Drinking tea and having fun!

…but I can’t really understand it all. Which is ok, I guess. Vocabulary has been the most difficult part of learning Lao so far. There are so many different ways to say the same thing; its hard to keep track of them all. I get really frustrated sometimes because of my inability to retain all of the words, but I have to stop and think that I have only been studying for a month. It would be impossible to know all of the words at this point. Therefore, I bought a dictionary to remedy my vocabulary problem. It is my new bible. I take it with me wherever I go. Whilst my vocabulary is growing everyday I find that I am able to understand more and more speech. I’m also trying to speak Lao with as little an accent as possible. I feel that learning it incorrectly will only create a bad habit which will become problematic in the future. Apparently I’m doing well. My language partner says I have a “Siang Vieng” (Vientiane accent). It is important to be heard and understood correctly. Especially with a language like Lao where if you mispronounce a word you could accidentally say something different and which could sometimes be offensive.

We have come so far since we first arrived. It’s strange to think that I only started learning Lao a few weeks ago. I don’t even want to think about leaving soon. I will miss all the new friends I have made here. Its been such a wonderful experience so far.