Concordia College

Portuguese Language Village to Open

Jul 22, 2008
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
AMY KELLY, Media Relations director
(218) 299-3642

PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE VILLAGE TO OPEN MONDAY

    Concordia Language Villages will open its 15th Language Village, Mar e Floresta, the Portuguese Language Village, on Monday, July 28 at Maplelag near Calloway, Minn. Translated as “Sea and Forest,” Mar e Floresta, was catapulted onto the national scene as language experts remarked on the importance of Portuguese in today’s global society at the announcement ceremony on Capital Hill in October 2007.   
    Media are invited to attend opening day between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Patricia Thornton, Director of Summer Programs, and Christine Schulze, Executive Director of Concordia Language Villages co-chair the Mar e Floresta advisory committee and can be available for comment.  Other media access to the program is available upon request by Carl-Martin Nelson at (701) 429-0045.
    Youth aged 8 to 18 attending two-week immersion sessions at the new village will study the language and take part in a variety of educational and cultural activities typical to Portuguese-speaking cultures. Participants need no previous knowledge of Portuguese. Educational and cultural activities familiarize learners with the music, dance, songs, crafts, games and foods representative of Portuguese-speaking cultures.
    As the sixth most-spoken language in the world, Portuguese is an important skill for global citizenship. It is the inherited language of more than 200 million people in eight countries on five continents and is spoken on every inhabited continent. More people speak Portuguese than Spanish, and in fact, more people speak Portuguese than speak German, French, Italian, or Japanese independently or combined.
    An integral part of Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn., the Language Villages strengthens the College and its commitment to creating responsible global citizens. Concordia Language Villages offers 15 world languages to 11,000 youth, families and adults from all 50 states and 32 countries yearly. The addition of Portuguese is in keeping with its tradition of teaching critical world languages and cultures to pre-collegiate young people.

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