China's got talent

The Mentougou English Summer Camp Closing Ceremony was so much of a highlight for me, I thought it probably deserved a post of its own. So here's a really cringy, amateur attempt at video editing with some highlights of the acts during rehearsals. I was too busy whooping and hollering during the actual ceremony to take videos - but you get the idea...

Enjoy! x

Mentougou Closing Ceremony Talent Show 2015 from Annie Ly on Vimeo.

She'll be coming round the mountain

My first week and a half in China involved being whisked away to the mountains of Beijing's western district of Mentougou where I would embark upon an intense week of teacher training.

The days were long. Typically, the whole camp woke to the sound of motivational communist fanfare at 6am. Breakfast started at 7:30am, we ran lessons from 8:30-11:30 and had an extended lunch break in which I often napped in attempt to get over my jet lag. After lunch, we'd have a 3 hour session on teaching methodology and Chinese culture in preparation for a TEFL exam we'd complete at the end of the week to qualify as language assistants in China. After the formal teaching day was over, often in the evenings language assistants did extra curricular things like 'English corner' and games night. This wouldn't have seemed so bad if it weren't for the fact that this meant days ended at 9pm and we all still needed to lesson plan for the following day and/ or revise for TEFL quizzes. But it was also fun to let off a little steam, get to know the kids better and teach them the age-old favourite 'Duck Duck Goose'!

In all honesty, my camp teaching schedule was so jam-packed, it was hard to keep track of the days. It was tough going teaching classes of 30 mixed-ability kids, with ages ranging from 13-17, for 3 hours at a time. We were initially given specific topics to teach them based on a work booklet they were expected to complete - but the topics were incredibly random! One day, they were expected to learn about 'fusion-music' (whatever that is), another day on blood types, 3D printing or how to survive an earthquake... All incredibly useful English topics to know about in the modern day, I'm sure you would agree...

Along with the other lovely ELA's I was lucky enough to get on so well with at camp, evenings soon became group brainstorming sessions for games, songs and teaching ideas to somehow make lessons based on random topics more enjoyable. On one occasion, our "lessons" involved organising a whole camp game of 'Ooka Chaka', in which I think all the students learnt something really life-enriching - namely the ability to act out how to be a cat, mouse or elephant and how to run for your life when being chased by an opposing team!

When camp came to a close, it was selfies galore with all the students in Class 5. There was a camp closing ceremony where all classes participated in a talent showcase, but more on the 'China's Got Talent' style ceremony in another post. As exhausting as camp was, it was a really great learning experience. I have some hilarious memories of the kids I taught and the amazing ELA's I got to bond with in just a short amount of time.

Until next time!

Annie x