Lao civil servants upgrade their English for work and Party
(KPL) Over 50 officials from ministries and provinces are attending an upgrading course in the English language, held at the Institute of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from 12 July to 8 December.
Mr Thongvin Vongmounty, Deputy Head of the Institute Foreign Affairs said that the objective of this course was to raise the standard of English of civil servants so that they could use it in their daily work and ultimately benefit the various sections of the Party and government.
The curriculum of the course was made up of core text, listening, pronunciation, speaking, writing, grammar and basic computer operations. Beside these, the trainees would also be involved in sporting activities, charitable work, carry out data collection exercises, writing up reports and making presentations on their reports.
The six-month course would be divided into three modules and this 500-hour classroom course would be made up of morning and afternoon classes.
Mr Thongvin urged the trainees to respect the rules of the institute, switching off their cell phones during classes and not to consume any alcohol within the confines of the school.
Mr Thongvin said that the Institute of Foreign Affairs sourced for highly experienced teachers from Japan, New Zealand, and Singapore and so the trainees were assured of the highest quality of teaching.
Patrick Loo a teacher from Singapore explained that the trainees should use the English to English dictionary, like the Oxford English dictionary and not the English to Thai dictionary.
Patrick added that the trainees should speak English with other friends and teachers and not other languages and this would get them to become fluent in English.
For anyone who was learning the English language in Laos he faced the problem that Laos was not an English speaking country and the lingua franca was the Lao language. However, if one was studying English in an English speaking country one’s spoken and written English would improve at a rapid pace because of the language environment one was in.
He also said that the six-month course was not long but was short and the trainees should consider it as “high-value time.”
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