Today Max and I had our second day of faculty orientation at the university.

Traveling to the National University of Laos (NUOL)

Max and I had to be at the university at 8:30, so we took the bus from the station by Talat Sao to the Faculty of Letters and left at 7:45. It took about 40 minutes to arrive. I thought the bus made pretty good time. The bus traveled about 7 miles to get us to our final destination at the end of the line.

Courtesy of Guerra, C. (2023)

For reference, the blue dot is where I live downtown, and the red pin is the Faculty of Letters.

Meeting the English Language Institute of China Fellows

We met the 3 English Language Institute of China Fellows today. They were in their late 30s and older 40s and were considerably older than Max and I. They were in Laos working at NUOL last year, so they showed us around the university. There is a clean fresh market next to our faculty that sells vegetables and fruits, which I’m sure I will visit a lot. There is also a food court, food vendors, and a Dairy Queen next to school. I’m happy that the university has such a nice surrounding area.

Courtesy of Food Panda

I would love to try this Thai Tea Blizzard eventually!

Orientation Meetings

Yesterday, we met with other teachers teaching the same classes and learned about what textbooks we’ll use. I will use Headways fourth edition for my class on General English. I’m not sure what textbook I will use for Grammar. I will teach 8 classes a week. Each class lasts 1 hour and 40 minutes, so I will teach for 13 hours and 20 minutes a week. I will also have office hours for two days a week.

Courtesy of Guerra, C. (2023)

Example of a NUOL classroom

I am teaching year one at the university, so my students will be around 18 years old. Each student had to pass an English examination to be admitted to the Faculty of Letters to study English, so most of them should have a basic knowledge of English. However, I am worried about my ability to communicate in Lao with students who need help with grammatical concepts, so I really need to go back to Lao lessons! Hopefully my teacher can give me some vocabulary that will help me communicate grammatical concepts.

Today we watched presentations about each class’s objectives and learned about the percentages for homework, participation, the midterm exam, and the final exam. The best part of my day was when I got to talk to Touk, a fellow English teacher at NUOL. He got his Master’s degree in teaching in Spain. Spain is the only European country that has opportunities for Lao teachers to win fellowships and study there for three years (i.e., the duration of the Master’s degree for that program). I spoke to Touk in Spanish for a while, which was really fun. Touk said that he and I could have lunch with another teacher who studied in Spain and practice English, Spanish, and Lao. Touk said that there is a Spanish department with a visiting professor from Cuba and possibly one from Spain. He said that we could all visit and have lunch together one day. I am really excited to meet more people in Laos, and to practice my Spanish, oddly enough!

Just For Fun

Since I’m going to teach at NUOL soon, I’ve been looking at the textbook. I found these mildly entertaining sentences and thought I’d share.

Courtesy of Guerra, C. (2023)

Truer words have never been spoken!

Courtesy of Guerra, C. (2023)