EATOF-KNU

SUMMER YOUTH CAMP

YEAR 2007!! 

Prepared for:  Ms.Emily Lim

Done by:

Chang Kyu-Lee (Korea)

Nikk Adam bin Abdillah Kipalli (Malaysia)

Izora Lim Fung Nie (Malaysia)

Introduction:

            EATOF-KNU Summer Youth Camp is a unique and interesting camp that brings together on the same city (Kangneung) renowned East Asia academicians from nine provinces which includes participants from Russia (Primorsky Territory), Japan (Tottori Prefecture), China (Jilin Province), Thailand (Chiang Mai Province), Malaysia (Sarawak State),　the Philippines (Visayas), Indonesia (Yogyakarta Province), Mongolia (Tuv Province) and South Korea (Gangwon Province). The first EATOF-KNU Summer Youth Camp was held in the year 2003 with the collaboration of Gangwon Provincial Government. Although it was the first time organizing such Summer Youth Camp, it had received a good respond from the participants of the 8 countries. This has lead to the continuity of organizing EATOF-KNU Summer Youth Camp until now! As for the Summer Youth Camp in the year 2007, it will be the fifth time for such camp to be held.

The main objective of organizing EATOF-KNU Summer Youth Camp is to provide an excellent chance to understand and experience Korean culture. As we all know, every country has its own unique and diverse culture, people, religion, and places of interests. Korea is not exceptional too! Korean culture is also equipped with various cultural activities such as experiencing tea ceremony, han-bok traditional wear, visiting historical sites, take part in folklore festival and many more. During the three weeks time of the Summer Youth Camp, the participants will be exposed to the multicultural atmosphere represented by the students from nine provinces including South Korea, making a true composition class. This Summer Youth Camp will definitely develop and consolidate the cooperation and relationship between participants in the Summer Youth Camp. This will be a great beneficial opportunity to understand and experience all of the diverse culture from nine provinces.

The EATOF-KNU Summer Youth Camp is also used as one of the strategy for participants from nine provinces in East Asia to exchange their opinions in relation to tourism promotion and mutual prosperity. It is one of the most successful international cooperation programs toward promoting tourism among regions in East Asia. This is due to the prediction that the tourism industry will be one of the strongest and most important industries in the 21st century. Nowadays, with the globalization and the advance of technology especially in the aerospace, telecommunication and transportation; it is said that the number of tourists will drastically increase in the new century. Therefore, the tourism industry will definitely be one of the main sources for the country to generate income.

 
Activities of EATOF Summer Youth Camp:

              This camp is usually held for three weeks time whereby each week participants will experience Korean culture through field trips and cultural classes. During the first week of the camp, participants will be brought around Kangneung city, attend Korean language classes and a special introductory lecture on Korea, enjoy field trips to places of interests such as Ojukheon (Municipal Museum), Time Story and Jeongdongjin, and experience a traditional Korean culture which is the tea making ceremony whereby participants are given the chance to wear the traditional Korean attire which are called as Hanbuk.

During the second week, the participants will attend Korean language classes, learning another traditional Korean culture which is the Taegwondo, a world-renowned martial art, field trip to Chuncheon city (the capital city of Gangwon-do) and the Gangwon-do Provincial Office, experience home stay with a Korean family, camping and preparing each country's traditional dish at the camp site, and last but not least, arranged some backpack travel or going for rafting and other outdoor activities during the weekend.

As for the last week of the camp, the participants will also attend Korean language classes, essay guidance for the camp assignment, field trips, completion ceremony, essay presentation and farewell dinner.

 Suggestion for EATOF-KNU Summer Youth Camp 2007:

              After our group discussion, we think that there are many ways to enhance and add more excitement in this camp. Firstly, we can organize a class whereby each participant will have the opportunity to tutor other participants their culture such as their language and daily customs. They can teach some simple greetings and self introduction phrases in the class too. For example, the participants from Malaysia can teach other participants greetings such as Selamat Pagi (Good Morning), Selamat Malam (Good Night), Nama saya ialah ………(My name is ………) , Malaysian daily customs such as the proper handshake with the elders (Salam) and the proper bow when we want to walk in front of elders (Menumpang lalu) and many more. As for the next day, the participants from China can do the similar thing and as well as the participants from Russia, Mongolia, Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and South Korea. By having such activity, the participants will be able to learn more different languages and cultures which will enrich their knowledge. Therefore, the participants from South Korea can also benefit from this camp and not only participants from other countries.

Secondly, Summer Youth Camp should create or develop a website about each year's camp and activities. The participants of each year's camp should build and update the website themselves. This will lead the students to use their creativity and teamwork because their work will be published on the internet. Besides that, the participants for the upcoming camp can view or search information about the camp more from the website before they come for the camp. For the Summer Youth Camp comments or ideas from the participants; it can be published on the website too. This will attract more students from the participant’s country to view the website because it is a true testimonial from the participants who already experienced the camp itself. Therefore, this will help in pleasing to the eye of the student exchange programs from 9 provinces in East Asia.

Thirdly, the participants of Summer Youth Camp each year should create their own camp logos too. Beside that, they also can create or make brochures, posters or even video clips for their Summer Youth Camp. The logos, brochures, posters and video clips which have been created can be used to promote the other countries when the participants bring their merchandise back home. Therefore, it helps in enhancing the tourism industry too.

We discovered that Summer Youth Camp is lack of activities which need teamwork. Therefore, we suggest that activities such as outdoor sports, hiking or treasure hunts as the forth method which can be held to build up the teamwork of all of the participants. Teamwork is very important because it will create a extraordinary and strong bond in the relationships among those participants. As we had seen, most of us will just mix around in a small group with those who we are closed to. This is a bad phenomenon because it will not help to achieve the objective of this camp. Therefore, more activities with teamwork need to be put into the Summer Youth Camp program.

Other province should be encouraged to do such programs too as it benefits each country in tourism industry. From the words of mouth of the participants, many of their friends and relatives will be immersed by what they had experienced through the camp. Therefore, they will choose that destination as the travel spot for their travel in the future. Indirectly, it helps in promoting the country tourism industry.

Conclusion:

               As a conclusion, Summer Youth Camp is an excellent program which benefits the participants from 9 provinces in East Asia. However, the activities for the Summer Youth Camp should be planned more effectively so that it really meets the main objective of this camp. We hope that after this camp, our relationship will not just put a full stop on the last day of the camp but all of us will still keep in touch in the future. We have shared many sweet and happy moments in this camp and we would like to say appreciation to everyone who works hard for this camp. The EATOF-KNU SYC 2007 is a not to be missed camp which guaranteeing a smashing time in the city of Kangneung!