Yufuin English Seminar/Camp

My co-leader and I, plus a badly edited cover-up of one of our students

From August 12th to 14th, I was assigned to attend a summer English seminar called Yufuin camp. It was to be my first real experience working with high schoolers here, since up to that point I had had no real work to do at school.

The camp was relatively far away, in the mountains, so I got a ride with some ALTs from a nearby town, Kitsuki. After a stop at the combini for snacks and drinks, we were on our way, and after some minor iPhone navigation confusion, we were at the camp! As we walked up, we saw several other ALTs dressed as various superheroes; that was the theme of the camp this year. We got ourselves settled in, and after chatting with and introducing ourselves to the other ALTs, soon enough it was time for the camp's opening ceremony. The start to the camp involved Batman and Superman plugging how much fun the camp was going to be, and a couple of speeches from Japanese staff and one of the students.

We, the ALTs, were given colors and groups to be in charge of. Luckily for me, I was paired with another ALT instead of being solo, and he just so happened to be one of the people I had ridden up with! So he and I led a group of 10 students on the yellow team through all the camp's activities. Every day, the various groups had different activities planned, and these were interspersed with meal times where we ate with the students. (The food was just ok.) It took some time for the students to open up; our group was particularly shy. But by the second day, they were talking more!

My gift

After the opening ceremony, we did some warm-ups and introductions within our color teams. Then our very first activity as a group was the sports activity. We joined other groups from the red, black and green teams in playing friendly versions of basketball, dodgeball and a water balloon toss. I surprised myself by making a basket for our team in the basketball game! Granted, it took me about four tries... but the ALTs coordinating the activity designed it to be easy on the unathletic people, haha! We had several other activities throughout the camp: scavenger hunt, dance, drama and art. Our group won the scavenger hunt, which involved superhero-themed clues spread out around the seminar building. Drama was fun because the students got to make and perform their own skit about superheroes. Of course, our shy group needed extra love and support there. In art, we made friendship bracelets, but the instructions were very complicated so mine didn't turn out right... And in dance, the ALT leading the choreography gave us a routine to Bruno Mars' "Treasure" that was also very complicated. Needless to say, I did not succeed! Haha...

Throughout the two and half days of camp, we also had some sessions with our team "tutors." Yellow team's tutor was my very own predecessor, R. She led an English lesson on storytelling, and the students came up with a story of their own, in writing. And at one point, there were some speeches given by various students to the whole camp. After all that and the rest of our activities, it was time for the grand finale: a dance party in the multipurpose room. It was a sweaty affair since the weather was already very hot and then everyone was jumping around and throwing their hands in the air to the music. Some of the students really impressed me with their moves!

The final morning, we ate breakfast together and then gathered again for the closing ceremony. While the ALTs had been checking out, the students put together lovely little cardboard plaques with messages on them for the ALT group leaders. My group had some really nice things to say, and I almost cried while receiving the gift.

According to some of the veteran ALTs at Yufuin, who have also participated in other camps throughout their tenure, Yufuin is known as one of the best camps to be part of. I don't doubt it; it was a fun experience and one that I'll definitely remember. That choreographed dance, on the other hand...