07/31/09 02:50 Age: 1 yrs
JHF Summer English Camp 2009 - in Wuming, Guangxi Province
BY: ALICE VANDERWERF, CANADA
Volunteers from six countries with ages spanning five decades teamed up to do a ten-day English camp for children, teens and teachers in the small town of Wuming in Guangxi province. Among the exciting activities were English lessons, cultural exchange opportunities, English corners, sports and fun nights, field trips and a final festive night of drama, music and dancing.
A social and cultural exchange night for local teachers from two schools launched the English camp for students and teachers in the small town of Wuming, Guangxi. The teachers and team members chatted together and snacked on fruit, crackers and delicious Gouda cheese made in China by JHF associate Marc deRuiters’s Yellow Valley Farmhouse Cheese. This was followed by dozens of dumplings dipped in a special mustardy sauce that the local teachers prepared. This was a great way to get to know the teachers in the Wuming community.
During the cultural exchange conversation times Susan and Alice, two trained and experienced teachers, along with other team members facilitated questions and answers about educational differences and similarities among the various countries as well as personal experiences in learning and teaching.
The English lessons for the students had a theme each day such as Community, Famous People, and Friendship & Trust. The lessons included learning vocabulary words and phrases, doing dialogues, playing games and attending an assembly where new songs were taught and short dramas were presented by team members.
The two field trips were a climb up a small mountain in the countryside and a trip to “Flower World”, an amusement park. One of the fun nights was going to a Karaoke restaurant where students and teachers could sing their favourite Western or Chinese songs. On two other nights students and teachers played fun Western card games like Crazy Eights, 10,000 (aka “Greed”) and Apples to Oranges. Team members, students and teachers also got together to go swimming or to play basketball, volleyball or badminton. On one of the game nights the camp kids, with their teachers, planned, prepared and presented short skits. The younger children had to learn short lines in English while the teens learned much longer segments of dialogue.
The last night was a gala night of skits and songs presented by the camp students and beautifully-costumed dances and drama performed by a local dance troupe. This not only made for a festive finale to a wonderful time together but also illustrated the variety of activities and good cooperation between JHF and the local community that marked this year’s summer program. We look forward to continuing this worthwhile partnership in the years to come.
