| Sup sogŭi Hosu | |||||||||
| Address: | 11380 Turtle River Lake Rd NE, Bemidji, MN 56601[1] | ||||||||
| Country: | United States | ||||||||
| Coordinates: | 47.5786°N -94.7165°W | ||||||||
| Established: | 1999 | ||||||||
| Status: | Open during summers | ||||||||
| Dean: | Ross King | ||||||||
| Director: | Dafna Zur | ||||||||
| Module: |
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Sup sogŭi Hosu is a language immersion summer camp for the Korean language in Bemidji, Minnesota, United States.[2] It is part of the 501(c)(3) non-profit Concordia Language Villages school, and is sponsored by Concordia College.[3] It first opened in 1999,[4] and it had over 3,000 attendees across its history.[5]
Its founding dean is Ross King, head of the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia.[6] The camp is currently led by Dafna Zur, an associate professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Stanford University.
Early on in the camp's history, there was spare capacity each year for more students. However, after the success of the Korean Wave, the camp has seen a significant increase in popularity, with over a hundred participants each year and a waitlist of 120 students in 2023.[7]
The camp originally did not have its own dedicated facilities; King rented out buildings in the Russian language village for the camp. But in 2018, it received $5 million in funding via a private donation from the Korean handbag company Simone Corporation. This enabled the camp to create its own separate building, which was set to open in Spring 2019. The donation was the single largest in support of Korean language education in North America, and the largest in Concordia's history.[8] Kenny Park, the CEO of Simone, attributed the donation to a radio interview of King that he heard, where King advocated for greater public and private support from Korean companies to fund international Korean language education. The building was designed with the consultation of Korean architects, who used elements of Korean culture and architecture. The camp was also expressly designed to include a dojang, a training hall for Korean martial arts (notably taekwondo). The Korean camp was the eighth such camp to have its own facilities in Concordia, and the only one for an East Asian language .[9]
In 2024 the first phase of the new site was completed and opened for the summer session. It includes two dormitories, a dining hall, soccer field, waterfront, and more. There is ongoing fundraising for the second phase of development which will add a sports center, more villager dormitories for increased capacity, and a cultural center.[10]
The camp experienced a slowdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, but by 2022 it reported being back up to 70% of its capacity.
As a language immersion camp, counselors are required to speak Korean at all times. All signage in the camp is even written in Korean. Participants engage in cultural activities, including calligraphy, K-pop dance, taekwondo (reportedly once taught by Zur, a fan of the sport[11]), fan dance (buchaechum), Korean paper crafting, and Korean tea ceremonies. Korean food is served at the camp.