Ojibwe Immersion House

Ojibwewigamig

About

Gain confidence, a sense of community, and lifelong friendships while immersed in the Ojibwe language. The Ojibwewigamig is a community where Ojibwe language students can live together in a safe and fun environment where Ojibwe language is the primary language of the house.

This LLC provides Ojibwe language students the unique opportunity to be fully immersed in the Ojibwe language, as immersion has proven to be the most effective method of acquiring and learning language.

This LLC is open to heritage Ojibwe students and any student who wants to expand their skills in the Ojibwe language within an immersion environment. Ojibwewigamig will have a mixture of intermediate to advanced language skill students who are able to stay in the language without too much reliance on English.

The ultimate goal of this LLC is to help students attain a higher level of fluency in the Ojibwe language by providing students an opportunity to use the language in everyday life.

As a result of living in Ojibwewigamig, students will increase their knowledge of everyday vocabulary and usage and overall fluency in the Ojibwe language, and gain confidence in speaking Ojibwe for a sense of community among the Ojibwe language students, garnering lifelong friendships and connections.

Students who have no prior knowledge of the Ojibwe language are not eligible for this LLC. However, we encourage all students to enroll in our Ojibwe language classes here at the University of Minnesota so that they can be eligible for the following year.

The Ojibwe Language Program will recruit and select students for this LLC. If you are interested in this experience or would like more information, please contact the LLC sponsor.

Details

This experience is located in university housing in the Radius Apartments. Students can request a private bedroom or shared bedroom.

Location

Program Partners

College of Liberal Arts

American Indian Studies

Ojibwe Language Program

Visit Partner Website

Requirements

Prior knowledge and experience with the Ojibwe language resulting in a basic speaking ability, and/or have had at least one year of Ojibwe language classes either at the University of Minnesota or elsewhere.

Commit to speaking only Ojibwe while living in the Ojibwewigamig.

LLC roommates only - Students with a mutual roommate request who is also interested in this LLC are welcome.

Contact

Brendan Kishketon

Email

[email protected]

The Ojibwe language is a Native American language indigenous to Minnesota and is an endangered language under threat of extinction.

The Department of American Indian Studies here at the University of Minnesota recently implemented the BA in Ojibwe degree program as one measure to revitalize and pass the language onto another generation of speakers. Therefore, Ojibwewigamig is a crucial step in helping Ojibwe language students maximize their language learning by providing an environment where Ojibwe is used in a variety of contexts that cannot be provided by the classroom.

Because most students who endeavor to learn Ojibwe in the Ojibwe language program here at the University of Minnesota are often of Ojibwe heritage, they tend to be quite passionate about learning their heritage language.