Mori no Ike

Mori No Ike, the Concordia Language Village for Japanese language instruction for youth. Image from the final presentation where children showed on stage what they'd learned in their one week immersion course.

Mori no Ike (森の池, Mori no Ike^?, Lake of the Woods) is the Japanese language program of Concordia Language Villages, located in Dent, Minnesota, U.S.A. Japanese is one of the 15 languages offered by Concordia Language Villages. Mori no Ike is a Japanese immersion summer camp where campers, called gakusei (学生, "student"; 4-week credit program) and seito (生徒, "pupil"; 2-week and 1-week non-credit sessions) together with their counselors, called sensei (先生, "teacher") learn Japanese language and culture. Campers and counselors all choose a Japanese name to use during the session, and make a wooden nafuda (名札, "nametag") to wear at camp. Campers partake in traditional Japanese cuisine and cultural activities such as kendo, origami, and taiko drumming in addition to their lessons. Lessons take place in small groups based on proficiency in Japanese. As in all of the other Concordia Language Villages, counselors are not permitted to talk to the campers in English or any other language besides the target language (except in the case of emergencies) for a true immersive experience.

Mori no Ike offers 1-week exploratory, 2-week immersion, and 4-week credit programs. CLV also offers a Japanese Village Weekend program for school groups in the fall. In the past there was also an abroad program to Japan, but the program has since been suspended.

Name

All of the CLV names (except Al-Wāḥa, the Arabic village, Hometown USA, the English village, and Mar E Floresta, the Portuguese village) roughly translate to "Lake of the Woods". In Japanese, the direct translation of "Lake of the Woods" would be Mori no Mizuumi, 森の湖. Ike ("pond") was chosen over mizu-umi only to sound more fluent to both English and Japanese speakers.^{[citation needed]}

History

The first Mori no Ike Japanese program was offered in the summer of 1988. The location of the first site was Giant's Ridge Resort [1] in Biwabik, MN. The program was held at the Giant's Ridge facility until 1992, when it moved to two different locations: Lakeside Camp in Dent, MN was used for the first half of the summer, then transported to Waubun, MN for the second half. From 1996, Dent became the single site used for the full summer (although the program was still managed in two sections, with a distinct staff hired for each half of the summer.)

At the start of the 21st century an increase in enrollment numbers lead to the expansion of Mori no Ike programs. In 2000, the Credit Abroad program to Japan was started. In 2005, Mori no Ike became a multiple site village with the addition of the Cass Lake, MN location. In 2006, the secondary site moved to Sandstone, MN then in 2009 the secondary site moved again to Hackensack, MN. Concordia Language Villages has decided to halt the abroad program to Japan as well as the use of the secondary site in 2010.

In July 2007, the Japanese permanent site on Turtle River Lake was dedicated, making Mori no Ike the sixth culturally authentic and permanent site to be established. When construction is complete, it will be neighbors with El Lago Del Bosque. As of yet the permanent site construction has no set date for completion due to lack of funding.

See also

• Concordia Language Villages

External links

• Concordia Language Villages Japanese programs page