Looking for something different and of lasting educational value for your child this summer? How about immersing him or her in a foreign language? For nearly 60 years, parents have been sending their children, ages 7-18, (and going themselves, too!) to Concordia Language Villages to learn a world language, foster cultural awareness, and develop important life skills in an activity-oriented, camp-like environment.
Located on pristine lakefront property in the North Woods of Minnesota, the ACA-accredited camp settings consist of 15 distinct, culturally authentic residential communities (known as “villages”) offering language immersion programs in Arabic, Chinese, Danish, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.
Counselors are a combination of native and highly proficient language speakers from across the U.S. and around the world. They instruct, converse and interact with campers, or “villagers,” exclusively in the target language, thus creating the immersive environment that has been proven to be highly effective in the acquisition of lasting language skills.
Villagers, who attend one-, two- or four-week sessions, “live the language” via continual but ever-changing and entertaining, face-to-face language-learning scenarios, including culturally authentic activities such as music, dance, games and sports. Those in the more classroom-oriented four-week program receive the equivalent of one full academic year, and are eligible to receive high school credit for all ranges of language ability (beginner to advanced levels).
In addition to the inevitable quantum improvement in their world language skills, all “villagers” also learn valuable life lessons in self-esteem, independence, empathy, and curiosity, as well as make lifelong friends. Founded at the same time the Berlin Wall was being built in 1961, Concordia Language Villages remains dedicated to the tearing down of cultural divides and the development of responsible global citizens.
For more information about programs offered this summer, visit ConcordiaLanguageVillages.org or call 1-800-222-4750.
