Live it or lose it
Language program to connect mentors and apprentices in learning Gwich'in
Stewart Burnett
Northern News Services
Thursday, January 19, 2017
INUVIK
Connecting mentors and apprentices to "live the language" outside of the classroom is how programmers hope to revitalize Gwich'in language and culture.
Learning Centre co-ordinator Eleanor Firth says the Gwich'in language is part and parcel with Gwich'in culture. She is hoping a new mentor and apprentice program helps keep it alive. - photo courtesy of Eleanor Firth
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"It is a method of learning the language where a fluent speaker is teamed up with a learner that either knows some of the language or doesn't know the language at all and they work together, spending at least 10-15 hours a week together," explained Eleanor Firth the Gwich'in Teaching and Learning Centre coordinator.
"It's not like a classroom setting. It would be in the master's home or the apprentice's home and all in the language. They live in the language when they're together. It's a total immersion thing."
The program was developed a few years ago and used in British Columbia, said Firth. There, it developed fluent speakers in about three years.
"Teaching in a classroom setting is not really the way we learn our language," said Firth.
In this program, the apprentice decides what activities he or she wants to do, and everything is done in the language. For example, if the apprentice and mentor want to bake bannock, all communication is done in the language.
A training workshop in Inuvik next month will hopefully help start up the program in all the Gwich'in communities.
Firth hopes the education will have a ripple effect and lead apprentices to teach others. A similar program has been run in the past but without the training part, so Firth hopes the outcome of this one is more successful.
Firth said the Gwich'in language, which differs depending on which regional dialect is used, is in a weak state right now.
"It's not really used in the younger generations," she said.
"It's mostly used by our elders and we don't have very many elders left. This workshop will include the elders. I'm hoping that when we do get the program going. the apprentices can become fluent and then in turn they can become the masters. This is the hope for the outcome of this workshop."
The Gwich'in language is the Gwich'in identity, she explained.
"I see it in our young people," said Firth. "It just seems like they're lost."
For Firth, language and culture are connected.
"It just doesn't seem like you could have one without the other," said Firth. "I think it's important for us to hold onto our language because that is our identity. That's where we come from."
She hopes the program piques people's interest in learning the Gwich'in language.
In the spirit of language revitalization, a Tuesday and Thursday drop-in Gwich'in language class run by the Nihtat Gwich'in Council also began this month in Inuvik.
