Students from Hungary

My name is Kinga, I am fourteen years old and I came from Hungary with nine students and two teachers to this camp. Five students and one teacher are from Pecs, the others are from Budapest ( it is the capital of Hungary ). The pupils are between 11 and 14 years old. Their names are : Emese, Alexandra, Dani, Dalma, Dzsenifer, Viktoria, Zsanett, Cinti and Erik. We speak in Hungarian of course, and a little bit in English. We came to learn more English in this camp because it is spoken all over the world so it is useful. We want to learn more about the other countries and we try to accept the others.

I interviewed my friends from Hungary and here are some things they said about their experience at Camp Tolerance.

1.  What did you expect from this camp?

      - I expected tolerance and to have fun – Dani

2.   How did you feel about coming?

      - I was afraid of this camp because I knew just a little bit of English – Zsanett

3.   What were your goals?

      - I wanted to know the other languages and make new friendships – Alexandra

4.   How have your feelings changed?

      - This camp is better than I expected – Emese

      - I can speak in English easier – Dzsenifer

5.   What will you remember most?

      - When we played Frisbee with Molly and sang a lot with Valter – Emese

      - When I talked a lot with my friends at night and I will never forget Molly because she is the best in the camp !!! – Dani

6.   What stories will you tell your friends or at home?

      - That we traveled to Tihany by ship – Viktoria

      - That we went to Balatonlelle festival and we saw fireworks – Dalma

      - That I talked a lot with Molly - Cinti

                                                               Kinga

Students from Kosova

My name is Fortesa.  I’m a student from Prizren, Kosova.  I’m 13 years old and this September I will start the eighth grade.  In this camp, I  came with nine other students and two teachers.  Five students are from “Abdyl Fasheri” primary school in Prizren (including me) and we came here to our teacher, Bylbyl.  The names of the four other students from Prizren are Altina, Alban, Ahmed and renan.  There are five students from “Mileniumi I Trete” school in Prishtina:  Vala, Diellza, Mjellma, Jora and Uka.  Their teacher is Indira.  So, together, we’re twelve people from mKosova in this camp.  We, the students, are between twelve and fourteen years old.  Eight of us are Albanian.  Renan is Turkish and Ahmed is Bosnian, but we all live in Koso voa.  The ten of us speak English and Albanian.  WE like the music, learning and games a lot.  We’re all happy that we came to this camp to learn new things about each other, students from other countries and for ourselves, too.

            A lot of students came to “Teaching Tolerance Through English” summer camp this year  They all had their own thoughts, different from each other.  Altina, a twelve-year-old student from Prizren said, “Before coming to this camp, I thought that it was going to be a little boring, but now that I’m here, I’ve changed my mind.  This camp is great and I’m happy that I came here.”  Ahmed, a funny student from Prizren, said that before coming here, he was expecting to learn English better and make new friends and that is exactly what the camp gave him, and actually more.  That’s why he’s happy for being here.  Most of the students from Kosova were proud and happy for coming here at this camp.  They wanted to have fun while learning and that’s what they’ve been doing all this time. 

            There are some things, however, that they never expected to find in this camp.  Jora never thought that the kids here were going to be so friendly and so nice.  Uka never expected that the camp would be like this.  He thought that it was going ot be with tents.  The students miss their families, but some of them still want the camp to last more.  Mjellma said, “I was happy when I learned I was coming here.  Now Im’ even happier and I want to stay here at least three weeks.”   Alban says that he is happy to be here because he’s elarning new things about other countries and other people.  Camp is a new experience for every student and that’s why they love it so much.  Diellza, said, “The camp is great.  We have so many good activities and there’s no time to be bored.  There are some things more special in the camp, though.  Vala thinks that the campfire night was the best.  Renan says, “I will remember everything from this camp, but a thing that I will never ever forget are my friends.  They are amazing.” 

            That’s what the students from Kosovo say, but there are teachers too.  Bylbyl, the teacher from Prizren said, Before coming here, my goal was to let my students gain new English skills.  I think I achieved my goal in the very first week of this camp.”  Indira, the teacher from Prishtina, said, “I expected many good things fro, this camp, but not as many as we’re having now.  We’ll have a lot of stories to tell when we’re back in Kosova.  They are true stories, but they’re so beautiful, that they will seem like fairytales when we tell them.”  And that’s true.  Everything this camp is giving to these people is so great.  It’s a new experience that everybody is going to remember for a really long time. 

                                                            Fortesa

Students from Montenegro

We are Sofija and Pavle and we are from Montenegro.  We are in this camp with our teacher Bojana and three more friends, Brois, Sara and Zeljka all from the ages of 12-14.  Even though we aren’t the same age, we are very good friends.   We are from Montenegro, but our language is called Serbian, Montenegrian or Croatian because it is the same languages with just a few minor differences.  Most of the people

in Montenegro are Orthodox and Catholic Christians and Muslims, but everyone form our group is Orthodox Christian.  We’re all joyful, happy and we all like to make friends.  However, we all have different ideas and opinions which we all respect. 

Bojana, the teacher from Montenegro, is a English and French teacher working in primary school for three years.  She loves children and enjoys working with them because she has a 15-year old son who has just finished his primary school.  When asked about the camp, she said, “The first few days I was spending a lot of time talking with my students because they were a little bit disappointed and I tried to broaden their views.  Now, I’m really satisfied because everyone in this camp is so friendly.  The kids get along very well.  The best thing about it all is the friendship.”  She would recommend this camp to anyone, believing children and teachers with the opportunity to be involved with TTTE are lucky.

One of the students from Montenegro, Pavle, said that he expected that this camp would be boring and that there would only be English classes.  He felt happy but also sad because of leaving his home.  His major goals were to learn English and make friends.  He thinks he achieved his goals even though he didn’t expect to.  Pavle will remember this camp by new friendships and fun.

Students from Croatia

Marinela Hudik is a teacher from Vucovar, Croatia.  She is an English teacher.  She is married and has a son.  Marinela loves sports, reading and singing.  She expected to have a lot of fun, to use English and to improve her teaching skills and make some new friends before she came to Camp tolerance.  From the very beginning she felt great here.  She found that people were kind and open-minded.  Marinela was at the similar camp eight years before but this camp is better.  The best thing for her is the opportunity to teach and practice tolerance.  She thinks that children who leave this camp will be more tolerant towards the others than they used to be.  Marinela likes everything about the camp and she thinks that there should be more camps like this both in her country and abroad.  She thinks that the classes are interesting for both children and teachers.  The themes are appropriate and we all have learnt a lot and improved our speaking abilities.  It is a pity that we cannot come to this camp again and have some more great times together. 

Teacher Trainers

Lydia and Jim Stack

Lydia and Jim Stack are from San Francisco, California.  This is their fourth year in this camp so they have been here from the beginning.  Jim’s role is to help with audio-video, cameras, projectors, computers and other technical tasks on top of having fun with students.  Lydia is one of two teacher trainers.  Her objectives are to provide teachers with materials that they can use to teacher their students here at camp and in their schools back home.  When asked what they expected from students, they said, “We didn’t expect students to have such good English and to have such difficult names.  As for the teachers, they are a great group to work with !”  They travel around the world as teacher trainers and they feel that the teaching skills are very different all over, especially because every country doesn’t have access to some things like computers, TVs and other equipment. Their goals for the camp  this year were to teach tolerance and understanding and to keep students happy. 

Mary Lou McCloskey

Mary Lou McCloskey is a teacher trainer coming from Atlanta, Georgia.  At the Tolerance camp she works with helping teachers learn to teach English better, while they teach about peace, tolerance, community building , conflict resolution and win-win solutions.  She said, “It’s thrilling for me to be in such a warm and positive community for two weeks.  I love it.”  This is her fourth year with the camp.  She’s been here every year from the beginning when she was invited by Dr. Craig Dicker of the US Embassy in Budapest, who had the original idea of organizing the camp.  Mary Lou likes working in this camp because she wants to do what she can to help teachers teach kids to make a better world.  She said that she works hard but it is all with joy. “It’s like a play because I enjoy it so much.”    When asked what she thinks the camp gives to students, she said, “I think it gives them the experience of living in a multicultural community.  That really works.  I hope the kids go back to their school and share their experience with the others.