My Very First English Camp

Hi friend. Hope you're well! Let's just jump straight into it today.

I was recently invited along to a camp for about 80 senior high school students, being held at a facility in Shizutani, which is a bus ride into the mountains from Okayama City. It was a two day event held over a Friday and Saturday, and it was extremely intensive. We were all up painfully early on the Friday to get trains from our towns all over the prefecture, into Okayama City, to meet up on an 8:30 train out to Saidaiji Station. There were lots of coffees in hands and very few conversations that morning. The buses were full of uncomfortably excited high school girls, who literally bellowed at us as we clambered aboard (which was a startling experience for 9 o'clock in the morning). We were dropped up in the mountains close to ten, which was when the activities started. 

It was pretty much gung-ho from the moment we arrived. That day the weather forecast read minus 2 degrees, and we were all rugged up to the nines. The first thing we were informed of upon arriving was that most of the heating in the facility had malfunctioned earlier that morning. Some rooms had heating, but the corridors that comprised most of the building did not, which was very, very unfortunate. They hauled two kerosene burners up into the tatami room we were using as a lounge between activities, which kept us alive at least. We didn't get to relax in that room too often though - the schedule was literally packed to the rafters. We were all divided up into groups (eight students and one ALT), and the groups competed for points in a range of English language activities across the two days. The ALTs' chief responsibility was to assist and support their group in completing the activities, without actively doing the work for them, obviously.

The activities included a sort of treasure hunt, where each of the ALTs was given a 'hiding place' somewhere in the building, and the students were given a map to find us. The groups had to try to find each ALT and complete a short challenge in under 5 minutes, in order to score points. They only had about 45 minutes to find as many of us as possible. The ALT challenges were things like riddles and word jumbles. I played a variation of Hangman-meets-20 Questions, where the students had to ask questions to identify the word. For each question, I revealed one letter. It was designed to get them thinking about how to describe things in English. The answers were 'something you can find in Australia', like 'playtpus', 'Sydney', 'Great Barrier Reef' etc. They had to ask questions like 'Can you eat it?', 'Is it an animal?' and so on. The most popular challenge was Bananagrams (similar to Scrabble), which was in the room next door. 

Another activity, which was by far the most difficult for the students, was a team debate. The groups had been given topics earlier, and had already done all the research and prepared their arguments. The ALTs had to help their groups prepare for the debate itself, which meant checking their arguments for mistakes and giving the students tips on presentation (eye contact, loud voice, rebuttals, etc). For many students it was the first time trying a debate, and some of them struggled. They did a really tremendous job under pressure, and they all worked together very admirably. 

Before dinner we had a kind of interview session, where we each sat with three groups, one after another, and were interviewed by each group for a report being presented as a newspaper. I really enjoyed this part of the day, because we all got to get comfy in smaller groups and have more detailed conversations with some of the kids. It was nice getting to know them better, and having the chance to really talk with them one-on-one. Or, I suppose, eight-on-one. They asked us questions about ourselves and our home countries. After dinner the ALTs relaxed in the aforementioned tatami lounge, chatting and playing games while the students worked on their newspaper articles. Occasionally one of us would get dragged off to be sketched, or take photos for the presentation. It was pretty cute.

The students put a lot of effort into the presentations, because they were part of the competition, so they were being judged for points. The criteria included things like depth of information, quality of presentation (design, etc), and fluency of written English. After breakfast on the Saturday the ALTs had to judge the presentations, which was hard. Some of us took it way too seriously (cough me) and probably judged a little too critically. Ah well, it was all fun, and I'm sure the students appreciated some constructive criticism. Besides, they need to prepare for the real world. Nobody tells you you're wonderful and amazing and gives you gold stars out here! Ha-ha. 

Yeah, boy! Third place!

The most interesting and random part of the camp was Friday night's 'leisure hour' after dinner, during which all the students dressed up and performed for the ALTs and teachers. The first years opted for gym gear. Their dance was a little strange. The second years went full on balls-to-the-wall Christmas. Little red tops and skirts with white fluffy trim (think Mean Girls), Santa hats, dancing to Christmas carols, the whole shebang. I still don't know how they didn't freeze their little tushies off; that hall was probably as cold as it was outside, which I remind you was about zero degrees. 

Hands down peak moment was when a boy and girl, who were actually dating (which was why it was supposed to be the adorable highlight of the show), stood in the middle of the stage and attempted a cute bridal-style lift. The keyword here is 'attempted', because she didn't wear bloomers, and about .25 seconds into the lift she realised her butt was going to show and promptly freaked out. He wasn't prepared for her sudden squirming, and basically immediately dropped her. It was wonderful. I have it on camera. JD (pretty much one of the greatest legends you'll ever meet) and I replayed it several times in slow-mo for optimum entertainment. It was great. It still brings me unreasonable amounts of joy. Classic funniest home videos material.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff, but the last activity worth mentioning was the skit contest on Saturday morning, before we all came home again. The groups had pre-written a short play and prepared costumes, sets and props. The ALTs had each been written into their group's skit, so we all had a small role to play. There were eight groups, and the eight play topics ranged from things like Detective Conan (a popular child detective from a famous Japanese anime) and Cinderella, to My Neighbour Totoro (a Studio Ghibli classic), and Zootopia. My group did Snow White. I played the magic mirror. My costume was basically a silver cellophane sheet with a hole for my face, and a tinsel necklace. I looked like a ghost had collided with a shooting star. It was glorious. 

Always on the slightly-manic side of excited. Anyway, magic mirror costume.

Japanese humour is very strange, and often bizarre, so the plays were a bit of an odd time. Very fun, obviously, but sometimes I just don't get Japanese students' humour. I don't understand some of the stuff they think is hilarious. Some classic bits that always pop up in student skits include cross dressing (boys often play princesses, complete with wigs and sparkly dresses), and putting a modern spin on a classic folk tale - Momotaro inevitably appears somewhere, often dressed like he's from the 'hood. They really love him in Okayama. Anyway, it was a grand old time, very funny - all the ALTs were brilliant even though we only had about 3 lines each - and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing.

The experience overall was fantastic. The kids at this particular school were really eager to engage with us, and enthusiastic to participate in all the activities, so the atmosphere across the two days was exciting and fun. I was so impressed by how many students tried to use their English skills to talk with us and get to know us. I'm so used to having shy little clams in my classrooms, so it really drove home the reason why we're all over here working in these schools, and I feel like it's given my drive a real reinvigorating kick. 

Hands down, though, the best part of it all, for me, was returning home with a handful of new friends, as cheesy as that is. I thought I was doing swimmingly well in my little pocket of the world, with my pal Naidene and my friendships with my Japanese colleagues, and while I definitely think that's true, it's still a bit of a relief to feel like your network is expanding. And, you know, that you're still capable of making friends even though you're a bit of an awkward potato. I had as much fun hanging out with the other ALTs as I did getting to know the students, and I'm looking forward to recognising some of their faces at future events and conferences.

Not many photos this time, sorry! Gotta be extra careful about student confidentiality and anonymity. Keep an eye out for more travel posts, though - there's always plenty of pics in those! More to come soon. x