Alexander Arguelles - From Start to Finnish

Full title: From Start to Finnish - metacognitive refllections of a "retired" bookish polyglot on learning Finnish in an intensive immersion camp designed for younger learners Having recently obtained a position as director of intensive immersion programs at Concordia Language Villages, I accepted the challenge of immersing myself for two weeks as a villager in Salolampi, the Finnish language village, so that I could gain a first hand understanding of how the program works -- and see if I could develop conversational abilities in Finnish in that time frime. I did indeed succeed in this last endeavor, despite the fact that I had not learned a new language in decades, and despite the fact that the method I used was the antithesis of the methods I have used in the past. This experience has given me cause to reflect upon many truisms and assumptions language acquisition vs. language learning; age, experience, motivation, and language learning; and the ideal cirumstances, settings, and requirements for the efficient development of linguistic skills. I will share these reflections about this experience in this presentation. ConcordiaLanguageVillages.org Join us at: PolyglotConference.com fb.com/PolyglotConference fb.com/groups/PolyglotConference twitter.com/Polyglot_Confer instagram.com/PolyglotConference The Language Event Join us at: TheLanguageEvent.com fb.com/TheLanguageEvent fb.com/groups/TheLanguaageEventEdinburgh fb.com/groups/TheLanguageEventAuckland fb.com/groups/ThelanguageEventMelbourne twitter.com/PolyglotMeetup instagram.com/TheLanguageEvent Filming & Editing: Simos Batzakis