I was at a wedding reception this last week, talking to one of the guests and asking how her kids were enjoying the summer.

 

“Our son had the most incredible experience this summer,” she told me. He’s a bright kid, but hadn’t done well in his French class the last year. “We decided to enroll him at a language immersion camp at Concordia College in MN. The entire time he was there, nothing was spoken except French. All possible ways of communicating in any other fashion were taken away, including cell phones and computers.” She said he absolutely loved the experience.

 

The Concordia Language Villages are located in Moorhead, Minnesota. They teach 14 languages (including Chinese, Finnish, Arabic, Korean, and Russian) and have sessions ranging from one weekend to 4 weeks for students 7-18 years of age. All levels from beginner through advanced are welcome.

 

Day camps are available at several locations for children 4-8 years of age to learn languages such as Norwegian, German, and Spanish.

 

Concordia also has an immersion program for children from countries around the world who want to learn English.

 

Scholarships and financial aid are available. Nearly 15% of the villagers receive scholarships.

 

I found out they also have immersion programs for adults and am going to look into that for myself. Wouldn’t it be fun to learn a different language every year?