University English and German Camp: Summer 2009

University Camp is an international communication program for both volunteers and local university students supported by Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade and Shanghai XuBo Art & Culture Exchange. During the summer of 2009, there were about 50 university students and 4 volunteers took part in our camps.

We divide each month into four camps, so each camp start from Monday to Friday and activity time is 10:00am-4:00pm. Meanwhile, the average students are 3-8 per week since we have different theme of each month. Depends on the number and demands of students, the company will arrange matching volunteers and volunteers need to design the individual schedule for them, like kinds of team-building games, BBQ(self-help), outdoor activities, making videos(self-help), house parties,international dinner and so on.

Although this was the first year for University Camp, we made great achievements by volunteers and students. During these two months, they were more like friends not just teachers and students. The students could ask whatever they want and do whatever they like, and then really got a lot from volunteers. Meanwhile, our volunteers also could learn more about China. Therefore, it’s a double-win for both students and volunteers.

Since the passing of the interview, have I been looking forward to the activity. For me an English major,a whole week stayed together with foreigners, especially English spoken volunteers was quite an amazing! In fact , so was it!

Day 1: It was the first time we ,totally 10 people, saw each other ,but through a warm-up game ,we chatted and played like old friends. We had two volunteers——Rebeca from Germany and Katie from Britain.What impressed me most was that Katie had been to some many wonderful countries ,such as:Spain , Italy, France , Germany ,Japan ,etc.. And she’ve learned several kinds of languages as well.

Day 2: We spent almost whole day in Qian Gui , a super chain of karaoki amusement.It seemed that this was Rebeca and Katie’s first try but they did quite well . Everyone ordered their favourate songs and shared them with us . All of us enjoyed ourselves.

Day 3: This was the busiest day of the straight five days:go shopping , do the cleaning, salad and grove.We divided 10 people into two groups:one for kitchen and the other for barbecue.I was belonged to the former one , so what I remember was lots of cleaning and making salad. The D.I.Y salad was absolutely the combination work of all the people . Cut various vegetables ,put them together and finally draw the salad sauce on them .It tasted good,didn’t it?

Day 4: Bread , jam , cheese ,bacon ,and yoghot ,a picnic in the park was really pleasing. Being exposed to the sunshine and breathing the fresh air does a lot good for people who always facing the computer and sit still for all day long.

Day 5: We saw a great movie together and hold a non-cocktail party in the apartment.The way to make a non-cocktail drink arosed all the curiosity . We were so brave that we tried different mix .Anyway I think the charm of this is to try try try ,without thinking whether it’s drinkable or how it would be taste.

The five-day journey ,though short ,but covers a lot. During these days we have established friendship with the two foreign friends and got to know the two culture better .Having enjoyed ourselves , We had joy ;We had fun!

Feedback from Students

We had Joy - We had Fun!

It has really been an exciting experience with our two foreign friends. We shared our culture and learned a lot from each other. I enjoy their breakfast though it made me too full to eat my lunch. Through our communication we both know much about the foreign country. The most important thing I gain from this summer camp may be that I finally came to know it is not as difficult as I thought before to chat with the foreigners. What I received these days is——fun

---Yang WenFei, the first week of English camp, 2009, 8, 3-2009, 8, 7

In this summer camp,2 volunteers from Germany and USA came to exchange culture and language with us for a week. I’m convinced that I've learnt a lot in this meaningful program! In this week, we went to the amusement park, saw the movie, had a barbecue and went to the science and technique museum. Among these variety activities, we talked a lot with the volunteers, compared different phenomena in China and their countries. I think this kind of camp makes students around the world know better from each other.

---Fang HaiTong, the first week of English Camp, 2009, 8, 3-2009, 8, 7

I'm quite interested in the culture in different countries and that's also the reason I registered to such a summer camp, and fortunately, it didn't let me down. During the period time, we visited Jingjiang Amusement Park and Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, which I used to think of as two of the least interesting places in our city, but this time, it gives me a quite different feeling. Maybe it is because the people I visited with. Emily and Rebecca are good company when travelling. They are beautiful, lovely and talkative and the most important thing is that we are all curious about each other's culture, which gave us much to chat about. On Thursday, we had a chance to experience a so-called German day, fulfilling my dream of having a close look at the wonderful country, especially Berlin, the capital of Germany. That day we really learned a lot, from marriage to terrorist. It forced me to think twice before I decide to go to America because it sounds deadly dangerous. I just hope it will get better when I get there. God bless me and all the Chinese people who are or will stay there.

---Cheng YuCi, the first week of English Camp, 2009, 8, 3-2009, 8, 7

Feedback from Volunteer Michael

Four weeks of German Camp are over, and it feels like it was only yesterday when it all started. I enjoyed the camp very much, and hope that the students did so as well.

We might have had a bit of a slow start in the first week, since neither I nor them did know what to expect, but it did improve from week to week. For me, the things that I enjoyed most were the many good conversations about different topics, such as society, politics, cultural differences, languages etc. Since we only had very few students, those individual conversations were easily possible with most students. For future camps it is important to raise this issue in the beginning of the week and make absolutely clear that we, the volunteers, are not only open for, but in fact rely on suggestions and improvements.

In the third week, Sharon did not speak any German at all, while Lina had to dig out her high school English, having actually expected to be able to speak German. Understandably, she still wanted to practice her German on me from time to time, which sometimes did exclude Sharon from the conversations. I do understand, however, that due to various organizational issues it won’t always be possible to avoid such situations.

As for the second week with Rain, I think everything went very, very well. The barbecue on Wednesday and the breakfast on Friday went very well. However, don’t try to plan too much as this will only make the camp too complicated and too less spontaneous.

I learned a lot in the last weeks and will never forget the experience I gained here. Thanks for making this possible.

Feedback from Volunteer Katie

I really enjoyed participating in the University camp. It was my first time in China and I felt very welcome when I arrived. I was not sure what to expect from the University camp, so I was a bit nervous but still excited on my first day. Our co-ordinator Peggy was very helpful and friendly and made me feel comfortable as did the other volunteer Rebecca. The idea of the University camp is very beneficial for the Chinese students as they get the opportunity to use the English they study in class and for the English speaking volunteers, the camp is also very beneficial. As it is a great opportunity for us to interact with Chinese university students and most importantly it enabled us to share our culture and for them to introduce us to Chinese culture. I found the Chinese students were very interested in our lives in Europe and they asked many questions. (read more of Katie's story...)"

Feedback from Volunteer Michael

University German & English Camp Photo Gallery