Learning the language of Nunavut
Beneficiaries and non-Inuit both study Inuktitut

Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (Jun 08/98) - Mick Mallon's students come from as far away as Holland to begin to learn Inuktitut and he says they do it for a handful of reasons.

"Beneficiaries take it because they want to regain their language, but you get everything. You can get by being unilingual and it's when someone on the job feels a moral need to learn the language ... from that to general interest to academic interest," says Mallon, an Inuktitut language instructor who just finished teaching a three-week Intensive Inuktitut Training Course.

Hosted by Nunavut Arctic College, Mallon's course focused both on grammar and conversation and provided a sound introduction to one of the world's most difficult languages.

"You can't just pick up Inuktitut. People sign up for conversation courses because they think grammar is boring and difficult but there is no pattern in your brain to pick up Inuktitut.

"(It's) like a complicated Swiss watch. Everything is connected to something else and the secret is the patterns. Once you see the patterns, you get the language," says Mallon, who has been teaching Inuktitut for about 30 years.

Adult educator Tia Kuniliusi, a resident of Qikiqtarjuag (Broughton Island), agrees with her instructor.

"The first week was really hard but once you get over the hump, you really start to understand it," says Kuniluisi.

"We'd review for six hours each night. It's a really strong foundation and I get about six or seven months of practice until the intermediate course in January," says Kuniluisi, who enrolled in the course so she could communicate better with her students and with her new family members.

"They have a great sense of humor and I feel like I'm missing out on too much. That's the key reason. There's a lot of benefits to learning the language -- it's to everyone's advantage.

"I'm going to be there on a permanent basis and it's a matter of courtesy and respect to converse with people in their own language," says Kuniluisi, who married into an Inuit family two and a half years ago.

"I should be the one who puts the effort in to speak with them."

Maggie Milne also wanted to develop her communication skills.

"It's really necessary in my job to be able to communicate in Inuktitut if I can," says Milne, an Anglican deacon in Coral Harbour.

"We use the language in our services and obviously if I could communicate with people in their own language, it'd be better."