English Camp

Nelson Barros – Long Stay Participant

During my stay in Shikaoi, I was given the absolute pleasure of taking part in English Camp! Hosted in Shikaoi’s “Pure Malt Clubhouse”, the goal of the event is to get the Japanese junior high students to use mainly English for the day. The event spanned from 9:30am to 2:30pm, and is packed with fun games, workshops and big group cooking activity. The 3 English speakers involved were Kelsey (JET ALT) and Megan (Stony Plain ALT) me. We were each given a similarly sized group of students to oversee. Despite being a younger group, their English level went above and beyond all expectations. The level at which many Japanese people can speak English is very impressive. 

We had a fun video chat with people from Stony Plain during English Camp. The students all got to ask some questions and talk to some children their age. They were split into 3 groups again to ensure every student was given the chance to talk. Megan and Kelsey each led a group activity. Megan had the students design an all English comic book cover, Kelsey had them write up an all English postcards to send to their grandparents. My responsibility was figuring out what meal to make for 40 people. It also needed to have some relevance to Canadian culture. With snow on the ground, and a bitterly cold breeze, there’s no food I wanted more than chili. Maybe not a traditionally Canadian food, but definitely an adopted one.

The hardest part of making chili in Japan is finding kidney beans. There are a lot of foods that Canada has in abundance that are entirely unobtainable in Japan. 

 I had 10 Japanese students carefully cutting vegetables, while 2 poor souls were in charge of browning a ridiculous amount of meat. All of the students were given English instruction throughout cooking, and all of them handled it very well. The chili went over great, and one of the teachers suggested adding it to a school lunch rotation. It’s wonderful to see so many people in Shikaoi so interested in English and Canadian culture. Experiences like these are what you should look out for if you ever get the chance to take part in theLong Stay Program! Many fun things are constantly taking place in Shikaoi and the surrounding area. Don’t hesitate to ask about upcoming events and festivals.