Middlebury monterey vs. Concordia Language Villages. Thoughts? Personal Experiences? Are they worth it? Trying to decide and interested in your opinion about your experience. thanks!
Sorry for the late reply. I am interested too and maybe we can get some more comments going. I’ll chime in with my experience.
Our daughter has spent the last 3 summers at Concordia in one of the more unusual languages, starting at age 11. She learned a great deal each summer and had a lot of fun. She also felt very safe. The kids took the language pledge seriously at her particular camp.
DD did mention that the kids in the most popular languages tended to speak more English than at her camp. She has good language skills and could also tell that some of the teachers of these languages were not native. This may be fine if the student is a beginner, but if you really want the accent right, this may matter more to you.
Last summer, she took the 4 week credit program and was less enthusiastic about that. The teachers and program were great, but the kids, being an older group, seemed less motivated and rather lackluster… Sadly, she has decided she wants to try something else. I would still recommend Concordia highly overall.
This year, she wants to work on Spanish, her language choice in school. She is already fairly fluent and so she is hoping to fine-tune her skills rather than learn the basics. She wants to be with other motivated students who are happy to be there and make the most of the experience. Suggestions welcome!
Right now we are considering at Middlebury for Spanish. I see the positive review of one student in an earlier post in this thread. Are there others who can chime in on how Middlebury is for a popular language like Spanish? Are the kids interested in learning the language, or are they there because they were forced by their parents or trying to catch up after not taking it seriously during the school year? How is the dorm environment? She is only 14 and I am hoping for a safe and fun experience for her. Thanks to anyone who can give their experience.