At BYU, language learning goes beyond textbooks. For students living in language housing, fluency starts right at home.
In the Language Immersion Student Residence (LISR), students are living like any other college student, just in another language.
“You get to know your roommates so well from eating dinner with them four nights a week and from communicating with the people across the hall. Other language learners already have something in common so all of you become good friends pretty quickly,” Heidi White, a LISR resident, said.
It’s not all fun and games, there is a thorough application and certain commitments required to stay.
“You have to be here for dinners 4 nights a week, at 6 or 6:30," Jeremy Funk, another LISR resident, said. "They look for people who are passionate about the language and people who really want to learn.”
Some choose to live here for the simple reason of keeping up their mission language.
“Living here I have learned a lot of other vocabulary that is helpful for real life,” Meghan Smith, a LISR resident, said.
For others, it is about connecting to their family and trying something new.
“I served in New Hampshire French speaking, but it’s also my mom’s native language, so I used to hear it around the house,” Funk said.
Off the mission, Funk was living on South Campus, where he was not satisfied and felt something was missing
"My parents both lived here, this is where they met actually and I thought why not give it a shot," he said.
Once in, one often picks up a new language along the way.
“I wanted to branch off, learn a little bit of Portuguese to go along with my Spanish,” White said. "Having a more immersive experience has really helped me to learn the language, solidify it and speak better."
It is valuable to learn many languages, and LISR makes it possible.
“You want to talk with your roommates so you might as well do it Portuguese or Chinese or French or German," White said.
These students made it clear, fluency is actually the second best part of living in the language housing.
“It's really beautiful to see that something that is just a bullet point on a resume you know speaks Spanish is really so much deeper and so much more beautiful than that,” White said.
For many students, language housing is more than just a place to live, it’s a community where friendships and fluency are built one conversation at a time.