LAHORE, Aug 3: As many as 20 university students who attended a two-week English language summer camp organised by the US Consulate at its offices found the experience worthwhile, saying it not only helped enhance their communication skills but also helped them understand American people and culture in a better way.

At the certificate distribution ceremony held at US Consulate on Friday, some students spoke to Dawn expressing their enthusiasm about the opportunity they had and confidence they gained.

After they had a first-hand interaction with Americans and their culture, they were not shy of saying that the local media was presenting a ‘wrong image’ of the nation.

Ahmad Bin Adil, a computer engineering student, said he found Americans to be friendly, polite and generous people. He said the media had created a negative image about the US, while the direct interaction with Americans explained that isolated incidents and some politicians’ speeches or statements were being tagged as the mind-set of whole American nation.

Mr Adil said: “We learnt communication skills, confidence to talk to women, foreigners and strangers and posed tough questions to Americans, who interacted with us at the camp.”

Rana Hasan, a BS (Honours) student said the summer course had honed his communication and speaking skills. He said that he also learnt that how he could give presentation on a certain subject. Sana Tariq, a position-holder in matriculation examination who is studying Chinese language, said the summer camp had served as a total personality grooming course.

Camp’s English Access Coordinator Muhammad Iqbal said this was the second consecutive English language summer camp and was aimed at providing the students an environment where they could interact with strangers, foreigners and class-fellows.

Language instructor Muhammad Umer Anjum said the students belonging to different districts and middle and lower-middle class gained confidence during the course and were able to interact with Americans. US Consulate General Lahore Public Affairs Officer Brinille Eliane Ellis said the camp was organised to educate the students about cross-cultural issues. She said students also discussed Pak-American relations and exchanged ideas to build human relations. — Mansoor Malik