As anyone who has learned a foreign language knows, one way to improve one’s skills is to read, read, read. To that end, when ever we are in Ulaanbaatar I head to the book store and pick up children’s picture and chapter books in Mongolian. Some books I have bought include Harry and the purple crayon, The giving tree, Matilda, Sherlock Holmes mysteries, Pippi Longstocking, Nancy Drew and the mystery of the 99 steps, and the first two Harry Potter books. About a month ago I took them to school and set them up in a little display by my desk in my classroom. Within 2 days they had all been borrowed by my students with others lining up to borrow. That was when I realized that these kids have nothing fun to read. Yes there are libraries at our school and in the culture center, but there are several problems. 1. The book selection is old, inappropriate, and boring. Imagine biochemistry textbooks in English from an international donor, moldy fairy tales in Russian, and pictures books for little kids, 2. The libraries are almost never open, and 3. kids are not encouraged to use the libraries.
What my students need, especially the older ones, are fun chapter books written in Mongolian. Not picture books, not books in English (not even my best student can read most of the books I have in the classroom), and not textbooks. Silly fun books that instill the love of reading in kids.
Emma the Peace Corps volunteer is currently writing a small grant application for funds to buy books for the kids. $500 will get us about 100 chapter books from Ulaanbaatar and will go a long way to giving the students something fun and productive to do in their free time.
In terms of this issue, I think that international educational organizations should be looking a little closer to home when they design donation programs. Sure my students can fill 3 minutes before class looking at the pictures of “Volcanos: How do the work?” in English, but what they would really benefit from are copies of Eclipse in Mongolian to read after school in their dorm rooms. Perhaps not the most educational, but if they learn to find enjoyment in reading in Mongolian then they are much more likely to attempt to read in a foreign language.