Two students had participated in an international camp in this summer. Here we present a report by a sophomore student.

To read Japanese version, click here.

Jiading International Youth Friendship Camp report

Masataka Ishida

I had participated in the Jiading International Youth Friendship Camp from August 1st to 9th in Jiading, China. There were more than 40 participants from nine countries in the camp. The goals of this camp were to make contact with different cultures and to understand each other, and also to develop a deeper friendship between us. At this camp, I had gained knowledge about cultures of each country, skills to talk in English, and skills to communicate well with others. Those nine days were very fulfilling for me.

First thing to mention about English, I don’t have any issues with it, because I had studied at a local school in the Philippines for four years without Japanese. When I went to the Philippines, it was easy to communicate with others because everyone was so friendly. However, in this camp, it was completely different. It was hard for me to make opportunities to communicate with other campers. In the first few days of the camp, I couldn’t communicate with other participants very much because most of the time, they only talk with people from their own countries. But by playing some games like UNO during free time, or participating in the programs, I became able to communicate well with others and I made a lot of friends. Therefore, those days were very interesting for me.

In the first few days of the programs, most of the participants were hanging out with people from the same countries often, so it was not easy for me to talk to them. However, because of this situation, I was able to acquire skills to talk to strangers, and also it was a great opportunity to test my English skills. In order to communicate with others, I started talking to them on the bus or while eating lunch and dinner. On the fourth day, I was able to talk with most of the participants, especially I’ve made friends with students from Slovakia. With students from Slovakia, we talked a lot about each country and a physics competition called “International Physics Olympiad” because I loved physics.

On the sixth day, there was time to vote for “Star of art”, “Star of vitality,” and “Star of wisdom.” At the closing ceremony I was awarded as a “Star of art.” “Star of art” is a title for a person who is talented with art, and I was surprised that I was chosen for this award. At the closing ceremony, I sang “One call away” to other campers. In that song I put my message for others which means “I’m only one call away so don’t be sad, we’re bonded deep inside our hearts, someday we can meet again for sure.” Actually, this song is made for a person who is in love with others, but I think it is also about friendship between people. So I decided to sing this song for other campers. Those nine days were too short for me, but I had a lot of good experiences.

Even after the camp, I’ll continue to communicate with others via Facebook or other SNS and I want to deepen our friendships.

Through the experiences at this camp, I have gained three important things: The first one is the skill to communicate with foreign people in English. The second one is the skill to communicate with foreign people that I haven’t met before. The last one is that I gained a lot of new knowledge about cultures and images of each country. My impressions for each country has become better than before. As a matter of fact, as to China, I had a bad image for them because of watching the news on TV and reading it in the newspapers. I heard of many problems about China like territorial disputes in the South China Sea. But since I went to China and I saw many kinds of people there, I like China now. I want to use those skills that I’ve learned at this camp in the future and also want to tell what I’ve experienced and learned to my families, friends, and others.