Concordia Language Villages (CLV), previously the International Language Villages, is a world-language and culture education program. Since beginning in 1961, it has grown to offer

summer camp A summer camp or sleepaway camp is a supervised program for children conducted during the summer summer vacation, months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as ''campers''. Summer school is usually a part ...

in 15 modern languages and school-year weekend programs mostly for Spanish, French, and German. Summer and winter programs are taught through a language and cultural immersion philosophy, which allows for experience-based learning. The Villages annually serves over 13,000 young people, aged 7–18, from every state of the US, as well as Canada and 31 other countries, and are sponsored by Concordia College of

Moorhead, Minnesota Moorhead () is a city in and county seat of Clay County, Minnesota, United States, on the banks of the Red River of the North. Located in the Red River Valley, an extremely fertile and active agricultural region, Moorhead is also home to several ...

, a private four-year

liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term '' art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically th ...

college of the

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a mainline Protestant Lutheran church headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA was officially formed on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three Lutheran church bodies. , it has approxi ...

Villages

There are architecturally and culturally authentic village sites (Finnish, French, German, Norwegian, Russian, and Spanish) located near

Bemidji, Minnesota Bemidji ( ) is a city and the county seat of Beltrami County, Minnesota, Beltrami County, in northern Minnesota, United States. The population was 14,574 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. According to 2021 census estimates, the city ...

on Turtle River Lake. There are also leased sites throughout Minnesota, as well as abroad in Switzerland and China. The road connecting the permanent villages at Turtle River Lake to the

county road A county highway (also county road or county route; usually abbreviated CH or CR) is a road in the United States and in the Canadian province of Ontario that is designated and/or maintained by the county highway department. Route numbering can ...

was purposefully constructed to be winding, to simulate the long trip to the target cultures represented at the villages. The original plans for these villages included a train to link all of the villages. Although this idea was scrapped, aspects of it still remain in several buildings. The

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

village's four-story administration building resembles a German

train station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing ...

and is called the Bahnhof ("train station"). The

dining hall A cafeteria, sometimes called a canteen outside the U.S., is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or sch ...

at Salolampi, the

Finnish language Finnish (endonym: or ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedish ...

village, is modeled after a famous Finnish train station. Additionally, the Turtle River Lake site has a World Inc. Peace Site with peace poles in the village languages at its heart, near the Norwegian village,

Skogfjorden Skogfjorden is a Norwegian language village and campsite affiliated with the Concordia Language Villages. It is located at the Concordia site at Turtle River Lake near Bemidji, Minnesota, United States. Skogfjorden is a village for language im ...

and the Bemidji and Turtle River Lake sites have European road signs in kilometers per hour (imported from Germany, not replications). Several

immigrant Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, ...

buildings have been moved to the permanent sites to show villagers what life was like for early European immigrants. The immigrant cabins at the Norwegian village are original to the site. The

"Haus Sonnenaufgang" was first moved from

New Ulm, Minnesota New Ulm is a city in Brown County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 14,120 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Brown County. It is located on the triangle of land formed by the confluence of the Minnesota River and the Co ...

to sit next to the Norwegian ones, but was moved sometime in the early 1990s to the German village near Bemidji, Minnesota. WaldseeBemidjiMarktplatzAtDusk

CLV consists of 15 villages: *

: Waldsee (est. 1961) * French: Lac du Bois or

Les Voyageurs ''The Travelers'', also known as ''Les Voyageurs'', are bronze surrealist sculptures by the French artist Bruno Catalano. The central part of each statue is missing. The artist has said that the statues are meant to represent emigrants. Backgr ...

(est. 1962) *

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: ** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...

: El Lago Del Bosque (est. 1963) * Norwegian:

(est. 1963) *

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: Lesnoe Ozero (Лесное озеро) (est. 1966) * Swedish:

Sjölunden Sjölunden ''(Swedish: sjö: lake, lund: grove)'' is the Swedish language camp site associated with Concordia Language Villages and is located at the Concordia site at Turtle River Lake, near Bemidji, Minnesota. After 30 years without an architect ...

(est. 1975) * Finnish: Salolampi (est. 1978) * Danish: Skovsøen (est. 1982) * Chinese: Sen Lin Hu (森林湖) (est. 1984) *

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

: Mori no Ike (森の池) (est. 1988) *

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

: Hometown, USA or Hometown, Europe (est. 1999) *

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

: Sup sogǔi Hosu (숲 속의 호수) (est. 1999) * Italian: Lago del Bosco (est. 2003) *

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

: Al-Wāḥa (الواحة) (est. 2006) *

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Port ...

: Mar e Floresta (est. 2008). Each village is named "Lake of the Woods" in its language, (as the villages are situated in the woods next to a lake.)with the exception of the English villages Hometown, USA and Hometown, Europe, the Portuguese village Mar e Floresta (Sea and Forest), and the Arabic village al-Wāḥa ("the oasis"). The Japanese village, Mori no Ike, literally translates as "Pond of the Forest," but was chosen in lieu of the literal translation for the ease of pronunciation.

Village culture

Villagers use CLV-issued passports to manage their camp bank account and familiarize them with the use of a passport. Villagers also go through customs upon arrival, meaning no phones or other devices with internet connection, no literature in any language except the target language, and no food. (Perishable items will be disposed of.) Each language village site has numerous traditions, many of which are related to meals and songs. Meal presentations, in which each food and its name are presented in a short skit before each meal, are a language tool implemented by almost all programs. Many villages also put on a restaurant night for villagers to practice going out using their target language. Restaurants will often be fancy affairs that tend to represent international cuisine and languages that are not represented by the villages, such as Vietnamese, Indian, Thai, or Tibetan. The cuisine in most villages reflect the ethnic cuisines of the target language. At Waldsee, this means that

regional food, Austrian,

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri *Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internati ...

and common import foods like Turkish

döner kebab Doner kebab (, ; tr, döner or , ), also spelled döner kebab, is a type of kebab, made of meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie. Seasoned meat stacked in the shape of an inverted cone is turned slowly on the rotisserie, next to a vertical cook ...

are served. At Lac du Bois, foods of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and the Caribbean may be included. The fusion of American and foreign cultures has created a strange linguistic phenomenon sometimes referred to as Lac du Bois's "

Franglais Franglais (; also Frenglish ) is a French blend that referred first to the overuse of English words by French speakers and later to diglossia or the macaronic mixture of French () and English (). Etymology The word ''Franglais'' was first att ...

" (French and anglais) or Waldsee's "

Denglish Denglisch is a term describing the increased use of anglicisms and pseudo-anglicisms in the German language. It is a portmanteau of the German words german: Deutsch, label=none (''German'') and german: Englisch, label=none. The term is first ...

" (Deutsch and English). Examples would be "Je need a couteau" ("I need a knife") or "What did you seh at the Kino?" ("What did you see at the movie theatre?"). This trend, however, is not limited to just the Lac du Bois and Waldsee camps, villagers at every camp employ a unique variety of

code-switching In linguistics, code-switching or language alternation occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation or situation. Code-switching is different from plurilingual ...

with English and the target language. Site buildings are given names in the target language, and rarely does anyone refer to site buildings by their English names, even when speaking English. Additionally, some words have been invented by native-speaking staff members for concepts that are not native to the target cultures but daily words in camp life, such as "

chipmunk Chipmunks are small, striped rodents of the family Sciuridae. Chipmunks are found in North America, with the exception of the Siberian chipmunk which is found primarily in Asia. Taxonomy and systematics Chipmunks may be classified either as ...

", " poison ivy", and " mosquito repellent".

Village activities

A typical day at one of the Villages includes cultural and typical summer camp activities. In the target language, villagers might go canoeing, create art projects, play African drums, practice yoga, play ping-pong, or make a film. Camp songs and daily skits are an integral part of the village experience, as are jokes, games, and weekend dances, all of which surround campers with the language. Villagers also can attend a four-week program for high school credit. Obviously, the schedule for these villagers is slightly different. "A thematic curriculum, experiential immersion techniques and performance-based assessments are the basis for this academic program." To earn the 180 hours to gain credit at a high school, villagers will attend 4 to 5 structured classes during the day. The credit villagers are in the immersion program and take part in "doing" foreign language, but unlike many of the 2 week programs, these villagers will also focus on reading and writing. Credit villagers still get to participate in many of the fun activities such as evening programs, sports, arts and crafts and other unique offerings in each village.

Programs

Concordia Language Villages has offered a 10-day, 4-credit graduate level course for teachers in

second language A person's second language, or L2, is a language that is not the native language ( first language or L1) of the speaker, but is learned later. A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a ...

s and immersion, along with various adult programs to serve its diverse audience, not all of which are offered in every language. High school credit abroad programs were formerly offered in China, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, Cameroon, and Argentina. During the summer, CLV serves youth with villages in the United States. Villagers can stay for one week, two weeks, or four week programs, and it is possible to earn high school or college credit for the time spent being immersed in the language. Wilderness programs during the summer offer additional opportunities to spend time in the outdoors of Minnesota for those who enjoy the environment, exploration, and camping. Many camps also offer other themed programs, such as French African or

culture (which is a blend of the German, French, and Italian villages) or the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

in combination with

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

. Summer day camps are offered for younger learners who live in the area, and family week programs during the summer serve entire families, even those with young children. Between September and June, CLV offers weeks and weekends of immersion for adults, families, teachers, and school groups. These programs meet over weekends and long weekends, and each school year has a theme for its weekend.

International Day

During each half of the summer, all the camps within driving distance travel to Waldsee, the German camp, for a day-long festival of cultures called International Day, or I-Day. The camps bring out their wares and each has a booth of ethnic food to share, and each camp prepares a short closing performance to share. Each year has a different theme. Additionally, campers in every village learn a choreographed dance to the year's "I-Day song" during the two weeks preceding I-Day. This is a song from a language not covered by the camps; everyone dances to it together during the festival. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, International Day has been postponed until further notice.

International ties

Notable visits

Over the years, Concordia Language Villages has been visited by numerous dignitaries and supporters, including: *

Consul General Rodrigo Aguirre de Cárcer (1983) * German Ambassador Peter Hermes (1983) * German Ambassador

Günther van Well Güenther Wilhelm van Well (15 October 1922 – 14 August 1993) was a German diplomat, Secretary of State from 1977 to 1981, and West German Ambassador to the United States from 1984 to 1987. Career In the early seventies, as Assistant Secreta ...

(1987) *

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minne ...

Governor

Arne Carlson Arne Helge Carlson (born September 24, 1934) is an American politician who served as the 37th Governor of Minnesota. A Republican, Carlson's viewpoints are considered to be moderate. He first won election to the governors office in 1990. Carl ...

(1991) *

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the ...

Governor

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (Birth name, né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 ...

(1991 and 1992) * Finnish Ambassador

Jaakko Laajava Jaakko Tapani Laajava (born 23 June 1947 in Joensuu) has served as Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs for Finland from 1 April 2010. Prior to that, he served as Ambassador to the United Kingdom in 2005 ...

(1998) *

Ambassador

Jürgen Chrobog Jürgen Chrobog (born February 28, 1940) is a German jurist and former diplomat. He worked in the Foreign Office of West Germany and the reunified Germany and among other diplomatic postings, was Ambassador to the United States from 1995 to 2001. ...

(1998) *

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n Ambassador Peter Moser (2002) * Ambassador of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

Knut Vollebæk Knut Vollebæk (born 11 February 1946 in Oslo) is a former Norwegian diplomat to the United States, (2001–2007, and centrist politician ( Norwegian Christian Democratic Party). He is currently a member of the International Commission on Miss ...

(2003) * Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany

Wolfgang Ischinger Wolfgang Friedrich Ischinger (born April 6, 1946) is a German diplomat who served as chairman of the Munich Security Conference from 2008 to 2022. From 2001 to 2006, Ischinger was the German ambassador to the United States, and from 1998 to 2001 ...

(2003), * Italian Consul General in Chicago Eugenio Sgró (2003) * Finnish Consul General in New York Jukka Leino (2003) * Finnish Ambassador Jukka Valtasaari (2004) * Ambassador of the

Principality of Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constitutional monarchy ...

Claudia Fritsche Claudia Fritsche (born 26 July 1952) is a former Liechtenstein diplomat who was Liechtenstein's first ambassador to the United Nations, the United States, and Liechtenstein's first female ambassador. Early life Claudia Fritsche was born on 26 ...

(2004) * Deputy Chief of Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany Klaus-Peter Gottwald (2005) * Deputy Chief of Mission of Sweden Caroline Vicini (2005) * Counsellor of the Royal Norwegian Embassy Kirsten Hammelbo (2005) * Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany

Klaus Scharioth Klaus Scharioth (born October 8, 1946) is a former German diplomat. From 2006 to 2011 he served as Embassy of Germany, Washington, D.C., Germany's ambassador to the United States. Since 2011 he has been dean of thMercator Fellowship on Internation ...

(2007)
* Second Secretary for Cultural Affairs at the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

n Embassy Irina Khortonen (2007) * Swiss Ambassador Urs Ziswiler (2008) *

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

Under-Secretary-General An under-secretary-general of the United Nations (USG) is a senior official within the United Nations System, normally appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the secretary-general for a renewable term of four years. Unde ...

for Communications and Public Information Kiyotaka Akasaka (2008)

International patronage granted

His Majesty King

Harald V of Norway Harald V ( no, Harald den femte, ; born 21 February 1937) is King of Norway. He acceded to the throne on 17 January 1991. Harald was the third child and only son of King Olav V of Norway and Princess Märtha of Sweden. He was second in the l ...

has granted royal patronage to

, the Norwegian Language Village. Patronage is an affirmation from the Royal Family of Norway of the quality educational programming of Concordia Language Villages. In 2009, Tove Irene Dahl, the dean of Skogfjorden, was named a Knight of the First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit, by His Majesty King Harald V of Norway for the advancement of Norwegian language and culture in the United States.

Johannes Rau Johannes Rau (; 16 January 193127 January 2006) was a German politician ( SPD). He was the president of Germany from 1 July 1999 until 30 June 2004 and the minister president of North Rhine-Westphalia from 20 September 1978 to 9 June 1998. In ...

, former President of the Federal Republic of Germany has also granted personal patronage to Waldsee, the German Language Village. This patronage is symbolic of the strong bonds between the people of Germany and Concordia Language Villages.

References

{{Authority control Language schools in the United States Summer camps in Minnesota 1961 establishments in Minnesota Concordia College (Moorhead, Minnesota)