Concordia Language Immersion Camps

[Anonymous]

Considering sending DD (in HS) for 2 weeks. Has anyone sent their kid? Did it help with the language learning? Was it worth the money? Did your kid enjoy?

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I went to a Concordia camp when I was a teen. It was super fun, though looking back, I'm surprised my parents forked over the money. Spendy. Plus airfare to Minnesota.

At that point, I had had two years of public HS French, which means I didn't speak it AT ALL, but could recite lots of verb conjugations. Many of the other kids there had been studying it for longer, or came from French-speaking homes, but there were also kids who were having their first experience with the language and starting from zero. I can say that I left with a better comfort level in speaking than I had going in. Can't say that it helped my academic French at all. I went on to do a high school exchange year in France and became (and remain) fluent. Perhaps two weeks in the woods of Minnesota helped, who knows.

Anyway, it was (20 years ago) a great traditional summer camp experience, with canoeing and hiking and making things with lanyards and swimming in the lake and sneaking away from the bonfire to make out behind a tree. Plus French. Oh, and lots of music. It seemed like a lot of the professional counselors (they had one group of counselors who were there all summer every summer and sort of ran the place, and then older teens who came and went and had "junior" authority) were amateur musicians. That might have been specific to the staff then and there, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to a Concordia camp when I was a teen. It was super fun, though looking back, I'm surprised my parents forked over the money. Spendy. Plus airfare to Minnesota.

At that point, I had had two years of public HS French, which means I didn't speak it AT ALL, but could recite lots of verb conjugations. Many of the other kids there had been studying it for longer, or came from French-speaking homes, but there were also kids who were having their first experience with the language and starting from zero. I can say that I left with a better comfort level in speaking than I had going in. Can't say that it helped my academic French at all. I went on to do a high school exchange year in France and became (and remain) fluent. Perhaps two weeks in the woods of Minnesota helped, who knows.

Anyway, it was (20 years ago) a great traditional summer camp experience, with canoeing and hiking and making things with lanyards and swimming in the lake and sneaking away from the bonfire to make out behind a tree. Plus French. Oh, and lots of music. It seemed like a lot of the professional counselors (they had one group of counselors who were there all summer every summer and sort of ran the place, and then older teens who came and went and had "junior" authority) were amateur musicians. That might have been specific to the staff then and there, though.

Thanks for the feedback. My DD also is on her 2nd yr of HS French and is really struggling. Like you, she knows lots of vocab and can conjugate verbs, but is having a hard time "putting it all together". Wonder if I should give her another year.

[Anonymous]

If nothing else, it might increase her enthusiasm. So important in learning a language.

[Anonymous]

I went to this camp for four years in a row between 1996-2000. I think it is definitely more heavy on the French culture part and for getting the kids excited, but not so much in terms of language skills.. I learned a lot of French songs but couldn't tell you what I was singing until years later. Knowing what I know now, I probably would not send my daughter there as a way to learn French - for fun, sure, but if you are expecting her language skills to improve dramatically you will be disappointed.

I also should say that my last summer was the summer before 9th grade and I definitely feel like I had outgrown it by that point. I think the summer before 11th grade, your daughter may not be too enthused by all the activities.. and definitely not next year. It is also very rustic, tons of bugs, etc so be prepared for that.

I had mostly good experiences with the staff, I really did like my counselors. I totally agree with what PP said abotu the amateur musicians though! Looking back they were a bit eccentric. I will say that my little brother went for two years and had an unsettling experience - he was one of the younger campers, maybe 9 or 10 at the time, and had a ton of mosquito bites that he was scratching. Well, they called my mom on a business trip and told her that my brother was cutting himself. And this was apparently evidenced by the "cuts" all over his arms (that were really scratched up mosquito bites). The woman would NOT let it go and it ended up to be a whole big thing. Needless to say that was our last summer!

[Anonymous]

Bumping this to see if anyone else has done this camp, and if so what the logistics are like. Can you send your child as an unaccompanied minor on a plane and have them pick the child up at the airport? I have a curent 5th grader so would be a rising 6th grader in the summer, and there is no way that we would send her there if we had to have an adult drop her off. TIA.

[Anonymous]

I've gone to the German family camp and highly recommend Concordia. My daughter hated German but she was still speaking by the end of the time despite being opposed to learning it. It is really cool how they have the architecture of the countries and that the food also really immerses the kids in it.

Yes, you can send your kid as an unaccompanied minor. They are really great with picking up kids at the airport.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bumping this to see if anyone else has done this camp, and if so what the logistics are like. Can you send your child as an unaccompanied minor on a plane and have them pick the child up at the airport? I have a curent 5th grader so would be a rising 6th grader in the summer, and there is no way that we would send her there if we had to have an adult drop her off. TIA.

You can send them as unaccompanied minors. You send them to MSP, they pick them up from the airport. Then they spend the night in a hotel and take a bus to camp the next day. My kids love it.

[Anonymous]

The language credit program is quite different from the basic camp immersion program. The basic immersion camp is pretty fluffy (although DD learned enough to be conversational after a couple of years of just camp), but the credit program is intensive enough to be worth it for the language building aspect.

[Anonymous]

My DD has done chinese for 4 yrs now. She likes the “camp” aspects of it - swimming in the lake, singing around a camp fire. For her at least knowing more Chinese before she went made a big difference in how much more she learned. This last summer, having finished Chinese 3, she started dreaming in Chinese while at camp.
Honestly I do not know if she’ll want to go again this summer. The 4 week program is extremely intense but effective, and she may have outgrown the 2 week program. I wish there were other options.
It’s such a pain to get there. If you send your kid as an unaccompanied minor, she will spend hours waiting at the MSP airport, then go to a very basic dorm without a/c for overnight, then 4 hr bus ride the next day. We did it once. The other times I’ve gone out with DD 2 days early and we’ve had a mother/daughter weekend and then I drive her up. I do not love it, but DD has fond memories of our trips, so I keep doing it.
We always have her fly home on her own - no overnights so it’s not as involved.