Laos Video

I suppose that this is technically a commercial video, but since it's unlikely to generate any business for them amongst us independant plebs on this Forum......

Interesting emphasis though with virtually nothing on LP, VV, VTE, PoJ etc - so what is its target market?

Not enough info on spending a life time in Laos...

Completely misses the point.

Thought it was quite good myself. If I hadn't been there it would get me interested, and then I can buy a guide book. There's only so much you can do in three minutes.

It was a promotional video, done in the style of ones you see for many other countries. If you had 3 minutes to try to convince someone to visit Laos, how would you do it?

I really like the recent ones done for India (Incredible India), and the new one for Indonesia. The one for Laos is pretty effective at what it does- it makes me want to go!

My only complaint is at the end they pronounce Laos with the 's', but that's probably just me!

re: "My only complaint is at the end they pronounce Laos with the 's', but that's probably just me!"

Here's my understanding on the whole 's' versus no 's':

I've been told that most everything is without the 's' at the end. For example, it's Lao food, Lao people, Lao boys, Lao girls, Lao language, etc...

The only exception to this rule is when one refers to the country: It is Laos. For example: I am from LaoS, and LaoS is a beautiful country, and Simply Beautify, LaoS.

When you ask a Lao person the question, where are you from? Their response is always, From Lao. This is incorrect, grammatical, even for them! Why do they do it? It's my understanding that they are so used referring to most everything as Lao this or Lao that, that they mistakenly drop the S. I like to think that they really mean to answer: 'I am Lao'. In any case, spelling is not Lao people's strong point (as evident in the 10 different ways they spell a street name).

This is my own take on it, and I am a falang.

My understanding is that it was a French introduction, signifying the union of what had been three separate kingdoms (luang Prabang, Vientiane and champasak). In any case, the fact that Lao people themselves don't use it suggests that the dropped S camp may be right and the grammar books, probably written by a Frenchman, wrong. At least it's not as bad as JFK's "Lay oz" I guess:) the French are also responsible for the bizarre spelling of the capital.

Countries like Laos and much of the developed world have largely had a spoken, rather than written language, until relatively recently, which is why the spelling can be a bit erratic.

"When you ask a Lao person the question, where are you from? Their response is always, From Lao. This is incorrect, grammatical, even for them! Why do they do it? It's my understanding that they are so used referring to most everything as Lao this or Lao that, that they mistakenly drop the S. I like to think that they really mean to answer: 'I am Lao'. In any case, spelling is not Lao people's strong point (as evident in the 10 different ways they spell a street name).

This is my own take on it, and I am a falang."

I rarely meet a Lao in country that pronounces Laos with an "S".Most pronounce it as just Lao. From what I understand is there are no Lao words which end in "S".

Being an ESL teacher here in Laos, one of the most difficult aspects of English language for a Lao is the use of plurals, there are no plurals in the Lao language. Therefore, Lao drop the "S" at the end of plurals and other words ending in "S". The most common is "sometime", when they mean "sometimes". "Always"- the "S" is also dropped. 'I "alway" eat breakfast at seven but "sometime" at eight'.

Also, one rarely hears a Lao use the term "Laotian". The ones that do use Laotian have usually been educated in a western country. Hence, the people from Laos are just called "Lao".