Skogfjorden

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Skogfjorden is a summer camp operated by Concordia Language Villages outside of Bemidji, Minnesota. It offers intensive full-immersion language instruction in the Norwegian language.

The Skogfjorden permanent site is also the location of the Danish program, called Skovsøen.

1 Camp operations
- 1.1 Daily schedule
2 See also
3 External links

[edit] Camp operations

[edit] Daily schedule

The daily schedule at Skogfjorden varies depending on the age of the villagers. The activities below occur daily in roughly the order given.

Morgenklubber (Morning Clubs). If you are an early bird and want to get up before MYGG radio you can attend one of the morning clubs that are offered during your session. You can go swimming in the cool lake water in isbjørnklubben (the polar bear club) or you can go for a run or a walk in gåklubben or joggeklubben (walking or jogging club).

Oppvekking med MYGG radio (Waking Up, with MYGG Radio). Every morning the villagers start their day by waking up to the sounds of modern Norwegian music. While the Norwegian music plays, the villagers can take showers, brush their teeth and get ready for the day ahead of them.

Morgenjobber (Morning Jobs). When the villagers leave their "hytter" and go do their morning jobs. These jobs include cleaning the barn, the gymnasium and setting the table for breakfast.

Flaggheising og Frokost (Flag-raising and breakfast). To add to the feeling of being totally immersed in Norwegian culture, the villagers sing the Norwegian national anthem “Ja vi elsker” and raise the Norwegian flag every morning before breakfast (frokost). Breakfast is served based around traditional Norwegian diet. It usually consists of “Müsli” which is a cereal type breakfast food or “smørbrød” which is an opened faced sandwich with many different choices of toppings such as butter, tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese, jelly, salami, turkey, mayonnaise, etc.

Byopprydding (Cabin Cleaning). After breakfast villagers go back to their “hytter” and clean up. They are all assigned jobs to help out in keeping their home away from home clean. They are scored on how clean their “hytte” is and at the end of the session the “hytte” with the best record for cleanliness gets free candy.

Allsang (Singalong). This is the time of the day where villagers learn songs in Norwegian. During this time a lot of the language learning takes place. By setting the language to music it makes it much easier for the villagers to remember and helps reinforce vocabulary and pronunciation.

Kretser (Simulation Activities). Krets is a two hour long activity which consists of in depth exploration of Norway’s past, present and future. Mitgard is a Viking simulation where villages learn the Vikings history and also some oddities as well; such as Viking games, riddles and much more. Jotunheimen is the involvement of the villagers out in the immense forest that surrounds Skogfjorden. Villagers take walks, learn about plants, animals and plan and build camp sites. Soltun presents modern Norway to the villagers and challenges them to tackle the problems that Norway faces in the world today. Fagertun shows villagers what its like to immigrate from Norway to America and what the immigrants had to deal with when they moved to the new world.

Matpause (Snack). This is a 45 minute break where you can get a snack and relax between kretser and Strengruppe.

Strenggruppe ("String Group"). This is where the language learning becomes more focused on individual abilities. The levels are divided into how many years you’ve attended Skogfjorden and what other experience you have. Blue string is beginners and navy blue string is the highest level of language learning that you can do in a two week session. Each string group has its own teacher(s) that focus on a level of learning appropriate for where each villager is comfortable with their Norwegian.

Kosetime (Directed cultural activities). Kosetime is the activity time during the day. Villagers have a variety of activities they may choose from like handball, rosemaling, or listening to music. Many villagers choose to participate in the active choice such as handball.

Middag (midday meal). After the mind and body stimulating activities villagers dietary needs are fulifulled with amazing meals such as chicken and rice, tomato soup with macaroni and many more tasty treats!

Middagslur (afternoon nap). When lunch is over the villagers head back to their “hytte” to have some relaxing time. They can use this time to sleep, write letters, or just talk to friends. It recharges their battery for the rest of the day ahead of them.

Kosetime II (directed cultural activities). When middagslur is over its time to get the villagers’ back on their feet with energizing activities in kosetime II. They can go swimming in the lake, play soccer, play traditional Norwegian games, create works of art, and other fun activities.

Fritid (free time). This is the time of the day where the villagers can take out Norwegian currency (kroner) from the bank, buy Norwegian candy at the kiosk, go to Gimle to get a snack, or go to the bibliotek (library) to check out books in Norwegian.

Strenggruppe II ("String Group"). This is the second string group of the day focused on reinforcing learning that happened in the first string group and also furthering the learning.

Kveldsmat (Dinner). Dinnertime at Skogfjorden is always a favorite to the villagers. After a long day they appreciate a wonderful Norwegian meal. Dinners vary every night from delicious Meatballs and mashed potatoes to chicken and rice, or the very traditional torsk and potatoes. Every meal almost always includes freshly baked breads from the kitchen.

Fritid (free time). After dinner the villagers have time to go back to their hytte and get what they need for the night program ahead of them such as a sweatshirt, tennis shoes, or bug spray.

Flaggfiring og kveldsprogram (flag-lowering and evening program). Every evening the entire camp gathers to lower the Norwegian flag. The villagers sing “Aftensolen smiler” and roll the flag up so it’s ready to be raised again the next morning. The kveldsprogram is the “evening program” at Skogfjorden. They cover anything from famous people in Norwegian history, current events that Norway deals with, and sometimes just games and fun. This is where a lot of the in-depth learning of Norwegian culture occurs.

Tilbake til hyttene og kveldsjobber (back to the cabins and evening jobs). When the Kveldsprogram is over all of the villagers and staff stand in a ring holding hands and sing ”Lev vel” as a song to say goodnight and thanks for the great day. Then the villagers head back to their hytte and get ready for bed.

Lysene slukkes (lights out). The lights in the hyttes are turned off and everyone is in bed getting ready for the fun day ahead of them.