Checking in, China

 

This is my first ever Global Ambassador Program Experience!!!! We have had a lot of fun during the project of which we were participating back then. In this Dare to Dream Project (DTD), we as EPS, from Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, Turkey, Netherlands, Egypt, were all required to carry out summer camp activities with the children. This however, includes cultural knowledge teachings, team building activities, Global Village, Amazing Race and etc.

At the very beginning, the children were very reluctant to approach us. But after carrying out several days of team building activities with them, they finally made their first move! We were so happy and excited that they took their first step to get to know more about us. To our surprise, many of our children that we taught, did not really have a good grasp of Basic English understanding. Some of them did not learn the basics such as number pronunciation, date pronunciation, in English. We then decided to teach them from the very beginning, by giving them English names, teaching them to write out their ambitions and dreams in English, guiding them in remembering English names of their local fruits, objects and etc. They were point-blank at start, but they learned up fast. And so this gave them the courage to start conversations with the EPs who do not speak Mandarin. Each and every EP was paired up with a Local Committee (LC) to conduct the lessons, so as to ensure the children understand what we were trying to teach them. Given the fact that the other 3 EPs and me who are from Malaysia and Singapore could converse well in both Mandarin and English, the organizing committee decided to ask us to be the managers of all EPS. (Besides of doing teachers) Hahaha! I have figure out some ways of introducing the children about Malaysia and Singapore Culture!!  Guess what?! We taught them how to use the "lah" term, "walao" term.

 

The core idea of this project is to open up their mind-set and let there be boundary-less for them to explore the world with their little dreams. Before we started to teach these children, we were all preparing our lessons and equipment in a youth hostel located at Nanjing. And then we leave to Sichuan. Besides of preparing lessons together, we also spend time watching World Cup games together every night! That was like another mini-ice breaking session for us, the EPS and LCS. During our stay in Nanjing, where we prepared our lessons, some of the backpackers from UK, Germany, Switzerland and etc, did join and share their ideas with us, and we did incorporate them in to our lessons too. Hence adding more elements of Global Community Development in to our project.

I have learned so much in this project and thank you for giving me this opportunity to share my exclusive GAP experience. After my projects end, some of us took a trip to “Jiu Zhai Gou”! It looks like a heavenly-like tourist spot and I have great time there.

 

Once again, I would like to say thank you and see you guys soon!!! :)