Concordia Language Villages will require all participants eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine to be fully vaccinated prior to arrival at a residential session, effective September 1, 2021. Read our vaccine FAQ for more information.
If you’re 18 years or older and want to sharpen your Finnish skills or just stretch your mind, our Salolampi Adult Week sessions are perfect for you. We will help you improve your pronunciation, expand your vocabulary, learn new conversational skills and broaden your knowledge of Finnish culture.
Join us at Salolampi for a fun-filled week of Finnish language instruction, cultural presentations, crafts, activities, walks in the woods, indoor and outdoor sauna, friends and Finnish food. Our teachers, cultural presenters, musicians and craft and activity leaders are all experienced and highly trained. Tule mukaan!
Interested in a Virtual Village session? Learn more about Finnish virtual adult programs.
Tiina Watts has been teaching Finnish at Salolampi Adult Weeks and Family Fun Weekends since 2003. Her seven children and her husband, Ed, have all attended many Salolampi programs and two of them have been summer counselors. Salolampi is a magical place for the whole Watts family.
Tiina’s Finnish mother, Lea Antsola Mahoney, taught her children Finnish songs and culture, but unfortunately not how to speak her mother tongue. Tiina had the chance to learn it later as a teenager living in Helsinki for three years with her family and then as a church missionary for a year and a half in the ’80s. Tiina also spent a summer in Finland working at the Alvar Aalto museum and the Jyväskylä library. She loves the Finnish language and especially its grammar —with her main goal being to help others love and speak the language, too.
Tiina’s other passion is Finnish music; she plays guitar and piano and loves singing. Her language lessons are full of singing, movement, games, interaction, speaking, listening, writing activities, grammar and lots of variety. Learning a language should be fun!
Tiina recently completed master's degree in Second Language Teaching from Brigham Young University (BYU)at the age of 60 and works as a Finnish instructor and Scandinavian Languages Coordinator at BYU. She is continually working to improve the language curriculum and programming at Salolampi through her research and experience, while also incorporating suggestions and ideas from former adult week participants. In addition to making sure adult weeks always have great instructors, Tiina is committed to bringing the best cultural presenters, crafters and musicians in the state, and the country, to Salolampi.Tulekatsomaan ja oppimaan!
