Gratitude for this Journey and Senior-Life Renaissance
As I wrap up my last month and a half as an English Language Fellow (ELF) at Champasack University (CU) in Pakse, Laos, I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude. I was placed here by the US Embassy and my host, the Education and English Department at CU , who assigned me last fall to teach pronunciation and phonetics to first-year English majors and to run a sustained schedule of workshops for faculty aiming to improve their English for participation in international conferences. Some background: It was December 2024 when I applied to the ELF program. It was a last minute, end- of-year personal challenge—I was hoping for another overseas English-teaching adventure, after a gap since I taught overseas in Slovakia in 2012. It had been eleven years since I earned my Master's of TESOL from Eastern Michigan University and first taught English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in Michigan at the Michigan Language Center in Ann Arbor. Living and teaching abroad, immersing myself in a new c...