The KTU-based 2016 European Culture Summer Camp was organised by Xue Lei, of the company Frazija in Lithuania, and Zhijie Zhong, the Chinese partner from Shang Le Edu Ltd Co. The Summer Camp was grounded on the concept of enhancing Lithuanian-Chinese culture development, and was attended by the Chinese children who were interested in authentic European culture. The four children, around 11 years old, decided to take this opportunity. They came to Europe to learn new things and to get first-hand understanding about European countries. Many of the children had been abroad already but it was their first time in Europe.
“Chinese children who took part in the Summer Camp not only improved their foreign language skills, but also gained more knowledge about Lithuanian culture, about its regions, and its society. Such travelling helps building children's self-confidence, independence and interpersonal skills and, more importantly, lets the new Chinese generation get a first-hand impression of Lithuania and Europe”, said Xue Lei, the organiser of the Camp from the Lithuanian side.
Zhijie Zhong joined the children to all the events in Kaunas and accompanied them to other European cities along the entire trip. The Chinese went to excursions around Lithuania, tried their skills at drawing classes, playing football and cricket, tasted local food together with Lithuanian children. The children also had travelled to Warsaw, Prague, Vienna and Rome.
English Lessons Outside and Design Classes
Two weeks in Kaunas for the Summer Camp participants were rather intensive. Every morning KTU international programmes coordinator Monika Veličkaitė was teaching them English in different locations of the campus. According to Monika, who has teaching experience, studying English outside the class is more efficient.
“In such a way children have possibility to interact with the surroundings, to ask questions and to use daily English expressions on the spot. For example, on one sunny day they wanted to have ice-cream, so they learned names of different ice cream flavours in English”, said Monika.
In the afternoons children were taking different classes, such as drawing, dance, 3D modelling or physics at KTU Pupils Laboratory. KTU teachers were excited to give the classes to such a young audience from a faraway country. Neringa Urbanė from the Faculty of Civil Engineering showed how to model houses using 3D software, and the young visitors from China tried to create their dream houses on virtual space. The class was a huge success. For example, Liu Yutong, a 10-year-old girl from Shen Zhen, was confident that studying architecture, interior design was the career she wanted to follow in the future, and she might choose KTU where a few Chinese students are studying already.
A Good Way to Introduce the University
Children being children, the activities they enjoyed most of all were the football match with the Lithuanian children from Hope for Football organisation and the cricket classes held by KTU’s Pakistani student Muhammad Rohan.
Department for International Relations was excited to co-host this Summer Camp and is intending to organise a much bigger international summer school for young pupils in summer 2017.
“This experience as well as the feedback from the attendees of the Summer Camp encourages us to think of another event, which could bring together children from different countries. This is a perfect opportunity to introduce our University and our country to those who might not even have heard of us, Lithuanians. It is also a way of helping young people to show a wide choice of universities worldwide”, said Neringa Narbutienė, Vice-Rector for International Relations and Development ad interim.
