Final Entry: Language Camp – My Personal View

Dear readers,

Hello again everyone! I hope you’re all doing fine. Well, since this would be my final formal writing in Gameplan, I would like to share my personal opinion about language camps which I have been involved in for the past three months. Frankly speaking, I’ve been through a lot of things related to language camps since then. It has also kindda affect the way I view life on the whole….at least to certain extent, yes! To summarize all things, I went to three language camps in three months. That’s quite a lot, isn’t it? Anyway, let me tell you guys something about each camp.

I begin this whole story with the first language camp that I’ve ever been to as a facilitator. It was the English Survival Camp or also known as ESURCA among the participants. It was organized by KTC and I was invited to join a group of 5 facilitators at the last minute. Of course I knew about the existence of language camp before, but I’ve never been tempted enough to join one. Anyway, to make the story short, I guess it was the need to get first-hand experience of going to language camp before I have to go to the real one for Language Games that made me went to the camp in Kluang. It was not really a camp though…I mean the situation and all. It was actually done in Aborigines Training Centre. Of course the name of the place sounded scary enough to me but when we went there it was a really nice and comfortable place. That was also my first time working with our seniors because at the time Shahrizam and Aishah also joined the program and Mr. Faruk also stayed with us there for the whole two days. With 49 participants and 6 facilitators, we had decided to assign one facilitator in one group. Although being the first timer and I had to manage one group all by myself sounded a little crazy to me, everything went absolutely right. After doing some reflection, I think I didn’t really realize that I was managing a group on my own at the time because all facilitators were being very nice, helpful and cooperative to me. They would help me with anything that I need them to. Thanks to them and Mr. Faruk, my first camp was not a nightmare.

Talking about the second camp in Kaizen, it was totally a new thing to me. The environment, participants and the people I worked with were different. However, I learned a lot in that camp and I’ve come to realize that … that might be the real language camp. Anyway, talking about participants, I still think that they are the best in terms of the positive effects that a language camp can have on the participants. That was my second camp.

My third camp was the one in Sekakap and I was in the second group to go. In my opinion, everything was going very smoothly except for the bus with broken air conditioner that we had to get on, on our way back. I think, it’s because we all have learned a lot from the camp in Kaizen and we were being very cautious in doing things so that we wouldn’t repeat the same mistakes.

Talking about the effects that language camps had on me, I’m going to start with it has actually increased my confidence to speak English and it has also some kind of pushed me to speak English more often. It’s because before we went to the camp we have to practise using the language more often so that we would be able to function well as a facilitator during the camp. That’s when I realized that I’ve speaking English more nowadays. Secondly, it made me know the people around me better and some how make me feel closer to them. If before the camps, I didn’t really think that I need to know the seniors, after the camps I’ve saying hi and even making small talks more often with at least some of them (those who went to the camps of course). So, it has somehow improved my interpersonal skill a little bit…at least to certain extent…yes, absolutely! And I’ve also feel the same way about several of my course mates. That’s very positive, right? Well, another thing, the camps also made me know more people in UTM now. I mean, it has been very easy to be stopped by and said hello by the participants who know me nowadays. I seem to be seeing many familiar faces these days especially when I’m in the public places such as library, SUB, banks or other places like that. So…I guess more language camps means more friends.

Before I sign out, I would like to say that Language Games is definitely one of the subjects that seem very realistic to me. I mean we use what we learn from the classes in very real situations and while doing that, it actually helps us to be a better teacher, insyaallah…Lastly, again, thanks a lot to MR. G and all my beloved course mates for making that all happened. If there’s any participant reading this, I hope you guys will keep learning English and have fun while doing it. Till then, this is Madihah signing outta here.