When we checked into our hotel in Luang Namtha, Laos, the young man at the front desk asked where we were from. “U.S.,” we replied. “Hawaii.” He didn’t seem to know where Hawaii was, but when we mentioned we were from the U.S. his face lit up. He asked if we had plans in the evening, and if not, would we would mind coming to his class to teach English? We shrugged and said sure, why not, and finished checking in. Later, Ted went back and asked him later if it was okay with the teacher. We weren’t sure what we had just agreed to, after all. He replied that the teacher had asked the class to bring in native English speakers so they could hear the correct pronunciation. He said we could just come and “talk about our experiences.” Little did we know we would be teaching the entire class.

When we arrived at the school at the mentioned time, no one was there. Little by little students began to trickle in, and about 20 minutes later our friend from the front desk showed up. Still no teacher, so the students asked if we could teach for a bit. So, completely unprepared, we began the class. They had a textbook, but it was poorly laid out, inappropriate for their level of comprehension, outdate, oh- and in Vietnamese! But we made it work. A bit later the teacher showed up, and at first I was relieved, thinking he would take over. But instead he just took a seat and waved us to keep going. “Teach the whole hour,” was his only response. So we did.

At the end of the hour, I felt like I was running out of ideas and the attention of the kids (late teens to early 20’s) was waning. I called for a break. The teacher had walked out of the class a few minutes prior, so we didn’t get to speak with him. The kids, however, were all very appreciative, and gave us directions to the town Wat (temple) that we had wanted to walk to for sunset.

I felt humbled. These kids had a teacher that showed up late, a terrible textbook not even in their language, and yet they pressed on, and spoke remarkably well. And here was I, not even a professor, just some traveler who happened to be a native English speaker; and yet this thing trivial thing to me was something of great value to these kids. And not just these kids, but people everywhere are wanting to learn English. It is becoming the international language. And the more people can communicate with each other, the more we can understand and have compassion for each other. I think I will do this again.