Starting seventh grade gives students a ton of new opportunities to explore, such as becoming a member of the White and Blue Press, attending school dances, and engaging other fun school activities, but the seventh graders’ favorite part is going to Concordia Language Village. The four-day language camp is a ten-hour bus ride to Bemidji, Minnesota. Concordia Language Village gives students an opportunity to speak a lot of French or Spanish and learn about the culture behind the language as well. While there are many aspects of the camp to look forward to, the weekend is filled with many fun activities, and although there are certain activities that are the highlights of the weekend, there were some aspects of the camp were not expected from the camp that future seventh graders should know.

The Concordia Language Camp is liked by many students at St. Robert. Evie, a seventh grade Spanish student at St. Robert, explains, “I enjoyed camp because it opened my eyes to the Spanish culture. My Spanish vocabulary improved 150 percent. I met many friends that I am still close with.” At the villages, all students are expected to speak “Cien por cien Espanol” or “Super Français” which means that they have to speak only Spanish or only French. The students that went to the French Village also agreed that they learned a lot of new words and enhanced their vocabulary.

Also, seventh grader Max Fricano claimed that they made new friends: “I made this friend named Tolu who was in Max, Jack, and Audrey’s family. She was really nice and we liked hanging out with her.” At the villages, the councilors set the students and chaperones into groups of people which were called “families”. The families would sit with each other during breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and they would get together for all-camp activities. According to Spanish-speaker, Evie, her favorite activity was the all-camp board game played at camp. During the day, there are fun activities that people sign up for. The activities can include, sports or crafts. The Spanish students and French students both agree that they enjoyed the activities held.

The camp was overall a fun experience for the seventh graders, but there were some parts of the camp that were considered “the pinnacles” of the camp. Jack, a Spanish student, explained, “My highlight of language camp was doing the big group activities because it was fun.” Everybody at the camp would have fun with the activities hosted. For example, every day, the students had a period where they would learn to dance. Evie, a Spanish student, explains that “the dances were in Spanish and involved fun movements.”  Whether it was dancing, singing, or learning more about French and Spanish, many students agreed that the activities were fun to experience.

While there were very enjoyable parts of the camp, there were also parts of camp that made students feel as if they weren’t fully prepared. All students agreed that the hardest part of the camp was constantly talking in Spanish or French. Ava, a French student, told a story of the time when she was having trouble comprehending what they were saying: “there was this guy named Etienne and he never [spoke] in English once; he was trying to teach me dinner phrases which were hard for me to comprehend in only French.” Upcoming seventh graders should know that the counselor at the camp will rarely speak English. The only time they will speak English is when explaining the ingredients in the food, for the counselors want to make sure all kids with food allergies know what they can and cannot have.

In conclusion, there are main features of the camp that the seventh grade students of St. Robert love. Although elements of the camp were unexpected to students this year, everyone had an extraordinary time at the Concordia Language Camp!