My Shining Youth with Chinese Language Teaching -- My Volunteer Life in Laos

Laos is a country where there is no winter, with Chambal flowers standing for enthusiasm full bloom. I arrived in Laos and started my dream life as a volunteer teacher with joy, excitement, yearning and anxiety.

When I first arrived, I felt the enthusiasm of everyone. The Lao teachers arranged my accommodation in fluent Chinese, and the enthusiastic colleagues showed me around the school and explained to me the details of life in Laos, which made me feel at home in this strange country.

Since I came to the school at the end of the semester, I missed the opportunity to get to know the students, but fortunately, the school assigned me the task of training local Chinese language teachers in Laos. Excited but nervous, as a new teacher, can I complete the task of training local teachers? Perhaps seeing my uneasiness, the teaching team leader Wang constantly encouraged me and supported me professionally and mentally to help overcome my fears. What surprised me was that the local Chinese language teachers in Laos were so enthusiastic about teaching Chinese. During the training, teachers from various schools actively raised questions related to problems they encountered in teaching, and took advantage of the training to discuss how to solve these problems, which benefited me a lot.

Giving a class for local teachers

China-Laos Railway has been a hot topic in Laos in recent years, so our school also welcomed a special group of students ---- Lao employees who were to work on the China-Laos Railway. These students would later work in the positions of locomotive maintenance section, freight transport section, passenger service, or examination and repairing section. They knew a little Chinese, but they needed to learn about the terminology used in the railway. It was the first time that teachers in the school had been required to teach basic railway knowledge. Therefore, it was a big challenge for the whole schoolteachers, who became real pioneers in the field of railway knowledge teaching in the school.

The China-Laos Railway is a big project affecting the national economy of Laos, and the urgency of its opening is self-evident to Laos. Therefore, with the help of railway professionals, the teachers worked together to refer to railway-related literature, summarize various railway knowledge, and divide students into passenger service class, freight transport class and locomotive maintenance class in order to teach them with separate subjects.

I was lucky to participate in the training for the last group of railway students, and conduct listening training for the fifth class of freight transport. It was not an easy job, and although I had the resources accumulated by predecessors, I still felt the heavy difficulties and pressure. Prior to the training, I had to learn a great deal about railway and understand this unfamiliar field, as well as consider how to clearly pass this knowledge on to the students. Furthermore, due to the pandemic, the training had to be conducted online. When I was once again at a loss about teaching, Liao, who had participated in the whole training of railway students, guided me attentively, helped to summarize teaching knowledge, arrange teaching content and schedule together, and at the same time explained to me how to better teach online with patience.

Listening Class for the Fifth Class of Freight Transport

"We are teaching the staff who will be working in various positions in the China-Laos Railway, and we have to be ten times more serious and rigorous than usual for the efficiency, professionalism and safety of the entire railway." Liao's words impressed me with the seriousness of this teaching task. Thanks to Liao's help, I successfully completed the listening training for the fifth class of freight transport.

On December 3, 2021, the opening ceremony of the China-Laos Railway was successfully held, and I received a commemorative ticket from the China-Laos Railway. I never thought that one day I would be able to participate in the big event of the China-Laos Railway. At this moment, I felt pretty proud of being a volunteer Chinese language teacher!

China-Laos Railway Commemorative Ticket

During my volunteer life in Laos, I felt the warmth of the school, the enthusiasm of the teachers, the passion of the students to learn Chinese, and the inclusiveness of the country of Laos. The help and care from everyone has made me more and more confident to stand on the podium of Chinese language teaching and to be an excellent volunteer Chinese language teacher. Now, I am working as a listening class teacher of Chinese language teacher training. In order to better impart my knowledge, I will work harder and more actively to study the professional knowledge and improve my ability to become an excellent Chinese language teacher!