The Mini-immersion
- an active way of learning or boosting up a language

Would you like to learn or brush-up a language in a new way, by doing practical work in a firm? To be a workmate to someone boosting his/her language learning in the same way? To be opening doors to your internationalisation in the Lake Pielinen area of North Karelia, Finland or in Karelia, Russia? To be taking a mini-immersion with us?

The actors
• A small firm in the Lake Pielinen area of North Karelia, Finland
• A small firm abroad (e.g. Karelia, Russia)
• Trainee(s) from a partner country (e.g. Finland, Russia, Poland, Germany, Sweden, Tcheck...)
• A Finnish trainee (tutor) from North Karelia College, Nurmes, Finland
• A trainee from abroad (e.g. Petrovski College, Petrozavodsk, Karelia, Russia)
• Advisors from North Karelia College, Nurmes, Finland

The businesses
The mini-immersion is offered to small tourism and restaurant businesses in the Lake Pielinen area of North Karelia and in Karelia, Russia. We would like to have active participating businesses that are prepared to work interactively: the business will provide a practical training and language-training place for the trainees, and one or more staff members will be able to involve themselves, embark on learning language and culture in practice, and provide room and board on terms to be negotiated. The work in the firm can be planning or doing some work/activity or doing customer service; all activities are important!

The goal
The firm and the trainees work in close cooperation throughout the training period. The project originated from the idea that none of the participants in the mini-immersion needs to know the language perfectly or not even well, but by working and at the same time learning together, language learning is efficient and also fun: maybe a long forgotten language is revived, and at any given point, one speaker will know more and be able to teach the others. Other languages, too, start to become interesting – the offerings include, after all, at least Finnish and, through the foreign partner, her/his mother tongue! The common communicating language would perhaps most often be English or Finnish.

The mini-immersion offers businesses a practical way to learn a language and to open doors abroad in their own working environment. The trainee coming from abroad will gain experience not only in the language and culture but also in the practical work of a Finnish business. The vocational student who maybe acts as a tutor will learn language and cultural skills at the same time, as part of his/her vocational studies. The advisor will work in close cooperation with the other actors. A close operation between the businesses is also one of the goals in this programme. The participants can, to the extent possible, start networking and discussing their experiences with others during the mini-immersion experience already.

Timing and duration
The mini-immersion lasts one week at the minimum but a longer time is warmly recommended. The programme begins in spring 2008, the mini-immersions in businesses begin in autumn 2008 and continue in year 2009.

During the years 2008-2009 we are testing the method. Then, afterwards we hope that our method will be an existing method, a thinkable alternative in teaching languages.

More information
Anna-Liisa Jeskanen-Aarnipuro, tel. +358 500 572 146, e-mail anna-liisa.jeskanen-aarnipuro@pkky.fi