Calah Mershon (’16) went to summer camp this year, but there were no trail hikes, ghost stories or horseback rides. Instead she spent five weeks in one of China’s largest cities.
Mershon spent the summer in the 2015 Shanghai Chinese Summer Camp at East China Normal University in Shanghai, China, leaving Arkansas in mid-July. Her trip was made possible through a scholarship from the Confucius Institute at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. The scholarship covered the tuition fee, textbook, registration fee and an apartment fee for living on campus. Mershon was the only high school student from Arkansas accepted into the program.
Mershon spent her first week in China living with a family in Shanghai before moving onto campus at the university for the final four weeks of the program. The week with the family allowed her the opportunity to experience everyday life of a Chinese family.
The family didn’t speak much, if any, English while Mershon, who had only one year of Mandarin Chinese instruction at ASMSA during the 2014-15 school year, didn’t speak much Chinese. She said she learned to use body language and the few words she did know to communicate with the family.
Once she moved into the dormitory on campus, she began attending Chinese language classes from 8:30 to noon each weekday. Afternoons included culture classes, including tai chi and calligraphy. She and the other students would have most late afternoons and evenings to themselves to visit shops, eat authentic Chinese food in restaurants and wander parts of the city.
She said those trips into the city with fellow students were just as important if not more so in the development of her language skills.
“Having the afternoons with friends helped me more than classes, but the classes were a bit over my level,” she said. “I had only one year of Chinese, but most of the others had two. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to spend time with people over there, not just as a tourist but being immersed in the culture.”
China wasn’t the only nation Mershon had the opportunity to learn about culturally during the trip. Many of the other students at the camp were from various countries, including South Korea, Sweden, Hungary, Russia, Italy, Spain, Germany and many other parts of Europe. Mershon said she really enjoyed living and hanging out with students from other nations.
Mershon was one of two high school students in the program, she said. Others were college students working on either their bachelor or master’s degrees. She said they treated her as just another student.
“It gave me more of a taste of college than I might have otherwise,” she said.
Many of those students had more Chinese language experience than her. That became helpful during excursions into the city as well as learning phrases to use in class both at the university and back at ASMSA, she said.
“I learned a lot from watching them. I know how to say I don’t know a lot better now. My Chinese has a bit of a Shanghai accent, which my (ASMSA) teacher is always correcting,” she said, smiling.
Mershon also had the opportunity to travel to Beijing for four days. During the side trip, she said she became much more concerned about industrial regulations around the world.
“There was smog everywhere. It was very dirty and compact. There be a gorgeous, huge mall that was super expensive and right down the street was a large amount of poverty,” she said.