Language Immersion Student Residence (LISR)

Reviews

• HW

  Heidi White

  Oct 28, 2025
  5.0
  The best immersive experience if you want a tight-knight community of high-achieving young adults! I’ve made some of my best friends here. The program has its flaws, but there’s a reason people come back year after year.
• TA

  Timothy Alger

  Sep 3, 2025
  5.0
  Love it! You have to love tight knit social sciences and love learning languages.
• LA

  Lynn Rowley Andersen

  Aug 21, 2025
  5.0
  I was the first student to move into the new Foreign Language Student Residence in Spring 1992. We had to live in Heritage Halls for the first weeks until the building was done. I had lived in the German House in 1990, when it was in houses. That was fun in its own way, but you didn't get to know the other houses. So the new setup was welcome, and a great location. If you have a good head resident, you can really learn. Both times I was in there, the House and FLSR, the men's head resident preferred to speak in English, but the women's head resident did speak in German. My apartment improved a lot in German, because I insisted we speak German at home, and I was the most experienced speaker. (I lived in Germany and did a mission in Austria.) The new building program was new, so we didn't have as many restrictions on food. We all cooked, and always had food for us outside the main meals. I had a car, so ended up going shopping for everyone every week, for all 16 months of both locations. The advantage of the FLSR was getting to know everyone else in the other houses, attending church together just a few steps away, and basically having a community. Most of my close friends from BYU were in the FLSR. (And there were a few bullies and jealous people as well.) The FLSR experience ended up being better than the old houses, because of cliques that formed in the old housing. During the Spring/Summer people from the FLSR would often take trips to national parks together, like Zions and Moab/Colorado River. We had a lot of fun. I do believe learning other languages opens your mind and your soul, and makes you understand humans better. A language does frame how a person views the world, because the world has to fit within that language. Learning another language lets you see the world from a different point of view, and the benefits are endless. I have used my language skills in life and in jobs, and it has greatly benefitted me. Dr. Hans Kelling was the advisor then, and he did a good job setting all this up. The buildings were all new and fresh, and no bugs that I remember. Keeping the place clean goes a long way toward not attracting bugs. (And Utah could learn what an exterminator is, but they aren't magic - clean up!) Some consider the buildings old (only 33 years old as of this typing), but it really isn't. In Austria I lived in apartments that were 500 years old. But buildings do need maintenance, and the residents do need to take care of where they live. Overall living there was the best experience of my time at BYU. I am sorry for those who had controlling or bad advisors. Sometimes that behavior comes from having to deal with irresponsible or out of control tenants, of which there can be many.

Frequently Asked Questions About Language Immersion Student Residence (LISR)