Any Scandinavian language speaking communities left in MN? (Minneapolis, Bemidji: camps, kitchen)

[kuan]

Or Finnish? I'd like to get some Norwegian immersion in someday instead of trying to learn it from CD's and a book. Maybe Finnish or Swedish later, but Norwegian right now.

[TravisW]

I'm not aware of any--perhaps the isolated elderly, but that's about it. Too bad, really. In my hometown in ND, it was pretty much an accepted fact that any man over a certain age spoke Norwegian. Now, they are getting to be fewer and further between. I used to be fairly proficient with spoken Norwegian, but my fluency is horrible these days.

[moving123456]

There is still a few churches that do a Norwegian service, but I am not aware of any big communities where Norwegian is the usual means of communication.

Take a long trip to Norway for Norwegian immersion.

[JenLee]

There may be some isolated pockets of the old languages around; I do know of a few families that still speak some Swedish or Finnish or French, but it's mostly just a few sentences or phrases now.

One thing about those languages is that the families that speak it do not speak *modern* Swedish or Finnish or whatever; they speak the languages of their immigrant ancestors (which may be from 100 years ago). We discovered that when some distant relatives (both mine and my hubby's) came over from the old countries years ago to visit and our older relatives who'd been exchanging letters with them for years could barely understand them once they were trying to talk to each other in person..

[laplander]

You may want to check with the Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. My parents were Swedish, but they would speak Swedish when they didn't want me to know what they were talking about, so i would just leave the room, and i never did learn the language.
laplander

[golfgal]

You could also check out the Concordia Language Camps. They are full immersion camps, mostly in the Bemidji area but they have some in the Twin Cities too.

[TravisW]

True about the Concordia Language Camps, I think they have an adult camp as well as the camp for younger folks. I should know more, their HQ is literally 50 feet from my kitchen door.

[kuan]

Heh I google Norwegian Immersion and this thread comes up second.

[roneb]

Concordia Language Camps would probably be the best bet for immersion. There is (or used to be) an old Suomi Lutheran church outside of Deer River. Don't know if Finnish is still spoken around there.

[BorderGirl]

I still hear Finnish spoken up in I Falls, but that is only when we're particularly cold and grumpy. Or at least I do when I'm really cold and grumpy.