The area in blue is Phase I, now complete, of the Korean Language Village / Courtesy of Mark Peterson

The Lake in the Woods, or “Sup sogui Hosu” in Korean, is the name of the “village” that comes alive every summer for students learning Korean in a residential immersion context in the Minnesota North Words. All of the 14 language villages hosted by Concordia Language Villages since 1961 under the auspices of Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, carry the name “Lake in the Woods” in each of the target languages (Arabic is “The Oasis” — lakes are in short supply in the Arabic-speaking world).

The Korean Language Village just celebrated its 25th year and to date has hosted 2,500 students in short-term, intensive, immersion language programs. The programs incorporate experiential learning with lots of “culture,” food, games and music, and high school students attending for four weeks can earn credit for a full year’s worth of language equivalent to 180 hours of classroom instruction. Villagers come from all 50 U.S. states and from abroad to attend these unique programs.

The founder of the Korean Language Village is Ross King, professor of Korean at the University of British Columbia. After 15 years he passed the “deanship” of the village to one of his former students, Dafna Zur, now professor of Korean literature at Stanford, and together they have spearheaded the development of this remarkable educational........

© The Korea Times