English Summer Seminar 2016
2016/11/22
English Summer Seminar / 英語集中合宿 は、夏休みに2泊3日で「英語漬け」を体験する集中講座です。今年度は17名の学生が参加し、ジョン・モリス先生、タロン・プラザ先生の指導の下、9月12日~14日に鬼怒川温泉で行われました。
This year, seventeen students and two teachers from the Department of International Culture took part in the English Summer Seminar at Kinugawa Hot Springs. This is an annual event where students join a 3-day intensive English program. This is a very special opportunity for students to experience communicating in English, learn something new, and make new friends.
We met on a sunny day in mid-September at Shinjuku Station and headed for Kinugawa Hot Springs at around 1:00pm. We arrived at the hotel in time for dinner, which was very delicious. Traditional Japanese food was on the menu that night. After dinner, we took part in some English activities. Through the activities, we introduced ourselves and got to know each other a bit better.
The next day was unique and special because the students became teachers and the teachers became students! Every year, as part of the English Summer Seminar program, all students are given an assignment to teach something in English. They can choose anything they want to teach as long as it’s practical and everyone can do it together. This year was really interesting! We learned how to do handcrafts and how to draw various pictures. We were shown how to do magic tricks as well as some different ways of styling our hair. We even learned some basic phrases in Korean and a special way to make coffee, all in English!
After everyone had finished their teaching assignments, we all took a nature walk together. The surrounding river and mountains were so beautiful and everyone enjoyed getting some fresh air and exercise. Later that evening, we had a barbeque where we cooked the meat ourselves. It was very fun and everyone ate a lot of meat and vegetables. Also, after eating, we enjoyed Barbeque Bingo! Students listened to the numbers being called out in English and everyone got a prize.
After the barbeque, we had more English activities. The night before, the teachers created the activities, but this time, the students had to think of their own original games. Of course, all the activities were in English! Everyone enjoyed themselves and made great efforts at using English.
Last day reflections
On the morning of the last day, after a delicious breakfast, the students made a photo presentation of the highlights of the program at Kinugawa Hot Springs. They each chose some of their favorite photos, said why they chose them, and described the scenes. It was nice to see and hear about the different viewpoints of each student. Lastly, the students each wrote a reflection on what they thought about the program. Below you can read some of the comments.
- “This Summer Seminar was very fun! I’m not good at speaking English in public, but I spoke English many times at this seminar. So I got confidence!”
- “I could study through many games. I’m happy. The nature walk was very nice. Because I had never seen many things, for example, river, pond, bridge, tunnel and waterfall!”
- “It was difficult to speak only English but it was very beneficial. I talked with many people in the Summer Seminar. It was good to listen to stories from the third year students ”
