If you or someone you know is interested in learning a foreign language, check out Concordia Language Villages. I have not yet experienced the language programs that await eager learners in northern Minnesota. However, I have supported CLV by teaching young children Norwegian. Between the winter of 2006 and the spring of 2008, I was a teacher for the CLV pre-K Norwegian language program. After seeing the incredible learning peak and impressive potential in young childrens’ language learning abilities, I encourage parents to enroll their children in this program beginning at a young age. Research shows that young children have a much larger capacity for learning a foreign language and require much less time and effort than adults. The older you are, the harder it is to learn a foreign language.
A little history about CLV as an organization: the program was started in 1961 after Gerhard Haukebo, a Ph.D professor at Concordia College urged the college to support and teach foreign languages using the immersion philosophy. The language camp idea began with the German camp, “Waldsee” which had 72 attendees in 1961. Throughout the years, the following 14 languages have come to be taught at the language camps: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Finnish, Japanese, Swedish, Danish, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Arabic, Korean, and English.
There are youth programs, 2 family programs, 5 adult programs, seminars and other educational opportunities for language educators, in addition to many jobs for counselors. Nearly 70 years later, the summer programs and the year-round programs combined attract almost 10,000 visitors annually. Many ambassadors and several US governors have visited the language villages. Our previous president Bill Clinton visited the north woods and sent his daughter to language camp!
I live just five hours south of Bemidji and I did not hear about the Concordia Language Villages until I started taking Norwegian at St. Olaf College. I could have attended adult programs (and still can) at that point, but I was too old to be a camper. I loved camp as a kid! So that’s why I want to spread the word about this great program, because I wish someone had mentioned it to me or my parents when I was younger. I would have loved going to language camp, especially in the north woods of Minnesota.
Through my four years at St. Olaf, I met a lot of people that attended the villages or were counselors. One of my friends from St. Olaf who had been a camper for many years was volunteering for the pilot Norwegian pre-K program, and asked me if I’d like become an assistant. The next fall after graduation I was both a lead teacher and an assistant for two classes of 3-5 year olds. I had a blast! While teaching kids has it’s frustrating moments, I truly enjoyed seeing those young children learn a language, something that very few adults attempt to do, nor could they with such ease.
The greatest thing about young children learning a language is that they don’t even think about it. They don’t even really understand what the word language means. They know that “home” sounds different from hjemme, but they don’t really comprehend the concept of language. So to see and hear them soak up these unfamiliar sounds and reproduce them with confidence and accuracy is stunning. Every child learns at a different pace in different ways and with different results, but rarely does a child fail to absorb another language over time, except for those with learning disabilities.
At some point in my life I would like to at least visit the language camps, if not become involved with the program again somehow. Check out the website, www.concordialanguagevillages.com and learn more about these fantastic programs!
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