Dean of Language Camp: Dr. Tove Irene Dahl

I met Tove Dahl at a language camp in Norway in 1981. She was the staff troubadour who taught us to sing Norwegian songs and thereby learn Norwegian language and culture.  She was a such a people magnet back then, a natural leader, and I wondered what ever happened to this quintessential summer camp “counselor” who we all loved.  Forty years later, both she and I grew up, as people do, and I tracked her down in her home in Tromsø, Norway to talk about her long tenure as Dean of the Norwegian language camp Skogfjorden in northern Minnesota. Join me as I learn about her travels, her fascinating research as an educational psychology professor at the University of the Arctic, and how she came to be knighted by the King with the Norwegian Order of Merit in 2009.  At the end of the show, Dr. Dahl consents to play and sing (over Zoom) the camp song I learned from her in 1981, now 40 years later:  Fideli Bom Bom.  Join us and sing along!

Links

Information on Swedish, Danish, Finnish, and Norwegian youth and adult language programs at the Concordia Language Villages in northern Minnesota.

Info on the San Francisco Bay Area Scandinavian Language Camp (California).

Information on college-affiliated language programs.

District 2 Sons of Norway Language Camps (Washington and Oregon, USA)

American Swedish Institute programs in Minneapolis, MN.

As you can see from these Allesang sessions at Skogfjorden summer camp, Dr. Dahl is as lively and enthusiastic in leading songs as she was as camp counselor 40 years ago!

Dr. Dahl’s academic website at the University of the Arctic and the research she’s conducted over the years.

Photos

Tove and I tried to sing Fideli Bom Bom together over Zoom. This doesn’t really work because the videoconferencing time delay means we’re out of sync. But it was fun anyway! You’re never too old to sing camp songs.