My work

As I mentioned I've been working at immersion camps for Argentine students of English.  These are two-night programs designed for classes of students already fluent in the language to give them a chance to practice outside of an academic setting.  It's a pretty good idea, I know the only way I learned to speak Spanish was by coming down here (and Not working in the English industry, which is terrible for my Spanish.)  Each camp has a theme around which the activities are supposed to be centered.

Unfortunately, the organization is so poor that the quality of the camps is pretty low.  I know that part of the problem is staff morale, they change up the work schedule all the time and we often don't have all the information in sufficient time to relax into work.  Even though we usually arrive the day before to prepare, we often don't really use the time, the last-minute invention, lack of planning and coordination trickles down to the camps themselves.

I feel terrible about participating because I feel like most of what we do is confuse and make fun of the children who attend these camps.  It starts at the beginning when we go through their luggage to confiscate Spanish-language materials, usually planting a bra in one of the boy's bags just to humiliate him.  Then we put them in groups and force them to produce visual or performance artworks, then we put them in a new set of groups, then yet another set.  The we leave them directionless for an hour or so, then we yell at them that we are behind schedule and to come enthusiastically and immediately together.  Then we eat a meal for an hour and a half.  Then we have a campfire, where we do the same tired activities compiled years ago and known to the teachers who bring their classes back each year.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the idea of a two-day immersion camp, but the execution is stressful and deprecatory for all involved.  It is all I can do to keep from just walking off the job; I get paid about US$100 per camp, which is good for a job in the Engish industry.