Have you ever wanted to learn more about the world? Ever wanted to learn more about the languages and cultures out in the rest of the world? If you want to do this then join Concordia Language Villages!
Concordia Language Villages was founded in 1960 by Gerhard Haukebo. The founder had an idea which was, languages should be taught in a more enhanced way compared to how it was taught previously. As a result now the program is meant to teach not only languages but the cultures and global context/history to each of them. This is a program where students learn but it’s a different type of learning compared to what they are used to in school. In this program students are able to learn more about the world and the diverse cultures in places all over the world.
This program is school but also in a way very different from the standard schooling. It’s more like a camp experience in which students go to these villages to learn about different cultures. The program is aimed for students within K-12 but is also open for their entire families. This program has a few goals it aims to achieve with the program. These goals are to have global citizens appreciate and understand cultural perspectives that are diverse and communicate in multiple languages with confidence. Students should learn respect and have compassion and engage with more issues without boundaries and add insightful ideas, and finally to make sure that with all of this the world becomes a better place overall(Concordia Language Village).
The villages offered are based on 15 languages in total. These languages are Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, French, Arabic, Finnish, Russian, Norwegian, Italian, Korean, Chinese, German, English, Japanese, and Swedish. A motto they share is to live the language. Not only do students learn the languages they want but they also get to live out the experiences. They have mentors and guides who are either native speakers of the language or people who generally know the culture. Students get to experience what these cultures eat and do. They get to learn the history and the important traditions of each culture. All students need to do in order to attend camp is to make sure they have personal necessities to stay at camp and have an open mind to try new things.
The schedule for this program is similar to a standard school schedule but also very different. There is still a schedule that needs to be followed and students do learn but they do it in a different way. Some of these courses range from activity time, to free time, to language time, etc. They also have a few policies such as electronics will not be used in the school day. The students are there to interact with the language and new experiences without any distractions that are electronic. Another policy includes that the students learn how to be responsible and cautious of how they affect the environment with their actions. The program also offers students time to attend worship if they believe in religion. The Concordia Language Village gives students respect and opportunities all throughout their program.
I chose this tool because I think it’s very helpful and informative. Looking back at my K-12 courses, I only remember learning about languages through a limited amount of courses. The primary being Spanish. In high school they included French, German, Greek, and Italian as well. Even then this was still a limited few languages to choose from. If I had known about this program earlier then I would have loved to have joined it and tried out some of the other languages. I want to teach English abroad in Korea one day so something like this program would have been helpful to learn the language and more about the culture. I also like the idea behind it. I do believe that learning new languages and opening up to learn more context over different culture’s history is important for the world to be better overall. In the classroom I will choose to use this tool as a field trip. If I teach another language such as Spanish or Korean to a class/club I would like to use this tool as a field trip. This way the students are able to learn more and also live the experience of the language and culture. I believe a field trip like this would help the students grow as better people.
The program is a great way to build a community and an understanding of different cultures. I wish this program was talked about more or even a requirement in school because I think this could have solved a lot of issues. Personally I believe a lot of issues were caused because we were closed off and not open to learning more about other places. Fixing this issue now and making a change will help the world and its citizens overall. It will make the distance in between everyone a bit smaller. The bigger the program gets the smaller the distance becomes.