Tsinghua English Summer Camp 2011 Held

From Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures

At 8 a.m. on Monday, June 27th, a parade of Tsinghua students dressed in red, yellow, blue, green, and purple packed the road leading up to Teaching Building Number 6. The impressive sight marked the official beginning of the 2011 Tsinghua English Summer Camp as over 3000 rising-sophomores flocked to their first class.

The three-week summer camp, now in its 5th year running, has a teaching staff composed of 55 foreign teachers and 97 foreign volunteers from all over the world. The camp is designed to create a comfortable and engaging environment where students can interact closely with teachers and volunteers. Through a series of lectures, small discussions, games, and competitions, the camp is especially targeted towards improving students’ spoken English and to further their knowledge of Western culture.

Each week of camp has a unique theme: the topic for the first week is “sports and arts,” followed by “culture and communication,” and the final week is themed “hot topics.”

All participants of the camp comprises the “Tsinghua Nation,” which is further divided into eight “provinces,” spelling out the eight letters in “Tsinghua,” and each province is further divided into five “cities,” each of which wears a different colored T-Shirt. Students compete with each other in singing, speech, and debate competitions, which are held at the city, provincial, and national levels. There is also a fashion show at the end of camp where students can show their creativity by turning their camp T-shirts into high-fashion designs.

Each day, students attend lectures taught by foreign teachers, engage in small discussions with volunteers, and have free time where they can either prepare for competitions, visit the game room to play Western games, take lessons in topics such as dance or yoga, watch foreign movies, or visit the camp store – which is stocked by items donated by foreign teachers and volunteers.

But learning is not a one-way process. While Tsinghua students are improving their English, the foreign camp staff is also learning a lot from them. Through Summer Breeze – a series of fun and informative lectures led by select students from the Department of Foreign Languages – foreigners are offered insights regarding China and Chinese culture. Topics of Summer Breeze include Chinese Kung Fu and Ancient Chinese marriage rituals. In addition, cross-cultural exchange also takes place weekly through the English Corner, where Tsinghua students and foreign volunteers and teachers are free to mingle in the lobby of Teaching Building Number 6.

As week two of camp comes to a close, students have actively involved in the camp’s various activities and have grown very close to their teachers and volunteers. In fact, many express that they are sad that the camp will conclude in just one week.