The TROY-STAR Chinese language camp has returned to Troy University.

The immersion camp will last two weeks where 24 high school students will learn more about the Chinese language and how to speak it more fluently but the camp won’t just be teaching the Chinese language it will also be teaching the students more about the Chinese culture.

“We have four hours per day dedicated to cultural activities,” says Program Manager Austin Deal. “That includes the lion dance, the dragon dance, tai chi, fan dance among others and the reason we do that is to let them have an opportunity to break away from the mundane sort of class time sitting there learning vocab and grammar. It gives them time to break away from that have fun and exercise.”

However the Chinese language is still a big part of the fun activities.

“Additionally we use Chinese as we’re teaching those dances and activities so we’re not wasting any time,” says Deal. “Even when they’re doing these fun cultural activities they’re still practicing and learning Chinese.”

TROY-STAR gives students from all over the country the opportunity to learn more about the Chinese language and its culture.

Troy University helps expose these students to this through its large Chinese international student program and the Chinese culture spread throughout campus.

“So Dr. Xu, she is the co-director, and Dr. Rui Feng, he’s a director, they think TROY’s a very good place to do it because we have so many resources dedicated to really all international students but specifically Chinese,” says Deal. “We have the terracotta warriors. We have many Chinese exhibits at the International Arts Center as well as the Confucius Institute and its exhibition hall. So they thought it was an ideal place to have it here and there’s just there’s just so many resources dedicated to China specifically.”

For the full story watch Claudia’s report