Teaching English

Since I've started this job, many many people have asked me if I will be teaching English in Laos, and I always had the same answer: no. At least until recently. 

A few weeks ago my manager Ya asked if I would be up for tutoring his cousins in English so they can get better at their pronunciation.  I was very hesitant because I like my free time on the weekends and I didn't want to spend additional time outside of teaching to prepare for English lessons.  But since he was so excited about the possibility of me helping out and assured me I wouldn't have to prepare lessons because they already take English class (it would just be for pronunciation), it was difficult for me to say no, and I ended up caving pretty quickly. I started almost immediately and I now meet with Ying (girl), Jee (girl), Lao-Jee (boy), and Dtee (Boy) on Saturday and Sunday for two hours each day. They are all cousins and between the ages of 16 and 18.  We meet at Ying's house which is about a 5 minute walk from my house, so it can't get much more convenient. Its also nice because I sometimes pass the house on my way to work and I wave to their family.

So far we've had 5 lessons and it is challenging and rewarding at the same time. The hardest part about it is how they have learned English in the past and how they are taught in schools in general.  I was told that students don't always learn how to think on their own - if they are asked a reading comprehension question they will look for the key word and copy that whole sentence down even if it doesn't answer the question.  I have really seen this with the younger of my group (Ying, Jee, and Lao-Jee). We will read a paragraph, them repeating each sentence after me so they get the correct pronunciation, and then I will ask them clarifying questions about the passage they just read.  They will answer my question by giving me a full sentence from the text, or the wrong part of the correct sentence - aka they don't actually know what they are telling me.

The most frustrating class was last week when we read a new passage with 10 new vocabulary words that were highlighted. We first went through the vocabulary words and I looked up each word in the Lao-English dictionary so they knew what it meant. Then we read the passage and I asked them clarifying questions. THEN comes the annoying part. I asked them to create their own sentence using one of the vocabulary words. They could not do it. I broke it down and did one word for them and gave them about 5 unique sentences using the word (retired was the word).  I asked about their father and grandfather and if they were"retired". I told them about what people do in the US when they retire. They still couldn't form a sentence.  I then tried with the word "permanently". Again - absolute failure. I spent 10 minutes giving examples of permanently, to the point of drawing on myself with pen and saying it was not permanent because I could rub it off.  And then one of the girls asked Lao-Jee (the better English speaker of the group) to ask me to explain what the word meant.  I just sat there for a second wondering what they thought I was doing for the past 10 minutes.  Needless to say, that was the most painful class yet.

I'm now trying a different tactic. Finding an American book that they would enjoy reading that we can read out loud and do basic vocabulary and reading comprehension.  I started with Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingles Wilder because I've been wanting to re-read the series, I had a copy on my computer, I thought a 4th grade reading level would be appropriate, and I was excited for them to see what it was like living in the US that long ago.  Boy was I wrong.  To read one page and discuss it took one hour, and I don't think they understood any of it. There were too many old-school words like "wagon-track" instead of road and weird animals that they would never need to know about (muskrat, otter, wolf). Since I didn't have Internet to show them pictures, I attempted to draw...

This was supposed to be a little house in the big woods made of logs. At the top are the words they had trouble pronouncing and be trying to explain what woods are

At the top are some fill in the blank sentences that I had them do and then at the bottom... this is obviously a wagon cart draw by a horse

As I don't think this story will work, I'm looking for other books a little easier but not necessarily picture books.  I was thinking maybe Boxcar Children or another 2nd grade level chapter book that is more current. If you have ideas, please please please let me know! I am going to try to get a book to download on my computer or on my kindle so they can try reading it when we meet.