Why Learn Lao?
Why learn languages?
Though it’s true a second language can help us find jobs, let’s also focus on the other reasons for learning a language. We spend so much of our lives having to serve the interests of an economy that doesn’t care about people or the world. It’s high time we were able to put the interests of each other ahead of those of CEOs and tax havens. Learning a language, in a variety of ways, can help us do this.
Society often funnels us down a career-path. Before we’ve had the chance to discover where our passions reside, we find ourselves scrambling from paycheck to paycheck on low or minimum wages. Worse still, the labour we provide either leaves us starved of inspiration, or in some cases even robs us of time to pursue our interests - all of which has damaging implications for our mental and physical health.
Learning a language can provide some relief, and even an escape, from these pressures. It can’t stop us worrying about bills or rent, but it can help us find other lines of work. Aside from potential career benefits, the process itself is rewarding, and a lot more fun than traditional methods have led us to believe. Far from being an unwelcome burden on our daily routines, learning a language can become an enjoyable distraction from life’s pressures. As well as helping our immediate mental health, it is also thought to aid cognitive function, and could delay the symptoms of dementia.
Learning a language may even help us tackle the problems facing the world. If we can communicate with and learn from each other, we stand a better chance of organising against issues as global as climate breakdown.
Get to Know Lao
Lao is from the Kra-Dai (Tai-Kadai) language family, and is both a first language and a lingua franca in Laos - a country with more than 80 languages, two of the most widely spoken of which (after Lao) are Hmong and Khmu.
In Lao, the language is called ພາສາລາວ (Phasa Lao), and is written in the Lao script, ອັກສອນລາວ (Akson Lao). The language can also simply be referred to as ລາວ (Lao). Lao is a tonal language, with most of the Lao dialects having six tones.
Lao is spoken by around 30 million people - predominantly in Laos, where it is spoken by 7 million - and northeast Thailand, where it is spoken by 23 million. This stems from the Franco-Siamese War of 1893, after which the Lao-speaking lands were politically separated through a border drawn along the Mekong River. In northeast Thailand, the language can also be known as Isan, although native speakers still refer to it as Lao.
Though slightly different, the scripts of Lao and Thai are closely related, and the spoken languages are mutually intelligible - forming a dialect continuum with other languages from the Southwestern Tai language group. Whilst there is no official standard dialect in Laos, the dialect of the country’s capital, Vientiane, became the de facto standard.
Why learn Lao?
Although speaking a new language does not revolutionise how you see the world, the people and cultures it takes you to will. It's almost like discovering the world again as a child, just in a different tongue. It refreshes the mind and can fill you with the impetus to experience different cultures and meet new people. This could be as conveniently as watching Lao films or reading a Lao novel in the evening. It could be an experience as spontaneous as chatting with people at a bar in Vientiane, or before a ceremony in Luang Prabang. It could even be a whole new life in Laos.
After learning any language, the prospect of learning others suddenly feels much more feasible, and this is especially true for languages that share similarities. After learning Lao, you’ll find it easier to learn other languages - especially Thai, but also Vietnamese, Chinese, and Khmer.
Chances are that if you’re reading this, you already have an idea of why you’d like to learn Lao. Whether it’s for professional reasons or pure curiosity, I hope these paragraphs have given you a brief sense of the benefits learning Lao, or indeed any language, can bring.
If you're interested in learning Lao, more information and resources can be found on its Get to Know page here on the How to Learn Languages website :
