Studying language doesn’t only happen in the classroom—for some students, it happens in their apartment.
When learning a new language, many students assume they can’t find immersive language experiences locally and must instead venture abroad. A handful of BYU students, however, have hands-on opportunities to practice their language everyday—at group dinners, with neighboring apartments, or while cooking. This immersive environment, and the scholars who study in it, can be found in an apartment complex north of BYU campus known as the Language Immersion Student Residence (LISR). Wanting to find an immersive environment while in the US, three undergrads joined the program with the hopes of challenging their language skills and found that the experience led to significant personal development as well.
A World Languages Program
The LISR program offers students the chance to immerse themselves in one of nine different languages: Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. After completing some preliminary language classes, BYU students can apply to participate in the College of Humanities’s LISR program. Though the application process is highly competitive, if they’re accepted, students live in apartments alongside other language learners. While this program does include housing, it primarily serves as an academic program for students who wish to study their second language outside of the classroom.
One student, Sam Sasser (Chemical Engineering ’26) returned from a Spanish-speaking mission wanting to maintain his Spanish in an immersive environment, so he joined the Spanish house at the LISR. Since then, Sasser has lived in both the Spanish and Portuguese houses for a cumulative three years. Looking back over his time there, he believes that his language skills were not only maintained—they improved.
For Sasser, this improvement started when he signed the LISR Language Pledge, which requires students to commit to speak their language in the apartment, to be available for language dinners four times a week, and to enroll in a conversational language course at BYU. Because of this structure, Sasser says, “I’ve gotten a lot more confident in speaking in a wide variety of topics. I don’t just have missionary vocabulary; I can talk about a lot of different things that just come up with my roommates.”
I’ve grown more comfortable with myself and sharing more of myself with others.
After three years in the community, Sasser can see a big improvement in his languages, but more importantly, in his growth as an individual. By attending events held by the LISR program, by the ward, and by his language house—especially their dinners—Sasser has met many new people and put his Spanish to the test. Over time, Sasser finds these practices have made him more confident, and he says, “I’ve grown more comfortable with myself and sharing more of myself with others.”
A Community of Language Learners
Joining the LISR means being surrounded by those who share a love for world languages and cultures. According to German house resident Gideon Hale (Applied Math, German ’26), living in this community of language learners has been the best part of his stay so far. Hale explains, “We all love the language. The people [living at the LISR] genuinely have a passion for learning and improving and just developing their language abilities.”
I’ve learned lots of things about treating other people as children of God. It’s made a profound difference in my life.
Each apartment has a language facilitator—a native speaker or advanced language student—tasked with providing personalized feedback on language use for each student. However, students also play an integral role in their peers’ language development by helping, encouraging, and sometimes even correcting one another. Though this process can sometimes be uncomfortable, Hale has found it very important for his own personal growth. He says, “I learn the best if I’m able to teach something as well. So, if I’m correcting someone else’s German, I have to think about it extra hard, which helps me refine my [own] German.”
By both encouraging fellow language learners and pushing them to grow, Hale has strengthened his ability to love and value people with different mindsets, habits, and even cultures. He now says, “I’ve learned lots of things about treating other people as children of God. It’s made a profound difference in my life.”
Making Learning Lifelong
For many undergrads, such as Sadie Taylor (General Studies ’27), the LISR helps language learners keep up with a language that they not only find fascinating but also have a personal connection to. Taylor has studied German for five years and, after returning from her mission in Germany, found the LISR. She says, “I just have this intense fear of losing my language because it’s so important to me. The LISR’s so fantastic because you’re surrounded by people who have this equal wish to maintain their language.”
Taylor has found that many individuals in the LISR don’t major in their language but rather choose to spend time outside of school improving and immersing themselves in it. Taylor says that for students in the LISR, studying the language “isn’t something we have to do or the next step on a ladder to our job—it’s just something that makes us happy.”
Learn more about the LISR and find the application to join the program on their website.