4 of Bachelor continuing programs, 1 of International program and 2 of Masters. Also we run the learning-teaching process by credit system 3(1-2-3), but some faculties teach as module and the schedule is too full cause of the classroom. The best way to improve this point is to build new buildings.
Hello (Sabaidee)! My name is Vilaphong Sitthideth, I am 27 years old. I am a teacher and I teach English at Savannakhet university. I have always loved explaining things and helping people. I also want to work with young people. Here there have always been the scholarship opportunities at SKU for both staffs and students if you are active and do prepare yourselves with some great information and related documents. Then, you will be one of the appropriate candidates to fulfill your goal. Recently, I have been participating the English course that holding by David Schrep and this is a great opportunity of mine to achieve my career and develop our community.
God afternoon, I am Phanthachith Vilaysack. I’m from Navang village, Nongbok district, Khammuan province. I will talk about my first life in SKU, I come here as a volunteer teacher, the volunteer teachers do not have salary. First, I don’t know that I will survive until today because I don’t have salary but luckily I have gotten money from teaching. I have saved money for my life until here. I feel happy as a teacher because I like it. And one important thing as teacher, I often have to find new knowledge and some technique to teach students.
Text & photos by David Schrep & tandem-partners (part 3 to follow)
First cooperation between the University of Education Karlsruhe and Savannakhet University – meet our new partners! 1/3
My name is David Schrep, and I was part of Team III in 2016/2017 in the “teach-the-teachers” project of the Angels for Children foundation and the University of Education Karlsruhe (“PH Karlsruhe”). I enjoyed my work at Ban Phang Heng Lower Secondary School, the work with my tandem-partners Mr Bounleud Sengsavangvong and Mr Souvanh Navong, and also the cooperation with the RIES carried out by my team-partner Anika and me a lot. So, when Prof. Martin sent a circular in December 2017 to ask who might be interested in a new project in Savannakhet, it was no question for me to volunteer.
Over the next few months, Prof. Martin completed the design and official framework for this university cooperation and we met a few times to discuss the steps which should be taken during my first weeks at SKU after finishing my Second State Degree. Finally, following the final exams of my 18-months-teacher-traineeship period (Referendariat),1 I was able to organize my prolonged absence from Germany. This meant moving out of my flat, having a part-time job, also working extra hours at school, organizing sufficient sickness insurance and also spending a lot of time for farewell parties with my friends and family. Then I was ready to embark on this new adventure, this time in the company of my lovely fiancée Veronika.
The first weeks of my time in Savannakhet were spent settling in our new little flat and getting oriented in my new daily life. Surprisingly, a special challenge was to buy a motorbike to get around in town. I was astonished how pricey motorbikes in Savannakhet are. Even second-hand ones with about 30,000 kilometers are hard to find under 800€ . Luckily my contact person at the university, Ms Phetsavanh Somsivilay and her husband Mr Khonesavanh Norasane, did everything they could to help me and finally I became the owner of one of the most common motorbikes in Laos – a red Honda Wave. Besides that, they also helped me with every other single wish or request I had.
After having spent one week getting used to our new set-up and each other, my new partners and I used our class time together to write the following introductions. So now, meet the first ten of the 30 Lao lecturers I now work with at SKU!
Hello! Everyone, My name is Thaithanawanh KEOKAISONE, I am 33 years old. I am a teacher of English; I work in Department of English, Faculty of Linguistics & Humanities Savannakhet University, Lao P D R (Laos) I am very happy to introduce you about the location of Savannakhet University (SKU) as Savannakhet University consists of two campuses. The first campus is Naxeng campus which is located in Naxeng village, Kilometer five Savan – Lak 35,( Savanlaksamxipha ) Kaysonephomvihane capital city, It has 8 ha, it is the campus to initially builds, second campus is Nongphue campus which is located at Kilometer 10 Savan-Xeno the 9B-road, it has 300 ha. It is the campus which having varieties of learning programs. It also places to integrate the economics corridor in the east and the west.
Hi everyone! My name’s Napha Khothphouthone and I am 27 years old. I graduated Animal Husbandry and Health Care And Apply language majoring in English, but Currently I work in Savavannakhet University in Faculty of Natural Science as a lecturer assistance. My subjects are General English, Vertebrate and English for Biology. I am particulary excited to teach English more than other subjects because it is the most difficult subject for many students in Laos especially who is not majoring in English course, Seeing them learning a language is like swimming for the first time. There are many factors that I’ve found such as our mother tongue is different away from English, English time table in semester is not enough. Students’ motivation is very important to develop English skill. Even though, I will do my best to students as I can.
Hello, I’m Thidaphone Liepvisaynavang. I’m 30 years old and my house is very near the SKU. I finished my studies in the field of English Pedagogy at National University of Laos in 2010. In my free time, I like to go shopping and I love collecting bag and earing. I love teaching, that the reason why I make the decision to work at SKU, Faculty of Linguistics and Humanities. I teach two subjects as public speaking for FLH’ students and English for Business for FBA’ students. In FLH, I respond to work in charge of Academic Affair, like teaching – learning plan, save students’ score, and curriculum of the faculty. Although, I work very hard, but I am happy to be here.
Hi, my name is To Em Vilaysouk. I am 22 years old. I was born in Phoxai Village, Kaisone Capital, Savannakhet Province. In 2017, I graduated for bachelor degree on major of Finance and Banking, Faculty of Economics and Business Management, National University of Laos, Vientiane Capital. Then I moved back for working in SKU (Savannakhet University) as a teacher of Faculty of Food Science. I am a scholar hunter since I was a student. Luckily, at Savannakhet University provides many scholarship opportunities either for teachers or students to apply such as exchange program, training or master and Ph.D. study program.
Hello everyone, My name is Viengvilaiphone Botthoulath. I am 26 years old and recently working as a lecturer at the Department of Food Processing Technology, Faculty of Food Science, Savannakhet University. Currently, I am mainly teaching for Food Microbiology, Food biochemistry, and English for development and technology subjects in my department. I am particularly excited in participating the English course with David from University of Education Karlsruhe, Germany. This would be enabled me to refresh my English as I will gain a stronger understanding of English teaching techniques and also perform even better to think of new ideas for further studies. I am truly glad to get the chance to be a part of this training.
Hi..My name is Phouthasone khouangvichit, I am a University lecturer and research assistant at SKU. My specialization is Environmental Science and Teaching English for Forestry and Environmental Science Studies is one of my favorite programs. My role as lecturer in the university has allowed me to direct, guide and facilitate my students, as well as my team and colleagues. I am a young professional teacher who always believes that positive thinking will lead to succeed in every career. Learning is the process never end and I always love to learn new things, explore new methods in order to serve the best fit for new era of teaching and learning process through research activities in SKU.
Hello! Everyone. My name is Khanthanaly Panvilaysone. I work at Savanakhet University, Faculty of Linguistics and Humanities, almost 10 years. I am married and have a lovely son. I am an English Teacher. My favorite subject on teaching English is Speaking Skill. There are many reasons, why I like this subject because I want all of my students to speak out to communicate with people from oversea. On the other hand, I think if you can speak English you will be the one who have a chance to get a good job. Especially, I like to help all of my students to practice their English Speaking. The last I think speaking is the key to open your eyes to understand each other.
Sitsanou Phouthavong
Hello! Every one. My name is Sitsanou Phouthavong, I’m graduate science and technology education Master degree from Khonkaen University, Thailand. I had started my work since November, 2012 at faculty of education, Savannkhet University under the Ministry of education and sport. Now, I have done my work with two duties under responsibilities, first I do with the officer and a lot time I have taught students year I, II and III such as English 5 (English for Physics), Mechanic, fluid of Physics and Electrostatic-electrodynamics. But in the office my responsible is scores and syllabus.
Surprise:
These innovative robot learning materials are a donation by fischertechnik organized by Mr Ralph Hansmann from the PH Karlsruhe, which Prof. Martin brought over and help me to practically teach about technology and to bring the subject closer to students. In easy electrical circuits, series and parallel connections, electronic connections with transistors, capacitors, resistors and LEDs. Step by step, this play-and-learn construction set will teach the basics of electronics. So the robot I made with Fischertechnik is help me understand more phenomena of electric circuit and make me more the basics of electronics understandable.
Hi, I’m Visai SENGSOULIYA, 29. I graduated at Teacher Training College on the majors of Mathematics and General English as well, but I prefer teaching English to Maths. I work at the Faculty of Education and my task is making teaching-learning schedules. When I have free time, I like to surf the net to find new, interesting and appropriate lessons to make my class more exciting. I would like to give some recommend of being students at the university, it is not easy as in the high school, because you don’t just only study in the classroom, but you have to participate to the after-class activities, doing reports to the teachers and so on. But on the other hand students can gain more knowledge and skills through the activities they were attended. That’s why the life of being students in the Savannakhet University is more challenge!
Hi, my name’s Thongter Lovanthack, I’m 30, I was born in Outhoumphone District, Savannakhet Province. I graduated bachelor of English Education in 2013 from Savannakhet Teacher Training College, I started working as a teacher at Savannakhet University in December 2013. I am the teacher because I love students, I love teaching and learning. It is good feeling when I see my students can speak English with their friends and others; I mean it’s so awesome!!! And otherwise, I have to improve myself too for high education in the future. Perfect teacher is good preparing before class, He/she always being on time, that teacher is available to help students on lessons, he/she is kind and friendly with students, and one important thing he/she should have a good class management and can involve the students into the lessons.
Text & photos by D. Schrep & tandem-partners, with editor’s note by I Martin
Note
1 Editor’s note: Students enrolled in German teaching degrees study two school subjects plus pedagogy/didactics (and often more minor subjects depending on the degree and respective federal regulations). After completing their “First State Exam” – or, more recently, “Bachelor of Education” and then “Master of Education” – they can apply for an 18-month-traineeship period at one of the “seminars” in their federal state. This is a tertiary institution of education which cooperates with the teacher-mentors of the local schools and which mentors the trainee-teachers through their practical and theoretical work at their assigned schools. Their teaching is visited and assessed regularly, and after passing their “Second State Exam” at the end of this phase they are finally qualified as full teachers and may apply for their first full teaching post. Becoming a teacher in Germany thus takes around 7 years.
Lao university delegation visits University of Education Karlsruhe – the Lao perspective
Our goals after the visit to universities and laboratory equipment supplier companies in Germany – and our new cooperation with the University of Education Karlsruhe
This is our leaders’ team at Savannaket University:1
Assoc. Prof. Dr Sitha Khemmarath (Vice-President for Research), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bounpong Keorodom (President), Dr. Soulignong Xaykosy (Vice-President for Administration), Dr. Bounheuang Ninchaleun (Vice-President for Academic Affairs)
Introduction
During September 2017, a mission of visit led by Lao vice-minister of education and sport (MoES) was paid to two manufacturers (PHYWE and LUCAS NULLE) of laboratories equipment, and we also visited three universities (Göttingen University, University of Applied Science Köln, and University of Education Karlsruhe) and a center for laboratory training service, called XL International Science Campus.
Director of academics to faculty of engineering (Assoc.Prof. Vixai VANHKHAM, National University of Laos), vice-president for research and postgraduates (Assoc.Prof.Dr Sitha KHEMMARATH) from Savannakhet University (SKU), the vice-minister (Assoc.Prof.Dr Kongsy SENGMANY), Mark Metzbaur (PHYWE), the SKU president (Assoc.Prof.Dr Bounpong KEORODOM), the president of Lao Association for Private Education (Dr.Khamsene SISAVONG). Not in the photo: advisor (Mr Worapanya PATHUMKASIKUL)
The main objectives of the visit were to learn how lab equipment are used to teach practical courses and how the companies who make lab equipment work with educational institution in order to help developing capacity as well as skills to students of different level of education (primary, secondary and tertiary). According to many source and research findings, Laos’s education is always criticized to be of old fashion; spoon fed-teaching, too much teacher-centered; lack of practical skills, too much theoretical teaching. Even though, the MoES’s strategy was reiterated in high ranking leaders of education that education has to be of three characters: (1) national, (2) scientific (International) and (3) societal. This last means the development of practical skills to learners in orders to serve the society or more relevant to the need of society in present context.
Back ground and issues:
Since recent years, Lao government has been making big effort to push educational institutions of all levels to develop their capacity in order for the national education be able endowed with this three-characters. This will imply the competency of teachers to teach practical classes, availability of facilities of laboratories and the way by which people who teach and equipment are managed in such way that learning experience can be obtained by learners. This last point is observes to be lacking from the perception of many education managers.
So it has been observed that people think of possessing factors (qualified teachers and materials) but few mentioned how the factors are applied so that learning experience can be obtained by students. Due to this mis-conceptual perceptions of academic institutions, there are qualified teachers lab equipment available but very few even no practical teaching (both in the form of tutorial classes ad laboratory classes) are organized.
To these issues and questions, attempts were made to obtain responses during this visit.
Observations and what can be learned.
Higher Education Leaders’ Mind Sets: during the visit, in Germany people are precious resource as said Prof.Dr.Isabel Martin, one of the leaders for higher education institutions we visited “in absence of oil […] but we do have people”. They really consider people are precious natural resource. To make the resource available and ready for employment, since primary education, students are trained to develop their creative idea.
In order to train people for this purpose, laboratories services are established. Laboratory is science entity, equipment and materials are for analytical activities in the field of chemistry, physics and biology. Training can be arranged for university and high school students. By doing so students become very qualitied scientists by the time when they graduate from universities.
Partnership between Laboratory Equipment Suppliers and Universities: companies as manufactures and suppliers make always big effort to develop their equipment for laboratories in order to keep pace with research and development in the university. The companies incorporate pedagogical method of courses management, testing students if they are ready for conduction laboratory activities, the use of lab equipment is also computerized This guides students to do lab experiment by themselves. The equipment itself become more simple and light in weight.
Teaching Method Development: universities themselves elaborate with no cease the teaching method, as consequence more students – centered, less and less face-to-face teaching hours, thanks to the assistance of more sophisticated didactic equipment. Students became more self-reliance of learning that has been proved more efficient learning method.
Intervention in General Education Development: is the use of research findings to intervene in the whole process of learners’ competency development. Students from general education can have access to make use of the well-equipped laboratory, as example learned from Karlsruhe University of Education, laboratory of physics try to cultivate innovative thinking and invention to general education students, and Lending Library didactic English teaching material and the language lab is available to English students by Prof. Martin. We visited many other departments at PH Karlsruhe and saw maths lab, nutrition science kitchen, sewing ironing fabrics room, sports hall, IT/Media production, technics room metal wood children’s room, University Library. By the time students enter in university, they have quite strong background for different fields of study.
Working Performance: is the working culture, the delegates are so impressed and admired of the way German people work; so dedicated to work, energetic, everyone endowed with spirit of high responsibility for the work assigned to them. We have learned from the history of civilization Germany is one of the most developed culture of working in the world.
We, Laotians are always said to be easy going way of life. We wonder why German is more dedicated working culture than any other nations in the world; what are the driving forces; whether there are the mechanism or policy, of course, not the in-born characters. No wonder Germany is one of the most industrialized countries and ranked very high in term of HDI (Human Development Index), among the top ten of the most developed nations.
Contrarily, Lao PDR is now ranked in 138th position in this regards. Working performance is, of course not the only factor making Laos ranked in this position. The today way of life, in this the case, the working culture, is the product of the long historical events that Laos has undergone. It seems that the two countries are on the two extremes. On one, the industrialized country like Germany has its firm willingness to help improving the effectiveness of the developing country.2 While on another extreme, Laos is attempting to enhance its working performance. And the developing countries are quite diverse in term of comparative advantages. The technologies that can help tap the resources in the developing countries are, fortunately available in the developed countries. When these two countries get together they will be brought into win-win situation. As result, more energetic and dedicated working will be, step by step cultivated to Lao people to be more effective.
Actions as responses to lesson learned
The immediate actions right after the visit to the companies and universities in Germany is to convene SKU’s leaders during the monthly meeting to improve teaching method in order to strengthen teaching capacity of English, firstly for international program (In-English taught program in the field of Rural Economic and business Extension), secondly for students from English as major of applied foreign language, and finally for English a course of foreign language for students from others fields of study at bachelor level.
There are 36 programs for the whole university of Savannakhet. In addition, two master programs include also English as their general and compulsory course. The students ‘knowledge of English are so diverse. Sometime young and limited experienced teachers find teaching so hard to handle.
It has been observed by German expert of linguistics and pedagogy that while the teaching method of English in SKU is ineffective, Western text books are irrelevant to Lao context,3 while Lao textbooks make even ineffective illustration, rendering students harder to learn the languages, said Professor Isabel. She found after visiting many institutions of education in Laos that the “Western teaching approaches are not suited to your context and we need to customize our offers – and most importantly of all, we need to devise a tandem-system for developing a culture-sensitive, but modern style together.” This is to address the issues that had been raised by leaders of SKU during the visit paid by the delegates to PH Karlsruhe. Text book, and teaching approach is one thing while there are many other issues like teachers themselves who were not trained for teaching applied language of English and students who feel big need for their future carrier. But acquiring knowledge of English for most of students is felt like something hardly possible to reach, due to an in appropriate teaching method.
During the meeting of SKU’s leaders, It has been agreed to take immediate action of having an experienced English teacher from Karlsruhe University of Education who are so cooperative and ready to start a cooperation with SKU, looking for an appropriate candidate who can work as a volunteer teacher of English. There were a number of interested young experienced teachers, said Professor Isabel, out of which David, a young energetic, and ready to undertake this challenging job.
It has been now for more than two months this action taking place. Since September 2018, David has been working in SKU; Training young teachers of English for students in field of study other than English major, working in tandem with teachers for students from English major, and also for student from international program, tea club that create environment inducing to English speaking are currently main activities led by the volunteer tandem teacher from Karlsruhe. The teaching focus on content of subject matter, pedagogical methods of teaching skills in English proficiency as well as the way how teachers of English from SKU get prepared and ready to teach classes with high responsibility in order to achieve learning inspiration, motivation and eventually effective learning for majority of students. This is way of working that leaders and teachers of SKU appreciate very much being able to share with German expert and volunteers.
The second action is related to the design of classroom ad laboratories for the object of being able to implement the approved curricula, according to the national curriculum standard.
There have to be enough classrooms and laboratories in term of number and area and teaching staff who will handle lecture, laboratories and tutorial teachings.
SKU is now in the process of expansion; establishing new campus, under financial support of Lao Government and ADB (Asian Development Bank). The learned lesson can be applicable for this purpose.
To correctly implement curricula of SKU’s study programs, following the requirement of the actual and first National Curriculum Standard, there have been the issues of implementing curricula under constrains; lacking facilities and qualified teachers, due to inappropriate design of facilities, especially class room for different methods of teaching.4 Visiting laboratory facilities and their applications in university teaching program helps enlightening the perception of decision makers from education institutions from Laos. While close cooperation with PH Karlsruhe, Gottingen University and others European partners institutions will help us find the way how our own Lao curriculum could be implemented with well trained teachers to be qualified to deliver courses, well-designed facilities (class room and laboratory equipment). By doing so, the strategy of improving quality of education to approach international and global standard can gradually be reached.
Conclusion
Mission of visit payed by high ranking officials from Lao Ministry of Education and Sports to the companies of manufacturing laboratory equipment and to some universities in Germany obtain the following lesson that can be learned and put in actions. Lessons learned by the mission are;
- Germans’ perception about people who are considered as precious resources more than any other ones. That is why that efforts must be made by educational institution to develop human resource.
- Laboratory equipment manufacturers keep pace on research and development with university in order to push further the technology innovating and innovation.
- University practical teaching is conducted with the help of sophisticated equipment in order to facilitate learning experience and cultivate practical skills to students.
- Pedagogies universities in Germany intervene in general education to strengthen science background so that students can be highly qualified for the study in university.
- Working culture of people in Germany is admired by then team of visit, found to be very dedicated to work a signed to them with high responsibility.
The actions initiated by SKU as responses to lesson learned are:
- SKU’s leaders decide to cooperate with Karlsruhe University of Education to strengthen the capacity of English teaching and then other subjects in5
- Academic managers of SKU make use of lessons learned from the visit to develop new campus in particular to design facilities to be ready for implementing study program so that the requirements of National Curriculum Standards can be fulfilled.
Text by S. Khemmarath, with notes by I. Martin
Photos by K. Buttgereit & C. Thammalungsy
Notes
1 “Qualification title” in Laos is confered to when someone finishes study program while the “academic title” is confered when you work, doing research writing papers, teaching for at least 8 years in case of assoc program, acquiring international language. There are criteria set by Prime Minister: There are four grades: 1 assistant teacher, 2 teacher, 3 associate professor and 4 professor. Both Dr Soulignong Saikosy (responsible for administration, i.e. physical resources, students affaires, finance, etc.) and Dr Bounheuang Nichaleun (responsible for undergraduate study progrmas) have “qualifaction titles”. Editor’s note: the President and the author of this article have academic titles.
2 Editor’s note: In forthcoming tandem-articles on the same subject, possible Western economic and other motives for cooperation will be addressed in more detail. German universities, for instance, are not funded to provide development aid, but to seek new ways to educate their students towards Global Citizenship, amongst other things, and find new research paths and funds.
3 Editor’s note: Selling Western text books to the expanding Asian market would be one of the Western economic motives. Unfortunately, many of them are not suited to the Lao learning context.
4 According to the National Curriculum Standard, a course has to be delivered in lecture (as theoretical class in big group), tutorial and/or laboratory (a practical classes in small group) but in reality only theoretical classes are current practice of teaching with demonstration of laboratory activities. This makes students getting limited chance of learning experience.
5 Editor’s note: A tandem-article to Dr. Sitha’s post is forthcoming: “Lao university delegation visits University of Education Karlsruhe – the German perspective”.
Lao Language Intensive Course at Savannakhet University for new German partner
Diving into the unknown
It was the 14th of August when I got onto my airplane which was to bring me from Frankfurt to Savannakhet in Laos, roughly four weeks earlier than the other volunteers of Team VII – and not quite knowing what to expect. Of course, I was provided with information about Laos and Savannakhet University (SKU) before – I attended Prof. Martin’s seminar “Global English(es)”, participated in two long meetings with former volunteers and browsed through the travel guide Laos – Kambodscha by Roland Dusik (2016). However, it is different to hear and read about something and to experience it first-hand. What I was most excited about to start with was the two-week Lao Language Intensive Course at SKU. The new cooperation between my university and SKU was to start with this course for the first German teacher-volunteer at SKU, Mr David Schrep (formerly Team III), who was now returning to Laos to work in the new pilot project for 2 x 5 months.1 During the planning stage, Prof. Martin had asked the SKU leaders whether any of the AfC volunteers could also attend, and they kindly agreed. However, I was the only one of Team VII who was able to fit this generous offer into my plans for August.
As soon as I got through customs, on my way to exit the airport, I looked into a friendly, smiling face – Ms Phetsavanh Somsivilay. She works in the office of International Relations at SKU and was David’s and my contact person from day 1. The first thing she assisted me with was to find a place to stay, and after I was shown different options, I decided to stay at Dalavanh Guesthouse, which is very close to Ms Phetsavanh’s home. And this is how it happened that in the end she was not only my helping hand, but should also become my first Lao friend!
I spent the following days exploring Savannhaket. As I lived out of town, I took a tuk-tuk to get there and since the city is not as big as I imagined a university city to be, I could then easily explore it on foot. I visited St. Teresia, a Catholic church, the temples Wat Sayamungkhun and Wat Sayaphoum, the Savannakhet Provincial Museum, and I strolled along the river Mekong.
Ms Phetsavanh kept me company whenever she could, so we often went for dinner together with her husband Mr Khonsavanh Norasane, who works at SKU in the Faculty of Food Science. At the weekend, David – who had arrived two days after me – and I were invited by the two of them to come along to their friend’s birthday party. From a German perspective, it seemed an unusual thing to do given we had only met a few days before, but we happily accepted the invitation. Against my initial worries, I never felt alone. In our preparatory sessions, Prof. Martin had always emphasized that traveling on your own in Laos would never mean being alone, but now I finally came to understand what this meant!
“Lao Airlines”-airplane at Savannakhet Airport
First dinner together with Ms Phetsavanh Somsivilay and Mr Khonesavanh Norasane at a vegetarian Vietnamese restaurant
Catholic Church St Teresia
Tree in front of the temple Wat Sayaphoum
View from Savannakhet over to Moukdahan (Thailand) across the river Mekong
Letters, words, chunks
In the following week, the language course started with our two teachers Mr Kaikeo Phothichak and Ms Khantanaly Panvilaysone, and David and I were very excited about it!
The main building of Savannakhet University
David Schrep, Ms Khantanaly Panvilaysone, Mr Kaikeo Phothichak, and Jasmin Unterweger in the library at SKU
This is what we learnt, with a contrastive linguistic view to the similarities and differences between Lao and the two languages we speak, i.e. German and English:
To David’s and my surprise, the first thing we learnt in our lessons was the Lao Alphabet. At my University of Education, future English teachers studying the degree for primary school are taught to begin foreign language teaching with speaking so that the young learners can move from listening to speaking and later from reading to writing. Therefore it seemed unusual for me to start with reading and writing the letters, but of course we are adult learners, not children (and therefore can read), and didactic approaches obviously differ. Naturally I engaged with it.
When I saw Lao writing for the first time, there was nothing I could recognize, but as it got more familiar to me I discovered at least these two similarities to our way of writing, amid all the differences:
- The Lao alphabet also consists of letters, consonants and vowels.
- It is written from left to right, like English or German.
Other than that, it is very different from the Latin alphabet: To begin with, the Lao alphabet is only used in one country, Laos, whereas the Latin Alphabet is used in 130 countries (according to Wikipedia), and the number is still changing. However, the Lao language is closely related to other Tai languages, so Thai and Lao speakers can understand each other. As their alphabets are not quite the same, reading and writing the other language is possible in a limited way.
Then, there are 54 letters in Lao: 27 consonants and 27 vowels. The standard Latin Alphabet, by contrast, only has 26 letters: 21 consonants and 5 vowels. In Lao spelling, the consonants are always followed by the consonant ອ [ɔ:], except for ອ [ɔ:] itself.2 For example the first three letters (see worksheet below) are called ກ [gɔ:], ຂ [kxɔ:] and ຄ [kxɔ:].
Tones are very important in the Lao language. There are six different ones, which means that for each syllable or word – each syllable is a word in Lao – there are up to six different meanings. This, at least, is how a Western person would perceive it. However, it is not a case of one syllable or word having six different meanings but there are instead six different and independent words, which only we non-tonal-language-speakers think is “kind of the same” because we cannot relate to the difference of tones.
The Lao language has several ways to indicate the tone of a letter (which indicates the tone of the syllable, which in Lao is equal to one word.) The Lao alphabet has many consonant pairs to define tone height, for example ຂ [kxɔ:] and ຄ [kxɔ:] (listen to the audio files above). This means that if a consonant sound needs to be pronounced with a deeper tone, one of the partners has to be used, but for the pronunciation with a higher tone, the grapheme of the other partner occurs. The consonants which do not have a partner consonant usually indicate a deeper tone. In some parts of Laos, like Savannakhet, to mark a higher tone for this kind of consonant, you create a diagraph,3 which means the consonant ຫ [hɔ:] is placed in front of this letter, which then indicates a higher tone.
In addition, the Lao alphabet also includes four different diacritical marks (glyphs added to letters), which indicate the tones as well, but we were told that the Lao only really use two of them. At the same time, there are no punctuation marks in or between sentences.4
When you look at the 27 Lao vowels you will realize that there are four planes of projection in writing, which means that the vowels can be placed before, behind, above, below, or around a consonant. The vowel itself determines its place, which is fixed and has to be learnt by heart. The ones that “wrap around” the consonant are actually more vowels combined to form a sound. If a word starts with a vowel, the consonant ອ [ɔ:] must precede the vowel. The languages that use the Latin alphabet, however, have only one plane of projection, which means that the following letter can only ever be placed to the right of the previous one.5
There were two more phenomena which I found confusing especially in the beginning: Firstly, in Lao there are no spaces between words. Spaces are only used to finish a sentence. Secondly, there is no standardized Latin transliteration system for Lao. Due to the fact that Laos used to be a French colony, they use a French-based system, but you can still find a big variety in spelling.
Worksheet for primary school first graders and us
Vocabulary and sentences
After David and I had worked on the Lao alphabet with Mr Kaikeo for a few days, Ms Khantanaly decided that it was time for us to learn some basic sentences which would be useful for everyday communication, and so we started with the topics „Nea num toua ang/ How to introduce yourself“ and „Paye talad/Going to the market“. At first, we learnt how to spell our names in Lao, which for me turned out to be important enough. For most Lao people, my name “Jasmin” [German jʌs’mi:n] [BE/AE ˈʤæzmɪn] seems to be quite difficult to pronounce, but if I write it down with Lao letters: “ຢາສມີນ”, they manage to say it correctly right away. This is similar to us writing English words in IPA for our tandem-teachers instead of using English orthography right away – reading sound symbols makes the pronunciation of English (and remembering the correct pronunciation) a lot easier. English spelling adds a dimension of difficulty that can be dealt with later.
The Lao are very good at rote learning (“learning by heart”), as this is the way they are taught to learn at school. David and I are not used to this method and were therefore really happy when Ms Khantanaly came up with the idea to go to the market for the topic „Paye talad/Going to the market“. We learnt that the Lao language uses classifiers that precede most nouns, and that for example almost all Lao words for a vegetable is therefore preceded by the word “phak” [pʌk], whereas the classifier “mak” [mʌk] indicates that the following word is a fruit. That so many nouns come with a classifier is unusual for us, because English only uses a handful of classifiers for uncountable nouns (a loaf/slice of bread, a packet/can of milk, a bar of soap, or a pair of scissors/trousers/shorts).
Ms Khantanaly Panvilaysone, Mr Kaikeo Phothichack, Jasmin Unterweger, and David Schrep on the way to the Morning Market in Savannakhet
Worksheet “Paye talad/Going to the market” by David Schrep, adapted by Jasmin Unterweger
Later on, Mr Keikeo covered the topics „Han arhan / At the restaurant“ , „Nai meuang / In the city“, „Yu sathani lod mea / At the bus station“ „Sanambin / The airport“ and „Son tha na sunh / Small talk“ with us. For each of these topics, he gave us some vocabulary, sentences, and a model conversation.
Ms Khantanaly Panvilaysone and David Schrep in the SKU library
Matching game taught by Ms Khantanaly to practise sentences of “How to introduce yourself”
“My first sentences” by Jasmin Unterweger, taught by Ms Khantanaly
Conclusion
All in all, the Lao language course was a success, especially considering that it had never been offered before (and also marked the start of a new German-Lao University cooperation). It is handy to understand the Lao alphabet better – and to even be able to read a little bit, although I often still do not understand the meaning of what I am reading. More relevant for my everyday life in Laos, though, are the words and phrases I acquired for communication – what comes in most useful are the word fields “At the market” and “Numbers” because I use these words whenever I go shopping, as the ladies at the market do not understand any English.
The words also help me for my Activity Time “Reading Club”, since animals, numbers, fruits, or vegetables are common themes in picture books for children generally, and most common in the ones used for early foreign language teaching. I can understand the children most of the time when they say the word in Lao, which turned out to be more important than one would suspect, actually: This way, I discovered that on some of the flashcards they see something different than me! For example, for the picture book by Eric Carle Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see? (1992), I introduced the words for the animals to the children before reading out the book so that they would be able to follow my book-reading better. When I showed them my flashcard with a sheep on it, the children called out “Bae, bae!”, which means “Goat, goat!” translated to English. (Of course, there are goats everywhere on the streets in Laos, but no sheep.) I understood that the children first needed to learn about “sheep”, so I pointed out some difference between the two animals and made sure the pupils understood before I proceded with the book.
As it was a trial-run and the first time that this course was offered to the new German partners, some things should now be developed, to make it even better next time. Due to the fact that our mother tongue, German, is not even remotely related to Lao as it is, for example, to English or Dutch, there are many linguistic hurdles to overcome. What I found most difficult was to use Lao tones, which was an absolutely new concept for me.
Editor’s note: German or English have no tones. Germanic languages use word stress and sentence stress and intonation, which do not operate on syllable level. Unsurprisingly, word stress and sentence stress in English are just as difficult for Lao learners as tones are for us. Asian speakers of English do not share the same “language-music”, and it is usually intonation and stress, not pronunciation, that makes it hard for us sometimes to understand Asians speaking English.
All things considered, the course was much too short.6 The topic of tone alone could have filled the two weeks. In addition, there are different dialects in different areas, which means that even if I had gotten it right in Savannakhet, there would be quite a big chance that a different tone would be used in the Vientiane area, where I am going to live over the next few months. Luckily, a few weeks later I found out that the tones are not the most important aspect to master for foreigners who attempt to speak Lao, as most people will understand me even if I do not get the tone right. In fact, they expect foreigners not to do it right.
The fact that there were four languages present throughout the course caused another challenge: English as a second language for all of us, German as David’s and my first language, Lao – the language we wanted to learn and the teachers’ first language, and also French, as the basis of the Lao transliteration system. However, even though this inevitably led to minor misunderstandings or confusion at times, it did not hinder us from learning!
Luckily, David had brought his book Kauderwelsch – Laotisch Wort für Wort (2012) (engl.: „Gibberish – Lao word by word“)7 by Klaus Werner with him, which helped us a lot when the language barrier was too big to overcome without help.
With hindsight, I can say that the language course was definitely an experience I would not have wanted to have missed. On the one hand, it is really nice and rewarding to be able to speak and understand some Lao words and phrases now, as my new Lao friends here love it when I say a Lao word now and again. Also, at Ban Phang Heng Secondary school, I work with the science teachers, whose lessons are obviously held in Lao. Thanks to the course I can understand some words and have a better idea of what the lesson is about! Last, but not least, learning the Lao alphabet also makes writing postcards to my friends and family at home more fun, as I can transliterate their names into Lao, which adds a fancy foreign touch to them.
On the other hand, I experienced Lao culture and hospitality through my time in Savannakhet as well: Living just a few houses away from Ms Phetsavanh meant spending plenty of time together. I could come to her house whenever I wanted, and this openness and hospitality offered me many glimpses into the Lao way of life. I could help her and her sisters with the cooking, for instance, or work with her on preparing dried bananas and banana chips, which her family sells at the market. She and her husband often took me out to dinner or to see their friends and family as well, and David and I even went fishing with them one weekend on the beautiful Buengva lake.
The home of Ms Phetsavanh Somsivilay and Mr Khonesavanh Norasane
Goats (not sheep!) in front of her house
Buengva Lake, Savannakhet
Farewell dinner, with my new friends Ms Phetsavanh Somsivilay and Mr Khonesavanh Norasane
Text by J. Unterweger, with editor’s notes by I. Martin
Photos by J. Unterweger, K. Panvilaysone & K. Norasane
Audio-files by S. Singhalath
Notes
1 Editor’s note: This new Lao-German cooperation will be introduced in the next few blog posts.
2 In German and English the sound [ɔ:] is a vowel. In Lao it is classified as a consonant (Werner 2012, 18).
3 A diagraph is a grapheme that consists of two letters but is pronounced as one sound. An English example would be <sh> which is pronounced as [ʃ], e.g. in the word “should”.
4 Editor’s note: This explains why the Lao under-use punctuation marks when writing English, as readers may have gathered from previous contributions written by our Lao tandem-partners.
5 Editor’s note: Some readers may remember this phenomenon from English contributions by our Lao partners on this blog. Sometimes, seemingly arbitrarily, the order of two letters (consonant and vowel) would be reversed in one word. This is another interference mistake: Some vowels in Lao that are to be pronounced after a consonant need to be written before it.
6 Editor’s note: The officially agreed length of time for this course was 4 weeks. Beginners need about a month of intensive study to get into a new language.
7 Klaus Werner (b. 1956) used to work as diplomat and interpreter for Lao/German in Laos. The third edition of his book Kauderwelsch – Laotisch Wort für Wort was published in 2012. What is special about this book is that not only the “regular” translation of phrases and sentences is given, but their meaning is further made clear by a word-by-word translation (e.g. “fire pot” means “battery”). This does not only give learners an insight into Lao morphology and semantics, but it speeds up the learning process. (Editor’s note: This is also what the title “Kauderwelsch” refers to, “Gibberish” in English. The translation is a descriptor for nonsensical speech, the German original refers to an unintillegible mix of languages.)
References
Carle, Eric & Bill Martin Jr (1992). Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?. New York, New York, USA: Henry Holt and Company.
Dusik, Roland (2016). Laos – Kambodscha. Ostfildern: DuMont Reiseverlag (3rd ed).
Werner, Klaus (2012). Kauderwelsch – Wort für Wort. Bielefeld: Reise Know-How Verlag (3rd ed).
Websites
Lonely Planet. “History of Laos” https://www.lonelyplanet.com/laos/history (accessed Oct 24, 2018)
Omniglot – the online enciclopedia of writing systems and languages. “Lao.” https://www.omniglot.com/writing/lao.htm (accessed Oct 24, 2018)
Omniglot – the online enciclopedia of writing systems and languages. “Latin.” https://www.omniglot.com/writing/latin.htm (accessed Oct 24, 2018)
SEAsite NIU Laos. “Lao Vowels.” http://www.seasite.niu.edu/lao/laolanguage/LaoAlphabet/LaoVowels.htm (accessed Oct 24, 2018)
Wikipedia. “Lao grammar – classifiers” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lao_grammar#Classifiers (accessed Oct 24, 2018)
Wikipedia. “Lao Language.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lao_language (accessed Oct 24, 2018)
New places available for internships in spring 2019: Apply now for Team VIII!
New places available for internships in spring 2019: Apply now for Team VIII!
Apply now for Team VIII!
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 (Team VIII) by 16 November 2018. Especially welcome: English, physics, math, chemistry, biology. Download the call for applications here.
Prior ISP experience is an advantage, but not a necessary condition for your application. EuLA students receive credit for their stay at our schools. Further information on the creditability of this internship for your studies can be found under Internships. For detailed information please contact Dr. Steffen Wagner of the University of Education Karlsruhe.
The team of returnee students offers first-hand personal information at their “Laos stand” on Wednesday, 31st October, at 12 a.m. in the foyer of building II. Join them for a chat!
External applications (from other universities) are considered for the waiting-list.
Interviews will be held from 28-30 November 2018. The announcement can be found on the the AAA homepage, the StudIP course Akademisches Auslandsamt, and on this blog under Internships.
How to apply
- Address your applications to the International Office of the PH Karlsruhe (Akademisches Auslandsamt) by 16 November. Specify your proposed period of stay and the school you would like to work in. Details on the application procedure and forms requested are on the AAA homepage.
- Send your letter of motivation and CV to the project leaders Prof. Dr. Isabel Martin (martin01@ph-karlsruhe.de) and Johannes Zeck (johanneszeck@engelfuerkinder.de) by 16 November.
- Interviews will be held from 28-30 November. You will receive feedback on your application by the beginning of December.
The schools: 2 primary schools, 1 lower secondary school, 1 vocational school
Possible periods of time (min. 2 months, max. until mid-April): Primary school in Ban Sikeud, primary school Ban Phang Heng, lower secondary school Ban Phang Heng: beginning/mid-February 2019 – beginning/mid-April 2019
Accommodation in Ban Sikeud, approx. 15km north of the Lao capital Vientiane. Full equipped two-storey house with big garden (Western standard), located 5-10 minutes away by bicycle from the three schools. Location in Google maps: https://goo.gl/maps/PSC7BpmEpWz
Possible periods of time (min. 2 months, max. until end of June): Lao-German Technical College (Vocational school): beginning/mid-February 2019 – April/May/June 2019
Accommodation in the Lao capital Vientiane, full equipped bungalow (local standard) directly next to the College. Location in Google maps: https://goo.gl/maps/eqqx6wZwjsx
Please note: Although the Lao-German Technical College is a vocational school, the tasks of the volunteers are very similar to the other three schools. As apprentices do not only come from “our” secondary school in Phang Heng, but from the whole country of Laos, their level of English is very heterogeneous and mostly quite low by European standards (A1-A2 according to CEFR). While it helps to have a basic understanding of technics or maths to work at the College, it is not a necessary condition, because here, too, our main focus is teaching English. In fact, most of the 15 volunteers who have worked there so far were primary school students or graduates.
Further information
Read the posts of the predecessors in the following post collections (or use the search window on this blog yourself):
- Primary school Ban Sikeud
- Primary school Ban Phang Heng
- Lower secondary school Ban Phang Heng
- Lao-German Technical College
For any further questions please contact Johannes Zeck.
You may also visit the International Office (AAA) to ask questions and read some reports of students or graduates who did this internship before. There is also a wide range of information available on this blog, categorized on the taglist (229 posts, 47 pages).
We look forward to your applications!
We also welcome “Wissenschaftliche Hausarbeiten” (ZuLA) and Bachelor/Master theses written within the project!
Prof. Dr. I. Martin & J. Zeck
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