Festivities on 3 October 2018 in Vientiane: Celebrating 60 years of diplomatic relations between Laos and Germany
Back in Laos! (Shirin Ud-Din)
When Prof. Martin and Johannes Zeck asked me in August 2018 if I could imagine visiting Laos for a second time to take care of the handover to team VII, the answer was already clear – YES. I did not have to think about it because the answer will always be a yes! During my stay in Laos in the spring of 2018, I had an unforgettable time with the great possibility to teach in a completely unknown territory, alongside and with teachers from a very different cultural background.
Now, six months later, I understand what everybody says about going abroad: This internship made it clear to me how important it is for a young person to have lived abroad for a certain amount of time and to get immersed in a foreign culture and sourroundings. In Laos, I learnt that spontaneity and flexibility often help to master new situations, and I also learnt to look at work and learning phases (at school, in life) from a different, new perspective. This stay definitely widened my horizon and helped me grow in my teacher skills and as a person, too. Because of these reasons, I was thrilled to be able to go back to Laos, this time as a mentor for the new team, all sponsored by the Angels for Children foundation, and academically supervised by my University of Education.
Only one month later, on the 17th of September, I met the new volunteers at Frankfurt Airport to take our flight to Vientiane. I already knew them from Prof. Martin’s seminar “Global English(es)“, parts of which were offered as a preparatory course for applicants over the semester and tutored by me and two more returnees,1 and thanks to this, the new volunteers and I felt comfortable right from the start. When the plane landed in Vientiane – I will be honest – I had tears in my eyes because it felt like coming home.
Part of Team VII at Frankfurt Airport and Shirin Ud-Din (me) before our flight to Vientiane
Waiting at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok for our connecting flight to Vientiane
My main task during this stay was to help the new team settle and get organised.2 Over the first few days, I assisted the volunteers with the preparation of their timetables and work schedules – their exact roles, tandems, and “Special Tasks” had been discussed with the team leaders beforehand, but deciding things on paper in Germany is one thing and being able to carry it out in Laos another. Later, when they were starting to settle into their new tasks and I therefore had time again, I helped with planning and designing lessons and the use of the abundant teaching material on site. I gave them an introduction to the comprehensive project library in the villa and also the online project repository of teaching materials as well as advice on culture-specific peculiarities of this new teaching situation they found themselves in. When Prof. Martin came to visit for two days, I organized her hospitation schedule and we also held our first official team meeting.
Other supportive little things I did along the way included a first visit to the market and a first meal cooked together with Ms Saysamone, one of our tandem teachers, and work-outs for balance as well as aerobics with Latin dance moves. Everyday objects like the bicycles needed to get repaired yet again and also the new wifi router needed to get installed. In my free time I arranged meetings with the Lao teachers and the volunteers so that they could get to know each other better.
Our first get together with the Lao teachers at Ban Phang Heng Secondary School
Team VII and some of the Lao teachers at Wat Si Muang in Vientiane
One highlight which took place during my stay – and which I will not forget any time soon – was the big celebration of 60 years of diplomatic relations between Laos and Germany on the 3rd October at the new Crowne Plaza Hotel in Vientiane, on the day of German Reunification. The German-Lao Friendship Society and its Lao counterpart, the Lao-German Friendship Association, also celebrated their 10 years of official cooperation on that day. Along with Prof. Martin, the volunteers from Team VII were invited, and on the side of the AfC foundation, Madame Engel, Ms Bouangeun, and Mr Khamsing. Unfortunately, Prof. Martin needed to leave on the day before because other university work had been piling up at home.
60 years of diplomatic relations between Laos and Germany – looking back (Johannes Zeck)
Germany happens to be the only Western country with such a long-standing history of diplomatic relations with Laos. Diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of Laos and the Federal Republic of Germany officially began in 1958, but only after the Communist revolution in 1975 the Federal Republic of Germany opened up an Embassy in the Lao capital Vientiane – and so did the German Democratic Republic. On 2 December 1975 the Communist Pathet Lao had seized power and declared the “Lao People’s Democratic Republic”, a Communist state oriented towards the neighbouring Communist state Viet Nam and the protective power of both, the Soviet Union. From 1975 until the fall of the Iron Curtain and the German reunification at the beginning of the 1990s, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic was a priority country for the German Democratic Republic’s development aid and cooperation among the Socialist brother states. During this time nearly 2,000 Lao students joined vocational training programmes, academic study courses, and even PhD programmes in Eastern Germany – for which speaking German was the fundamental requirement. When returning to their home country, many of these young men and women took over important tasks to develop and foster governmental structures, especially in the fields of education and vocational training. On the other hand, many German skilled workers came to Lao PDR in order to support these measures on site. During this period, the role of the Federal Republic of Germany in Lao PDR was rather marginal.
After the reunification of both German states, the close relationships between the former German Democratic Republic and the Lao PDR, combined with the large amount of Laotians with a personal connection to Germany provided a good basis to continue the bilateral cooperation in a new environment. The extensive staff and student exchanges both ways decreased, and the scope of the cooperation’s nature (now under the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development) changed, due to different international circumstances. However, up until this day, the Lao PDR is a priority country in German development cooperations – both public and private. Germany’s public development cooperation with the Lao PDR is conducted by the GIZ (“Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit”), and private cooperation is conducted by organisations such as Angels for Children or the German-Lao Friendship Association. For both, education and vocational training are a crucial field of cooperation.
Editor’s note: Academic cooperations are newly gaining ground again as well: Lao universities recently started new cooperations with a few German universities in the areas of forestry, nutrition, and natural/technical sciences, and the latest addition is a cooperation between Savannakhet University and the University of Education Karlsruhe. We are therefore happy to announce the first Mobility Programme funded for Laos/Germany by Erasmus+, and we are greatly looking forward to hosting our Lao partner staff and students in Karlsruhe next year for working together in the subjects of English, technics, and biology!3
Back to 2018 (Shirin Ud-Din)
As the 3rd of October happened to be “Sports Day” for the Lao teachers in Sikeud and Phang Heng, we were happy to enjoy some free time before going to the party. We had been invited to join the sports event and would have loved to go, but unfortunately we would not have made it back to the German-Lao Celebration in time. Instead, we used the celebration as a good excuse to visit a local hairdresser, who created our individual hairstyles. We were all enthusiastic about her skills and even more surprised when she told us the price per hair-do: 25,000 KIP (approximately 2,50 €) – I suppose we will never get such a bargain at a hairdresser’s ever again! After this, it was time to change into our best clothes: We decided to wear our sinhs, the traditional Lao skirt. The Sikeud team had just had their first sinhs made, and it seemed appropriate for such an official event.
Volunteer Malin at the hairdresser’s
Pauline’s hair-do
At 5 p.m. we were picked up by the driver, Mr Viengkham. We were thrilled about the huge elegant hotel when we arrived: The Crowne Plaza is a brand-new 4-star-hotel in the city of Vientiane, all glass and bright lights inside and on the hotel facade – an unusual sight in Laos. In front of the hotel, there was a big banner that said “Day of German Unity 2018” with two brand-new BMWs in front of it – not the worst spot to take a first photo!
Team VII in front of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Vientiane
After these first impressions we entered the hotel and took the escalator to the first floor, where the party took place. In front of the big ballroom, different German companies and organisations – e.g. the GIZ (“Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit”) – had placed their stalls to offer information about ongoing cooperations with Laos. This was of special interest for me, as I had read a lot about their international cooperations during my research on my Bachelor thesis.
When we entered the ballroom, His Excellency Mr Jens Luetkenherm and his staff from the German Embassy were already standing in a row to welcome every guest individually – what a nice gesture!
His Excellency Mr Luetkenherm and his staff welcome the guests
The stage of the ballroom
The celebration was inaugurated by the Ambassador with an opening speech reflecting the past decades of diplomatic relations between Laos and Germany.
His Excellency Mr Luetkenherm
Next, the Vientiane International Choir sang the two National Anthems of the respective countries, as seems to be the tradition on 3 October. Another act was performed by Pianotainment, a duo offering piano comedy – they played the well-known song “Happy Birthday” in a humouristic way by playing it in the styles of many different countries. The two comedians were also in charge of opening the buffet – I can tell you we were excited about the food.
The day before the event I had been talking to Madame Engel about the party. She told me that in the previous years German food had been served: Sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, and Nuernberger (a traditional German meal) were always part of the buffet! So I had been thinking about this meal the whole day and – lo and behold! – at the buffet, there it was, right next to other German delicacies such as Leberkäs, pretzels, wiener, and apple strudel. Being one of the few non-vegetarians on the team I was very happy with the selection. Nevertheless, the vegetarians and vegans among the volunteers also found something to eat. All of us were very happy about this buffet because some Western food once in a while makes us appreciate German delicacies more than usual, because most of the time we cook and eat Lao food, of course, meaning vegetables, rice, and fruit.
German specialities: Sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, and wiener
Dessert buffet
Birthday cake for the 60-year-anniversary of diplomatic relations!
During dinner, I met very interesting people from all around the world – who seemed happy with the food, too. This served as an ideal small-talk opener and many times led to further conversation about people’s work and positions in Laos. Most of the guests I met work in the embassies and ministries in the capital.
Later I saw the German Ambassador Mr Luetkenherm next to our table and it was a pleasure to meet him in person. We had a long and interesting conversation about our “teach-the-teacher” project in Laos as well as the health care system. At the same time, I was introduced to Mr Bounnhang Xaysanavong, the General Director of the Department for International Relations with mass organisations, and also to some of his staff. He had been accompanying the Chairperson of the German Lao Friendship Society – GLFS e.V. and his entourage on their official high-ranking government visits over the preceding two days, to which Prof. Martin had also been invited, so he had already heard about the project.
On the very next day this delegation visited the Angels for Children schools, so we were able to carry on our exchanges seamlessly. The German Lao Friendship Society was founded four decades ago following a private friendship between the Neuber and Phongpachith families and is a highly respected part of the development aid for Laos, with a strong reputation for its door-opening, partner-connecting, and fund-raising work. Currently, the organization is planning to build a new building at a school in Ban Phalavek, Hom district, to separate the primary school from the secondary school to offer smaller classes.
His Excellency Ambassador Mr Jens Luetkenherm, Director of International Relations Mr Bounnhang Xaysanavong, Shirin Ud-Din
I am really happy to have been part of this special event. I had the opportunity to meet many interesting persons – diplomats, authors, and volunteers from other projects. I was also glad to meet with so much interest in our teach-the-teacher project and share some information with whoever wanted to hear more about it. Through the lens of this event especially, I realized more fully a) how much pioneering development work Angels for Children and b) how much pioneering academic work the University of Education Karlsruhe are doing with their cooperation in Laos.
By sending German teachers to schools in Laos to help the Lao teachers, Angels for Children is able to offer education for Laotian pupils that is more educational and interesting. Through the principle of “teach the teacher” we can pass on our didactic and professional knowledge to our Laotian tandem-partners so that their pupils can benefit from it. We also contribute to the teachers’ English skills through single or tandem English lessons. We help improving their English or even start teaching English to them from scratch. Angels for Children makes a major contribution to school development in Laos.
But not only the Lao teachers and pupils benefit from this project – also the German volunteers, who can develop from being “German teachers” to “Global citizens“. From my personal perspective, I can say that I grew in an academic way. Through the work demanded of me apart from the teaching assignments – blog work, weekly reports, team meetings, etc. – I widened my professional skills, which will help a lot for my future work, I believe. The possibility to apply my theoretical knowledge to practice whilst needing to adapt it to a wholly new cultural setting helped me to develop my own teaching style and to create my own teacher personality.
Text by S. Ud-Din, J. Zeck, with editor’s notes by I. Martin
Photos and videos by S. Ud-Din & J. Unterweger
Editor’s notes
1 Editor’s note: Due to the high demand this year, the “Global English(es)” class was separated into two strands: In one strand, cultural studies theory, Global English(es), and Studies in Asian Language Education provided the framework and offered research topics for final papers, Bachelor theses, or oral exams. Following mini-lectures on the set topics, we had very interesting discussions every week, further fuelled by the diverse international experience of the class participants (most of whom had studied or done an internship abroad), our international students, a Lao guest speaker, another guest speaker who had lived in Laos for 20 years, and the course leader’s input and framing.
The other strand was designed for the future volunteers only and mostly set at another time, with a few intersections. This was direct preparation for the internship, as in the first Global English(es) seminar held in 2016/17. For the first time, some parts were tutored and taught by returnees (Shirin Ud-Din, Fabian Stober, Svenja Walschburger, Veronika Golla). Another significant novelty was our own new “Laos Project Reader” (130 pp.). We would like to thank the PH LLZ L2 intitiative for providing the tutor funds for this “micro-project”!
2 Editor’s note: As the project has grown so fast, the project leaders needed assistance. When this was addressed in our Closing Conference with Team V, Ariane suggested we could ask/sponsor the returnees to take over certain jobs, like the ordering of the usual “Laos-chaos” for and with the new German arrivals. This task alone usually takes 10-14 days.
3 Editor’s note: The first 3 Lao staff will arrive in March 2019 and stay for 5 months. Their first cooperation partners at the University of Karlsruhe are in the Departments of English (Prof. Martin), technics (Ralph Hansmann), and biology (Dr Martin Remmele). Posts on this new cooperation will follow shortly.
My first impressions – by Malin Frahm
When I think about the last two weeks, there are hundreds of different things coming to my mind: Lots of unfamiliar yet tasty Lao food, Lao people smiling at us, I hear children greeting us with “Good morning” – even in the evening – with a huge smile on their faces, a very bumpy “road” leading through Sikeud, and lots more. I have never been so impressed by so many things in such a short time. I can only try to depict a few of my first experiences on this incredible journey. Let’s start!
Almost three weeks ago, on Tuesday, the 17th of September, four other volunteers and I met at Frankfurt Airport to start our long way to Laos – a country that none of us had ever visited before, which was why we were all very curious but also a little nervous about everything that lay ahead of us. Luckily, we were accompanied by Shirin Ud-Din from the previous Team VI for the first three weeks. This was also financed by the AfC foundation, to ease our start here. Since she had already experienced this major adventure, she was familiar with all the – for me – unfamiliar procedures, like filling out the Lao visa application form to begin with.
At the airport in Frankfurt: Pauline Faix, Nicole Wiesa, Patricia Hopp, Shirin Ud-Din, Dilara Erdogan & Malin Frahm (from left to right, back to front)
The moment we entered the plane that would bring us to Bangkok, I was already fascinated by the Asian flair and my excitement for this new continent grew even more. The seats were pink and purple and the Thai Air hostesses were all dressed in beautiful, elegant traditional skirts and blazer-like blouses.
After 12 hours of flying and a four-hour layover in Bangkok we arrived at Wattay Airport in Vientiane, where we were warmly welcomed by our lovely driver Mr Viengkham and our teammate Meike, who had arrived from her travels in Vietnam two days before and had already moved into the “villa”, our new home for the next months. On our 30-minute drive from the airport to the villa I felt like I was thrown into a completely different world. We saw tuk-tuks and hundreds of motorcyclists cruising through the streets, people sitting on the top of buses, plenty of food stalls located directly next to the streets, and huge stores full of Buddha statues.
Although we had already seen photos of the villa, we were overwhelmed by its spaciousness and luxurious interior when we finally arrived there, and it was a cozy and therefore welcoming place to come “home” to after 24 hours of traveling. After unpacking and taking a little rest we took the bikes which were waiting for us and cycled to the market in Sikeud in order to get some food.
For me personally, that first ride to the market was one of the most impressive things I have ever experienced. There were cows, chickens, and goats sharing the bumpy road with us. I also learned that Lao people do not go by traffic rules as much as by the potholes created by the monsoon rain. People walk and drive wherever there is space – and where there are not too many holes. Two or three teenagers or young couples with one or two children sitting on one motorbike are not unusual. Moreover, people were watching and pointing at us, and many were saying “hello” or “good morning” as we passed by. It was the first time in my life that I was the only western person in a place, a clearly marked foreigner, and the feeling of being an “attraction” for the Lao people has not completely faded since. I now think I may have an inkling of how refugees must feel in Germany, especially in rural areas.
On the main road of Sikeud
Locals in the streets
Me (Malin) in front of a street stall
The big morning market offers an amazing variety of all kinds of fresh vegetables and fruits that we would only know a few of in Germany. There is also lots of fish and all kinds of meat available – less interesting for me, a vegetarian. The same goes for the insects, maggots, and frogs, which heighten the bewildering market experience. Also, although I already knew that food is a lot cheaper in Asia than in Europe, I did not expect it to be that cheap. 10 bananas, for example, only cost 30 cents. We soon decided that bananas would become our staple food for the next few months, as they are very affordable, nourishing and more tasty than the ones we can buy at home. We also discovered the most delicious dragon fruits, huge pomelos, pomegranates, and rambutan, and we still have to find out the names for all the fruits we have not encountered before!
As Shirin had organised a first get-together with one of the Lao teachers, Ms Saysamone, and her sister for the evening, we bought everything we needed to make our first Lao dinner: Summer rolls. Since Ms Saysamone was to be my English teacher-student it was great to get to know her on my very first day.
Ban Sikeud market
We buy fresh vegetables at the market almost every day
On the next day, Shirin took us to Ban Phang Heng Secondary and Primary School as well as Ban Sikeud Primary School to show us around and to introduce us to the teachers that we would work with over the following months. Both teachers and pupils were most welcoming and excited to see us. Many children came to us and shyly asked “What’s your name?”. Others just greeted us with “Sabai-dee” and then bowed their heads and passed by, as a sign of respect, as I learned.
Later that day, Mr Khamsing, the Lao manager of Angels for Children, took us to the director, Mr Khampang, who welcomed us to his school and invited us to dinner at school. The Lao teachers had cooked for us and we feasted on lots of delicious “phak bong” (or “pak bung”), also known as “morning glory” 1 (definitely my favourite food here so far), roasted cashews and peanuts, as well as sticky rice. We talked a lot about Germany and Lao traditions, and we learned some Lao words and phrases. As the other invitees were mainly the English teachers who had worked with previous teams for 1, 2, or 3 years already, conversation was not a problem at all. We were delighted to experience the openness and ease of the conversation. In the end we had a little singing party, for which language accuracy was not that important anyway: The Lao teachers showed us their favourite Lao songs on Youtube and afterwards we sang some popular western songs, e.g. “Wonderwall”, “Despacito”; and “Shape of you”, which the teachers knew as well. It was a great evening and I instantly felt much more at home.
Dinner with some of the Lao teachers and the director
After one week of settling down, arranging our timetables and getting to know the basic set-up and our tandem-teachers, we were ready and even more motivated to actually start our work at the schools.
On Monday, I had my first day of teaching the preschoolers, also known as “Mopsies”2 , at Ban Sikeud Primary School. At the beginning I was quite nervous for two different reasons: Firstly, from reading previous project files I already knew that preschoolers in Laos can be “challenging”, as it is not common in Laos to send children to nurseries. This means they need to learn to behave in a way that makes them “teachable” in class and within a group generally. In other words: It is my responsibility to practise school manners and English class rituals with them.
The second reason was the children’s names, which are entirely different to the ones we know in Europe. This became obvious when the English teacher Ms Mittaphone Sichampa kindly helped me to transliterate the names into Latin letters. I still struggled to pronounce the children’s names correctly when I went into their classrooms to pick them up. Perplexed faces from the preschool teachers and the answer “[child so-and-so] is not in our class” as a reaction were not rare!
This was probably due to two reasons: For one thing, there is a large number of vowels in the Lao language, many more than we have. For another thing, as the French were the first to transliterate Lao names, French spelling and pronunciation principles need to be kept in mind when reading Lao names, as in “-phone” for [pɔn], or “Souk” for [sʊk]. We therefore might also pronounce the capital of Laos incorrectly, “Vientiane” as [vɪɛnˈtsɪɐnə] instead of [vjɛŋˈtjaŋ].
Or how would you pronounce the following names: I have “Phutthasai”, “Chansamone”, or “Ainthuon” in my groups, to name but a few examples. But well… I can only get better and the children did not seem to mind. They were all excited and giggling about seeing a completely different-looking person talking a completely foreign language to them.
Although I had learnt from previous volunteers that communication without a shared language works quite well, I was still surprised when I witnessed it myself! The children loved listening to my disguised “little dog” voice whenever the handpuppet Mopsy was talking, and Mopsy soon became the star among the children. At first, the majority of the pupils was too shy to speak themselves, but soon more and more of them dared to repeat my words and said “good morning” to Mopsy. I am very excited about (hopefully) seeing them open up further and learn more English in the next weeks and months.
“Mopsies” and Malin
We practise pronunciation
Text by M. Frahm
Photos by M. Frahm, P. Faix & S. Ud-Din
Video by I. Martin
Notes
1 “Morning glory” or “phak bong” (or “pak bung”) is very popular and tasty Thai street food. “Morning glory” is actually the name for water spinach that is stir-fried and cooked with lots of garlic, chili, and fish- or soy sauce.
2 The coursebook “Mopsy and me” by Leonora Fröhlich-Ward & Gisela Schmid-Schönbein, which we use to teach the preschoolers comes with a hand puppet called “Mopsy”. This course book is exceptional because it developed out of a research project at a kindergarten. The preschoolers who were taught by Team I loved it so much that they were all called “Mopsies” in the end – and the name got stuck until this day!
First get-together at BHS with LGTC teachers and students – two successful days!
We are Dilara, Nicole and Patricia and we are the three new volunteers at the LGTC. Right after we got the exciting news about being part of “The Laos Experience”, we received an invitation from BHS Corrugated. The company kindly invited us to their summer party. In the context of a casual get- together, we would have the exceptional possibility to meet the Engel family. We would also meet project founders and BHS directors as well as befriended project benefactors. Other than that, we would also make first contact with some of the Lao teachers and two students from the LGTC – which is an extraordinary opportunity no other team before ever had. There was no doubt we would definitely join this event.
Our two-day-trip started in the morning of 22 July 2018, when we drove from Karlsruhe to Weiherhammer (Bavaria), which is located close to the border to the Czech Republic, with our professor Dr. Isabel Martin. After a four-hour-drive and a lot of questions and answers, we arrived at “Hotel Witt”, which is only a 5-minute-walk away from BHS. As the summer party itself would start around 6 p.m., Johannes Zeck picked us up a few minutes earlier and guided us to a futuristic company building.
The BHS head office was completed in 2017 and is located directly next to the pond that gave the village its name, “Weiherhammer” (“Weiher” meaning “pond”). As we would find out the next day, not only the facade looks highly modern, it is also the company’s working concept that reflects this modernity. Besides multiple open-working spaces, employees have access to a fitness area and two restaurants, of which one is open to public.
Once we had entered the building and climbed the stairs to one of the aforementioned restaurants, a large balcony opened up to us. There Gerlinde Engel, Christian Engel, Lars Engel, and their families and friends welcomed us. Shortly after our arrival, an group of people could be seen approaching from the balcony. They smiled and waved to Prof. Martin and Johannes, so we instantly knew: These people must be the Lao delegation!
Christian Engel, Prof. Isabel Martin, Johannes Zeck, Nicole Wiesa, Dilara Erdogan & Patricia Hopp
At the dessert table, discussing the different kinds of cheese to choose from
After having introduced ourselves to each other and having drunk to a successful time in Laos, the evening was about to start. A buffet with plenty of delicacies waited for all of us and provided us with food all night long. From different salads and other delicious appetizers to a variety of meat and side dishes, the choice was large. We volunteers shared a table together with the Lao teachers and students. After a couple of hours filled with heaps of tasty food and interesting talks about anything and everything, everybody got tired. So, we decided to make our way back to the hotel. The Lao accompanied us with their bikes and went back to their apartment, too.
The BHS Corrugated building at night
“Good night!”
The next morning began early but with a well-balanced and substantial breakfast in the hotel. We had a big day ahead of us, as Johannes wanted to show us the whole company including the assembly halls. We met at 8 a.m. in the lobby and started our tour right away. Its starting point was the main building, which we already partially knew from the day before. Johannes led us through the head office and explained the purpose of the different spaces and rooms presented to us. We were astonished at how innovative everything seemed. Getting to know such a company was a whole new experience for us future teachers, who will most likely work in an environment that differs greatly from such a firm.
BHS Corrugated main building from below
We met in front of the BHS Corrugated main building…
…received our visitors’ passes…
…were welcomed business-style on an LCD screen…
…and started our tour in the entrance area…
…went on to the free working spaces of the BHS employees…
…had a tour through the production hall…
…which means: safety first!
A moment to photo-capture our fun meeting
Time to say goodbye: Next time we’ll meet in Vientiane!
After the main building, Johannes showed us the vocational training area. It offers the trainees of BHS a wide range of training potential like experienced trainers and spatial, technical, and administrative conditions in top quality. Other than that, Johannes told us about the close cooperation between BHS and the UeBZO, which is the center of competences for manufacturing technology in eastern Bavaria. The UeBZO is a reliable and competent vocational training partner and ensures BHS a constant improvement in their vocational training. Thus, the students receive an excellent education and an employment with various future possibilities. Having this first impression of the BHS corporate philosophy and its added value for vocational students helps us to better understand the aspirations of the work in Laos, especially at the LGTC.
Following the BHS tour with Johannes, we launched the first meeting with Prof. Martin, Johannes, and the LGTC English teachers Ms Moukdala Keomixai and Mr Saythong Insarn. We talked about the upcoming semester and the collaboration between BHS, the LGTC, and us volunteers. The meeting was very productive and helpful for us. On the one hand, we were able to get an insight into the exchange between the teachers, Prof. Martin, and Johannes about the new plans and aspirations, which enabled us to further understand our function, responsibilities, and work at the LGTC. We also became aware of the challenges and difficulties we will probably face. On the other hand, Prof. Martin and Johannes were able to agree on several changes and improvements with the English teachers in order to further stabilize the cooperative work at the LGTC.
After our lunch at the BHS canteen, we had another meeting with the English teachers Ms Mouk and Mr Saythong only. Its main intention was to get to know each other better. So, us volunteers presented ourselves by showing previously prepared powerpoint-presentations which included information about our family, friends, hometown, and hobbies. Ms Mouk and Mr Saythong’s presentation was about the LGTC. As they showed us many pictures of the different premises on-site, it gave us interesting first impressions of what life on campus and in Laos would actually look like.
We finished our entertaining and informative second day at BHS around 4 p.m. and headed home. We all sat in the car with smiles on our faces and great excitement about our upcoming adventure in Laos – and this time around we had even more animated questions and got ever more animated answers.
Thank you very much to BHS Corrugated for two exceptional days in Weiherhammer. They were filled with delicious food, friendly acquaintances, interesting conversations, and informative meetings. Your invitation enabled us to get to know and to understand what is behind the “Angels for children” foundation. It made us even more enthusiastic about our upcoming stay in Laos. We cannot wait any longer to make our own “Laos experience” with Ms Mouk, Mr Saythong, and the other English faculty members at the LGTC in Vientiane – but the wait will be short now, as we are leaving tomorrow!
Text by N. Wiesa & P. Hopp
Photos by P. Hopp, D. Erdogan & S. Insarn
Team VII (18 September 2018 – March 2019)
Hello, Hallo, and Sabaidee,
We are Team VII, and thrilled to be living and working in Laos this autumn and winter!
After one of Team VII’s preparatory sessions in July 2018 (left to right, back to front): Jasmin Unterweger, Marleen Linder, Meike Weis, Anja Schuler, Nicole Wiesa, Dilara Erdogan, Patricia Hopp, Malin Frahm, Pauline Faix & Natalie Wickmann
We are now briefly going to introduce ourselves to you by telling you who we are, what we do, and what our roles and tasks are going to be in Laos very soon!
If you are lacking time today or prefer photos to text – no problem! You can find us on Instagram under angels_for_children as well.
#follow to let the pictures speak to you and to keep up-to-date!
Primary Schools Ban Sikeud & Ban Phang Heng
Meike
Hi everyone,
My name is Meike and I have recently graduated from Karlsruhe University of Education.
I am now looking forward to a change which is working and living in Laos! For the former, I will mainly be responsible for English at the two primary schools, but I will also help out teaching the many “Mopsy” children. I am particulary excited about working with Anja and Pauline on further developing the maths section of the project, which was only recently added by our predecessor Fabian. As I studied both maths and English as majors for my primary school degree, I am looking forward to putting theory into practice – with adaptations when & where necessary 🙂
For the living part, I cannot wait to learn about and from the Lao culture, try the iced coffee, sing karaoke, and use my free time to go travelling and explore the country’s beauty. Together with Dilara, I am responsible for regular contributions on the blog, and therefore, for keeping you readers up-to-date. Stay tuned for the developments in the project as well as for our personal experiences and adventures, which we will happily share with you!
Malin
Hi everyone,
My name is Malin. I did my Abitur this year and am extremely glad to get the chance to be part of this project. I heard about it from a friend of the family, started reading the blog, talked to previous team members, visited the introduction seminar in January, and applied.
After twelve years of being a pupil, I am excited about switching roles and trying myself out as an assistant-teacher helping at the primary schools. I will focus on working with the pre-schoolers (“Mopsies”) at Ban Sikeud Primary School. I will also offer different activities in the afternoon. Since I love doing sports, singing, and dancing, I will try to share my joy for these hobbies with the pupils during Activity Time. Together with Anja, I will work on the “Pageflow” (Live documentation) as my special task, in order to offer further visual insight into our life in Laos. Scroll down the main page of this blog and you will find it!
I am very much looking forward to tackling this challenge together with the rest of the team and to learn about the Lao way of life.
Ban Phang Heng Lower Secondary School
Jasmin
Hallo, Hello and Sabaidee,
My name is Jasmin Unterweger and I am 22 years old. Currently I am in my second semester at the University of Education Karlsruhe. I am studying to become a primary school teacher with bilingual competencies. My subjects are English, science (with focus on biology), and mathematics.
In my free time, I like going to music festivals as well as going running and doing some painting or yoga. Besides that, my absolute favorite pastime is travelling, either to see new places and learn about the local cultures or to meet friends who live abroad.
I have already travelled through parts of Southeast Asia before, but I have not lived in an Asian country yet. Therefore you can perhaps imagine how excited I am to get the chance to live and work in Laos for half a year. I will be working at the Ban Phang Heng Lower Secondary School, where I will take care of the Science Lab. In the villa, my special task will be housekeeping. I feel very lucky that I got the opportunity to participate in a Lao language intensive course at the Savannkhèt University beforehand. In these past two weeks I learned how to have basic conversation as well as read and write in the Lao Alphabet. This will help me to communicate with the lovely Lao women who will help us with the household.
I am looking forward to diving into the Laotian culture and really getting to know the Lao and their beautiful country. Surely, we – the German and Lao teachers – will have an amazing time together!
Pauline
Hello everyone,
I am Pauline, 20 years old, and I am studying at the University of Education in Karlsruhe. From September 2018 until March 2019 I will work at Bang Phang Heng Lower Secondary School. I am responsible for teaching and supporting the maths teachers together with Anja and Meike. My special task is to be the “media manager” for the team at the schools.
Because I am very into arts I would love to develop an art workshop as part of our daily Activity Time in the afternoon. The pupils should get the chance to not only learn the English language in class but also receive an opportunity to apply their (new) knowledge afterwards, which is crucial to learning in general, and to language-learning even more so. I am really looking forward to diving into this very special culture, to meet lots of lovely Lao people and to spend the next six months in Laos.
Anja
Hello everyone!
My name is Anja and I am 25 years old. I study Elementary Education with the main subjects mathematics and English at the PH in Karlsruhe and will be taking the final state exams this coming September/October.
I am very excited about spending my time in Laos working with the mathematics teachers at Ban Phang Heng Lower Secondary School. Aside from that, I will be managing the “Pageflow” together with Malin.
In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my friends, playing in an orchestra, and travelling to different countries and places. After having been to the Philippines several times, I am looking forward to getting to know the people and the culture of another Southeast Asian country. Of course I cannot wait to try the Laotian cuisine, too.
See you soon!
Natalie
Hello, my name is Natalie, I am 24 years old and I study Elementary school education with the main subjects English and history at the University of Education in Karlsruhe. I will be finishing my studies in October and I am very excited about going to Laos straight after. I am going to teach English and methodology to the English teachers at Ban Phang Heng Lower Secondary School. In addition, I will be responsible for the Didactics Room. In my free time, I like cooking, doing sports (especially horseback riding and running), and spending time with my family and friends.
I look forward to working and living in Laos!
Volunteer Marleen
My name is Marleen and I will be working at Ban Phang Heng Secondary School with a focus on the Science Lab, together with Jasmin. Although my second main subject (besides English) is art, I am very excited about exploring and conducting science experiments together with the teachers and students! I am looking forward to continuing the work of my predecessors and using different tools for fascinating experiments with the pupils.
Besides my work at Ban Phang Heng, I will also be responsible for the Lending Library at Ban Sikeud. Going to Laos offers me the opportunity to experience learning in conditions that will be completely new and challenging for me. I hope that I can broaden my horizon with regards to my professionalisation as a teacher and support the further development of the project!
Lao-German Technical College
Nicole
My name is Nicole and I am 25 years old. I studied English and Catholic religion for primary education and graduated this spring. Until I start my teacher traineeship in Germany at the beginning of February 2019, I fortunately got the chance to make my own “Laos experience”. Together with Dilara and Patricia, I will work at the Lao-German Technical College. There I will be responsible for teaching „Technical English“ to students in their first and second year of training. I am experienced in the field of Technical English as I worked as a student assistant at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) for over three years. I am certainly eager to learn more about technological processes during my time with the Lao students. Above all, I am very much looking forward to getting to know Laos and their educational system.
Patricia
Sabai dee everyone! My name is Patricia and I am a 23-year-old student of the PH Karlsruhe, studying the teaching degree for primary schools with English and German as main subjects. It has been almost 5 years, so I am about to hit the home stretch soon. But before that, I am more than excited to be part of the “Teaching in Laos”-project!
In my spare time, I like listening to music as well as making music, being in nature, cooking, and spending cozy evenings with friends. Another big passion of mine is traveling. Unfortunately, I have not been on Asian ground for more than a few days yet, so I am really looking forward to getting to know the Lao culture.
Together with Nicole and Dilara, I will be working at the Lao German Technical College from mid-September to mid-January. Besides teaching the Beginner classes, I am excited about working and cooperating with my future Lao tandem-teacher. As I will be in charge of the Didactics Room and the Lending Library, I plan to establish a comfy reading corner in which everybody can read and relax at the same time. I would also love to start a “Reading Club” in which we read interesting Simplified Readers together and share our reading experiences afterwards. Everybody is welcome 🙂
See you soon – only a few more weeks to go!
Dilara
Hi, my name is Dilara and I am 24 years old. I will be teaching English at the Lao-German Technical College in Vientiane together with my future room-mates Patsy and Nicole.
At the LGTC, I will be teaching the Elementary class from September to February for five months. I have never been to an Asian country before, so I am very eager to explore everything there along with the teaching, which will be an interesting experience. Being part of this project is an honour paired with a lot of responsibility. I hope my stay in Vientiane will be as profitable for the LGTC students and teachers as it will be for me. As we already met two of the Lao teachers from the LGTC in Weiherhammer (Bavaria) at the BHS summer party in July, I am calmer than I was before and greatly motivated to take this challenge.
Our first meeting…
… in Weiherhammer
Text & photos by Team VII, group photos by S. Ud-Din & I. Martin
Annual report 2017 by the AfC foundation – with “before & after” gallery
The new annual report 2017 of the AfC foundation is out and looks back at a year packed with new projects, results, and insights achieved with its various cooperation partners. It is written in German (and will be translated into English), but by looking at the photos you can already catch a glimpse of the various activities and events which touched the lives, work, and education of many people in Laos, Germany, and England.
The annual report 2016 is available in English and you could also start there!
For looking at the preceding (German) reports 2012-2015, please use this link:
“Actions speak louder than words”
We chose some of the photos of Ban Sikeud primary school taken by Madame Gerlinde Engel in 2003, just before she and her sister-in-law Ms Ingrid Engel started to support the school with the help of their newly founded AfC foundation. (The story of how it all began was traced and retold in an earlier post by Ms Marie Kirsten.) We then paired these old photos with our newer ones of the same exact locations so you can see the transformations that took place from 2003 to 2013 for yourself.
For once, captions are superfluous.
Ban Sikeud primary school
Ban Phang Heng primary school
More impressions of 2003:
Construction begins…
…and openings are celebrated:
The three renovated schools in 2013…
… as you have already seen them on our blog:
Ban Sikeud primary school
Ban Phang Heng secondary school
Ban Phang Heng primary school
In 2015, the AfC foundation invited the University of Education Karlsruhe to help “renovate” the schools “from within”, so we decided to tandem-teach (with) the teachers, which meant testing, modelling, and introducing modern teaching methodology together with our tandem-teachers in the three schools – and recently also for the AfC/BHS most recent project-partner, the Lao-German-Technical-College. For this, the prerequisite would be a common language for communication, so teaching the international language English to teachers had to come first, or actually simultaneously.
Teaching and learning together and from each other in the Lao-German tandems:
When AfC and the PH started working together, Madame Engel did not consider taking a well-earned rest (of course!), but continued raising funds for the construction of new buildings instead: A sports halls for Ban Phang Heng secondary, another one for the primary school next door, and this year, a new Annex for the new Library and Teacher’s Room, which will open very soon.
There are even rumours there is another building coming for Sikeud primary school next year… so the PH teams will strive to keep up with Madame by “renovating” new subjects, new levels, and new tandem-groups as we continue together. It seems we will not run out of enjoyable and rewarding things to do for a good while, in Laos.
As it happens, we have a new Team VII together, all prepared, and they cannot wait to pack their suitcases – but before they do, our 10 new volunteers will introduce themselves to you here, very soon!
Text by I. Martin, photos chosen and arranged by V. Golla
Photos by G. Engel, J. Zeck, I. Martin and Teams I-VI
Reflection and evaluation of the second project year 2016-2017 – looking back to Team III and IV
Introduction and overview
What started in October 2015 as a pilot project between the Angels for Children Foundation and Prof. Dr. Martin of the University of Education Karlsruhe (Pädagogische Hochschule Karlsruhe [“PH”]) quickly developed into an institutionalized Lao-German teacher-training programme on a medium-term basis. Following the availability of the graduates and students of the PH, two team phases were set up per academic year: Teams I, III, V, etc. would stay in Laos for one semester, between September and January/February, immediately followed by their successor teams II, IV, and VI, who would stay until April. One volunteer from the winter team would stay on a week or two to help the new spring team find their feet both in Laos and the project, and one or both of the project leaders would come to visit them shortly after to deal with any remaining organizational hitches, open questions, or unexpected difficulties. This way – and because of their intensive preparation at home – the new teams would not start from scratch each time, but would be able to build upon the work of the preceding team more or less immediately.
Our graduates need to be back in Germany for the beginning of February because this is when their 18-month traineeship period begins at their schools, and our university students need to be back for their summer semester by mid-April. In Lao schools, an intensive exam phase begins in May – before the 3-month break during the rainy season – so this arrangement has worked very well for both sides.
The first two batches of these teams – Team I from October 2015 to January 2016 and Team II from February to March 2016 – did pioneering work implementing and testing the four-tier cascading teaching structure designed by Prof. Martin. They attended several preparatory workshops, received guidance and supervision before and during their time in Laos, and used the project leaders’ weekly feedback given by email to their weekly reports.1 By reflecting their observations and experiences in their final reports, and by discussing the outcomes and challenges of the pilot phase with the project leaders in the half-day “Closing Conference“, Team I and II made substantial contributions towards the design of the next – now medium-term – project framework.
The design and scope of the most essential elements and structures of the programme were set and adjusted during this time:
- daily English lessons for the Lao teachers of English (and other subjects);
- model- and tandem-teaching in the two tandem-partners’ classes, with feedback and suggestions;
- workshops for all teachers on specific methodological topics;
- “English Activities” for the pupils in the afternoon;
- playful English lessons for the pre-schoolers (“Mopsies”);
- responsibility for a “Special Task” (housekeeper, blog master, librarian, media manager, Didactics Room manager, chemistry lab manager, etc.);
- academic blog posts for documentation, reflection, professionalization, dissemination;
- weekly reports (consecutive documentation);
- final report (reflection, dissemination);
- information session for future volunteers at the PH;
- Closing Conference.
In the 4-month pilot phase, the project leaders visited the volunteers three times so as to be able to follow the development first-hand and help resolve the many issues and puzzling questions that kept appearing, and also to liaise and cooperate with the local authorities in education.
For these reasons, the next team – Team III from September 2016 to February 2017 – worked in a much more settled framework and environment in the second project year. For starters, they were the first to move into the very comfortable villa, which made daily life a lot easier for both them and Madame Engel and Ms Bouangeun Hanthavong. The spacious living-room with its cozy sofas also allowed the team to consult one another and prepare lessons together quietly in the evenings, which was regarded as most valuable.2
This team also accomplished pioneer work. Due to the project’s open and flexible design, new fields of work and commitment were identified. Team III was asked by the project leaders to
- integrate the “Non-English” teachers at the Lower Secondary School in Ban Phang Heng into the programme because they had asked to be included,
- to extend the “Lending Library” by the new material bought/donated in Germany in the meantime,
- and out of their own initiative they installed new “English Activities” for the pupils and
- designed and organized a Didactics Room, modelled on the Didactics Room at the University of Education Karlsruhe.
Another big achievement and comprehensive pioneering task was to integrate the Lao-German Technical College as a new cooperation partner – besides the three schools supported by Angels for Children – into the programme framework. With an enlarged team of seven volunteers at the original schools, two volunteers at the Lao-German Technical College, and two (self-funded) volunteers at the private Sunshine School in Vientiane, the impact and scope of the project work increased.
It was Team III that first organized a seamless transition from one team to another on site. As Ms Silja Schaefer and Ms Anika Broghammer planned to stay longer than Team I did in the previous year, they could pass on all their experience and knowledge to Team IV in Laos. Although such a smooth transition was not possible at the Lao-German Technical College, the three volunteers who continued the work of their two predecessors helped to settle and adjust the programme framework at this College, as had been done one year before in the three state schools which are supported by the Angels for Children foundation.
Lessons learnt #1 – adjusting and fostering the project during the third team phase (Team III September 2016 – February 2017)
When continuing the work of their predecessors, the volunteers in the three schools quickly developed a close relationship with their Lao tandem-partners, two each. This special relationship, which begins professionally on a mutual (!) learner/teacher level and then develops personally into friendship – plays a vital role for the success of the teacher-training programme. Joint exchanges of expertise and knowledge not only enables both teacher groups to improve their foreign language skills and teaching methodology, it also enables an ongoing intercultural exchange between the participants, who are roughly the same age and have interests in common. This process is held and supported by the clear programme formats, e.g. the English “teacher lessons”, the didactic and methodological “tandem-teacher” lessons, or the model “English Activities”, which showcase communicative L2-teaching to pupils. This framework helps to create a common basis of learning, understanding, and teaching.
Due to our experiences in the first project year, new materials and textbooks were ordered which would fit the needs of Lao learners and the requirements of Lao classroom situations better, and which were then introduced by Team III. Researching, finding, testing, adjusting, and improving teaching materials was one of the more time-consuming tasks for the project leaders. For this purpose, close contact was made with several Lao governmental institutions of education, mainly the Research Institute for Educational Sciences (RIES). When the practical cooperation started in November 2016, Ms Anika Broghammer and Mr David Schrep were invited to present some ideas regarding the methodological enhancement of Lao English teaching materials to staff members of the RIES, thereby sharing experiences they had made while working closely with their Lao English tandem-teachers and their pupils. In the course of this developing cooperation, the RIES requested support for the recording of the English CDs for class 1 and 2 for Lao lower secondary schools, and we were happy to oblige. A new and important milestone was reached thanks to this cooperation. Teacher-training, teaching materials, and the curriculum need to be developed together as a foundation for sustainable long-term changes.
Contributors to the CD-recording: Anika Broghammer, Viengkham Phonpraseuth, Khamphouving Inthavong, Paphavady Ekkanath, David Schrep
Recording studio
Practising on our beautiful balcony
David Schrep, Anika Broghammer, Ms Viengkham Phonpraseuth in front of the RIES
Prof. Martin, Anika Broghammer, Sara Stöhrer, David Schrep (not in the photo: Silja Schäfer))
Vice-Director Viengkham Phonpraseuth, Prof. Dr. Isabel Martin
Raising the interest in and the motivation for learning the English language amongst the group of Lao pupils is one of the main goals to be reached in this project. By developing the Lao English teachers’ lessons both linguistically and methodologically, their pupils will benefit and start to be willing to learn to speak English, too, rather than just copying English words from the blackboard into their notebooks. In the afternoons, the wide-ranging “English Activities” offered by the German volunteer teachers further supported this newly emerging motivation. To this end, a new “club” was established at the Lower Secondary school in Ban Phang Heng, the English Conversation Club . On the pre-school level, the offer of “Mopsy Activities” was enlarged so that more groups of 10-15 pre-school pupils could start to make first contact with the English language – with a foreigner and his English-speaking puppet “Mopsy”.
“If you’re happy and you know it raise your arm”
The first lesson
Can I have your Facebook name?
Squad Goals
We are the English Conversation Club
Next, newly developed and improved infrastructure was to enable the regular conduct of better lesson preparation and lesson planning for the Lao English teachers. In the Lower Secondary school Ban Phang Heng, a new Didactics Room was set up, and the Lending Libraries were extended. Several workshops supported these measures.
In the Team III phase, another comprehensive pioneer task was tackled as well. After having done intensive work behind the scenes in the pilot phase, the project leaders received a request from the Lao-German Technical College (LGTC) as early as February 2016 to support English education also in the vocational training sector. Prof. Martin went along to assess 53 teachers in short interviews to gauge the levels in the spring, and then the first two project volunteers chosen for the LGTC – Ms Denise Burkhardt and Ms Lena Wink – set up regular English courses for teachers and trainers of the school in the autumn. They also joined the LGTC English teachers’ English lessons and tandem-worked on methodology, following the project framework developed in Ban Sikeud and Ban Phang Heng. Likewise, by offering “English Activities” in the afternoons, they were also in close contact with the apprentices/students at that school.
This vocational sector opened up whole new world of work both for the volunteers and the project leaders. It turned out to become a most interesting and diverse environment of learning, teaching, and intercultural progress. As a visible token of their work together, the volunteers, their tandem-teachers, and some of the apprentices submitted a short movie to the 2017 Vientianale Film festival, which showed their project work and goals by telling a compelling story: “Don’t miss your chance”.
Participants of the first workshop on pronunciation at the LGTC
Raising awareness for pronunciation among the listeners
The biggest honour and crowning events during the Team III phase were two high-ranking political visits.
The German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Dr. Gerd Mueller, visited the foundation and BHS Corrugated in Germany in October 2016, and in January 2017 the Lao Minister for Education and Sports, Mrs Sengdeuane Lachanthaboune, visited the schools in Ban Sikeud and Ban Phang Heng. Both visits and meetings aimed to foster a closer cooperation between the project and governmental bodies in both countries. Improving English education in Laos not only enhances the children’s ability to speak English, of course, but, in the larger picture, also helps towards the economic and cultural integration of Laos in the ASEAN region – a major goal of Lao PDR and a major pillar of German aid to Laos.
Johannes Zeck (AfC, BHS), Albrecht Ruprecht (MdB, member of the German Parliament), Ludwig Biller (mayor of Weiherhammer), Somlith Virivong (LGTC), Dr. Gerhard Mueller (Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development), Prof. Dr. Isabel Martin (University of Education Karlsruhe), Lars Engel (board member of AfC, managing director of BHS), Prof. Dr. Erich Bauer (UeBZO)
After the visit: Prof. Bauer, Lars Engel, Christian Engel, Prof. Martin, Johannes Zeck
Christian Engel and Dr. Gerhard Mueller
Prof. Martin welcomes Minister Sengdeuane Lachanthaboune
Johannes Zeck shows the tooth-brushing station…
… and the Minister catches a glimpse of communicative L2-teaching
Director of the primary school, Ms Souphaphone Vongphachan, welcomes the Minister
Project leaders Prof. Martin, Johannes Zeck, Gerlinde Engel, with Michael Heller (Chancellor of the German Embassy in Laos) during the visit of Minister Ms Sengdeuane Lachanthaboune
We were also honoured by the visit of Ms Angela Bauer-Seekings, Head of “ELT Germany, Austria, Switzerland” at Pearson Deutschland GmhB, who came to see our work at the schools and at the LGTC. Ms Bauer-Seekings stayed with us for several days to job-shadow the tandems and learn about the teaching of English in Laos. She held a workshop for the English primary teachers herself towards the end of her stay, “Jump into Action!”, in which both the German and Lao teams – and the Director of the school! – had tremendous fun and learnt a large number of new language games and activities. Prof. Martin also invited her along to get to know the English Departments of the National University of Laos and the Vocational College in Vientiane.
Pearson Education is the largest publisher of English teaching materials in the world and has supported our project with any teaching materials that we wanted to try out ever since we started. Prof. Martin had initially written to all major publishers in the field of ELT to ask for sample teaching material, received several donations, and then different teams tested different textbooks. The cooperation with Pearson has since developed into the most fruitful and effective one, thanks to Ms Bauer-Seeking’s unfailing support and the excellent teaching materials we keep discovering.
Lessons learnt #2 – extending pioneer work and achieving closer insights (Team IV February – April 2017)
Despite the seamless transition from Team III to Team IV, a lot of work lay ahead still in terms of organization and the realization and taking-over of new responsibilities. Especially the pioneering territory of the LGTC presented the three new volunteers with great challenges. Due to changes in the college management, parts of the programme were affected: It meant an undesirable reduction of lessons and contact-time, as many teachers of the LGTC had to take over a number of new, other obligations in the spring of 2017. For the project leaders, this was another instalment of one of the more regular intercultural lessons about Asian communication culture: Changes are not always announced or addressed in time, and they are not always passed on to the partners who would need the information to plan their own work. Nevertheless, Ms Amelie Reiling, Ms Christian Morlock, and Ms Stephanie Schulz were able to find ways to continue the work of their predecessors. New situations require new structures and frameworks, and the intercultural lessons learnt on both sides were taken seriously for our future cooperation.
Significant progress was also made in the support of the natural science teachers and their lessons at the Lower Secondary school in Ban Phang Heng at the same time. Ms Rebecca Dengler and Ms Veronika Golla set up Science Activities for the pupils in the new science laboratory, which turned out to be a huge success, motivating the pupils to study the natural sciences chemistry, physics, and biology in the afternoons, after the regular classes. The pioneer work of Team III was thus extended and gradually took root. Of course, not only the pupils benefitted from this, but the main target group of the project – the teachers – did, first and foremost, and in this case it was the natural sciences teachers for the first time. Interest in improving their teaching skills in their science subject led to an interest in developing their English speaking skills to begin with – in order to have or even start (!) some sort of communication with the volunteers. This happened to quickly that both volunteers visited their tandems’ science lessons (held in Lao!) in order to try and understand what went on – or needed to go on – in those classes, and then they eventually applied to become part of the following team as well, to make sure this promising process would take root.
Our four…
…work…
…steps and stages
Planning lessons, looking for good illustrations…
… laminating the picture cards…
… and then conduct it themselves.
Due to the rising interest of the pupils to have more intercultural exchanges and contact with the German teachers and therefore the English language, the ABC Club and the English Games Club were established. As these are purely voluntary clubs, it shows the fast progress the project made also on the small-scale level. Due to the diverse and entertaining offers the volunteers of Team IV made to the pupils every afternoon from 3 to 4 p.m., their interest in learning new skills was fostered and never disappointed.
Triggering and then maintaining motivation works by making learning fun and involving the learners.The pupils of the three schools can now easily improve their English skills by engaging with their foreign English teachers, and they can also broaden their knowledge in the natural sciences and conduct experiements themselves. They permanently get in touch with new concepts and perspectives on learning and eventually develop more self-confidence when it comes to finally answer a question in English all by themselves.
In their regular classes, Lao pupils are confronted with instructivist “chalk-and-talk” teaching, which means the teacher copies contents from the coursebook onto the blackboard and then the pupils copy that into their notebooks. This is done in every lesson and in every school year. This is of course one feasible way of teaching and produces certain outcomes.3 With their tandem-partners, our volunteers, however, strive to explore faster, more effective, and more entertaining ways to encourage the young Lao learners to develop their talents. The pupils’ interest in the diverse afternoon activities seems to indicate that – once discovered – there is a need.
Attentive pupils make sense of English words…
… in a lesson about jobs.
Mopsy speaks (English) to the pre-schoolers…
Two boys get their material ready for an experiment…
… and then conduct it themselves.
Continuing the workshop formats for Lao teachers (which were started by the previous teams) made progress possible in another area of learning – the learning progress of both the Lao and the German teachers. Besides the weekly reports of the volunteers’ work sent to the project leaders, the workshops brought more insights into the mutual learning processes on both sides.
LGTC workshop authors Christiane, Amelie, and Stephanie are ready for their first pronunciation workshop
… on minimal pairs…
… later practiced drill sentences…
The proud workshop authors at the AfC schools with their helpers and participants
Pre-activity: Choose a character!
Work station “Grumpy Grandpa”
Post-activity: What’s the right answer?
Souk presents some results of her group
A completely new way of presenting the project was also developed during the Team IV phase, but this was actually ongoing work also before and after the time spent in Laos: Pageflow (“Live documentation”). Pageflow is a tool which allows multimedia storytelling; videos, photos, audio files and text can be embedded in one page. Users can scroll and click through these files and get a more interactive insight into the project. The new pages were installed by Ms Veronika Golla, developed by Veronika and her work partner Rebecca, while all Team IV members contributed to the tool. This way our readers and viewers can get a more immediate impression of our school life, but also leisure time and the country Laos in general.
Use Pageflow by scrolling…
…and clicking.
Veronika Golla films…
… and edits.
Conclusions – and new plans for the next project year
At the end of the second project year conducted with the support of Team III and Team IV, many programme features are more or less settled now, or approaching that state. New elements were tried out, new experiences were made, and new elements were incorporated in the programme framework all along. Through countless hours of work and thought and talk, the “terra incognita” Laos had become a more navigable environment for the course leaders, who were thus able to pave the way for further planning, development, and the preparation of Team V and VI.
By finishing each team phase with a half-day “Closing Conference” at the University of Education Karlsruhe, a continuous and comprehensive assessment and evaluation of each phase was possible. Many new and diverse posts were written by both teams in the second project year, many workshops were conducted, many teacher-lessons were held, many tandem-teacher lessons, too, and many English Activities offered to the pupils and students – not to speak of the manifold private activities and events shared by the German and Lao teams.
In some notorious cases we wished for less volatile timetables and more reliable working conditions, but developing the project together does not only mean working on teaching methodology, material, and the curriculum, but also very generally on the circumstances – which are sometimes not easy for any of us at all. Nevertheless we are not deterred from our goals, continue our work and build up on the project’s success so far, always bearing in mind all the many wonderful past developments…
… which you can do, too, dear reader, by continuing to read the extensive documentation on this blog. There are many new plans and developments to share with you next!
Project leaders Prof. Martin, Johannes Zeck, Gerlinde Engel, with Michael Heller (Chancellor of the German Embassy in Laos) during the visit of Minister Ms Sengdeuane Lachanthaboune
Text by J. Zeck & I. Martin
Photos by Team III & Team IV
Notes
1 A new page on this blog featuring a representative selection of those reports is in preparation.
2 Working better or longer hours in an agreeable place with comfortable furniture, good lighting, absence of noise, and easy access to a kitchen and air-conditioning is clearly a Western condition.
3 In some subjects, the level can be surprisingly high (by Western standards), e.g. in the math book for secondary school, while it remains unclear (to us) how much of this the pupils actually really understand. In others, the children appear to be in an artificial coma most of the time.
Project video no. 2 by Team V
In January 2018, at the end of Team V’s stay, the volunteers at the Lao-German Technical College decided to create a little thank-you gift for the school that would show the college’s facilities, staff members and students. The video shows the volunteers’ daily paths to work, their colleagues and students. Thereby it is not only a nice memory for all the participants but also gives an illustrative insight for anyone planning to visit or work with the College team in the future.
Ariane, Sandra, and Nina from Team V
LGTC-Team V: Sandra, Prof. Martin, Nina, Ariane, – and Johannes Zeck as the photographer!
The other Team V members – our fellow-volunteers who worked in Ban Sikeud and Ban Phang Heng – also produced a memorable video to honour their Lao partners and posted it earlier this year.
The videos were both first shown during the info-session about the project held at the University of Education in Karlsruhe on 31 January 2018. Students from all faculties were invited to receive background information on how to join the project and what the actual work looks like. Since then, Team VI and VI.5 completed their work in Laos, and the new Team VII members are getting ready to leave, while the first applications for Team VIII have already reached our project leaders.
Do also take a look at our video gallery, where all the videos of all teams can be found! We hope they will give viewers – and future volunteers – a more immediate idea of “TheLaosExperience” – an unforgettable time of working and living and learning together in our globalized world.
Team V on Christmas Eve: Veronika, Magdalena (guest helper), Rebecca, Hanna, Marie, Lea, Lara, Janina, Sandra, Ariane
With best wishes
Team V
Text by J. Adelberg, A. Kummetz & I. Martin
Photos by I. Martin, J. Zeck & S. Uhlig
Intercultural experiences in Sri Lanka and Laos – a comparison
Since our time in Laos is coming to an end, we contemplated the best way to wrap up the last three months in Laos and at the Lao-German Technical College in writing, as a summary for our readers.
In March 2018, we – Svea and Tara, graduates from Mainz University (Germany) – were accepted as guest volunteers into the BHS programme here, after a similar teaching experience in Sri Lanka. Therefore, a comparison of our observations and experiences in Sri Lanka and Laos appears to be a reasonable approach to honour our time here.
Sinhs and Sarees
The very first thing that we noticed about Laos was the dress code. While female teachers and staff in Sri Lanka wear sarees, female lecturers and administrative personnel in Laos are required to put on sinhs. Personally, we were very happy about this change of clothes because sinhs are not half as complicated to put on as sarees. Even a practiced hand needs at least twenty minutes to properly adjust a saree, whereas it takes only a few seconds to slip into a sinh.
A saree consists of roughly six meters of fabric that is wrapped around you. The sinh, on the other hand, is merely a skirt with a layover, which allows you to sit on the floor cross-legged with no bare skin showing. Both versions come in many different shapes and colours, even in black, which is a fashionable colour in the West. Both are usually made of silk or cotton.
Tara and Svea in sinhs…
… and in sarees…
…from the back
Education
Regarding the education systems we worked in, there were very few differences, as both the Sri Lankan and Lao colleges offer vocational training programmes in a very similar way. Both combine theory with practice and offer workshops in which the students develop their practical skills with special equipment provided by the school for each department. In fact, the SLGTI (Sri Lanka-German Training Institute) incorporates six different sections, i.e. the Food, Construction, Electrical, Mechanical, ICT, Mechanical, and Automotive departments. The LGTC also offers studies in six different fields, which are Automotive, Metal machinery, Electro-Electronics, Welding-Plumbing, Heavy Equipment, and Agro-Machinery. Both institutions concentrate on teaching their students both practical and technical skills.
The students’ behaviour is equally respectful, reticent, and shy. However, as soon as they get to know you, they surprise you with their enthusiam and motivation. It needs to be said, though, that the level of English proficiency of Lao students is very low – even by comparison to the North of Sri Lanka, which is just at the brink of economic development. The underdeveloped state of this certain part of the Sri Lanka is mainly due to the fact that these parts of the country suffered the most during and after the long years of war that just ended roughly a decade ago.1
However, Sri Lanka’s literacy rate is exceptionally high: 92% of the population is able to read and write. This is remarkable and highly unusual for a developing country, and it is indeed the highest in all South East Asia. Laos, on the contrary, scores a literacy rate around 79% at present. However, estimations vary (one finds deviant figures in different sources).
Due to the fact that English is a lingua franca2 between the two major ethnic groups, many people, in particular in the highly developed South, speak English very well. In fact, Sri Lanka is home to Singhalese as well as Tamil people. These two groups are not only (mostly) separated geographically, with Singhalese people living in the West and South of the island and Tamils inhabiting the East and North, but they also grow up with different mother tongues. Even though there are individuals that are able to speak both languages, English is commonly used to overcome this barrier and is therefore considered a valuable new subject in schools.
By comparison, Laos still is aiming to improve when it comes to increasing and acknowledging the importance of the English language in the new global context, especially in view of the role English plays towards a successful ASEAN integration (English has been the “lingua franca” in the ASEAN since 2016). Institutions like the LGTC are therefore seen as beacons in this context, and they will surely live up to the challenge.
In fact, both the cooperations between the University of Mainz (Germany) and the GIZ (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, Society of International Cooperation) in Sri Lanka and the project coordinated by the PH Karlsruhe and BHS Corrugated in Laos follow a similar goal and strategy. Both intend to increase the English level at the respective institutions. The PH project, however, does this work at the level of teacher education.
In the BHS Laos project, there are two groups of volunteers that are split up between the two places, i.e. the three schools in Sikeud (7 volunteers) and the LGTC in Vientiane (3 volunteers). However, we did not join the project under the usual circumstances, but volunteered as external applicants to work at the LGTC during the summer this year.
The project in Sri Lanka caters to the different centers and colleges that are part of the VTN project. Depending on the number of volunteers (which so far spanned from 2 to 6 per batch), we attended to schools and students there. By contrast, in Laos the didactic education of the teachers played the major role. While we mainly focused on the students during our time in Sri Lanka, the Laos project mainly provides education for the teachers who are interested in advancing their English skills. Therefore, in Laos, we implemented tandem-work on didactics and methodology. In general, one can say that our work placement in Sri Lanka prepared us in an excellent way to take this a few steps further in Laos. The Laos project aims at enhancing future teachers’ practical skills for an international and intercultural context.
Diversity
The Asian continent offers a bountiful diversity of different cultures. In fact, Laos and Sri Lanka represent this fact each in their very unique way. First of all, both countries are mainly Buddhist. However, in Sri Lanka four different religions come together, i.e. Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity.
When it comes to ethnic groups, Laos with its 49 different ethnic groups has more variety than Sri Lanka. Laos has plenty of communities that are spread all over the country, These are roughly divided into lowland, upland, and highland people, while Sri Lanka is basically divided into two ethnic groups, Singhalese and Tamil. In Laos, these numerous ethnic groups have lived in peace next to each other most of the time.3
Sri Lanka, on the other hand, has suffered from a war between the two communities for decades, which ended in 2009, leaving particularly the Tamil North and East in an underdeveloped state. Since then, programmes such as the VTN project have been implemented to increase skilled labour in the area. Furthermore, it brings together students from both groups in one classroom to counteract further separation.
Food and Drink
Moreover, we were instantly struck by the huge difference in the menus. The food in Sri Lanka was mainly based on pastries and rice, with rice and curry being omnipresent. The plain dosai s originally an Indian dish but available all over Sri Lanka and usually served with different kinds of curries.
Plain dosai with different curries
Laos, however, presented itself with a diversified cuisine. We were astonished by the variety of dishes with all kinds of vegetables and meat. Our favourite food is crispy noodles with a variety of vegetables and chicken in a thick broth.
Crispy Noodles with vegetables
Even though using chopsticks is not a Lao custom in particular – the Lao either eat with their hands or use cutlery – chopsticks can be found in any restaurant and accompany most of the meals. This was exceptionally challenging for us since we both were not familiar with it at all.
After all meals people in Sri Lanka tend to drink a milk tea for good digestion. This follows the British tradition of adding milk (and sugar) to black tea. Sri Lankans, however, prefer to create a similar effect with milk powder, which makes the tea even sweeter and thicker. It is also always served hot.
Cold Lao milk tea
Sri Lankan milk tea
Being highly attached to our cherished Sri Lankan daily teatime routine, we were faced with difficulties in Laos. The first surprise was that it was difficult to find a Lao version of it, since it only seemed to be available at a certain time of day. The next surprise was the orange colour of the drink, which seemed rather unnatural.
We came to learn that this version was something totally different: The Lao use green tea as a basis and add an orange-coloured powder, which results in this appearance. Furthermore, it is not only served warm, but also cold, with lots of crushed ice. After being sceptical initially, we have now come to cherish it.
Both these very different countries have impressed with their very own charm and warmth. Overall, we can highly recommend to seek any possibility to dive into the (working) culture and everyday life of both countries.
As regards us two – we will surely come back!
Text by S. Röhm & T. Wedemeyer
Photos by T. Wedemeyer, S. Röhm & M. Fonseka
Notes
1 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Sri_Lanka Accessed 16 July 2018 12:30 pm IST: Sri Lanka is governed as a semi-presidential representative Democratic Republic. The President of Sri Lanka is both Head of State and Head of Government, and of a multi-party system. The Peoples’ Democratic Republic of Laos, on the other hand, is a one-party socialist republic. Unlike Sri Lanka, Laos is also listed as a HIPC (highly indebted poor country).
2 The term “lingua franca” defines a language that is used for communication in between groups that do not share the same mother tongue. However, this term is controversial in the 21st century, as critics and linguists such as David Crystal have pointed out: It is a relic from British colonial rule and is now related to the American influence.
3 However, in the sixties, Laos was heavily bombed during the so-called “Secret War”, in which the US released an estimated number of 270 million cluster bombs over this small country. Laos is the most heavily-bombed country in the world per capita in world history. The US were attempting to support the Royal Lao government against the Pathet Lao over a course of 9 years. For further reference see Education in Laos (Part II) – Parallel education systems during the Lao Civil War (1954 -1975)
4 The Vocational Training in the North and East of Sri Lanka (VTN) project is a cooperation between Sri Lanka and Germany and funded by the GIZ (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit – Cooperation for International Collaboration) with support of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung, BMZ). The project addresses demand-driven education in the North and East of Sri Lanka to further the economic as well as independent growth of the region.
5 Before British rule both major ethnic groups, Singhalese and Tamil, lived peacefully next to each other. However, segregation was propelled at multiple occasions. This has its roots in the British occupation, in which the country was still called Ceylon. British rulers supported a communal representation by placing the capital Colombo in between the two major areas of the country. (The West and South are dominated by the Singhalese population, while the North and the East are mostly populated by Tamil people.) Afterwards, more and more acts and rules were imposed that eventually led to a dominating Singhalese representation in the country, which is still present to this day. The Ceylon Civil Act in 1948, for example, stripped away the citizenship of Indian Tamils – making them stateless overnight. As a result, many were deported so that when they were finally acknowledged full citizenship only a small number of Indian Tamils remained in the country. This was followed by the change from English to Sinhala as the official language, making it impossible for non-Sinhala speakers to continue their work in the public sector. These and several other matters led to an uprising of the terrorist group Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fighting for an independent state. The conflict lasted nearly 30 years and was eventually settled in 2009.
6 Many dishes included carrots, leek, sprouts, onion, and silverbeet.
References:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/lingua-franca Accessed 16 July 2018 12:59 pm IST
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_Laos Accessed 16 July 2018 1:29 pm IST
http://legaciesofwar.org/about-laos/secret-war-laos/ Accessed 16 July 2018 1:43 pm IST
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_Civil_War Accessed 16 July 2018 11:02 am IST
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laos Accessed 18 July 2018 5:47 pm IST
http://www.mohe.gov.lk/index.php/en/about-ministry/overview Accessed 21 August 2018 11:11 am ECT
https://www.indexmundi.com/laos/literacy.html Accessed 21 August 2018 11:12 am ECT
http://www.davidcrystal.com/?id=3541 Accessed 23 August 2018 12:26 ECT
Workshops on 8 May and 21 May 2018 at the LGTC – “Lesson Planning”
Our predecessors, Anna and Tasja from Team VI, started with introducing the concept of a lesson plan to the English teachers at LGTC after Nina from Team V had started with this topic. We decided to continue with their work. Once again, we invited the English teachers and those who were interested to take part. In total five teachers joined us for our workshops.
Lesson planning is one of the most challenging topics for any aspiring or future teacher and we realized that our teacher-students were very eager to learn more about this new topic. Since they asked us to use a certain page in the book Technical English (p. 56, the heating system) as an example, we decided to conduct our first workshop on that. Teachers (no matter where) need lots of best-practice examples before they can plan their own lessons independently. We wanted to make sure that the English teachers would feel more confident about beginning the long process of learning how to use and later vary the regular steps of planning a foreign language lesson.
As requested, we picked the same page as our predecessors (first page of Unit 5 of Technical English 1) for our sample workshop, because the heating system was soon to be taught in all of their English classes at that time.
1st Workshop 8 May 2018
As we wanted to ensure that all the teachers had the same premise concerning the subject of heating systems before we actually started to introduce our topic “Lesson planning”, we chose the following agenda for our first workshop:
- General understanding of the content;
- Introducing the steps of a lesson plan;
- Discussing each step;
- Discussing possible structure and content of the introductory phase.
Our workshop goals were:
- The teachers’ understanding of the content;
- Understanding the different steps of a lesson plan;
- Knowing how and what to do (in) the different steps of a lesson plan;
- Choosing suitable content for the introductory phase of this page.
The above-mentioned page contains a lot of technical information and terms which may not be readily accessible for teachers in every learning context. Hence, we started with discussing the content and the proposed exercises. The page in question deals with the topic “Heating systems”. It displays a house equipped with a solar heating system. The picture shows blue and red lines depicting the cold and hot water pipes. Additionally it contains each installation needed to make the system work.
Together with the teachers we went through the text. We talked through it step by step referring to the picture so everybody could follow. Then we dived into the first exercise that asks the students to draw arrows in their respective images to show and eventually understand the flow of the water in a pipe system. After a short discussion in which we argued over different methods to realise this exercise we eventually agreed on letting the students do the exercise in pair work to then present the results together on the board. In order to do that we agreed to use a flashcard of the image of the house and paper arrows (blue and red according to cold and warm water) to indicate the flow of the water.
After the working phase, in which the students work on the task in pairs, the teacher will initiate a presentation phase on the board. In this final phase of the exercise the teacher asks the students one by one to come to the board and stick the arrows to the flashcard according to their results of the pair work. If needed, the teacher is required to adjust the panel to assure a correct result.
For going through the first exercise of the page, we created a board panel showing a sample lesson plan for it. The template we chose came from Janina (Team V), who used it in her workshop How to teach with TechTalk. To ensure all of the teachers were paying attention, could follow, and most importantly got a sample to be saved for later, we provided copies of an blank lesson plan. With the help of this we asked them to make and add their notes.
Lesson Plan
After dealing with the column “Teacher-Student Activity”, which states the exercise and its execution during the lesson, the discussions on the time frame for each activity took up quite some time.
We recapitulated each lesson phase. For academic reference we used the general one by Wolfgang Klafki and added the concept of a presentation phase from Gunter Otto as follows (cf. references):
- Introduction Phase (introduction to the topic of the lesson)
- Working Phase (exercise for the students)
- Intensification/Presentation Phase
As we ran short of time after 90 minutes, we decided to conduct a second workshop on the same topic.
2nd Workshop 21 May 2018
For our second workshop we again invited all the English teachers and those who were interested in the topic. We were happy to see that once more four English teachers joined us.
First we wanted to pick up where we left off last time, so we created and handed out a list of the most important didactic terms. These were also based on the above-mentioned models by Klafki and Otto. The terms state the different phases and social forms for the lesson.
We chose the following agenda for our second workshop:
- Explaining the didactic terms;
- Preparation of the first excercise with those terms;
- Collecting ideas for the following exercises so that the teachers could get a feeling for creating ideas for their lessons themselves detached from the pre-set techniques in the Teacher’s Book;
- Discussing the distribution of content matter onto the phases
Our workshop goals:
- The teachers get familiar with the didactic terms;
- They know the sequence of the phases;
- They are able to use them for their own lesson plans and can refer them to the suggestions proposed in the Teacher’s Book;
- They get an example of how to conduct a lesson for that page.
Keywords
Keywords
While working through exercise 2 and 3 on the page,1 we focused on the social forms because the teachers wanted to revise them. So with each “Teacher-Student Activity” that was proposed by them, to customize the book to their particular learners’ needs, we asked them what kind of phase we were dealing with – introduction, working and presentation or intensification phase – to then choose an appropriate social form accordingly.
Our goal was to ensure that the differences between the phases were understood. We did not only explain those, but encouraged the teachers to think for themselves and come up with ideas themselves, with the help of the pattern we provided before. Furthermore, we encouraged diversity in their ideas by stressing that it is not necessary that everybody creates the same lessons. One has to keep in mind that each classroom situation is different and therefore the teachers need to adapt their lesson plans accordingly. We repeated that a well-structured lesson would contain all three phases and that they would need to build up on one other.
Ideally, teachers start every part of the lesson – activities, exercises, or tasks – as an introduction phase. This leads to a working phase for the students and concludes in an intensification or presentation phase (cf. Klafki, Otto). (Editor’s note: In more advanced language-learning classrooms, to activate speaking and practise fluency, one would also add the fourth “production” phase.)2
Keeping this in mind and having accuracy as a focus (because of the complexity of the exercises for students and teachers alike), the teachers will hopefully remember that after a working phase they also have to make sure that the results are correct. They should therefore grant visual access to the correct information for all students.
In our own experience, this is especially addressed to the students whose English is still at a basic level and who are therefore less likely to follow the lesson without visual aid. With aid, those students would also have the possibility to correct their mistakes and learn from them. In our case, since there are students at the LGTC who are not really familiar with the English language at all it would make sense to even provide Lao translations additionally.
For each part of the lesson plan, we asked our teacher-students to point out which social forms they would prefer for which phase, and this differed from teacher to teacher. This was a natural result, since lesson planning also depends on teacher personality. Lessons plan models are blueprints to work with to develop your own teaching style eventually, after a lot of experience and practice.
Lesson plan is set up…
… social forms are collected…
… and discussed,
with snacks as motivation
English teachers work and plan together
Overall, we concluded with the impression that our tandem-teachers valued the usefulness of our exhortations and already started using the concepts for their own lessons – also thanks to the work of our predecessors. We are confident that this will help them towards planning and conducting their future lessons in a carefully structured way.
Text by T. Wedemeyer, S. Roehm
Photos by T. Wedemeyer, S. Roehm
Notes
1 Exercise 2 is a follow-up task to check on the results of exercise 1 in which the students are asked to show the flow of the water in the diagram. Exercise 3 deals with the function of pronouns and that they replace or represent a formerly mentioned tool in the text that accompanies the diagram.
2 In our workshop we did not specifically include the fourth phase “production”, which is relevant for L2 (foreign language) lessons. For more detail, see Workshop on 16 November 2017 – How should we teach “Technical English” at Lao Vocational Colleges?
References:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unterrichtsplanung Accessed 21 August 2018 10:19 CET
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernd_Ott Accessed 21 August 2018 10:21 CET
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Klafki Accessed 21 August 2018 10:22 CET
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unterrichtsphase Accessed 21 August 2018 10:22 CET
Bolaven Plateau Loop
Hiring a motorbike and exploring the Asian countryside – that was a dream both of us always had. We had read about and talked to many people about exploring parts of South East Asia by bike. Therefore, both of us were intrigued to go on such an adventure ourselves. Fortunately, Laos offers two very frequented “loops” in the South, i.e. the Thakhek Loop (450 km) and the Bolaven Plateau Loop (150 km or 300 km). Since we were short of time, we decided to do the smaller Bolaven Plateau Loop. Unfortunately, we did not get the chance to do something similar during our time in Sri Lanka. Hence, the Bolaven loop represented the perfect opportunity.
Beginning our journey in Vientiane, we took a sleeper bus to Pakse. Going by recommendations we headed to Ms Noy Motorbike Rental to get our vehicle for the next few days. There we were faced with the very first challenge of the trip because the shop was out of automatic scooters. So Svea had to learn how to drive a semi-automatic one in a crash course from a very friendly and supportive French assistant working at the motorbike shop. Having mastered the craft, we headed out on the street with all our belongings stuffed between us.
Happy arrival at the waterfalls
Our luggage between us
Tara, Svea, and our beloved motorbike
Tad Itou
Equipped with a rough map of the loop which we got from the motorbike rental shop, we made our way out of the city and into the wild. In fact, the loop is characterised by its many waterfalls, which is Tad [tʌd] in Lao, along the way. The first one on our route was Tad Itou after around 40 km. After making our way down the hill we were rewarded with a beautiful view. Unfortunately, it was rather cold that day so we were not able to go for a dive in the beautiful pool.
On our way down…
.. the surroundings…
Tad Itou!
Tad Fan
Not far from here we nearly missed the entrance to Tad Fan because there was only one inconspicuous sign board. Tad Fan was another amazing highlight on the route. Then we had to make our way down a rocky and unsteady road. The locals there did not seem bothered by the street conditions at all. While we were struggling to move forward steadily they were speeding over the stones and rocks as if this was nothing to worry about. The waterfall itself you can only see from a distance from across the gorge. For the brave and adventurous among us ziplining and abseiling is offered there.
Tad Fan
Tad Champi
We quickly jumped back on the bike since we still wanted to see two more waterfalls and therefore had quite some more kilometers to cover that day. Since breakfast had been a while ago, we were longing for some food. Luckily, at our next destination there was a small restaurant with a beautiful view over avocado trees and rice paddies. After enjoying some fried rice and (Lao!) milk tea1 we strolled down the mountain to Tad Champi with a seemingly unpassable watercave – believe us, we tried. Again, the pool was definitely beckoning us to have a quick dip, which we sadly had to give a miss once more due to the low temperatures. The area around the loop – the Bolaven Plateau, the Lao coffee- and tea-growing region – is subject to vast and sudden weather and temperature changes. Therefore, we were very happy to be equipped with jackets and leggings for the colder weather.
Tad Champi
Tad Yuan
The final waterfall for the first day was Tad Yuan. That one was definitely our favourite with its three streams down the cliff plunging into a beautiful pool in a green valley. One should watch out there when looking for the way down – we accidentally (and a little bit stupidly) took a stroll into the jungle – and ended up in a dead end.
Park around the waterfall…
.. down the valley…
Tad Yuan!
Off the beaten track
Tad Yuan closer up
After sightseeing we still had about 60km to drive to Tad Lo town, which takes around two hours due to the street conditions. The motorbike rental shop recommended staying at Mama Pap, a very simple but comfortable and friendly place. Mama Pap has hosted guests for a long time, as the many photos on her walls show. From all the stories she told us about the people she has met and hosted over the years we got the strong impression that she has found her passion in being a host in this place. The sleeping dorm was upstairs in the attic with a lot of mattresses lying next to each other on the floor. Additionally, over here we had the best breakfast ever!!
Banana chocolate pancake
Tad Lo
The next day, we visited the local waterfall Tad Lo, where you have to keep an eye on your scooter because there is no invigilated parking and scooters are unfortunately constantly subject to theft. As we had already visited most of the sights of the loop on the first day, we headed to our second and last accomodation of the trip. Nearly missing the entrance again for aforesaid reasons we finally arrived at Katu Homestay shortly before nightfall. The owners’ hospitality was amazing – they were very friendly. The two of us and another French couple were the only guests for the night, and Mr Vieng, our host, told us we were travelling during the low season. The place radiated a special atmosphere. The owners had put up many hammocks and seats to relax in in the area. Mr Vieng will also happily give you a tour of their own plantation if you are interested in coffee or the local culture and will visit there one fine day.
Tad Lo
Hammocks at Mr Vieng’s
Wat Phou
On our last day we decided to leave the loop and head to Wat Phou. This is a very famous ancient temple and a smaller version of Angkor Wat in neighbouring Cambodia, which is just across the border from here. It is one of the oldest archeological sites in Laos. Most of its monuments date back to the 11th to 13th century, and it features Khmer architecture. In 2002 it was made a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Originally, it was a Hindu temple, but it was then transformed into a sacred Buddhist place when Laos became Buddhist in the 13th century.
The temple was created to celebrate and combine nature and humanity. The spring behind the temple is considered sacred.2 Furthermore, the water repositories in front are not only important as a religious symbol, but also have a very practical use, which is considered the main reason for the temple’s location.3 To get there we had to cross the Mekong river – with our motorbike and no bridge – so boat it was. It was truly an unusual experience to cross the river in a rather unstable-looking wooden longboat whilst clinging to our scooter.
Serene surroundings
Our ferry
Hold on tight to your scooter
Entrance to Wat Phou
Wat Phou
Ruins
Way to the top
A little exercise
Buddha statues
View from the top onto the water repositories
Overall, this was an amazing experience that we can highly recommend to anyone wishing to see special sights in Lao PDR. It is an easy endeavour since you do not really need to plan ahead. There are plenty of blogs and travellers’ websites such as Travelfish or 101places (the latter being in German, though), which provide sufficient information on how to navigate this trip and what to see on the loop. Wat Phou is one of the two UNESCO world heritage sites in Lao PDR, besides Luang Prabang. Travellers can find further information on the area’s history and its former relevance to the Angkor kingdom on the UNESCO website.
However, when riding a scooter through Laos travellers should be aware of extraordinary street conditions that change constantly and surprisingly. Also, one needs to be prepared to dodge many “obstacles” on the road such as dogs, pigs, chickens – and children. Most importantly one should slow down on bridges, as they tend to be rickety. Western tourists on scooters are accident-prone because they underestimate the challenge. (In town, one can see the grazes on their knees, elbows, and shoulders.)4
At all times, one should not forget the intense sun. It is very strong, and locals cover themselves appropriately when riding scooters. Only the tourists get fooled by the cooling airstream and collect sunburns along the way.
Text and photos by T. Wedemeyer & S. Röhm
1 Lao milk tea is very different from the milk tea we got to know in India/Sri Lanka.
2 http://www.visit-laos.com/champasak/wat-phu.htm 24th June 2016 8:55 pm
3 https://www.travelfish.org/sight_profile/laos/southern_laos/champasak/champasak/107 24th June 2016 9:05 pm
4 Note from the editor: The World Health Organization summarizes its findings from 180 countries in the third Global status report on road safety 2015 as follows: “[W]orldwide the total number of road traffic deaths has plateaued at 1.25 million per year, with the highest road traffic fatality rates in low-income countries. In the last three years, 17 countries have aligned at least one of their laws with best practice on seat-belts, drink-driving, speed, motorcycle helmets or child restraints. While there has been progress towards improving road safety legislation and in making vehicles safer, the report shows that the pace of change is too slow” (http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/road_safety_status/2015/en/ , last accessed on 6 August 2018).
Information on traffic statistics from Laos can be found on p. 162, e.g. riders motorized 2- or 3-wheelers make up 67% of the casualties.
An academic training course in Weiherhammer and a family reunification in Toulouse – Ms Ketsana’s journey to Europe
Editor’s note: The “Recruitment and Training Programme” hosted by BHS Corrugated at the Lao-German Technical College (LGTC) in Vientiane does not only focus on the technical training of Lao apprentices, but also on the further education of their teachers, trainers, and administrative employees. Due to the school’s exchange with German partners and the close cooperation in the fields of vocational training between Lao PDR and the former German Democratic Republic in the 1970s and 1980s, the Lao Ministry of Education and Sports decided to develop vocational education in Laos according to the German role model. Therefore two key missions of the LGTC are to develop their personnel and to improve the management of the schools’ activities, especially in the fields of Dual Cooperative Training (DCT) – the adapted concept of the internationally recognized German dual training system.
In order to support these goals and to improve the efficacy of its own programme, BHS Corrugated invited Ms Ketsana Siphonephath for a three-week training course on academic affairs and vocational education administration in the UeBZO (Ueberbetriebliches Bildungs Zentrum in Ostbayern = inter-company education center in Eastern Bavaria; former subsidiary of BHS Corrugated), with full expenses paid. So, in July 2018, Ms Ketsana spent time in the different departments of the UeBZO and BHS Corrugated in order to gain insights into the operations and organization of a provider of vocational education services in Germany. Ms Ketsana Siphonepath was the third LGTC teacher to be invited for a training course at the UeBZO in Weiherhammer, after her colleagues Mr Phonesouk Inthaxay and Mr Phonesavanh Chachueyang spent eight weeks in Weiherhammer in July and August last year, in 2017.
The “Recruiment and Training Programme” is funded by the sequa gGmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development within the develoPPP programme. The programme hosts its own blog.
Ketsana Siphonephath
Hello, my name is Ketsana but everybody call me “Ket” I am a physics teacher in Lao-German Technical College and I also work in academic affair section as well. I have long story about transferred from a teacher in high school to be a teacher in vocational school where I’ve worked so far. I was really scare to move from my hometown to another place in the first time because I hoped to spend the whole my life in countryside that is my hometown after I graduated from University but I can stay at there only 5 years and then I had to change my mind because I found my true self and confident to pursue my dream that is working in the vocational school where I can use my powerful to work more and do what I like. So I decided to move to work in Lao-German Technical College. That was the beginning of my life in Vientiane I have never thought before that I would get a good chance to work with international companies, I stand at the important position in LGTC (I don’t mean I am a high position and important person but my work is very important in LGTC). It looked perfect for me to get chance to work with them but the problem was my English was very poor in the first year and I cannot communicate with foreigners because they could not understand me. Fortunately, BHS corrugated company came to our college and brought very good chances to LGTC by helping us to find the volunteers of English teacher from Germany. After I started to learn English with volunteer teachers I have got not only knowledge in English but they offered me different opportunity; the most best is friendship between I and all volunteers, it haven’t ended after they went back Germany when I knew that I was invited to go to training in Germany by BHS corrugated for improving my work skills, I was very excited to learn German administration in vocational institution and by the way I could see my lovely friends again I got the best of both worlds.
Arrival in Weiherhammer
9 April 2018 (Ketsana Siphonephath)
The day in Germany had arrived, I was picked up by BHS Corrugated driver from Munich airport on April 9th, 2018. I was worry a little bit about starting work with German guys while I was driving to Weiherhamer where I had to go to training, I heard some information that German guys are very serious when they work “Do you know why?” because for Lao people we are quite relax when we work and then I had to change my mind again it wasn’t horrible as I thought, I got very warm welcome from Uebzo team they were very friendly and helped me very thing, we did many activities together on break times and after work I have learned a lot from Uebzo team.
Ket’s arrival in Weiherhammer, with Johannes Zeck
Carina Adam (UeBZO), Ketsana Siphonephath (LGTC), Cornelia Motsch, Sonja Pruell
Ket gains insights into process automation and simulation…
… and into the basic training for electricians
Career guidance event at the UeBZO…
… for pupils of local schools
Ket in a BHS workshop
Ketsana Siphonephath (LGTC), Cornelia Motsch, Sonja Pruell, Carina Adam (UeBZO) in the mechanical workshop of the UeBZO
Ket at the speaker’s desk in the “Innovision Center” of BHS Corrugated in Weiherhammer…
… and at a local job fair in Weiden
I went to visit Würzburg on the weekend it was very wonderful city, there are beautiful Castles, so many people enjoy their wine on the old main bridge. I wish to come back here again in one day.
Hello from Wuerzburg!
Ket has a good time
Ketsana Siphonephath, Johanna Landvogt, and Johannes Zeck in a public bus on their way to the castle of Wuerzburg
After I finished training I went to visit Karlsruhe where I wished to go before. I spent time with my friends in Karlsruhe for one week, we did many thing together, walk a lot (LOL) I have never walked so much in Laos but I did a lot in Germany.
Arrival in Karlsruhe
28th April 2018 (Sandra Uhlig)
On April 28th, a Saturday evening, I (Sandra from Team V) went to the central station in Karlsruhe to pick up my friend from Laos – Ketsana, a teacher of the LGTC. Ket had planned to stay in Karlsruhe for a week after having finished her workshop/training at BHS in Weiherhammer. I was really exited – how great that she got the chance to come to Germany!
Even though it was a very special feeling to have Ket here in Germany, everything was so normal at the same time: No strange feelings this time, no language problems that could not be solved – the beginning of a few awesome days together in Karlsruhe. After going to the supermarket to equip Ket with some vegetables and sausages for breakfast (eating cereals is not her kind of thing), dinner on my balcony and some chatting, we ended this day with a thrill of anticipation of the next day.
29 April 2018
Funnily (for me at least), Ket woke up a bit confused the next morning by church bells ringing – a sound that was new to her (“Sandra, what is this ding-dong-ding-dooooong?! And why so early???”). We prepared a little breakfast – German and Lao style – together with Ariane (Team V as well), who came over and spent the whole sunny day with us. We enjoyed walking through the castle park and gardens together, had a little picnic in front of the beautiful castle, and got some coffee.
Ket piggy-rides on Sandra’s back…
… and explores Karlsruhe.
Sandra, Ket, and Ariane in front of the castle of Karlsruhe
… and “everyone smiles in the same language”!
A very relaxing and beautiful day – which was to end with a little surprise for Ket…
29 April, 6:30 p.m. (Isabel Martin)
I had received a message inviting me to join Ket and the volunteers for dinner at 6:30 at the Oxford Pub. “The Oxford” is a notorious student place with dark wooden furniture and chips with a great selection of burgers on the menu, but I had not been there before, only seen it. Another engagement had finished at 6:15 and I was glad to find a parking space straightaway very near the place. I arrived just on time, went through the restaurant, saw nobody, went into the “beer garden”, again saw nobody, and decided to wait at the only free table outside.
When the minutes passed, I started wondering how long I would be able to wait because my working day was not over yet – I would need to get back to my desk after dinner to prepare my classes for the next day. After about 15 minutes, I had the good sense to doubt myself because volunteers would normally text me to say that something had come up and they would be late. There was no new text. I checked the original message: Yes, “Oxford Pub”. After a moment of bewilderment, I double-checked in the menu: “Oxford Café”.
The Oxford Pub was luckily just around the corner. When I arrived, the next surprise was waiting for me: Volunteers from each LGTC team (Team III, IV, V) were there together with Ket, also the two “Sunshine School” (Vientiane) volunteers of Team III, plus two friends, and when the last one (“Dennis” aka Denise, Team III) arrived shortly after me, Ket had a moment of great emotion. This touched all of us.
Surprise dinner!
Not much later, Marie (Team V) suddenly walked towards our table and said “I am not Marie”. Then she said, “Hi everybody, I know you are the Laos group and I hope you’re having a great evening. I am Franziska, Marie’s twin.”
I thought this would be good raw material for a short story: Double location, double people, double strands of thought and experiences for both sides, German and Lao, first in Laos, now in Germany, there and back.
In our real-life case: No complication, climax, or catastrophe, but a special get-together and lovely evening.
30 April 2018 (Sandra Uhlig)
On Monday, I had to attend my seminar “Classroom management” and asked Ket if she wanted to join me, to experience a day at the College of Education Karlsruhe. Even though the seminar was held in German, it seemed to be very interesting for her as she could see how German lecturers (not everyone, of course, but she got a good example) act in front of students with regard to body language, tone, and interaction.
(Ketsana Siphonephath)
I got very warm welcome from my friends, I was invited to visit PH-Karlsruhe University in that day I joined Psychology lecture with Sandra I really liked it, a teacher made me interested in her teaching I saw she led her class as professional.
(Sandra Uhlig)
After this, Ket accompanied me to our seminar “Global English(es): Teaching English in Asia”. The syllabus for this day: “Special guest from Laos; Methodology: “How to” English workshops for tandem-teachers abroad: “How to embed experiments in science lessons”, “Picture books”, “Storytelling for young learners”, “Working with a triangle and compass”, “How to work with ‘Technical English'”, “Classroom English”, “Opening the Didactics Room”.
(Shirin Ud-Din from Team VI, “Global English(es)” tutor)
Ms Ketsana was invited as a “special guest from Laos” to the “Global English(es)” seminar at the PH by Prof. Martin. She had come to Karlsruhe after her further education at BHS and was glad to visit the place where all the PH-students who had come to Laos study. During my time in Laos, I did not have the chance to meet her because I was based at the school in Ban Phang Heng, so I was glad to finally meet her myself. Ms Ketsana is a very outgoing person and does not hesitate to communicate in English. We returnee-volunteers were full of anticipation, the participants of the seminar who had not been in Laos probably even more so – this was the great majority – and those who were in two minds about whether or not to apply for the next internship were probably most excited. The room was packed.
Prof. Martin welcomed Ms Ketsana, brought her to the front of the class and asked her to introduce herself and “maybe also talk for a few minutes – if you like – about your experiences in the project – maybe also tell us some of your thoughts about the work with the German volunteers”. What we expected – that she would introduce herself and then the seminar would move on to the model workshops, that is – was a complete misconception (yet again).
Ms Ketsana spoke for 20 minutes without stopping about her on-going education, the project, and the issues Lao people have in learning English. We were all hugely impressed by her fluency and her apparent lack of shyness: Most Lao people are afraid of talking English in a group – and she did it in front of an audience of 50 German students. Her speech was very impressive, and it was absolutely quiet in the room while she spoke.
When it was time for questions, it was the Germans’ turn to be shy. Nobody asked anything. Prof. Martin wrapped up the talk and invited everyone to start work at the seven different learning stations that the former volunteers had prepared to present their workshops, but also to use the opportunity to talk to Ketsana in between, which was very interesting for everybody. All in all, I can say that the visit of Ms Ketsana was enriching for the seminar and got even more students interested in the “Teaching English in Laos” project.
(Ketsana Siphonephath)
We went on to joined Prof. Martin lecture then I may met the new team there it was very nice talking with people in there and that the first time that I had talked on the stage in English…I hoped it was good…
Do you have any questions about our workshop?
Sandra and Ariane present their workshop:
“Opening the Didactics Room”
“Storytelling” (Jessica Porscha)
“Techniques of Teaching and Learning” (Shirin Ud Din)
“Picture books” (Lea Herrmann)
“How to work with `Technical English`” (Anna-Lena Hajek)
“How to embed experiments in science lessons” (Veronika Golla)”
Patricia Hopp (next team VII) meets her future tandem-teacher!
1 May 2018 (Ariane Kummetz)
The first of May is a public national holiday in Germany and also known as “Labor day” or “Worker’s day”. In some areas of Germany, the night before still has a special ancient meaning and serves as a tradition of welcoming spring and sometimes even as a (mock-)expulsion of “evil spirits”. Therefore, some people light bonfires (anciently to ward off the witches) the night before the 1st of May, which is also called “Walpurgis night“, in commemoration of St Walpurga and her battle against “witchcraft”. Some young people may go outside to play pranks on neighbors such as wrapping toilet paper around car mirrors or dislocating their dustbins. In the Rhineland, young men may erect a birch tree stem or large birch branch decorated with colorful ribbons in the garden of the girl they fancy.
The day itself is often celebrated by going hiking, having picnics, enjoying outdoors, and being surrounded by friends or family – or joining the marches celebrating workers’ rights. However, the weather was not on our side so we decided to celebrate indoors and have a “picnic” inside and to play games together. Some of Sandra and my (Ariane from Team V) friends came over to my place to spend the day with us and also to meet Ket. Everyone brought some delicious finger food such as pastries, vegetables with various dips, or “pizza snails”. We played some rounds of “Mäxle” (engl. “Mia” or “Liar’s dice”), which we had already introduced in Laos, and other games, had a lot of chats and enjoyed the afternoon together. What Sandra and I noticed again while playing “Mäxle”: Lao people are not good liars!
Since the weather cleared up in the afternoon and as we had already explored the area around the castle with Ket, we took the chance to show her another wonderful spot in Karlsruhe: The Günther-Klotz-Anlage (a public park). Summer was on its way and we enjoyed the splendid fresh air and first sun rays of the day.
First sun rays of the day!
Günther-Klotz-Anlage
Eventually, after our friends had left, Ket, my flatmate and I prepared dinner together, and we gave Ket a taste of a good German red wine as our day drew to a close.
2 May 2018 (Ariane Kummetz)
Ket’s last day in Karlsruhe started with breakfast Lao-style again, more precisely fried eggs and mushrooms with a good amount of spices. Afterwards we explored the inner city of Karlsruhe, had a look around in some stores, and I also showed her some delicious culinary delights of German bakeries.
A German bakery will find you…
… spoilt for choice!
Additionally, we went to surprise Sandra, who was working in the Thalia book store and happy to see us. (Over 60% of German students have small jobs on the side.) Unfortunately, then it was time for Ket to pack her bags and I sent her off on her next adventures, which included seeing Nina of Team V and her uncle in France again – as well as having her first actual snow experience.
Arrival in Bittelbronn
2 – 4 May 2018 (Ariane Kummetz)
Due to some complications regarding the train, Ket arrived very late in the evening at Nina’s place and the two of them finished the day with a homely get-together and some good chats. The next day Nina had to go to school as she is presently in her 18-month practice teaching phase (between graduation and one’s first teaching post). Since the weather was quite bad, Ket enjoyed having a long morning and some time to settle. After Nina came home, the two of them had the chance to explore the beautiful surroundings and walk through long colorful rapeseed fields and the woods. In the evening it was time for a movie night!
Where is Ket?
Here I am!
Rapeseed fields
A walk through nature
On Friday afternoon, the two of them went to the town where Nina spends a lot of time due to her tuition-seminars, Freudenstadt. They strolled along doing some shopping and picking up some good food along the way. Afterwards they met Denise of Team III and the day came to an end. Sadly, the end of the day also meant another good-bye…
… and Ket went on to the next chapter of her journey: France!
Arrival in Toulouse
(Ketsana Siphonephath)
I flied from Frankfurt to Toulouse for visiting my uncle and his family, we didn’t see each other almost 10 years, it was surprise him that we can see each other again in France, I spent two weeks in France and Span as well, we went to visit Dali museum in Span and Neige mountain in France… It was the first time I touched snow.
I went to visit the City de Carcassone, France. It was very beautiful.
At the airport in Toulouse
The first snow!!!
…with her uncle…
… and her two cousins
Family time in the snow
Carcassonne
I am thankful to get selected to share my experience this time in Europe. I would like to share with you some stories that I got from BHS Corrugated. I can make tour this time that because of my English is more improved I will keep on to learn English from new volunteers team. Thank you very much BHS Corrugated and all Volunteer teachers from PH-Karlsruhe University. I have never will forgot this time.
Text by S. Uhlig, S. Ud-Din, I. Martin, J. Zeck, A. Kummetz & K. Siphonephat
Photos by S. Uhlig, I. Martin, J. Zeck, A. Kummetz & K. Siphonephat
Between Laos, Australia, and a lonely island – Lao teachers enter the worlds of “Walkabout” and “Robinson Crusoe”
As already mentioned in our first post, we – Tasja Reule und Anna Hajek – started reading “Simplified Readers”1 with our teacher-students in the Beginner and Elementary classes at the Lao-German Technical College (LGTC). It was a most interesting experience to dive into other worlds together, and we would like to share this with you.
Everything started with the fact that we had four days off, due to a holiday favourably following our two monthly vacation days. Therefore, our lessons were cancelled. However, we did not want our classes to be completely unattended during this time, so we gave our student classes vocabulary to study for homework. Now we only needed to think about how the teacher classes could use this time efficiently as well.
New material, new opportunities
As it happened, we had just finished re-sorting and extending the Lending Library at the Lao-German Technical College (LGTC) by the “Simplified Readers” and “Audio CDs” which had been donated in great numbers to the AfC foundation via Prof. Martin by Ms Angela Bauer-Seekings (Pearson Deutschland GmbH). Ms Bauer-Seekings had accompanied Prof. Martin on parts of her “Fact-Finding Mission” to various Lao institutions in the spring of 2017 and decided to support the project thenceforward.
Johannes Zeck, who was also doing work at the LGTC when we arrived back in February, suggested we give the teachers the Simplified Readers to read at home during our days off. No sooner said than done. We designed a “book launch sheet” and relocated our lessons with the Beginner A, Beginner B, and Elementary class to the Lending Library. There we gave our classes a short guided tour through the extended English shelves and introduced them to our new additions, the Simplified Readers.
The wide range of Simplified Readers in the Lending Library
For the Beginner classes Anna selected all Level 2 Readers, and Tasja took the Level 3 Readers for the Elementary class. We spread these books out on a table and let the teachers take a look around. Every teacher was to choose a Simplified Reader to read at home and some of the teachers even borrowed two of them. Additionally, the teachers could borrow the respective audio CDs which were available for some of the Readers in our library.
Afterwards, each teacher received a book launch sheet and we went through it together.
Our book launch sheet
Having given all these explanations, for us, the German teachers, everything seemed to be clear. This was a naïve assumption, as it turned out later. We had not overlooked the veiled warning which Prof. Martin had posted in her reply to our weekly report announcing this enterprise, but we wanted to try it anyway.2
The awakening
After our vacation we started our classes and had planned that each teacher could present his or her Simplified Reader to the others.
Prof. Martin had been the one who had made sure the Pearson donation of Readers would go to the Lending Library of the LGTC, but she had also warned us that reading a whole book in English as homework, no matter how easy, or “easy”, or short, would not work in this oral culture, it would also overtax the teachers, and that it would be better to read the novels together with the teachers in class-time, aloud.
She turned out to be right. We were happy about the fact that all the teachers took the homework seriously and started reading the books at home – some had even finished reading their novel – only they did not understand the content. For example they copied sentences of the first page onto the Book Launch sheet instead of summarizing the content. They also reported to us that they did not understand the words and the meaning.
You learn best from your mistakes, right? Happily, this entire “Teaching English in Laos” project is designed as a learning experience for everyone involved, for both German and Lao teachers and students (and teacher educators), so we had to find a new approach with the books. We changed our plans, checked back with Prof. Martin, and instead of continuing to work with the course books Straightforward, which had been at the focus of the teacher lessons up until then, we read the Readers together in the following few weeks.
Robinson Crusoe
For the Beginner classes, I – Anna – had chosen Robinson Crusoe. I had read the Reader myself at school in grade 6 and liked it very much. The main plot takes place on an island, with fruits and animals, mountains and palm-trees – all things that are also known in the Lao normal course of life.
At the beginning I asked them to look at the book cover and we made a list of English words describing what can be seen. This was a good pre-reading activity, as the learners already got an impression of the setting and the main characters this way.
Book cover
List of words we collected:
- man
- bird
- beach
- tree
- gun
- water/sea
- sky
Then we started reading, paragraph by paragraph. One teacher at a time read aloud and afterwards we clarified the words and meaning and summarized the paragraph.
Structuring is important
I divided the board into three columns in every lesson.
Since the story is written in the simple past, all irregular or unknown forms of this tense were collected in the first column and the teachers matched the appropriate verb in the simple present tense. This way we used the book to refresh and consolidate some basic English grammar as well.3
The second column was used for all words unknown to the teacher-students. We clarified the words together, either through explanations, drawings, gestures/facial expressions, or with the help of an online translator or English-Lao dictionary. Most teachers wrote these words down in their notebooks with the Laotian translation.
The remaining column was for the plot. After the learners summarized what happened in each paragraph, I tried to recreate the plot graphically on the blackboard. If a paragraph was very well understood and reproduced accordingly, the teacher showed the plot graphically on the board him- or herself.
The graphical representation of the plot – drawn by class Beginner A
When teachers get creative
Once, at the beginning of a lesson, when we had already finished a few chapters in the Reader, I asked the teachers to draw a picture. This picture was supposed to show any scene from the book. In our English lessons at home (in Germany), after a reading sequence, we sometimes include a creative activity like role play, drawing, or doing handicrafts.
I was very impressed by the pictures:
by Mr Amphouva
by Ms Phoutone
Unfortunately, I left Laos before we could finish reading the novel. But before I flew back to Germany, we wrote a summary of the chapters we had covered so far.
| Summary:
Robinson Crusoe lived in England. |
The teachers were highly motivated to read the novel and worked hard to understand the plot and to improve their pronunciation. I am glad my successor Svea is going to finish reading the Simplified Reader with them.
Anna, Ms Kanittha and Mr Sichanh, and Robinson Crusoe right in the middle
Walkabout
Although our first try to give our teacher-student classes books to read at home on their own failed, we directly came up with another idea. I – Tasja – was under the impression that the Level 3 Readers were a little too advanced for the Elementary class anyway, after the feedback from my teacher-students. Moreover, we had enough copies of the Level 2 Readers, so everyone could have their own copy. Mainly for these two reasons I picked a Level 2 Reader instead of a Level 3 one, and, like Anna, I read the book together with my students in class this time.
I was excited when I realised that the teacher-students were (very!) excited and even more motivated than usual when I told them that we would read one “novel” together.
Walkabout – book cover
A new world is about to open
In the beginning, I gave my class an overview of how Readers are structured by shortly browsing through the Readers together: There are pictures every few pages and questions for understanding and working with the book at the end. In the beginning, you can find some sketches of the different Australian animals that appear in the story. For each chapter there are some questions concerning the content, for better understanding, during self-study.
Furthermore, for better comprehension, I divided the board, like Anna, into different sections.
The biggest column was for irregular simple past verbs besides other unknown words. In the first few lessons I saved two smaller sections on the board for the so-called “personae”, the characters appearing in the book, and the “setting”, so that my learners would remember the character constellation and the place(s) of action. This was very helpful as I noticed. After some lessons the teachers could do this on their own and even insisted on discussing questions concerning these narrative elements with each other.
To give my class a clearer idea of where this narrative is set, I prepared a map: It showed the journey of the children in the story and where the different characters could be found. For better orientation I did not only mark the countries of the story, but also Laos and Germany.4
Finally, the adventure begins
Since the teacher-students read more fluently with each following sentence, I let them read out aloud entire paragraphs before passing on to the next reader. After each paragraph we briefly stopped for explaining unknown words and giving short summaries, to make sure everybody understood the content. Either one teacher could help out another because they already knew the word(s) and were able to give an explanation, or they asked me for help, i.e. to give them a short explanation in words, gestures, or via little drawings on the board. Only in some cases we needed to use an English-Lao dictionary for understanding. Sometimes, it was even possible to sketch the ongoing plot on the board with the help of the teachers’ summaries.
Sketch of one of the first scenes
After each chapter, we wrote a summary together. At first, this seemed to be a very hard challenge, but the class improved with each try. For practice I asked them to read a specific page range of about 10 pages (which included some pages with pictures for visualization as well) at home and then to write a summary of these pages.
Mr Vonthong and Mr Bourlee read “Walkabout”
The summary we wrote together.
Unfortunately, I was not able to finish reading the book with my class before my departure, either, but my successor Tara was able to smoothly take over.
How to prepare literature lessons
During preparation for a literary lesson or if you are planning to read a book over a certain period with your class, there are several points you should keep in mind.
First, it is necessary to go through the story and deliberate about whether the students’ knowledge in vocabulary and grammar is sufficient to (mostly) understand the story or whether one could think of rewriting some parts in a simpler way. This, of course, depends on the length of the story.
Then it is necessary to plan beforehand how long the period of reading a certain piece of literature should or may take, as well as checking whether there is any specific (linguistic or cultural or literary) preparation that your learner group needs.
You should also consider preparing some follow-up work, to consolidate the new language learned. This may be some music or rhymes, to continue practising the words or grammar structure a bit further. This lexis or grammar may also be at the focus sometimes in the reading lessons.
Furthermore, think of some visual or audio support, such as pictures or hand puppets, to lead into the topic or to support the comprehension of the context while reading. For easier access to the context, it might help your students to have a link to their own daily life now and then, to adjust it with their own experiences and emotions.
Finally, you do yourself and your students a big favour if you have the main characters’ names and maybe even some specific characteristics visible whilst reading.
To encourage the students to think, reflect, and experiment while working with a story, there is a 3-phased stage model (plan-do-review) for story-based work with young (or inexperienced) learners by Jean Brewster and Gail Ellis that we like to use in our lessons back home. Experimenting is focused on listening to the story and participating during the lesson, whereas reflection is concerned with elaborating and personalising the language present, and comparing with knowledge that has already been provided.
Stage 1 “Plan”: Reflection – Pre-phase; work around the story
Stage 2 “Do”: Experimentation – The individual lesson itself
Stage 3 “Review”: Further reflection – Activities within lessons
Stage 1 “Plan”: Reflection – Pre-phase; work around the story
This is an introduction phase in which you can teach important key phrases and words for the following stage. You can provide the context of a certain activity you may have planned so that your students are already familiar with the topic. Please also consider activating your students’ reflection on prior knowledge.
This stage could include activities as followed: A warm up (an informal chat, singing a song, or routine activities), a reflection on the work in the previous lesson (playing a game of the last lesson, practising key vocabulary), and/or information about the imminent lesson aims.
Stage 2 “Do”: Experimentation – The individual lesson itself
The length of this stage depends on the length of your lesson. Each activity circle should go through all 3 stages itself. By this you assure that your students are prepared for a task and thus can execute it; furthermore, you also provide a feedback (Stage3), so they have the opportunity to reflect on their own work.
The students can experience and practise the provided language, especially from the previous task. The teacher will monitor and help if necessary.
Stage 3 Review: Further reflection – Activities within lessons
The teacher will provide material to reflect on the students’ work in Stage2.
This phase can include activities as follows: A rounding-up (summarising the lesson, asking specifically targeted questions), setting homework (research, preparation of a specific topic for the following lesson, finishing an activity), and/or a routine (an enjoyable/creative activity).
These stages do not only apply to story-reading lessons, but you can also operate with these stages in any lesson you are preparing. With this model you provide a transparent framework for your students with which they feel secure, because they get clear signals which stage follows which, with a clear progression from the beginning to the end of an activity, and, of course, the lesson.
Conclusion
Retrospectively we can say that reading these Readers was a pleasure for everybody involved. The feedback we received after each lesson was more than positive, which, of course, made us very happy as well.
The teachers were very thankful, first of all, for reading something in English and, secondly, to have someone go through it with them, addressing and answering different questions concerning unknown vocabulary and also textual meaning. Everyone was motivated throughout each entire lesson, from the beginning until the end, and even homework seemed to be welcome.
We hope the teachers will keep their motivation up in reading and and maybe we will get a complete summary or some more drawings by the end of our successors’ stay, who knows?!
Text by A. Hajek & T. Reule, with notes by I. Martin
Photos by A. Hajek, T. Reule & M. Keomixai
Audio-recording by A. Hajek & T. Reule
References
Images of both book covers: With kind permission by Pearson Deutschland GmbH
3-Stages-Model by G. Ellis, J.Brewster (1991, 21998). Tell it again! – The Storytelling Handbook for Primary Teachers. London: Penguin.
Also available online: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/pub_D467_Storytelling_handbook_FINAL_web.pdf (last accessed 15 June 2018)
Notes
1 “Simplified Readers” are shortened novels written in simplified language (at different levels) for learners of English, sometimes also called “Easy Readers”.
2 Note by the editor: My hint was only oblique. Each volunteer should have the chance to make their own valuable mistakes, as these will lead them to a fuller understanding of their own intercultural limitations or (Western) preconceptions. I would personally only veto activities or teaching plans that would put the learners in an awkward situation (as far as I could predict those myself, that is).
It is advisable not to pile up several steps or dimensions of learning in one class/homework/activity, i.e. one would only introduce one new item at a time, and practise this long enough until the learners are ready for item 2. Reading a book in English is 3 new items, with a CD it is 4, with a Book Launch Sheet 5, and with the homework of 12 unfamiliar types of questions on the sheet it is 17, and this does not yet include the competencies that are needed for preparing a book presentation in English.
3 There are no irregular verbs in Lao, and there is no past tense form. Lao is not an agglutinating language like English or German, so, instead of inflecting the verb, adverbs of time are added.
4 http://www.freepngimg.com/png/24881-world-map-photos
![To picture the plot, we designed a world map [4]](https://i0.wp.com/www.thelaosexperience.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Inkedworld-map-paint_.jpg?w=906&h=448&ssl=1 "Inkedworld-map-paint_")
To picture the plot, we designed a world map [4]
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