In an effort to deepen the educational and cultural exchanges between Shanghai and its sister cities worldwide and promote the friendship and understanding among teenagers from different countries, Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (SHMEC) intends to hold the “2023 Shanghai International Sister Cities Youth Camp” from July 18 to 31. The Shanghai Youth Camp will be carried out offline this year and will cover international Chinese courses, traditional culture experience, city sightseeing, outdoor activities, beautiful countryside visits and exchange with host families, etc.
As one of the organizers of the Camp, starting from this February, International Education Association Shanghai has been sending out the invitation for the 2023 Shanghai International Sister Cities Youth Camp to 46 sister cities in 43 countries around the world through foreign consulates and representatives offices stationed in Shanghai, overseas Chinese embassies and consulates, overseas institutes and universities. As of now, participation confirmations of teachers and students from 8 sister cities have been received, including Nagasaki of Japan, Jeju of South Korea, Colombo of Sri Lanka, St. Petersburg of Russia, Moscow of Russia, Bratislava Region of Slovak, Antwerp of Belgium and Singapore. Meanwhile, the application is still underway in many other sister cities and it is sure that students and teachers from more than 10 sister cities will join the Camp.
According to the guidelines proposed by Shanghai Municipal Education Commission in 2020 that the Youth Camp will drive and radiate the overall development of the international educational exchange in districts of Shanghai by “undertaking by one district and linking with multiple districts”, the activities will also be implemented in Yangpu District this year. Led by Education Bureau of Yangpu District, coordinated by Yangpu Education International Exchange Service Center, No.1 High School affiliated of Tongji University, Shanghai Shidong High School to carry out these activities from curriculum, activity arrangements, camper reception, safety guarantee and other aspects.
Recently, Yangpu Education International Exchange Service Center and International Education Association Shanghai have jointly organized the selection of Shanghai high school volunteers both online and offline. At present, the selection of English language volunteers has come to an end, while minority language volunteers are still being selected. A total of 4 minority languages, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Spanish are involved. Volunteers are selected by foreign language interviews, talent shows, group discussions and other links to comprehensively evaluate the language skills, organization and leadership ability and teamwork ability of candidate students. The volunteers finally selected will gather with foreign teachers and students from international sister cities offline for a two-week learning, interaction and communication.
Volunteers will be trained in June. They will receive comprehensive guidance and training through the introduction to the background and contents of activities, task assignment, assignment of responsibility, camp discipline requirements and so on to ensure that they can accomplish all tasks effectively and properly serve and manage foreign teachers and students from international sister cities.
The 2023 Shanghai International Sister Cities Youth Camp will begin within one month. Let’s look forward to the offline gathering of old and new friends from all over the world this summer vacation!
