The Life and Love of Karen: Going to Camp

She barely finishes a sentence without her hands flying to cover her face. She curls in the chair, as if trying to make herself small enough to just disappear. Her hands shake with nerves. Words come out slowly and choppy as the ocean in a hurricane. No, this is not a summary of how I lived the first 13 years of my life (though, it could be ;)). This was one of my students at English Camp.

For the past six days, I have been back in my village (WOOOHOOOO) providing an English Immersion opportunity for the top English speakers (eight youth).

Most beautiful place in Cambodia

Or, maybe looking the other direction...

Two of my friends from Phnom Penh came to join me for the first two days, one is a professor at a University here and definitely up'ed the academic rigor of the program. The goal of this week, that I was given when asked to lead English Camp, was to get the kids speaking. As all you language learners know, this is often the most difficult part.

We played games, learned idiomatic expressions, discussed culture, tradition, and values, learned a One Direction song, learned prayers in English, watched movies, discussed movies, wrote daily, and gave a speech daily. I am not sure if the kids or teacher were more exhausted at the end of this week. My work day started around 6am, correcting papers, prepping last minute materials, etc. Then, we would end around 9pm (as all the youth came to prayer at the church followed by movies). Sometimes, more prep occurred after that. Needless to say, I can barely see straight :) (I guess I learn from my favorite first grade teacher in terms of 'work hours').

I had decided before camp that each day, I would meet with each student one-on-one to go over their writing and watch their speech together (I recorded them all). We would stop when they made errors and I would write out what they said. Sometimes, they could fix their error, other times, I would correct their grammar. I don't think any of them had ever seen or heard themselves speak before. My one rule was that I would never correct someone while they were speaking (in a presentation or conversation), as I myself know how that makes you just shut down. So, this was the opportunity for feedback and to hopefully to build self-confidence.

And, IT WORKED (even though I was afraid the students thought it was a torture technique)! As I am not a teacher, I am always pleasantly surprised when my hair-brained ideas are actually successful. For my nervous speakers, I also gave them a stress ball to hold when they presented and by the end, no one was using it but hands were no longer covering faces. By the end, even my most shy, quaking students would stand proudly before their class and deliver a speech (sometimes for 1-2 minutes). Is their English better? I hope so. But, if nothing else, I think they have all improved their self-confidence in speaking and that, I think, is the most important part. (Plus, go figure, on the evaluation, every single one mentioned the speeches and writing homework as one of their favorite parts).