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I have attended the OSU Chinese Immersion Summer
Day Camp at Cleveland for ten days this summer. It was a great
learning experience and also a lot of fun. Each day for about seven
and a half hours, we participated in a wide range of activities that
all involved different elements of Chinese culture. We learned new
words, phrases, and sentence patterns in Chinese and practiced them
by performing skits in front of the class. Our teacher, Chen Laoshi
(Ms. Chen) and our peer mentor, Hailun Zheng, helped us to learn
Chinese. Our teacher spoke to us only in Chinese, so that we could
improve our listening comprehension skills. Our peer mentor helped
us to understand the material by explaining things we did not know
and answering our questions. They were both excellent at teaching.
We also used the Linguafolio computer program to practice applying
what we have learned. We also sang many Chinese songs, like “Lao Shu
Ai Da Mi” (Mouse Loves Rice), “Peng You” (Friends), and the Chinese
version of “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.” Singing in Chinese
was fun and helped us to practice our language skills.
We also
participated in a variety of Chinese cultural activities. These
included Chinese calligraphy, Chinese painting, making bracelets
with Chinese knotting, dancing with Chinese fans, Chinese
paper-cutting, and participating in a Chinese tea ceremony. We also
ate many different Chinese foods for lunch and snacks. These
cultural activities helped to increase our appreciation of Chinese
culture. I learned that Chinese culture is different from American
culture, but there are also many similarities. I think that Chinese
culture is very beautiful and exciting.
On the second to last day of camp, we took
a field trip to a wonderful Chinese restaurant. We ordered our food
in Chinese, and this was a meaningful application of what we
learned. We then went to an Asian supermarket and used Chinese to
buy a wide variety of delicious Chinese snacks. The whole field trip
was a lot of fun and very educational.
This camp was a great experience because in addition to
learning a lot, we all became good friends. Our class was very close
and we always had fun learning together and practicing our Chinese
together. We came together as a community to help each other and
learn from each other. Through the Startalk Chinese Immersion Summer
Day Camp, I improved my Chinese and increased my appreciation of
Chinese culture, while getting to know some other great students who
love Chinese culture as much as I do. |
