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I went for 3 years to Mori no Ike (the Japanese one) and its very fun. I have many friends who went to El Lago del Bosque too and said it was great.

If you're nervous about the language thing, let me just say that it may be kind of shocking at the beginning but by the end you will feel completely comfortable and confident with it. Also, at least at my camp I heard way more English than Japanese because all the kids spoke English and most of the counselors would speak English to us in our cabins, so its not really complete immersion.

It helps if you have friends going there too but if you don't, don't worry because you will make lots of them very quickly. There is a group for everyone there so you will fit in.

About the experience- there's always something interesting going on. There happen to be a lot of classes so you will probably spend a lot of time in class but you will be sorted with other people of your Spanish-speaking ability so you'll feel comfortable. The counselors are (mostly) very nice and try very hard to make things fun so you won't be bored very much.

Most of your day is spent doing special activities with your group. Your cabin (which is made up of people of your gender and age) is generally your group for most activities but you may find yourself in a different group for other things. Be prepared to do a lot of nature walks, sports, art projects, and writing exercises.

Sometimes there will be an opportunity to choose your own activity. Here's my advice- when you can, go for the most "ethnic" experience -the reason being that this camp is expensive, and you want to get the best for your money, so do you things you can't do at home (like special Mexican or Spanish activities). If all your friends go to play soccer or something, maybe do that somedays too, but make sure you're getting some variety.

The food is not great, that's all I'll say, but there's lots of it and options for you if you are vegetarian, vegan, kosher, halal or whatever. Not much time to sleep or chat with friends, and not much free time (only 1 hour at my camp) but you won't care because there's so much to do!

Although you can't call your parents (or whoever), write them as many letters as you need to because it never hurts and they'll appreciate the extra mail. You'll probably forget about your parents anyway.

In conclusion, all I can say is that it's very normal to be nervous (I was my first time too) but that the experience is so amazing it will change your life and your relationship with the foreign language you are studying, so just relax and have fun.

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RE:

Concordia Language Camp?

Im going to attend a Concordia Spanish camp for about two weeks, and im kinda nervous. Has anyone had any experience with one, and if so, could you tell me what to expect?

Id really appreciate any advise.

I went to the Russian camp (Lesnoe Ozero) twice when I was a teenager, and I was nervous before I went both times. Once I got there, it was fun and made a lot of friends very fast, some of whom I still talk to and it's been a long time since then. One downside (maybe a plus for others) is that they over exaggerated about how much Russian was going to be used - they said that everyone would be speaking Russian to you all the time and that's how you'd pick it up so fast. Unfortunately, a lot of the counselors were not native Russian speakers (some of them just studied it in college, etc) and did not speak a lot of Russian with us. I feel like I could have benefitted more from the camp if all of the counselors and teachers were native or at least fluent Russian speakers. Some of them were proficient enough in Russian, but not fluent, and their pronunciation was not good. That was my only complaint, but I'm not sure if that is what it is like at the other language camps. I also want to add that I don't think we got enough food, I remember all of the girls in my cabin and I wasting our money on candy from the Russian candy store - that's all they had in the store was candy, but we were so hungry and there was never anything for us to eat in the kitchen and what was served at the meal times was just not enough. I hope your camp isn't like that!

/l/k/l