Camp Blog

How Your Child Will Benefit from Our International Culture

11th June 2014

Many families chose to move abroad to give their children the opportunity to experience other cultures and broaden their horizons, leading to the rise of ‘Third Culture Kids’. These adventurous ‘chameleons’ think of themselves as global citizens and are generally more confident and tolerant people, but you can give your child the same advantages by sending them to a European Summer Camp. Not only will they gain deeper knowledge of our varied world like the TCKs, but they will also have the benefit of maintaining the cultural identity of their permanent residence, which is one of the problems sometimes experienced by TCKs.

Global Citizenship

There are so many hidden treasures to find in experiencing other cultures as we realise that there are multiple ways to view the world and live life. One of the benefits in learning this whilst you are young, is that children are naturally open-minded and can easily learn not to judge people for being different. Children understand much more easily than adults that though people and cultures can be very different we are actually all the same and nobody is ‘better’ than anyone else. It is a huge benefit for children to understand this as early as possible, so that they will grow up to be tolerant and also find it easy to adapt to different types of people within their own society as well as internationally.

Witnessing these differences in culture as they appear in day-to-day life at an international camp, rather than purely through lessons, can make children much more observant as they become intrigued by the world around them. It naturally compliments a child’s sense of wonder and their inquisitive nature, setting them up for a lifetime of discovery!

New Challenges

Another part of meeting people from different cultures is of course communicating with them! This can pose a challenge when you can’t use your existing language, games or cultural references to help you out, but it’s a great way to encourage a child’s problem solving skills. The world becomes a giant puzzle when you have to adapt and find new ways of communicating, which children can do so well without the reservations we experience as adults. They don’t mind looking silly and doing a theatrical demonstration to get their point across, so they can quickly find out the benefits of being flexible and adapting to others. And of course it gives that extra incentive to learn languages, not for grades but to have more friends!

Our International Campers

Children come from all over the world to our international summer camp in Switzerland so your children will not only experience the culture of Switzerland and the languages we teach, but all the varied cultures of our campers! What better way to find out about the diversity of our world? And with social media it’s so easy for children to stay in touch with the international friends that they meet here and continue their cultural exploration together long after they leave!

For more info on our language programme click here.