09/07/2020．Connecting with the World by Improving Your English Proficiency: Wenzao Held the New Student Orientation and Falling in Love with English Camp

【Press release provided by the Extracurricular Activities Section of the Office of Student Affairs】Nationally known for its foreign language education, Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages held two rounds (each lasted for five days and four nights) of an English camp for students newly admitted to the 4-Year College Program before the semester starts. The camp was dedicated to helping Wenzao’s freshmen fall in love with English. With tradition and good reputation, this camp integrated new student orientation, campus tour, English test, welcome parties held by student associations of various departments, opening ceremony, and evening performance. Moreover, the University especially incorporated the two-credit English course, “Introduction to College English: Strategies and Applications”, into the camp this year, enabling the freshmen to have a whole new experience in English learning from memorizing vocabulary to English speaking and presentation practice. The diversity of the course and activity attracted the freshmen to enthusiastically sign up for the camp.

The opening ceremony of the camp was hosted by President Margaret Mei-Hua Chen, who led Level 1 Directors and heads of departments to warmly welcome the freshmen (newly becoming Wenzaorians). President Chen gave a speech in English to encourage all the freshmen to seize the day and enjoy learning, while conveying the spirit of Wenzao: life, language, and leadership (3Ls). Moreover, President Chen issued camp badges to the representatives of each team of students in person, hoping that they can make good use of the rich language resources of all the departments at Wenzao to improve their competitiveness. Faculty members who took turns to walk onto the stage also gave speeches in English to introduce courses offered by the University, academic affairs resources, exchange and internship programs, university social responsibility, green campus, international exchange programs, and other information.

Student Ping-I Huang from the Department of Foreign Language Instruction served as a camp officer for the third time this year. He said that all the camp counselors provided guidance to students in English to help them adapt to campus life at Wenzao. Student organizations and clubs, such as Wenzao Student Union, student associations of various departments, the Root Club, the Crazy Dancing Club, Wenzao K-POP Dancing Club, the Latin Percussion Club, and the Belly Dance Club, also worked together on passionate and energetic activities to welcome the freshmen. They had created the best learning atmosphere for each freshman to fall in love with English; as a current buzzword describes, it is like love!

To verify the results of the freshmen’s English learning during their participation in the camp, the “English Singing and PowerPoint Presentation” was held on the fourth evening. After learning in an English-only environment for four days, each team of students transformed from being very quiet on the first day to being able to communicate in English naturally. With guidance provided by classroom instructors and camp counselors, everyone made an all-out effort to demonstrate the results of their teamwork. Student Po-Ta Chen from the Department of International Business Administration, whose team (the 10th team) won the overall 2nd round camp spirit championship, indicated that he was very much looking forward to participating in this traditional activity after he learned that he had been accepted by Wenzao. Not only did the camp course and activity familiarize him with the campus and its surrounding environment, but they also enabled him to get to know more students from other departments. Most importantly, the English-only environment familiarized him with the way in which courses will be taught after the semester starts. He hopes that he can participate in the selection of counselors for the Falling in Love with English Camp next year so that he can pass down Wenzaorians’ passion to his fellow students junior to him.

Every year Wenzao carefully plans the Falling in Love with English Camp for its freshmen to fall hopelessly in love with English. Meanwhile, this Camp is where Wenzao’s freshmen meet the faculty, their follow students, and those senior to them for the first time. It is hoped that they can feel the effort Wenzao puts into brining the world to its campus in an English-only romantic atmosphere. Moreover, it is hoped that the University can bring worldview and international perspective to them during their four years of studies.