2. Falang-Friendship-Feast – farewell party for “most of us”
We almost cannot believe how time flew by so fast. Last week, it was already time for four of us to kiss Laos goodbye. Julia, Sandro, Steffi, and Ann-Kathrin went back to Germany – their time was up. We took the opportunity to celebrate a massive farewell party – Lao style, of course.
Sikeud Secondary School was the place to be on this warm and sunny Saturday. Besides good mood, fun, happiness, as well as a pinch of sadness, the following gems were on the German-Lao menu: Käsespätzle (traditional Swabian egg noodles with German mountain cheese and fried onions) and potato salad made by our German fraction; papaya, banana, and Lao salad, as well as fish soup and fried noodles from our Lao counterpart.
Some of the Lao dishes were even made on demand at the table by our Lao chefs.
Another highlight were the fancy sport dresses by some of the Laotians, an absolute must see.
Our dinner table was set up on the lawn of the school yard. While munching through the mountains of food, we enjoyed good conversations with our friends and colleagues. All of us where relishing the good and relaxed atmosphere.
After the feast, there was time to join some sport activities. Besides volleyball and Sepak Takraw (a combination of volleyball and football-tennis, played with a small plastic ball) we got to play table-tennis as we had a table-tennis table this time. The party was accompanied by dance music from a typical Lao ghetto blaster (a huge boom box with a karaoke function, as Lao people love karaoke!).
Saying goodbye to Julia, Sandro, Steffi, and Ann-Kathrin was one of the main reasons for this party. We seized the opportunity to thank our Lao colleagues and friends for the great times we’d all had together. Venkham Xai, the director of Phang Heng Primary School, driver Vieng Kham, and the Lao General Manager of Angels of Children, Mr Khamsing, received a framed photograph of us, the German volunteers, as a keepsake. Julia and Laura had made elaborate an English Activity Booklet as a gift for our English cooperation teachers from all three schools. These booklets contain plenty of activities for teaching English, some of which they had already learned, as well as some new ones, and a pile of picture flashcards which the teachers can use for training vocabulary, or singing songs, and playing all kinds of games. It was a great surprise that was cordially accepted.
Of course we also seized the chance to take some pictures. After that, we spent a very convivial night together. Like the “Falang-Friendship-Feast” (see earlier article), today’s event was a great success, which strengthened the bond between us and our Lao friends.
Here are some more impressions.
Text by T. Mayer
Photos by T. Mayer and J. Zeck
A somewhat different Christmas choir
Yesterday, on the 16th of December, we (the German volunteers) reaped the fruits of weeks’ of hard work. Since the second week of our arrival to beautiful Laos we have been meeting for rehearsals at the German embassy. With some great extra effort of our musicians Julia and Sandro we managed to become fabulous singers and a notable addition to the international “Mekong Polifonia” choir, which is led by Marie Guillot, the ambassador´s partner. More than 300 people from many different countries gathered at the Sacré-Coeur Catholic church in Vientiane for the Xmas concert and heard a great variety of fine Christmas songs from all over the world. The final song, “We wish you a Merry Christmas”, was sung by the whole crowd. At the end, it slowly faded away just to make room for ear-piercing standing ovations. A great evening which was topped off with delicious mulled wine and sausage buns.
Here, you will find a report with photos: German Embassy´s Christmas Concert.
Or check out the homepage of Angels for Children: Engel für Kinder zwitschern für die deutsche Botschaft.
Smiling faces
No need to explain why we´re doing this! Smiling faces in the schools in Ban Sikeud and Ban Phang Heng – come to Laos and you will also get to know the Lao happiness!
Photos by T. Mayer
Students of the primary school
First VISA run
In Laos, our VISAs expire every 30 days. Therefore, we soon needed to take a trip to the Thai/Lao border. We hopped onto the van and crossed the border on one side and again on the other. Two hours and 30$ later, we had accomplished our mission: we were proud owners of renewed VISAs. As a treat, we stopped at the magnificent Xieng Khouan Buddha Park for lunch on our way back to Ban Sikeud. The scenery of the different Buddha statues was an incredible sight.
Text and photos by T. Mayer
We hit the bus
At the Lao-Thailand border
1. Falang-Friendship-Feast
On Saturday, the 21st of November, more than 20 Lao and English teachers gathered at Ban Phang Heng Secondary School to celebrate the first ever “Falang-Friendship-Feast” (Falang is a very common name for white people of Western origin. It is a relict from French colonial time. The original meaning was “long nose”). It was another wonderful afternoon in Laos and everyone was looking forward to this event. Each of the two befriended nations agreed to cook their most delicious dishes. The Lao teachers made to perfection steamed and seasoned Nueng Pa Mak Nao (Mekong fish), fresh and spicy Tham Maak Hoong (green papaya salad) and Kaupak Saisinngau (vegetable and beef stir fry). The German teachers’ addition to our feast was a stunning potato salad and two sorts of pasta: Linguine all´arrabbiata and Linguine with a finger-licking good tomato-sauce with local sausage. The latter came straight out of the Lao-German-Italian fusion kitchen by our master chefs Sandro and Tobi. Dessert was also provided by our Lao friends in form of Maak Manggohn (Dragon Fruit) and Maak Mo (watermelon). While one dish after the other was placed on our festive table everyone´s mouth slowly but steadily started watering. The menu was accompanied by French red wine and, of course, Laos´ national drink, Beerlao on the Rocks. The different nationalities were randomly shuffled around our table so everyone could have a nice chat and train their ability for intercultural exchange. After an hour every oh-so hungry stomach was filled to the max. Everyone was now free to join different activities. Some gathered around the volleyball field, some tried not to break their bones at Sepak Takraw (Lao kickball, which is an absolute must see! Check out on youtube. It is somehow like a combination of volleyball and football, played with a small plastic ball) while others upgraded their social skills and intercultural competence levels. To round up the day DJ and semi-professional dancer Souvanh played some of his finest tunes. We danced and had a good laugh until the late evening and everyone went home with a good feeling.
The whole event was a great success. New friendships were made, everyone was able to learn from the other culture, we were able to learn some Lao words and we also taught them some German. We really hope that this event finds a sequel next year. Kop chai lai lai to everybody who was part of this.
Text and photos by T. Mayer
German cooking crew
Lao food preparation
DJ Sauvanh
Same, same, but different
“Angel” Gerlinde with John and Sandro
Happy people
Field trip to the University of Laos, Vientiane
Last Wednesday, we went to the English Department of the University of Laos to join their weekly „English Zone“, a communicative platform for everyone with an interest in the English language. We took our chance to get an impression of what´s going on there. Once we arrived we were warmly welcomed by the Lao students and their volunteer teachers from the U.S.A. After briefly introducing ourselves each of us joined a group of students to have a discussion about food preferences: Asian food VS Western food, both heavy-weight champions in their own respect. After half an hour every group had the opportunity to make a statement about their yummy likes and dislikes. As most of the students haven´t come across Western food too often one can imagine that the result was quite one-sided in favour of the Eastern competitor. In numbers: 10:0 for Asian food. Everyone had a good time and after two hours we headed back towards Ban Sikeud. The Lao students really appreciated our visit and are looking forward to seeing us again.
Text by T. Mayer
Photos by J. Zeck
Our arrival
The English faculty
Introducing ourselfes
Discussion groups
The groups presenting their results
Mopsy and his friends
We, Franziska and Tobias, recently started working with English for Mopsy and me in the two preschool classes of Ban Sikeud. Mopsy is a program that requires a high amount of participation of each child. This is incompatible with class sizes of approximately 40 children. Hence, it was necessary to break them down into eight smaller groups of about ten children each. Every day, during their normal English class, we take one group to a separate room. There, both of us teach them together with the hand puppet Mopsy for 30 to 45 minutes. In this article we review some of our observations.
First of all, we would like to say that we have never worked with Mopsy before. Hence, it is difficult to evaluate our progress with the Lao students as we have no comparison with the effect on other students. One of the authors, Leonora Fröhlich-Ward, volunteered to train us in a preparatory workshop back in Karlsruhe, though, to introduce the material to us (click here to check out our report from October).
After one week of teaching we tried to sum up the obstacles we had to face:
- In their teachers’ notes, the authors state that a friendly and warm relation between students and their teacher is an essential requirement. Hence, we as strangers from a different culture could be a hindrance even though the students behave towards us in a more than welcoming way.
- Mopsy is a cute dog puppet, but in Laos dogs are not as domesticated as in other cultures. In many cases they are even stray dogs or react towards people with barking. This could also be a problem for the learning process.
- In the Lao preschool classroom, students are only used to copying words and sentences the teacher says by mere repetition (in chorus). The communicative approach of Mopsy is quite new to them. Often, they therefore fall back into their usual pattern, just repeating the phrases Mopsy or we teachers present. Questions are therefore not understood as questions.
- Students are relatively shy (which might also be related to our presence).
After a while, the young learners slowly learned to leave their comfort zone and the participation and fun increased. It required a lot of empathy, patience and love to reach this first goal from our side, but we believe that we are on a good way. Furthermore, Mopsy became more and more popular with the young students. Therefore, he can no longer be seen as an obstacle for the children´s learning. It is so nice to hear a squeaky “Mopsy” from these cute rascals.
This leaves us with two major problems we have to deal with: the difference in the approach and their shyness. Nevertheless, we are very optimistic that we can overcome these difficulties. We will need a lot of love and patience but we are both willing to do this for the sake of the students, their learning and our success. If you are interested in further observations and results of our Mopsy-sessions, please check out this blog or the newsletter.
English for Mopsy and me is an English course in two volumes developed by Leonora Fröhlich-Ward and Gisela Schmid-Schönbein. It consists of a handbook, a CD, many picture and activity cards and is centred around the hand puppet Mopsy, a cute dog that talks and interacts with the children. A great focus is laid on facial expression, body language and emotions. The target groups are young learners of English, from preschool to primary school. At these age levels, students are extremely capable of foreign language acquisition. Through Mopsy, they absorb language in a playful way and start talking in English unwittingly.
Text and photos by T. Mayer
After a Mopsy-session at 32° C.
Franzi in action
Tobi in action
Some early impressions
Throughout the next days after our arrival, our schedule was packed. First, we visited all three schools supported by the Angel for Children foundation, namely Ban Sikeud primary, Ban Phang Heng primary, and Ban Phang Heng secondary school, where we were introduced to the teachers and the principals. We then unpacked all the English material (40 kg!) that we had brought and installed a new English teaching library and then set to work printing and laminating flashcards.
Then, in the following week, we sat in several classes to get some impressions of English lessons and teaching methods in Laos. Adapting to our new environment was also a key point on the agenda: Our bodies were still struggling with getting accustomed to 34°C. In the late afternoons, we continued arranging all the teaching materials, many of which had been generously donated by publishers, and got all set up in the room for the teaching staff. Gerlinde Engel was so kind as to show us around. For example, she showed us the close-by sewing company “Trio” that she had founded and which offers working conditions that are rare in Laos. The “Trio” dining-hall is where we enjoy our daily lunch: soup, vegetables, different kinds of Láab, curries, grilled meat, lots of rice, and fruits like watermelon, papaya, mango, and dragon fruit. Absolutely delicious!
At the same time, we gave our best to figure out a good schedule for teaching English. As of now, we have established four ways of teaching. First of all, there is the daily teacher training, which is English lessons for Lao teachers (28! of them in total). Second, we observe English lessons of our Lao cooperation teachers at all three schools and offer them methodological and didactic support. At the same time, we partly model-teach their lessons ourselves. Third, the three primary school teachers, Franziska, Laura, and Tobias, work with pre-schoolers. As there is no pre-school English book, we are more free to use our own methodology with this group, so we use “English for Mopsy and me” (an English programme for pre-schoolers) and English picture books. Finally, after the regular lessons end at 3 p.m., we offer daily activities like singing, dancing, and TPR-games (“Total Physical Response”) to establish a playful and positive environment for learning English.
On our third afternoon in Laos, we already started teaching English during activity time at Ban Sikeud primary school and tried the “Hokey Pokey”, an English action song. It was a great success: the children were very curios about the new teachers from Germany and all the things we have to offer and we quickly had a huge crowd singing and dancing with us!
We also attended the daily school routines like physical morning exercises, the brushing of teeth, and the “flag ceremony” held on Monday mornings and Friday afternoons. They hoist up the Lao flag, salute to it and good students are praised. In all aspects, the schools supported by Angels for Children foundation can truly function as (future) role models for other Lao schools, which is the ultimate purpose of our project.
At the end of our first week in Laos, we invited the English teachers to our first “Singlish” workshop. Singlish is the combination of singing and English, and a fun and fruitful technique in teaching English. This workshop was a great opportunity to meet the English teachers, to get to know them better, and to bond. Once more, we realized how kind and happy our Lao colleagues at Ban Sikeud primary, Ban Phang Heng primary and secondary school are. Their enthusiasm is truly amazing. Everyone is highly motivated and looking forward to this new cooperation.
On the same day, the chairman of the foundation, Christian Engel, his entire family and Johannes Zeck, the project leader, arrived. They caught some glimpses of the workshop and seemed to like what they witnessed. In the evening, we had dinner at a restaurant where we had the opportunity to get to know each other and have good conversation. We discussed and organized the next steps that we hope will make the cooperation between Angels for Children and the University of Education Karlsruhe a great success.
Text and photos by T. Mayer
…Noy
…Mit
…Donekeo
Our first encounter with Bounpheng
Team I prepares the first workshop
What are they doing? And why?
Alessandro Pola
First ever group photo
First trust
The first hours of a new adventure
Through the tiny window of Flight No TG574, we, five graduates of English from the University of Education Karlsruhe and our professor, caught our first glimpse of Laos. Dense jungle, the premises of a giant Lao yellow beer company, and the absence of paved roads were our first impressions of Laos after an exhausting 20-hour journey from Germany to this picturesque country. Leaving Germany in crisp October and arriving at 70% humidity in oppressive heat took some getting used to: de-boarding the airplane felt like hitting a wall. Gerlinde Engel, our generous host and co-founder of the Angels for Children foundation, as well as Mr Khamsing Nanthavongdouangsy, General Manager of the three schools supported by the foundation, awaited us at the airport and took us to Ban Sikeud, some 30 km away from the Lao capital Vientiane.
After a 30-minute drive in the cooled van, during which we marveled at the many unknown things we saw by the road, we arrived at Ban Sikeud primary school during lunch time. When we were taken across the road to our new home, we could not believe our eyes: what had been announced as a “villa” turned out to be … a V.I.L.L.A.! Our hosts welcomed us with a wide range of delicious authentic Lao food: Lao rice noodle, Láab, vegetables, and salads prepared by the lovely Bouanguen, aka Linda.
After a first conversation, Ms Engel took us back to the capital Vientiane to watch the traditional annual boat race on Mekong river. Monika and Marion Schellberg as well as Steffi Schädlich, who also work for the foundation, awaited us near the town center to accompany us to the race. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived it was just over. So we took a walk along the riverside to get some first impressions about the Lao way of life. One thing was immediately clear to us as we saw the many food stalls, beer tents, music stages, the many happy faces, and an endless mass of people: the Lao people love to celebrate! They also had a good time “spotting” our Tobias, who with his 2,04 m towered over everybody else (comment by Prof. Martin).
In the evening, we enjoyed a traditional Lao dinner with our lovely hosts in a restaurant by the river, where we had the opportunity to try some of the famous Bear Lao. Marion, Monika, Steffi, and Linda told us about their experiences in Laos, with special regard to English education. We, in return, shared our plans, expectations, hopes, and dreams for our future time here. As you can imagine, after our journey and this first eventful day in Laos with its flood of new impressions we were very tired. We enjoyed our well-needed rest to let everything sink in, and were looking forward to our great Lao/English adventure more than ever!
Text and photos by T. Mayer
Sunset meets Mekong
What is this all about?
Why are there five alumni and a Professor from the University of Education Karlsruhe at Frankfurt Airport? And who are the Angels for Children? Where is Laos and how does all this fit together? This and many more interesting stories and experiences will be shared on this blog, starting now.
Text by T. Mayer
Photo by Mrs Pola
Workshop “Modern Western Square Dance – Be There, or Be Square!”
Traditionally, Modern Western Square Dance is known as a North American folk dance. Various steps and figures from different European folk dances contribute to the almost endless possibilities and permutations of dancing Modern Western Square Dance.
To set up yet another way of inviting Lao pupils to start communicating in English (in the absence of a communicative course book or common language), Prof. Martin first took us along to an “Open House” Square Dance party held at Landau University and then invited her cooperation partner and professional caller Andreas Hennecke to do a Caller Workshop for Modern Western Square Dance for us, which also included Rounds and Contras.
Sounds curious? Well, we sure did have many good reasons for doing so! Here is why.
For dancing Square Dance, Contras or Rounds, you need groups of four pairs each, or two lines facing one another, or pairs in a circle. Furthermore, every dance needs a leading person, the “Caller”, who tells the dancers what to do. They do not simply dance a rehearsed routine. Instead, they first learn a variety of figures and steps, namely the “calls”, which the Caller then “calls” them to dance in an order that only he or she knows in advance. Dancing Square Dance is therefore not cast into regular choreographies. Reacting to the Caller’s calls therefore requires a lot of attentiveness, the capacity of reacting and moving immediately, and last but not least the understanding of English language chunks, because all calls are made in English.
This is one of the reasons why Modern Western Square Dance is a suitable technique for teaching English, especially verbs and adverbs (“circle right! Forward and back!”). The calls also make use of polite phrases (“thank you””) and praise (“well done!”). While dancing, the learners connect language structures with their meanings through movement, which also happens to correspond to the principle of “Learning by movement” and is pure “TPR” (“Total Physical Response”), a method often used at the outset of language teaching. A successful square dance thus demonstrates that the language learners are literally “on their way” to understanding English.
Moreover, dancing is fun and highly motivating. This truly is the crucial argument for implementing Modern Western Square Dance into English teaching – especially in Laos, where people love music and dance.
Square Dancing provides authentic and motivating learning situations on the one hand and requires orderly communicative interaction on the other hand, thereby fostering language (and social!) learning. Listening comprehension is strengthened here, but by integrating Square Dance into other school subjects by way of the many different word fields we then move on to work on the productive (speaking) skills.
After getting our first practical experience at the Open House Square Dance party at the University of Landau on 15 September 2015, where Caller Andreas Hennecke taught us many basic figures, we were excited to attend his professional “Caller Workshop” at the PH Karlsruhe only five days later, organised by Prof. Martin on a Sunday (which Andreas Hennecke, too, donated to the project!). At the workshop, we learned more moves and figures, but also about the theory of calling and how to call ourselves. In the beginning, the calling part was difficult for us. Andreas is a great teacher, though. He explained strategies for calling, led us through step by step, and after only one day we had become “Modern Western Square Dance Young-Callers” ourselves. Naturally, we had to practice calling many times before we could manage calling to the beat of a song without losing our concentration. But by the end of the workshop with Andreas, each of us was able to call one entire dance without tripping up!
Thank you, Andreas, for your support! We had a lot of fun and hope we can inspire the students and teachers in Laos! We’ll keep you posted.
Text by J. Bauer and L. Kringe (didactic part by guest co-author Heike Müller)
Photos by I. Martin
Caller Andreas Hennecke
Happy achievers
Workshop “English for Mopsy and me”
For our preparation for teaching English in Laos, Prof. Martin asked Ms Leonora Fröhlich-Ward and her friendly hand puppet dog “Mister Mopsy” to come and do a workshop for us. Ms Fröhlich-Ward and Prof. Dr. Gisela Schmid-Schönbein are the authors of English for Mopsy and me, a successful didactic concept for teaching English to very young learners in preschool. The book was published in several editions; there is also a second volume; teachers’ notes are in English. Copies for every participant were provided free of charge, with accompanying CDs.
On 14 October 2015 Ms Fröhlich-Ward undertook the journey from Munich to Karlsruhe (and also covered the costs for her train ticket herself as a donation to the project!) in order to show us how to work with the material.
To start with, she recapitulated why and how we should teach English to young children. Children at the age of 5 are still in the process of learning their mother tongue. Therefore, they are still very aware of language in general, and trying out new words and structures is natural for them. Also, young children are able to pronounce foreign words more easily than adults or teenagers, being less inhibited. Research also shows that the earlier children immerse in the target language, the more likely they are to develop native-like language competences later on.
Learning language within an appreciative environment with lots of fun, games and songs helps learners to embed new language skills into their personal sets of competences. The concept of English for Mopsy and me aims to provide such a positive environment. Young learners should enjoy discovering a new language. Sustainable language learning needs to be free of stress (or boredom), which is why students should never be forced to speak English when they are not comfortable. The concept of English for Mopsy and me mainly seeks to foster a positive attitude towards the target language within the young learners. The motivating stories around the protagonist Mister Mopsy encourage young learners to learn freely and playfully, and by and by they start to communicate in English with the hand puppet.
During the workshop, Ms Fröhlich-Ward showed us a variety of hands-on lessons from the first book. It provides multiple opportunities for communicative interaction throughout. The hand puppet dog establishes very appealing moments for conversation, so language learning occurs as an intended side effect of enjoying English community. Language learning being facilitated this way, the young learners take their first steps towards a sustainable and hopefully life-long learning process.
We are very glad that we had the chance to learn from Ms Fröhlich-Ward and meet Mister Mopsy. We will start teaching English lessons with Mopsy in the Lao preschool of Ban Sikeud and Ban Phang Heng soon – and these experiences will be recounted in another report (click here)!
Text by F. Frister
Photos by I. Martin
Student helper Marlene donates her time to film the workshop
Mopsy fits on every hand
Ms Leonora Fröhlich-Ward
Prof. Martin with the author
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