Hello and “Sain baina uu?”
My name is Matthew Hudson and I am a current Peace Corps volunteer serving in Mongolia. I am an English teacher working at a small school in Hovsgul Province, the northern most province in the country.
Hovsgul is a very beautiful place. It has a large fresh water lake that is clear enough to see the bottom of. it also sits in a national park larger than Yellowstone! Hovsgul has the most livestock than any other province in Mongolia and is home to a small unique group of people known as the Tsaatan people, or reindeer herders, who live far up north near the Russian border.
Here, I co-teach with three mongolian teachers of English and cover grades 5 through 12. The school is very small here and only has 400 students total (K-12). Most of my students are excited to answer your questions and offer their own. So please, ask any questions you would like and lets get to know each other!
I will try and keep up as much as possible considering internet is sometimes limited here and we have a full 12 hour difference between us!
The steppe of Hovsgul. The town is situated nicely in a narrow valley. only dirt roads lead in and out of it.
Keep the questions coming!
Hello Mr. Hudson,
This is Mrs. CDR from Toronto, Canada! We are a grade 4 class, first time blogging and trying to connect with many schools around the world. What a great place to learn about different parts of the world!
We are trying to connect with as many bloggers as possible. How long have you been in Mongolia and what is the best part of working there?
So, students here in Mongolia start learning English in school in the 5th grade and continue until 12th grade. I teach all these grades and, of course, there are some students who speak well and others who don’t. Before i began my service as a Peace Corps volunteer, I was given 3 months training by Peace Corps to learn the Mongolian language as well as some other things important to my service. So i can speak a little bit of Mongolian but only enough to get by. But it is nice because my students and I build up communication skills together.
And yes I love my site very much. It is so beautiful here and I could not have asked for a better group of people to serve. Mongolians are very friendly.
Thanks Kevin for the questions!
How do you talk to your students. Do they speak English? Do you like this place?
Wow! seem like amazing experience, and how are your students learning English this year? Do you instruct your students math, science, history? So I want to know when you began teaching their class, did your students fool around in class? When any students come in your class what language do they speak?
Hey Kevin! thanks for being so interested! Most are doing okay in class. I only teach English. Many students are now preparing for end of the year exams. At the beginning, (and even now haha) students fooled around just as much as American students would. Students are the same everywhere haha. When they come to class they mostly speak in Mongolian so i work really hard to get them to speak English. thanks for the questions Kevin!