<p>Just curious about experiences with the Language Camp - we are going to MN in a few weeks and are going to visit the Chinese village. My daughter will go next summer if all goes well. </p>
<p>Any advice for our upcoming visit - things to ask, etc. Also if anyone can share their camp experience (or direct me to website) that would be great - Thanks</p>
<p>I plan on trying to work for the Spanish village next year. While I have never been able to go (way too expensive), my Spanish teacher's sister is one of the heads of the Spanish program there and her daughter has gone and loved it. It seems like a really good program.</p>
<p>Make sure to ask about the backgrounds of the teachers and counselors.</p>
<p>D. is signed up to go later this summer. The website is <a href="http://www.concordialanguagevillages.org%5B/url%5D">www.concordialanguagevillages.org</a>. We've never visited and would love to hear what you think.</p>
<p>My son attended the 4 week immersion program in Norwegian two summers ago and a girl I know well attended the 2 week program in Japanese last summer. Both had wonderful experiences, although my son was quite homesick and complained about the exceptionally large mosquitoes flitting about in the Minnesota woods.</p>
<p>LOL about the mosquitos! I am sure that this would be what my D would complain about. What did they do (if anything) to help with being homesick? This is a concern for me but we are going to try the 2 week sessions first. </p>
<p>My D is a bit nervous about the immersion aspect and what kind of foods they have - I offered to go for one of the family weekends first to get her acclimated but little did I know that falls under the extremely embarrassing category and the idea was never mentioned again!</p>
<p>I have looked at the website and brochures extensively - luckily, my brother and sister in law just relocated to Minnesota this year and this is why we are going to visit.</p>
<p>SilverClover - thanks for the advice - I will definitely ask about the backgrounds of counselors/teachers. </p>
<p>Thanks to all for the information - I will post when we return about our impressions of the place. I have yet to hear anyone say anything negative about the camp so I am very curious to see what it is like.</p>
<p>I live near Concordia, and some people I know have attended the language villages (French, Japanese, and Spanish, specifically), and have given them good reviews.
Incidentally, the food is supposed to be very good, especially the vegetarian/vegan options, which are cooked specifically for the campers who want them.</p>
<p>I'd never heard of the Concordia Language Villages before you posted this question, but they look fantastic! Please post your impressions of the Chinese Village after you go visit; my son studies Chinese and would probably love an experience like this (in a couple years).</p>
<p>Could people post thier opinions about the Spanish program as well? I am interested in attending it for next summer.</p>
<p>You should search the archives and you'll find some comments.</p>
<p>We found out about the program through this site, and based on their own material and people's comments here, decided it was worth trying. D. goes in late August so we won't be able to report on it until then.</p>
<p>I attended the Spanish 2 week program for two summers up at El Lago del Bosque, and experienced little immersion whatsoever. Yes, all the counselors were native spanish speakers, but with like a 15:1 counselor to kid ratio, there was no way they were able to enforce the "no ingles" rules. Furthermore, the curriculum was ridiculous, completely ineffective, and quite elementary. Now don't get me wrong, I had a great time, but if you want an actual immersion experience, the Concordia Spanish language camp is not the way to go. I've expressed these same opnions to spanish teachers at my school and they argued that you get what you invest. If you think that you can immerse youself in Spanish by going up to MN and personally not speaking english, forget about it. True immersion requires the upmost cooperation from those surrounding you, and that cooperation is simply something you won't find at Concordia.</p>
<p>Maybe I'll do an immersion program in Spain...?</p>
<p>I got a brochure earlier this year and it looked pretty great. I'll try to find it when I get back home.</p>
<p>For rising seniors or those in college, consider Middlebury</a> College's Summer Language</a> Schools.</p>
<p>I have not undergone the program yet, but since everyone is in college, I doubt one will have the same problems as aabar describes.</p>
<p>According to the Middlebury Language School webpage, applicants must have completed at least one year of college in order to be admitted. Sounds like a great program for those who qualify.</p>
<p>Well, I have not completed a year of college, except for the dual-enrollment in my senior year, but I don't think that really mattered; I'll be a freshman this fall. Also, I called the Language School before I applied and asked if I, a high school senior who would be a freshman in the fall, could apply. The student on the phone believed that I could not, but he put me on hold to affirm his assumption. After speaking to someone else, he found that I could apply.</p>
<p>I note rising seniors, because each is school is full now, so a rising senior this year must apply next spring. Some schools fill up quickly (the Arabic school, definitely), so it is one's interest to apply in early March to be guaranteed a spot.</p>
<p>My daughter will be attending Sjolunden, the Swedish Language camp, for her fifth year this summer. She is going for the credit session which lasts four weeks. To say that she loves it would almost be an understatement. Her goal now is to be a counselor when she is in college and she is seriously thinking of majoring in Scandinavian Studies (yikes!). The food is great and the setting is beautiful and it is totally wasted on kids IMHO, I want to go to camp there myself! They can learn sailing, weaving, knitting, painting, and folk dancing among other things and they celebrate all the holidays with special foods and activities. She has made friends from all over the U.S. and now I get to listen to ABBA in Swedish. I would guess some of the other camps would be more difficult to settle into just because the cultures are so different from ours. For her, it would be fair to say, it has been a life changing experience.</p>
<p>Thanks, Denquist, for sharing your experience. It will be my d.'s first time this summer, and it's reassuring to hear of people going back summer after summer. She's going for the language, of course, but also wants to have a summer camp kind of experience and it sounds like they cover both.</p>
<p>They're beautiful camps. I've never stayed at them, but I've visited a few times (I live a couple miles away). The German camp (I believe) has its own radio station, and there are a bunch of fun things to do at them.</p>
<p>I was actually going to see about working in the kitchen there this summer, but I didn't due to being gone for 2 weeks in July. I might see about helping out again next summer though.</p>
<p>I have to warn you though, my friends who've worked there have said all the kids love it, but don't usually follow the language program like they're supposed to.</p>
<p>OH!!! And don't eat the lime cookies/crackers...</p>
<p>Sorry to say, my kid had an experience similar to aabar's. Fun place, but nothing vaguely resembling French immersion, curricular problems (The campers seem to have spent much of their time singing French pop songs, without the rich recreational program that seems to exist with other Condordia languages.) and very little language learning. Another problem was that the program was held at a facility that Concordia doesn't own and hadn't used before. We knew in advance that bathing in the lake would be involved and this wasn't a problem, BUT necessary sanitary facilities such as sinks and toilets kept breaking and were out of commission for lengthy periods, and overall the facility seemed to be in poor repair. Also, the food did not meet the high standards we had heard about and was poor relative to other camp food D has eaten in terms of availability oif fresh fruits and vegetables. (Wouldn't have minded so much about nutrition and hygiene if there'd been some French going on!) I think it would have made more sense to do true immersion in Quebec or France if cost hadn't been an issue.</p>
<p>I attended the Concordia 4 week program in Russian last year and it was one of the best experiences of my life. Russian is a language that most schools don't offer and as a result, it was impossible to make the program complete immersion (most campers didn't have the language skills required to converse with each other in Russian 24-7). However, the classroom portion of the program was GREAT. I learned a LOT in 4 weeks (I think we had 6 hours of instruction per day) and even though I didn't go for credit (my school won't award it), my Russian imporved immensely, especially grammatically and conversationally, and I attribute some of my awards in competitions this year (including first place at a speaking competition, eee!) to the camp. in addition, the cultural aspect of the program was wonderful. I came away from camp having learned tons about history, culture, and politics of not only Russia, but many other soviet satellite states as well.(One example of this was a class group project that was a simulation of CIS chair elections. We learned a lot about international politics and I got to write a campaign speech in Russian.) Some counselors came from as far away as kyrgyzstan, ukraine, Russia, and Bulgaria and others had been in the peace corps, studied abroad, etc. At least one teacher taught at a university and another was a fulbright scholar. Everyone was passionate about the subject and as a result, the camp was very closeknit. I made great friends there and while none of us are returning this year for various reasons, we're still in touch for the most part. </p>
<p>with regards to the food/facilities, I would say it probably depends on which site you go to. the food at my camp was great. It got a bit repetetive after four weeks, but I usually enjoyed it and got to try some great new dishes as a result. The meals were generally balanced (maybe a tad carb heavy, but hey i ain't complaining) and there was always fresh fruit. Our camp was small and in the middle of nowhere, but in general it was well maintained. now the russian camp has a new site which i've heard is lavish. </p>
<p>I'm not sure how you and your son will like the Chinese village, but I hope you're encouraged. Concordia gave me one of the best experiences of my life and I never regret my decision to go.</p>
<p>I attended the Lac Du Bois Bemidji site, generally considered "the hotel" compared to the other french camps--facilities, while still wilderness-y, were nice, and the food was AMAZING (better hope the current chef, Wes, doesn't get lured by some fancy restaurant). I took the college credit course, which had 6 people. It was an amazing class--the professor was brilliant, but the class was very informal (except for rain, we usually held class outside). As for the immersion, well, not everyone has the diligence to speak French all the time, and trust me, you won't want to. However, there are always plenty of people speaking French, and people will never think it odd if you actually try to speak French all the time. Lac du Bois definitely didn't have a 15 to 1 ratio; there were 3 "monos" for each cabin of 12 people, and the monos served as counselors, ran activities, some even taught classes...they were always there to facilitate the French learning. Most people there were really cool, and my language skill went wayyyyyyy up after four weeks. Only complaint--it's kinda structured and u need to go to bed at 10:30 every night. But at least for the credit villagers, it was slightly necessary lol. But yea. LAC DU BOIS LALALALALA!!!!!!</p>