 A generous donation has initiated the first steps in bringing in an authentic Korean language village site to the Concordia Language Villages in Bemidji. Arshar al-Mawr tells us the vision for the new spot. Today, villagers at the Concordia Language Village not only celebrated the annual International Day. The evening was made extra special by a gift that will significantly impact their Korean language villages. Today, we are celebrating the 20th anniversary summer of Subsoge Hossu, the Korean language village. As the winner of that occasion, we've had a very significant gift of $5 million from Kenny and Simone Park of Seoul, Korea and the Simone Corporation. Simone Corporation makes luxury handbags for famous brands like Michael Kors, Mark Jacobs and Coach. Park learned about Concordia when the Korean village's founding dean did an interview in Seoul. Park loved the idea of sharing Korean culture with the world. The villagers, they are so energetic and passionate to learn something out of their countries, the culture and people and languages. Right now, at the Concordia Language Village, there are currently seven culturally authentic sites. The Korean one will be the eighth village. If you follow me around this corner, you can see the current Korean village. Now, even though this will be the eighth site, it will be the first to represent an Asian country. This property was always envisioned to encompass the world and by adding Korean, we are in fact living out that original dream. The new language village will be built by Turtle River. Two architectural teams have already been hired, one from Minnesota and one from Seoul. They'll collaborate then hopefully break ground next spring. Concordia then hopes to host their first sessions on the new site in the summer of 2020. I hope, I mean, this will motivate to other the donators to having her to bring this Korean language village to next chapter. Reporting in Bemidji, Shulmoor, Lakeland News. So far the donation is the largest single gift donation ever given to Concordia. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.