# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1858_S381
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Submitted on Church-Contemporary Affairs. 381

members have given $100 each, while only a few items under $25.00 are
recorded. This is truly an encouraging generosity from these immigrants,
many of whom came into this country only a few years ago without a
farthing. From the November number of their journal, the "Kirkelig
Maanedstidende," we learn that three young men from their congregations —
Torgersen, Jakob Larsen, and Lasce Fosce — have already begun their
preparatory studies at this institution.'"

"We congratulate our Norwegian brethren in Wisconsin, jointly with our
sister paper, on this proof of the zeal and generosity they display in
their care for the training of young men for the ministry in their
congregations. But at the same time we beg leave to suggest for
consideration whether they might not achieve their purpose better at our
Illinois State University. Why should the Scandinavians in this country
splinter their forces? The Swedish and Norwegian languages are so closely
related that one professor can teach both quite well. Our young Swedes
and Norwegians also need only a very short time associating with one
another to understand each other. We now have at our institution 13
Scandinavians, 8 Swedes and 5 Norwegians, who need only a few weeks'
association to be able to converse with one another in the most
brotherly and easiest manner, each speaking in his own mother tongue. In
class hours their teacher, Prof. Esbjorn, instructs them together in the
same way in the grammar of their mother tongue and the like. Would it not
be far better for these young people to all come together, rather than
being divided between two or more institutions?"

"But there is yet another circumstance of no small importance. With us,
at the Illinois State University, young people learn English at the same
time, not from a Norwegian or Swedish teacher, but from Americans who
speak English as their mother tongue, and through association with their
fellow students, who use it in their studies and in their common
conversation. — We do not wish in the least to disparage the ability and
the merits of our brethren at Concordia College (in St. Louis), but it is
well known that the entire instruction at that institution is given in
the German language, except in the hours set aside for special
instruction in English. Moreover, the students are Germans and use their
own language with one another in their ordinary intercourse; accordingly
the opportunities for acquiring the English language at that institution
are very limited. But we consider it certain that our Norwegian brethren
wish to see their preachers so instructed in English that they are able
to speak it in intercourse with Americans, even if they are not called to
preach in it. It is also plain that in many cases they must instruct
their young people by means of the English language, if they do not want
them to abandon the church of their fathers altogether. Where the Nor-