At the Ojai Valley School Upper Campus, the most prevalent language spoken besides English is Chinese.
Usually Chinese is spoken by the Chinese students, but senior Conway Gilbreth is one of the few not from the country who can speak the language with others. In freshman year, Conway was just starting to learn the language, but, now, within the first month of senior year, he is able to hold a conversation in Chinese with native speakers. This is because Conway spent four weeks out of his summer in the northern backwoods of Minnesota in an intensive Chinese immersion camp named Sēn Lín Hú.
It all started because he needed two more years of foreign language to complete his graduation requirements and only one year left of high school. In four weeks, Conway got a year’s worth of class credit; but, it didn’t come easy.
From the moment he arrived at the camp, only Chinese was spoken to him, as he blindly navigated through orientation in this language he was still learning. His average day went on from 7 am to 10 pm where Chinese was mainly spoken throughout the day with only small breaks to speak English.
“It was really interesting,” Conway said. “There’s no English at all. When you first get there, they don’t tell you where to go or what’s going on in English. Only in Chinese.”
His days were filled from morning to night with activities and classes immersed in Chinese, but Conway says that the place he learned the most Chinese wasn’t in the classroom.
“A large part of the actual training is not done in class,” Conway said. “It’s throughout the day where you’re speaking in Chinese, like during the campfires and skits.”
The day started off with morning exercises that taught parts of East Asian culture, like cooking and archery. In the evenings, Conway learned about Chinese culture through watching movies or learning songs in the language. Afterwards, there would be a nightly bonfire where students practiced the language even more.
The program was a mix of summer camp and school. In the midst of all the fun activities, there were also long hours of the day spent on classes, homework and projects. In fact, the school gives a minimum of 180 instructional hours accredited by AdvancED, a non-profit and non-government organization that grants credit for primary and secondary school classes worldwide, according to Concordia Language Villages.
The program accepted a variety of students, all with different amounts of experience. Most of the students were Americans just trying to learn the language. There were students there who barely knew Chinese, while others were learning molecular biology terms.
Only about 30 people were in the four week accredited program, but Conway became close with many of them, keeping in touch with all of them over Snapchat, where they text in Chinese.
Conway went to the camp knowing a minimal amount of Chinese, but when he came back he proudly said that his skills have improved dramatically and he can now write and speak coherently in Chinese because of complete immersion in the language.
“I realized how immersion is an essential part of learning a language,” Conway said. “You can’t really become fluent if you don’t immerse yourself, but that was the most rewarding part of the program.”
Senior Max Wu is one of the students at OVS who can account for Conway’s improvement. Max tried to speak with him in Chinese in previous years, but after Conway came back from the program, they are both able to have a fluent conversation.
“I think Conway’s Chinese has improved significantly,” Max said. “He’s very confident in expressing his ideas and he shows interest in Chinese culture because of the conversations we’ve had.”
Below is a conversation between Max and Conway talking about Chinese food and Conway’s experience with the language.
Though Conway felt immensely hesitant before going to the program, he earned an A and admits that he is now a confident speaker and is glad he went.
“Even though my level was basic, I grew so much more comfortable because I had to speak it,” Conway said. “It changed my opinions on language so much and though I was worried at first, I definitely do think that it was worth it, after all, and I am really glad I went.”