A day in the life of three students, an English teacher and a Team VII volunteer at the LGTC
I work at the LGTC and meet many different persons every day. As I spend several hours a week with my tandem-partner and students, I was beginning to get curious about their different daily routines. Eventually I found out and decided to share those stories with you, and add my own.
At first, three BHS students talk about their day and what they like about studying at the LGTC.1 Second, you can read about the day of a BHS English teacher, and last, about the day of a volunteer (Team VII).2 I devised a template to help the authors structure their articles, but no other help was necessary.3
A day in the life of Ms Panhia Yang (Electrical Year 2 student)
Hello, my name is Ms: Panhia Yang I am 23 years old.
I am a ET student in my second year. I am from Vientiane province. There are ten people in my family, I have three older brothers and one sister, two younger sisters and one brother with my family.
The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning, I brush my teeth and take a shower, and then I cook for my break. I always have breakfast at 7:00 am. Before I go to school, my house s near to school so I walk to school at 7:30 am every day.
We always have class at 8:00 am – 11:30 am. My classroom have only 16 students, there are 9 boys and 6 girls with me, my teacher is good they are intending teaching to us. However practical subject or theory. My classmates are very friendly.
I always have lunch at 12:00 I cook by myself and sometime my sister in-law cook. My favorite lunch is fish soup.
In the afternoon go to school at 12:40 we have class at 1:00
In my freetime I spend 2 hours for do my homework and read English book. After that go to sleep at 21:00.
I feel happy when I come to this college the fast day I don’t know everyone but I study with my classmate for a week. I know about them they are friendly and very kind.
I like learning at the LGTC because there is a places that teach anything that I never knew before and I like to study about electricity. I like being a BHS student because have a good time to meet and study English with Germany teacher.
A day in the life of Ms Toukta Sulinthavong (Electrical Year 1 student)
Hello! My names is Miss Toukta Sulinthavong. I am 15 years old.
I am a Electrical student in first year. I am from Phan heng Village, Vientiane Capital. In my free time, I like to listening to the music, play mobile phone, and clean my house.
The first thing I do, when I wake up I brush my teeth, take a bath, wash my face and get dressed. After tha I feed the ducks, chickens and the frogs. I cook breakfast by myself. The I have breakfast I take my books for study. I go to school.
In school: My study with my teachers. I write the lesson, learn about my teacher teach. In class during the practical training, I like English. I don’t like Math subject. My favorite subject is English. My teacher is beautiful and very nice. Her name is Nicole.
For Lunch I always have noodle soup. I cook noodle soup by myself. My favorite lunch is papaya salad, sticky rice and grill chicken. Sometimes I do not have lunch because I eat breads.
In the afternoon I go to school with my friends and I study with my teachers. After school I have English class in evening. My English class start at 6:00 – 7:00 o’clock. After that in my freetime I like listen to Music, watch TV, reading books and clean my bedroom.
I like Monday about my day at the college. Because my teachers are very kind. I like learning at the LGTC because I like study to college with my friends. I like being a BHS student because my family doesn’t have enough money and etc….
A day in the life of Ms Somsanouk Phannavong (General Mechanics Year 1 student)
Hello, My name is Miss: Somsanouk PHANNANONG.
I am 18 years old. I am a GM student in my first year. I am from Sikeud village, Naxaiythong district, Vientiane capital. In my freetime I like to play sports: karate- Do and table tennis and read the English book and listen to English song.
In the morning the first thing I do, when I wake up I brush my teeth, take a bath and get dressed. Next I eat breakfast and check my phone, prepare the book and go to school.
In class: My teacher teach me about how to measure material by vennier calipen. So I like it, my favorite subject are English subject, math and computer, but I am not good at math and computer and my classmates someone say: it easy and someone say: it very difficult.
For lunch I go to the restaurant. I always have noodle soup because I don’t have a time to cook myself, but my favorite lunch is grilled fish
In the afternoon I come back to school again for study the other subject and I have the activities with my friends. So, it make me have new friend and change an idea together.
After school I have a little freetime. So, I am reading books, do the home work for going to the evening class, sometimes I listen to music and talk with friends the next time I go to English class in the evening and after class I eat dinner and go to sleep.
At the college, I like to do a lot of thing. So, it has a lot of section and I like learning at LGTC because it help me know the new thing or something I don’t know before. And take a lot of theory to me, to be a Technical. So I like being a BHS student because: This project give the chance for the other person who really like and want to learn.
A day in the life of an English teacher
Hello, I’m an English teacher from Lao-German Technical College. My name’s Akina YADSADAHUK.
Now, I live in Xaysavang village, Xaythanie district and Vientiane capital. My home is far from my college. So, I always get up early every day. And I usually get up 5:45 a.m. I tidy my bedroom first and I don’t tidy his son’s bed because he’s still sleeping. He often gets up at 6:30 a.m. Second, I wash the baby bottles in my kitchen. After that I brush my teeth and have a shower. Next, I comb my hair and put on my make-up. Next, I get dressed. I wear my uniform and my husband cooks for breakfast. I then have breakfast with my husband. After that I go to my college. When I arrive my office, I always drink coffee and I pack my bag with all my teaching materials in the morning. On Monday and Friday my class starts at 8:00 a.m. and ends at 4:00 p.m. These days are so tired. Every Tuesdays and Thursdays I prepare my lesson with my tandem at 10:00 until 11:30. Sometimes we have lunch in the soup kitchen. My tandem name is Patricia Hopp. She always helps me to prepare my lesson plan, teaching aids etc.… After that I continue to study Technical English with another volunteer, Nicole Wiesa. My studying starts 3:45 until 5:15 on Monday until Thursday. I often arrive my home at 6:00 p.m. After that I wash the baby bottles. Then I take a bath. Every weekday I don’t cook because my husband has to cook for breakfast and dinner. He has to cook because he starts to work at 8:30 until 4:00. He comes back home before I get home. Sometimes I only cook on weekend. We usually have dinner 7:30.
Then I continue to prepare my lesson. Preparing my lesson at home is convenient because my jobs are teaching students and working in my office together. So, I don’t have a time for preparing my teaching. I have my printer in my home so it’s comfortable to print out my lesson. Furthermore, I save my money to buy a lamination machine for laminating my materials. I spend these times to prepare my lesson because Technical English is quite difficult.
Finally, I go to my bedroom at 10:00. During a night we have to wake up 3 times because our baby cries. When he cries that means he wants to drink milk. Then we have to prepare a milk. It’s a hard day.4
A day in the life of a volunteer at the LGTC
Hello my name is Nicole Wiesa, 25 years old and a volunteer at the LGTC (Team VII). I am from Vaihingen/Enz, a town near Stuttgart in Germany. In my free time, I like to play badminton and read books. Luckily, I was able to play some badminton in Laos, too. Mr Saythong Insarn likes to play badminton in his free time, so he takes me to play with him and his friends. It is a lot of fun but very tiring as it is very hot in Laos.
In the morning, I normally get up between 7 and 8. The first thing I do when I wake up is to check my phone. For breakfast I have cereals with milk. Before I walk to the LGTC, which is right next to the bungalow we volunteers live in, I have a shower and put on my sinh.
At the college, I join the class of my tandem-partner Ms Moukdala Keomixai. She teaches English and when I see her I always feel happy because she is such a wonderful and joyful person. In class I observe her teaching and sometimes we teach the class together. After class we normally sit together and reflect on her lesson. If there is still time, we plan the next lesson.
When it is time for lunch, Ms Moukdala Keomixai, Ms Ketsana Siphonephat, Ms Ba Phengsouphy, Ms Akina Yadsadahuk, Patricia, Dilara, and I go to the “soup kitchen” near the campus. The family who owns the place already know us. Normally, I have a noodle soup, which is my favourite dish in Laos.
On Wednesday afternoon, I have the BHS student class “Intermediate”.5 The class has 14 students and I love every one of them. The English lessons are always fun and my students love to learn English. After that I teach my English teachers class. We are only 7 people, a good size for a lot of communicative activities. Sometimes we discuss technical topics that are not featured in our course book Technical English 2, which is challenging for me as well, and I learn about new technical topics from my “teacher-students”, who are experts in technical matters.
In the evening, I have evening class with the BHS students. Sometimes the students are very tired, so I try to do a lot of fun activites like memory games, vocabulary bingo, or phantomime. Sometimes we go to the Lending Library.
After school, I help Patricia to prepare our dinner, but Patricia is clearly the chef in our team, so I chop vegetables, cook pasta, or set the table. After dinner, I usually skype with my boyfriend Patrick or my parents and tell them about my day in Laos.
Thank you very much, Ms Akina, Ms Panhia, Ms Toukta, and Ms Somsanouk, for sharing your daily routines with me and our readers!
Text by N. Wiesa, P. Yang, S. Phannanong, T. Sulinthavong & A. Yadsadahuk
Photos by D. Erdogan, P. Hopp, I. Martin, S. Phannanong, T. Sulinthavong, N. Wiesa, A. Yadsadahuk & P. Yang
Notes
1 “BHS students” are the students at the LGTC who have a scholarship from BHS Corrugated. Those students take additional English classes taught by the volunteers.
2 Team VII worked at the LGTC from September 2018 to February 2019. Dilara stayed longest and helped Team VIII to settle into their new routines.
3 Structure: Introduction of author, narration about their day starting in the morning to the evening, reasons for liking being a student or teacher at the LGTC. This had developed from the authors’ ideas about what they would like to share, and some sentences like “The first thing I do in the morning…”, “For lunch I have…”, “In the evening…” etc. provided the scaffolding.
4 In Laos it is quite normal that young parents work full-time.They may do this soon after the birth of a child because the family – which includes older family members – depends on their income. Lao babies and toddlers are then looked after during the day by an older relative, e.g. the grandparents or an aunt.
5 The BHS classes are divided into three groups: Beginners, Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate.
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