Lao Immersion
Surrounding yourself with Lao words and sounds and music will be the very best way to learn this fascinating language. If you're serious about learning the language, whether you live in the country or not, do your best to immerse yourself in the language where you live, using the following suggestions… 1. Use a dictionary to print words like “table”, "door", "window", "kettle", "bed", "chair", "mirror" etc and stick them onto the corresponding items around the house. Over time these words will automatically become part of your vocabulary, without even trying to memorize them! You could also in time add some verbs to them, like eat, open/close, wash, boil, sleep, sit, look, etc so as to associate them with the objects. Try it!
2. Listening to the radio a little each day and tune in your ears! All radio stations are broadcast in the Vientiane dialect, the generally accepted standard form of the language. 3. Keeping up with the news each day! Of course, reading the news will only be possible if you've learnt to use the writing system. However, if you're new to the language you can still use the news as a valuable resource in learning the language. For example try using a dictionary to figure out one headline per day - this is an excellent way to increase your vocab. 4. Using http://www.google.com/intl/lo/ instead of Google in English… OR use Google’s translation tools to turn English pages that you’re familiar with into Lao, and get to know the word equivalents that way. 5. Listen to music and look for the lyrics to popular Lao songs! Studies have shown that people loose thier accent when they sing. For example, think of Celine Dion: when she speaks she has a very strong Quebec accent, however, when singing you can't detect a trace of it. Some popular native music artists include Dao Kha Chai, Khem Tid and Aluna. Listening to their songs and following the lyrics can be a fun and valuable learning technique. For example, listen to the following song "Koam hu seuk bork" by Aluna, and follow the lyrics. Of course, this will be a lot easier once you've learnt the alphabet.
Listen to clips from Aluna's two albums using the box below. Choose the songs you like, search for them on Youtube or Google Video and follow along with the lyrics.
Help Others Live & LearnHave you learnt or are you learning this language? If so we'd love to hear about your experiences. What resources did you find useful, and why? Which resources weren't that great? Please e-mail us your thoughts using the form below. Your shared language learning experiences will save other language learners' time, energy, and money. In fact, that is the the mission of Live & Learn Languages!
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