First days in Laos

China's phenomenal economic growth over the past 30 years is certainly evident in Jinhong, Kunming and other cities we have visited in Yunnan. This is not to say that there are nohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gift small towns and rural areas of poverty evident. Crossing over into Laos, one immediately sees a great contrast in the level of living. In the villages and small towns of Laos, the houses are generally made of wood and thatch with thatched or tin roofs, appearing more like shacks than real houses. Many of of these dwelling are without electricity and appear to have no furniture inside. The people live without consumer products for the most part, although cell phones and motorbikes are occasionally evident even in the rural areas. In Laos, one sees even more deforestation and examples of clear-cutting. Some areas we passed are totally cleared of the pristine rainforest that once dominated the area. However, there are still many beautiful rivers that we passed, and very often we saw children frolicking in the rivers and older people bathing.

Luang Nam Tha, a quiet provincial capital, lies in a wide, lush valley in northern Laos. We found a quiet, cheap guest house where we enjoyed staying for three days. One day we rented a motorbike and went on an excursion stopping at the teachers college outside of town. The college campus has a relaxed, peaceful atmosphere with many trees and green areas. Most of the students were away doing field work, but we talked with a few friendly English teachers. The college has 800 students and 76 teachers we were told. It is a publicly funded school, but the students must pay up to one million kip a year to attend (about $120 U.S. for tuition, room and board). The teachers told us they are in great need of some good teacher trainers and invited me to stay and help. We were tempted to stay, it is such a peaceful place and help is needed, but we are running out of time on this trip and I don't think we would last very long here in such an isolated place, so we declined the offer. However, it would make for a good teaching experience and if anyone wants contact information I have it.

Later that evening, I visited an adult English school in town. The classes were held in a dilapidated old building. I visited two classes with about 30 students in one and about 20 in the other class. Both the young women teachers used a lot of Lao in presenting and clarifying information. In the first class the students were using "New Interchange" book 3 from Cambridge Press.(1998). The teacher started asking the students what they had done over the Lao new year that had just been celebrated. She went around the room and each student had to say something. The answers ranged from "I cleaned my house" to "I drank a lot of beer". The teacher often used Lao to explain what had been said or to add something, and I noticed she often used the present tense instead of the appropriate past form. After this exercise, the teacher played a listening tape and worked with the whole class to answer the questions in the book. After that, she had the students check an article in their book about the "Ghosts of Silver Town Colorado". Then, she asked me to come forward and read the article to the class which I did, stopping to ask questions about the vocabulary. Next, she asked me to come up and had the students ask me vocabulary or pronunciation questions and asked me to write the words on the board as I responded to their question.

Later I observed another class for about 40 minutes. This class used a book that focused on training for employment with a government or non-profit agency. The book includes grammar points, reading exercises, and some basic information on the countries of Southeast Asia.