I'm in the Army Now . . .

  . . . or so to speak. I have been working with Lao army English teachers for the last month teaching a special short course. The group of 15 is composed of teachers from the Southern Province of Champasak, the Northern Provinces of Luang Prabang and Xianghoang, and Vientiane Province. They are a wonderful group that we (4 other teachers and I) are teaching intensively in order to help them improve their English and at the same time teach them something about English language methodology. It is a challenge, but a welcome one as I love working with international teachers :)

Although they are at different levels of English language proficiency, one in particular is quite low, they have all improved. I showed them how to use verb "flashcards" and a present tense "boardgame" last week, most of them never having played a board game before. They were thrilled and eager to know where I bought the ABC, 123, and phonetic sound flashcards I also showed them. I had actually picked them up at Target for 99 cents per pack. Unfortunately, items like that are very hard to find here - Vietnam and Thailand are much better places to go. However, most of these teachers live in rural areas, don't have email, don't have computers, don't have CD players, don't have books for the students, don't have photocopy machines, and teach up to 55 students in a class. Some academies don't even have textbooks for the teachers!

One of the benefits of this course, funded by the Australian Army, is that each academy (4 are represented in the class) will get a CD player, a textbook series designed for Australian immigrants, accompanying CDs, and a set of all the materials we 5 teachers have given them over the 4 weeks.

Next week will be our last week. I can already see that they are responding to the "communicative language teaching" that we have been demonstrating. A few have come to me at the break and said things like: "I don't want my classes to be boring - I want to wake up the students! My teaching will be different when I get back; my students will be surprised!" This is what we want to hear from teachers that come from a system of education in which the English instructor stands at the board, writes down lots of words, and the students pretend to copy all of them . . . all the while speaking Lao (teacher and students).

The teachers did mini-demo lessons last week in which I saw them use gestures, their voice, the board, and props and walk around the room to make sure "we students" were on task. And all the while the instructions and feed back to "us students" was in English. I wish the course could go on, but Friday will be the day when they go back to their respective provinces and try out their new "teaching chops". I will miss them.

"Are You Now, or Have You Ever Been, a Calm-munist?"

Jen and I have lived in three different countries that were, at one time, located “behind the Iron Curtain” - communist/socialist states that were identified in no uncertain terms as “the enemy” in the Cold War of my youth, right up to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Bulgaria, Slovenia, and the former Soviet republic, now independent nation, of Ukraine all share certain similar characteristics that identify them as former socialist states. Suffice it to say that vestiges of the former system make up a recognizable part of the current “capitalist” versions.

It is really fascinating to us that, given the years we’ve spent in the former communist world, we are now living in an actual “communist country”, one of only five remaining in the world (China, Vietnam, Cuba, and North Korea being the other four). It’s fascinating because it’s so hard to jibe the rhetoric and propaganda of the Cold War and Vietnam era with the reality that surrounds us here. Outside the ubiquitous “hammer and sickle” banners of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, it’s hard to discern any of what Cold Warriors might see as “communist” activity in these environs.

There is very little police or military presence here in the capital, outside of a few guys in uniform lazing about in traffic boxes at roundabouts. We haven’t seen or heard a parade yet featuring political posturing, shows of military might, or Young Pioneers marching in step with photos of Lenin or Marx. The boss at my school has a picture of Lenin on his wall, but I think he’s forgotten it’s there. The last time I saw him was at a cocktail party sipping red wine with a bunch of Americans. There is a bookstore downtown where you can buy communist swag, but business seems a little slow. I haven’t heard a single political utterance from a Lao person in six months, outside of a strong admiration for President Obama.

What we do have, however, are flags. The Party has distributed red and yellow hammer and sickle banners to every business in town – they are everywhere. They are generally flown with the more sedate Lao national flag and decorate banks, hotels, restaurants, girlie bars, repair shops, you name it. It is a reminder that Laos is a one-party state — only members of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party are allowed to contest “elections”.

Laos is very much a Buddhist country. Buddhism is the belief system that instructs the behavior of the Lao people. After the Communists came to power in 1975, half-hearted attempts at establishing collective farms were rebuffed by the populace. This is not Cambodia, or even Vietnam. I’ve coined the term “calm-munism” to describe the social/political system we have here in Lao.

BTW, in a June memorandum, President Obama wrote, “I hereby determine that the Lao People’s Democratic Republic has ceased to be a Marxist-Leninist country.” The memo includes a reference to the US Export-Import Bank’s definition of Marxist economies. Only North Korea and Cuba remain on the list of true “communist countries”.