5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Running My First English Camp In South Korea

By Jeff

I spent a couple of years teaching English at a Middle School in a small, rural countryside town, located in a hill valley in the mountainous province of Gangwon-do, South Korea.

My first semester of teaching had gone really well and was coming to an end. I was sitting at my desk in the staff room, happily daydreaming about my long summer vacation, when I was told by my co-teacher that the local education office had chosen me and a teacher from another school to run a week-long English camp.

English camp? Ok, that could be cool for a week. So, we do a bit of hiking, canoeing, building campfires etc, while conversing with the kids in English? Erm, not quite.

What is English camp?

As it turned, the word 'camp' was a bit misleading. English camp is described as an added enrichment activity for Korean school children during the summer and winter vacations. But, essentially, it is just more school for those unlucky students whose parents sign them up for it.

With this in mind, I think it is important to make the camps as engaging and fun as possible. I actually found them to be really rewarding experiences for everyone involved, and did a number of camps over the 2 years I was in South Korea.

Pros and cons of English camp

Pros

You can just have fun - the budget for summer and winter camps is very generous so you will be able to buy plenty of supplies for activities such as, cooking classes; arts and crafts; costume designing; putting on a play; organising a sports day etc.
You will meet foreign teachers from other schools - make new friends; exchange lesson plans; discuss cool places you have visited around Korea and abroad.
There is usually a big party at the end with lots of great food, music and prizes.

Cons

You will need to plan a lot more lessons than your normal working week - likely 4 or 5 lessons plans a day at camp as opposed to 4 or 5 a week at school.
You probably won't have a co-teacher for help - in my experience, the co-teachers were there at the start of the day for a few moments and then disappeared until coming back right at the end of the day. Don't expect them to be around.
Many of the students won't want to be there and even if they do they will be tired.

Tips for delivering a great camp

1. As a teacher, I found that the way you conduct yourself matters as much, if not more than what you say. This is certainly the case when conducting an English camp with students you have not spent time with before. Approach the first day as you might the first day of school:

Be assertive, but keep your tone loose and indicate that you are relaxed.
Talk a little more slowly than you normally would and use simple English because you don't yet know the level of English these students have.
Convey and express professionalism and responsibility, but be a bit more jovial and less serious than you would be in a classroom setting
Try to engage each student with eye contact and don't just focus your stare on a few.

2. Plan lessons to be as fun as possible, while ensuring the students are still learning. Here are some ideas.

Role-play lessons such as setting up a restaurant or airport scene.
Putting on plays or sketches in English. Kids can write their own in groups and then perform them.
Cooking using English recipes and instructions.
Fashion show - for example, design clothes out of newspaper and do a catwalk with the outfits described in English.
Song competition with English lyrics. Korean kids love to sing and dance.
Play games where the students are only allowed to read and talk in English.

There are loads of things you can do.

3. Make sure you are able to contact someone in the case of an emergency. On day two of my first ever camp, a student twisted his ankle and needed medical attention. The Korean co-teachers had disappeared and neither I nor the other foreign teacher had a phone that worked in Korea. The other teacher had to run around looking for help while I stayed with the injured student. The next day I made sure I got my UK phone unlocked and put in a Korean sim card. I found out how to unlock my phone here.

4. If you are doing a summer English camp, go outside and enjoy the great weather. South Korea is a country of extremes in regards to weather with freezing winters, but really warm and sun-drenched summers.

5. Don't be afraid for some of your lessons to fail and have backup plans for when they do.You never know when a computer might break down or a lesson doesn't work out how you thought. Having lots of extra lessons and games available could save you if disaster strikes. Games can be really simple things like taboo and the flyswatter game or even crosswords and word searches. Anything to keep the kids occupied.

Conclusion

The main focus of the camp is to have fun and learn English. Many of the students will arrive on day one wishing they were playing with friends at the beach or riding their bikes around town.

My advice is give them a reason to not miss that by combining learning with fun. Put as much, or even more, energy into the camp as you would a lesson at school.

And remember, it is also your free time that is being used up, so you want to enjoy the experience too. English camp can be a time for you to have fun with the kids and develop your teaching skills.

If you have a camp coming up, I hope some of the tips in this article will help you.

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