From the People First Radio website:

On saving traditional languages: Young activists are tackling the disappearance of traditional Aboriginal languages using a unique learning method

May 27, 2010

“If our language dies, then our identity as a nation does,” according to Squamish Nation member Dustin Rivers. Dustin recently told the Vancouver Straight that land, culture, and rights don’t have meaning in the absence of traditional language. The 20-year-old activist, artist, and writer is part of a group behind the Save Your Language Conference, to be held June 5 and 6, 2010, in Vancouver. Participants at the conference will learn the “Where Are Your Keys?” system, developed by Evan Gardner. The WAYK game system is a comprehensive method for revitalizing endangered languages and skills.

We spoke with Willem Larsen of Where Are Your Keys?, from Portland, and with Dustin Rivers, from Vancouver.

LISTEN (21:06)

RELATED  “Report on the Status of B.C. First Nations Languages 2010″ can be found here.

Joel Shempert hunts Chinuk Wawa from Mary

58 minutes and 17 seconds.

[direct download]

Willem and Joel (a veteran of a Portland WAYK workshop), with Peter and Sara listening, talk over Joel’s experiences that Chinuk Night. Then later, Evan and Willem discuss how the evening of Chinuk Wawa games went.

1. Technique “the Walk”

• Joel experienced “the Walk” for the first time, and really enjoyed the dynamism of it.

2. Technique “Language Hunters”

• Ryan (a workshop veteran) led Joel in a two-person game.

3. Technique “Limit”

• Willem limited the game environment for Joel and Ryan; rather than playing in a messy room, he had them play in an empty hallway.
• Ryan limited the game objects to just two. This surprised Joel.
• Joel’s last game, with Mary (as seen in this video), was a much less limited game.

4. Technique “Start Over, Start at the Beginning”

• Joel relearned this technique at a higher proficiency level, as an overarching principle.
• Willem relates a martial arts story, about how his proficiency kept increasing, but his fluency kept dropping in relation, making him less competent the more “experienced” he got.
• Joel wants to learn good comebacks when 7 year old Jackson teases him in Chinuk Wawa.

5. Technique “Language Hunter”

• Improve your “language hunting” by running simple games, as soon as possible. Don’t let newbies fly ahead in language proficiency, but fall behind in language hunting.

6. Technique “the Walk”

• After playing with a fellow language hunter, Joel was much more rigorous on “the Walk” in applying limit and sorry, charlie to himself.
• Willem and Evan are really hoping to see this more: language hunters swapping techniques and experience with other language hunters, independently of Willem of Evan.

7. Technique “Potty Mouth”

• Evan checked in with Henry, our “fluent fool”, about creative obscenities in Chinuk Wawa.
• Evan, Willem, and Peter take special pride in their ability to construct exquisitely well-constructed profanities.
• For whatever reason, the “potty mouth” same conversation is an invigorating accelerator for increasing the volume of language play among many speakers.

8. Technique “Let’s Get This Party Started”
9. Technique “Newbie in the Lunatic Fringe”
10. Technique “Copycat”
11. Technique “Same Conversation: Craig’s List”
12. Technique “Language Hunters”

• Kirsten, Ryan’s brother, came in, and copycatted like a pro, due to her skills from the same workshop as Ryan.
• Willem mentions again how Sara learned a lot of language, but not much language hunting.

13. Technique “Teach a Teacher”

• Evan discusses his efforts to move the culture of the room deeper into WAYK territory, deputizing everyone as collaborators and teachers, no matter how inexperienced.

14. Technique “Speak to Remember, Write to Forget”

• Some players were concerned about our requests to not write things down, and to not bring notebooks.
• Every moment you spend writing things down, those are moments you’re not playing WAYK with friends or family (or imaginary friends).
• Willem offers an opinion the nature of the relationship to a piece of paper on which you’ve written language you “want to remember”. It’s a robot slave! In a bad way, not a cool way.
• Rather than taking notes on paper, take 3-dimensional, sensory immersive, holographic notes by pushing language into your friends and family, who will act as a living memory bank for your language acquisition.
• Each “technique” we offer is an experienced-based tool for accelerating language acquisition. All are open for improvement; but you can’t know if they work, or not, unless you use them, and run the experiment on whether they truly accelerate language acquisition.
• Dismissing techniques out of hand, before really using them for long enough to know whether they work, will prevent you from mastering WAYK.

15. Technique “Dictionary Addiction”

• Writing things down is a smaller, personal version of dictionary addiction. You’re essentially making your own dictionary.
• Language is a physical, embodied relationship, between speakers and the world, as experienced through all the senses of smell, taste, hearing, touch, sight, and so on. The symbolic tool of literacy comes a distant second in priority of language acquisition.

16. Technique “the Walk”

• Peter ran “the Walk” to be as basic as possible.
• Now Evan doesn’t have to lead “the Walk”, or run the room of game play.

17. Technique “Language Hunters”

• Evan needs to stop being the “expert” – he’s called over for even the most basic questions.
• Someone who even knows one thing more than you, can teach you that thing.
• Willem tells the story about Ryan, one language hunter, teaching Joel, another language hunter and workshop veteran.
• A language hunter can transmit a huge amount of technique and experience to another experienced language hunter.

18. Technique “Immersion”

• Willem thinks we need a 2 day immersion weekend, every 3 months, for everyone participating in a WAYK language revitalization program.

19. Technique “Debriefs”

• Willem believes the debriefs are technique “mumble” for 2 day immersion weekends.

27 minutes and 2 seconds.

[direct download]

Willem interviews Peter and Sara about the games they led for the most recent Chinuk Wawa (Chinook Jargon) Night. We discover that yet another newbie has zoomed through language acquisition, but not mastered basic WAYK techniques. Peter then describes “the Walk” that he led, as documented in this video.

1. Technique “Obviously!”

• Sara’s facial expressions and intonation kept (falsely) suggesting to Kirsten that Sara’s statements were actually questions. This made things less “obvious”, and slowed the game down.

2. Technique “Newbie in the Lunatic Fringe”

• We want new people to sit, watch, and warm up for a bit, before playing.

3. Technique “Let’s Get This Party Started”

• Willem and Peter started the night with an advanced game. It’s important to have a game already going when people walk in.

4. Technique “Killing Faeries”

• Willem tries to describe the language they were “hunting” in the game, without translating and therefore “killing faeries”. Every time you translate a faery dies!

5. Technique “Sorry, Charlie”

• You only “sorry, charlie” someone when you engage them in conversation, and expect a response; if newbies sit in the “lunatic fringe”, they can sit in on a more advanced conversation without necessarily getting overwhelmed/”sorry, charlied”.

6. Technique “Pull Them Through It”

• Peter was sitting in on Sara’s game, helping her to lead the game, offering up “craig’s lists” and such at the appropriate time.

7. Technique “Immersion”

• It continues to be noteworthy, the difference in skill, between someone who just attends language nights, and those who’ve attended the two-day immersive WAYK training.

8. Technique “Start at the Beginning”

• Ack! Sara didn’t know about this technique. Somehow she acquired a lot of language proficiency, without acquiring techniques too.

9. Technique “Ten Feet”
10. Technique “the Walk”

• Peter wanted to make sure Superior speakers could have superior conversations, rather than needing to run the room or manage newbie games; so he led a “Walk”.
• Peter no longer considers “the Walk” an advanced conversation; he thinks you can make it as easy as needed, as long as you apply “limit” rigorously enough.

11. Technique “Craig’s List”

• Peter is developing a CL of activities on “the Walk”; the “red light, green light” game is on the list.

12. Technique “Same Conversation”

• On “the Walk”, we do our best to stop at the same places, every time.

13. Technique “Slow, Fast”

• Peter would introduce this technique first thing, next time he leads “the Walk”.

14. Technique “Red Light, Green Light”

• Peter made sure every player got a chance to run this game.
• Do we need a technique “Mother May I”?

This Thursday, May 27th, during the noon hour (12pm-1pm), the folks at People First Radio will be interviewing Dustin Rivers (Squamish Nation language activist) and Willem Larsen (partner in WAYK) about the “Save Your Language” conference in Vancouver, B.C. (June 5th and 6th), and the WAYK grassroots language revitalization method. Go to the People First Radio website for more information on how to listen to the show via live internet stream, podcast, or over the radio. Below is a clipping from the People First Radio e-newsletter.

http://saveyourlanguage.wordpress.com

VANCOUVER, BC – Native languages are dying, but there is still hope.

A recent report from the First Peoples’ Heritage, Language and Culture Council (First Peoples’ Council) revealed that fluent speakers represent only five per cent of B.C’s total population of First Nations, despite the Province being home to 60 per cent of Canada’s First Nations. 52 per cent of fluent speakers are aged 65 years or older and 39 per cent are aged 45 to 64.

The signs are clear: First Nation languages will die in this generation if something isn’t done right now.

On June 5th-6th, 2010, three language revitalization activists will host the “Save Your Language” Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. The two-day conference will host workshops on innovative language-learning methods to help create a shift in B.C.’s endangered languages.

Three individuals who have worked in recent years in language-teaching have come together to accomplish new things for Aboriginal languages. Language-instructor and community organizer Dustin Rivers, from the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) people in North Vancouver, started using language-teaching methods previously unheard of.

Dustin Rivers was introduced to Evan Gardner and Willem Larsen from Portland, Oregon, who shared their innovative language teaching & learning method called “Where Are Your Keys?”. This method has been used with native communities in Oregon, with great success in creating fluent speakers and language-teachers of dying languages. The hope is to bring more of this success to other Aboriginal communities.

Dustin, Evan, and Willem are inviting Aboriginal people, their families, and friends from British Columbia and elsewhere to learn techniques, approaches, and methods to save endangered languages. Individuals attending the conference will be introduced to new concepts on teaching and learning languages that they can immediately apply to their own endangered languages.

It only costs $50 to register before the June 1st, 2010 deadline.

For additional information, also visit our website http://saveyourlanguage.wordpress.com
For further information, please contact Conference Coordinator Dustin Rivers at dustin.rivers@gmail.com or call 604-999-2780

The upcoming “Save Your Language” conference is finally getting in the news.

Check it out:

Squamish Nation activist plans conference to save First Nations languages in B.C.

Dustin Rivers knows that the language of his people has been described as “critically endangered” and “nearly extinct”.

Unless drastic action is taken right now to save Skwxwú7mesh snichim, the 20-year-old member of the Squamish Nation told the Straight, the language could be gone within 10 years.

“My opinion is that, if our language dies, then our identity as a nation dies,” Rivers said via cellphone from a ferry in Howe Sound. “If we don’t speak our language, then we’re not Squamish anymore. Then everything else—land, culture, rights, all of it—it doesn’t mean anything.”

Go to straight.com for the article.

Go to the “Save Your Language” conference website for more info and registration.

Justin Robinson (Chinook Nation) leads Max (Lakota/Ojibwe) and Larry in a Chinuk Wawa WAYK game.

Thank you to everyone playing WAYK, and for getting the word out about the Fluency Revolution. Please keep it up – we’re making progress, but aren’t quite there yet.

We’re realizing that the greatest obstacle to our mission at this time is funding. We believe that once we’re fully funded, we can help communities turn around the worldwide crisis of endangered language within a decade.

Help us start that clock right now.

We’re looking for financial help, either in the form of grants, or angel investors. Help the WAYK team get the resources to hold workshops full-time, create and maintain a quality website with a video library of WAYK techniques, and bring the mentoring language to communities that need it.

Contact Willem Larsen: whereareyourkeys@gmail.com

Join us June 5th and 6th in Vancouver, B.C., for the Save Your Language conference.

Peter leads a "Colors and Numbers" game

1 hour, 50 minutes, and 53 seconds.

[direct download]

Evan Gardner, Willem Larsen, Peter, and Joel interview each other on Chinuk Wawa Night (Chinook Jargon). Though this episode is almost two hours long, we really encourage you to  hang in there and soak it all up; many vital issues came up that should further illuminate the play of WAYK, and the goal of running your own language game night.

1. Technique “Obviously!“

• Evan ran to the dollar store to get the most “obvious” crayon props.

2. Technique “Colors and Numbers/Sesame Street“

• Peter is the master of leading this conversation.

3. Technique “Squatter’s Rights”

• Adding more and more language complexity, almost in spite of technique “limit“.

4. Technique “Full Sentence Question and Answer“
5. Technique “Push/Pull“
6. Technique “Mentoring Language“

• Everyone is still working on changing the learning culture of the Chinuk Wawa attendees into the full-blown WAYK culture. Formerly the class was housed in a location that was highly influenced by the traditional academic environment.

7. Technique “Copycat“

• It’s a “copycat” game, not a learning game.

8. Technique “Full“

• They update the definition of “full” – it now includes when someone pulls out a notebook, or asks for a translation, that too means they’re “full“.

9. Technique “School Night/Game Night“

• They troubleshoot how to help players transition from more academic environments, back to the vitality and freedom of WAYK.

10. Technique “Colors and Numbers“

• Evan and Peter discuss technical aspects of how best to run the conversation.
• Because Peter mastered and pioneers the “colors and numbers” conversation, something magical happened that night.

11. Technique “Ten Feet“
12. Technique “Pull me through it“

• Joel talks about his first time learning Chinuk, that night, and how he “language hunted” Mary, his game leader, improving her game play through “modeling“.

13. Technique “Self-organization“

• Due to the Chinuk Wawa players reaching a tipping point of WAYK fluency, Evan was finally able to have a Superior conversation with Henry, our “Fluent Fool” – meaning he was able to “language hunt” to improve his own proficiency.
• The room self-organized, everyone peeling out into games of their appropriate proficiency levels.
• Through use of “Ten Feet“,  games impinged on each other a lot less.

14. Technique “Let’s Get This Party Started“

• Have a game already going, as players are arriving. It starts energy out very high, and saves time.
• You don’t want people walking into a silent room at the beginning of the night.
• If your language night starts at 4pm, start your first game at 3:59pm.

15. Techniques “Learning Buddy“, “Newbie in the Lunatic Fringe“, “It’s a Copycat Game“

• A new, older, native american player named Max had his first WAYK Chinuk night, so Willem adjusted game play to match exactly what he needed, as much as possible.
• At one point, Justin recommended Willem lead a game just in English and ASL for Max, no Chinuk Wawa yet.

16. Technique “Cycle Full/Inner Circle Full“
17. Technique “Full“

• Max called “Full”, retired to the “lunatic fringe“, and suddenly become much more confident in the game play, voicing and signing confidently.

18. Technique “Return to Superior“

• Willem responds to Peter, regarding why is important adults have time, during game night, to speak at a Superior conversation, whether in the target language (Chinuk Wawa), or, due to lack of proficiency in the target language, the mother tongue (in this case English) is fine too.
• Adults need to refresh themselves by having intermittent Superior conversations, to come up for air from all the “Sesame Street” conversations.
• You might balance a night through 95% immersion in target language, 5% Superior conversation in English (or whatever your mother tongue is).
• It’s like holding your “intellectual breath”, being immersed in the WAYK  play.
• It’s okay to have a Superior conversation about the target language, once you’ve finished game play – you might do some translating, but in this case, it will help the adult players refresh and recharge.
• Joel speaks how his work with special needs kids creates this same kind of feeling; immersion in a world at a child’s proficiency, making him desperate for Superior conversations after work.

19. Technique “Ten Feet“

• Evan and Willem further troubleshoot how to separate noisy WAYK games.

20. Technique “Newbie Gets the Right of Way“

• Games with newbies get priority, in terms of playing quietly around them.

21. Technique “the Walk“

• Evan talks about dealing with sketchy situations while on “the Walk“.
• Big tree and little tree, big white dog and little white dog – great coincidence, WAYK at its finest – knowing to take advantage of such situations.
• Advantages of the quick, short “Walk“.
• Willem considers “the Walk” an advanced technique, due to the inherent chaos of going outdoors. It can “sorry, charlie” and “full” players very quickly, if you don’t keep it short, sweet, and energetic.

22. Technique “Language Hunter“

• Joel has attended our 2-day WAYK workshop, and knows “language hunting“. He talks about his game with Mary, a recent regular at Chinuk night.
• Evan had coached Mary on leading the game with Joel.
• Mary had her own kit of limited objects; beads, thread, a needle. She teaches beading (and other skills) as a volunteer at Fort Vancouver.
• Joel had never yet actually language hunted a “fluent fool“; he’d seen how it might be done, but never done it. [he attended one of our first workshops where we didn't yet include field role-plays of "language hunting" "fluent fools".]
• Willem walked by Mary and Joel’s game, the table’s objects looked a bit like the contents of a junk drawer; he encouraged Joel to “limit” the objects, and use other techniques according to his own counsel of the WAYK techniques he’s trained in.
• Joel’s first instinct was to turn off his “language hunting“, and just follow Mary’s guide.
• Essentially, Joel improved Mary’s technique use (“Set-up“, “Limit“, “Sorry, Charlie“), while she taught him Chinuk. Again, who taught who? WAYK again confounds the hierarchical expert-student relationship.
• Evan asks Joel if he got to “Make me say yes…“, “Make me say no…“, “Mine/Yours“.

23. Technique “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder“

• Willem talks about the last “language hunting” sense to develop; a sense of discomfort when “set-up” isn’t “limited” and “obviously!” enough.
• Getting pickier, pickier, and pickier, due to leading games.
• Let out your inner control freak.
• Crayola needs to sponsor us. We need better Crayon props.
• We control everything we can; so the stuff we can’t control feels maximally fun, a healthy dynamic chaos.
• Mary thought Joel had played Chinuk WAYK before; Joel meant to say he had just played WAYK in ASL and English.

24. Technique “We’ll All Get There Together“

• Two of our WAYK community, one from Portland (Sara), one from Vancouver (Cheyenne, Dustin Rivers’ sister), bumped into each other at an Ethnobotany conference, not knowing they both played WAYK.
• They didn’t sit down and share language, which means we haven’t built the skills in yet for distant WAYK players to bump into each other and swap language. Sara could have learned Squamish language, and Cheyenne could have learned Sara’s German!
• Our dream is to have WAYK players accidentally bumping into each other, and swapping language, all over the world.
• Joel tells a story about how Mary kept “pulling him through it“, in spite of her reservations.
• After the game, Mary tells Evan she needs bigger (more “obviously!”) beads. Yay Mary!

25. Technique “WAYK Eye on the Straight Guy”

• Willem wants to put a tablecloth on everything now. He thinks WAYK has made him a better decorator.
• Solid, clear colors, and simple surfaces.

26. Technique “We’ll All Get There Together“

• Evan feels so good that he got to finally have a superior Chinuk conversation on Chinuk night, because other people stepped into the MC roles, as their WAYK fluency role has increased.

27. Technique “Do Food“

• Evan remarks that our food is getting shabby. There is indeed a technique for the ideal WAYK food layout, for learning and teaching.
• Evan wants to do a podcast on food and learning.

28. Techniques “Superior proficiency“, “Contract“

• Evan and the other Superior speakers got a chance to “contract” a new Chinuk word for ‘handcuffs’.

29. Technique “We’ll All Get There Together“

• 7 year old Jackson has begun really jumping into games, and helping out. Children are an integral and necessary part of Chinuk night!

30. Techniques “Most Successful Moment“, “What would you do differently next time?“
31. Technique “Technique!“

• Evan reveals game leaders and players aren’t marking techniques very often, including himself. Willem says: “well I am!”.
• There apparently is a hitch in transmitting the culture of WAYK to the Chinuk Night players.
• Willem admits he has a history of prioritizing language proficiency over teaching “language hunting“.
• They troubleshoot this issue. Making announcements? A special technique focus for each night, like letters/numbers on Sesame Street?
• Willem: “every game need to starts out with the words, “techniques are the rules of the game. If I mark a technique, it means I’m showing you a new rule.”

We think this mascot's name is a reference to the Chinook word "eat/food".

35 minutes and 54 seconds.

[direct download]

Evan Gardner and Willem Larsen discuss some of the central issues of WAYK, such as its use of sign language, as a “bridge language“, for learning spoken language.

1. Technique “Bridge Language“

• WAYK doesn’t just use ASL; it is designed to help you learn new sign languages too, along with new spoken languages.

2. Technique “Your Lips Say No, But Your Body Says Yes“

• People tell the truth in sign, and lie in spoken language. Meaning, a student will sign what they really mean to say, whatever errors occur in their spoken language.

3. Technique “Technique“

• Every technique is an accelerator for teaching and learning.
• Our goal is the most rapid acquisition of fluent proficiency in a group.
• Every technique is its own skill. Each technique looks different to each proficiency level of WAYK player. As you become more experienced, you see more depth.
• How do you know when to contract a new technique?

4. Technique “Hedging Your Bets“

• Stacking the deck, increasing the odds of the most successful learning experience possible.

5. Technique “Bridge Language“

• Let this blow your mind: the relationship of objects and people in your environment, is the “bridge language” for learning sign language!

6. Technique “Obviously!“
7. Technique “Mentoring Language“

• Try to beat them at their own game. Be more ridiculously OCD than them. They are not the last word on WAYK.

8. Technique “Language Hunting“

• Why don’t Evan and Willem already know 20 languages each?
• By focusing on developing a community of “language hunters“, rather than “trophy hunting” languages on their own, they feel they will learn languages faster in the end.
• In the end, WAYK is a method for organizing the genius of a community.

The WAYK method/mentoring language generates an ever-growing (and complexifying) collection of “Same Conversations”; reliable, familiar, and consistently repeating back-and-forth dialogues of language play.

The “WAYK?” core conversation, the specific conversation about the pens, stick, rock, around the low table, is the primary laboratory, and first “same conversation”, for learning and applying WAYK. I hope you’ll forgive the ambiguity between the WAYK system, and the “WAYK?” core conversation. The system is named after that first conversation. We’re thinking it may need a different name to lessen confusion, but for now, that is what we call it.

Now, “the Walk” is the second “same conversation“,  an application of the WAYK mentoring language to the need for players and community members to have breaks, and be outside. Also, using the principle of “the Walk” you can harvest any outdoor, regular, repeating conversation, such as walks, drives, and visiting the park.

You’ll notice in the video of “the Walk“, that it consists of a series of stops, where players make a circle, say “Come Here, Go There” 3 or more times (“In Threes“), and then move on. When they stop, they yell and sign “Stop!”. They play a version of “Red Light/Green Light”. This is very conscious; if we can get parents talking to their children in the target language, then we have instantly turned the language around to a certain degree. “Moribund” languages are defined by a lack of intergenerational transmission, especially young children. So, on “the Walk”, parents learn to say:

“Go over there! Come here! STOP!”.

This is some basic vocabulary that a parent needs to feel comfortable switching to another language.

Along with that element, the “what is that?” conversation continues, and if you want, and you have some experienced “Walkers” with you, you can throw in “want/have/give/take” too. As always, you scale the proficiency level of the conversation to your progressing players. Mainly, and especially in the beginning, “the Walk” is a chance to interact with the world in very basic conversation, by smelling, touching, running, jumping, climbing, and so on.

All the WAYK techniques, such as “Limit“, “Obviously!“, “Set-up“, and so on, as always, are rigorously applied while on “the Walk”. This is a chance to learn to apply those techniques in a chaotic, dynamic, unpredictable situation. Therefore, it’s a good idea to “limit” the length of “the Walk“, as the further you go, the more odd things will cross your path, and “full” and “sorry, charlie” are a constant danger once you past the 15-20 minute mark. We’ve noticed players seem more reluctant to call “full” while on “the Walk“, so game leaders need to do more work to monitor and make sure they don’t overwhelm the players.

WAYK player Jay Bazuzi has put together a handy index of almost everything we’ve produced for WAYK. Check it out:

http://wayk.bazuzi.com

[direct download]

Evan Gardner and Willem Larsen interview each other regarding a visit to Kent Siebold’s “Theories of Knowledge” class at Cleveland High School, in Portland, Oregon.

1. Technique “Too Cool for School“

• Kent has been the host of the monthly WAYK nights at his large, rambling, 100 year old house.
• They went to Kent’s class to run WAYK experiments dealing with the maximum number of players.
• They ran an experiment by leading with a “language hunting” demonstration, that failed terribly. The words for “what is that?” in Vietnamese seem to sound exactly like “that is a pen!”.

2. Technique “the Lotus“

• They wanted to see how many people we could accommodate in “the lotus“.

3. Technique “Lunatic Fringe“

• They initially had an inert, uninvolved “lunatic fringe“.

4. Techniques “Full“, “Limit“, “Sorry, Charlie“

• So much of WAYK is designed to teach players self-awareness and self-care.
• Playing WAYK must be voluntary. You can’t force fun.

5. Technique “Pooh Corner“

• They innovated a technique, over lunch, to address the issue of “freedom of choice”.
• Evan credits a friend of his, a third-grade teacher, for originating this idea.

6. Technique “Set-up“

• They forgot the special WAYK table for the first game, and the game suffered because of it.

7. Technique “Take Care of the Inner Circle“

• They further innovated a way to engage the “lunatic fringe” even more.

8. Technique “Great Job Lunatic Fringe!“

• Another technique Evan applied to keep the “lunatic fringe” engaged.

9. Technique “Pooh Corner“

• Players who called “full” and retreated to “pooh corner” still rubber-necked to see the game, and even “copy-catted“!

10. Technique “How far did you get?“

• We got to “want/have/give/take/trade/steal“, and “if, then, but, and, for“.

11. Technique “Language Hunt“

• Evan (as Grandpa) and Willem (as the language hunter) role-played a “language hunt“.

12. Technique “Hunting Pack“

• Willem then turned around, and “pushed” the language he learned from Grandpa Evan into the rest of the group, like a real “language hunting” team.
• Willem was sincerely happy when at the end, he finally heard a student say, “oh my god, you’re blowing my mind!”.

13. Technique “How Fascinating!“

• One player kept calling “how fascinating!” at random points in the game, perhaps mischievously, but all it did was increase the energy and fun of the game.

14. Technique “Craig’s List“

• A player, unprompted, asked for a new word in a “craig’s list“. This really surprised Evan and Willem; it usually takes a while for WAYK players to begin using this technique on their own.

15. Techniques “What is that?“, “Make me say yes…“, “Make me say no…“

• Willem credits Dustin Rivers for making “make me say yes…” and “make me say no…” benchmarks for game play.

16. Technique “No pressure refresher“

• One of the students invented a contract sign for this technique. Exciting!

17. Technique “Mumble“

• The student players really latched on to this technique.

A mural on the side of the coffee shop where we had our conversation.

[direct download]

Evan and Willem meet Hunter, a new friend, at a coffee shop during a day of WAYK demonstrations for a local high school. They spend the lunch hour talking about a very important issue in WAYK – the addiction of mainstream-schooled language learners to books, over fluent speakers.

1. Technique “Dictionary Addiction“

• Hunter asks what we mean by this technique.
• Willem says: “the addiction indicates the limiting belief that life, skill, competency, all are found in books, not in people.”
• Languages keep changing. Books (dictionaries) can only show a snapshot in time.
• Evan explains the impossibility of transcribing the variety and subtlety of speech-song of a language.

2. Technique “Accent“

• Say you want to learn English. Which kind? Which dialect? Which accent? From where? Academic English, or the vernacular of the street?
• Evan speaks about the seductive distraction of the dictionary.

3. Technique “Fluent Fool“

• If you have a “fluent fool“, and you can “language hunt“, you don’t need any other tools. You can begin a conversation right there.
• The commercialization and consumerization of language learning.
• Evan makes a reference to a movie you haven’t seen. Sorry. Willem knew what he meant.

4. Technique “Superman III“

• Willem explains “Superman III” for the umpteenth time. Maybe we need a new technique name…

5. Technique “Accent“

• Hunter talks about Portland’s accent. Each accent is it’s own justification, it belongs to it’s own people and place.
• Willem talks about a series of audio recordings, “Acting with an Accent”, that teach accents by a method of training “resonance chambers”, rather than just switching letter sounds around.
• Evan wishes dictionaries would transcribe language with a kind of musical notation.

6. Technique “Language Hunting“

• Willem says dictionaries are actually lists of questions, not answers. Does this word really sound that way, as written? When? In different contexts? And how does its meaning change?
• Trust the “fluent fool“, not the dictionary. Use the dictionary to help you hunt the “fluent fool“, by giving you useful questions to ask the “fluent fool“.

7. Technique “Mumble“

• Don’t go for perfection. Make lots of “mistakes”, experiment, explore language, language hunt!

Every day, we hear of more communities struggling to save their language.

I’d like to say I’ve gotten better at not panicking when I hear of a language struggling.

While mostly true, I still have a reaction – it now just feels like a dull ache in my gut, and a fluttering of my heart.

It’s an odd feeling we have here, on the WAYK team, especially for Evan and I. What do you do when you have something that can change the world – that is changing the world – but too slowly for many in need?

What do you do when you want to help – are dying to find a way to help – but you’re too new, too unknown, too poorly funded?

In some ways we may be “too successful” at what we do – if WAYK was a little more humdrum, if our experiences were less ecstatically successful, it might be more believable. People we speak to about it might have an easier time with less of a radical paradigm change, and thus know what to do with WAYK, know how to access it. But there it is – we’re stuck with where we’re at. We’ve gone too far to turn back.

It wouldn’t surprise me that this time next year, we will have broken through into some level of mainstream awareness, so that people who need our work can find us. What is difficult are the weeks between now and then. Every two weeks, a language dies. For the endangered languages that don’t die, their elderly speakers forget more of the language, are more marginalized by modern culture, every week. Cultures die slowly by a thousand cuts, not just by short-term genocide.

For the language-communities we are helping, and will help, to bring themselves back to a full flowering of daily conversational life, I am grateful. It is a blessing, something truly amazing to be a part of. Balancing that with the ones we couldn’t help, who needed us but who we couldn’t reach in time, is still so very difficult.

Deep breaths. And a long view.

Mary: until recently a newbie, now leading WAYK games in Chinuk Wawa

[direct download]

Evan Gardner interviews Justin Robinson, Mary Wydell (a steadily progressing new “speaker-teacher”), and others about the most recent Chinuk Wawa (Chinook Jargon) night.

1. Technique “Colors and Numbers” conversation

• Evan asks Mary about improving the props.
• Better crayons!

2. Technique “33, 44, 55, 66, 77, 88, 99“
3. Technique “Total Physical Response“

• Mary’s hands wanted to physically count and move the crayon props.

4. Technique “the Walk“

• Mary explains why “the Walk” is so effective for her.
• Justin has noticed that random events accelerate learning.
• Mary explains what inspired her to learn Chinuk Wawa.

5. Technique “Mentoring Language“

• Mary remembers her skepticism that the WAYK method would work.
• Mary now wants to use the WAYK method in her own teaching: “it becomes second nature”.

6. Technique “For and To“

• Chinuk, like Spanish, has a funny way of dealing with the concepts “for” and “to”.
• Donna “sorry, charlied” Mary by engaging her in a too-advanced conversation.

7. Technique “Start at the Beginning/Start Over“

• Evan deputizes everyone to say “What is that?”/”Ikta ukuk?” whenever they want to restart a conversation to avoid a “sorry, charlie”.

8. Technique “Lunatic Fringe“
9. Technique “One-on-one/One-on-Two“

• Justin and Mary don’t like playing in an area too crowded with other paired games; it’s distracting.

10. Technique “Ten Feet“
11. Technique “Learning Buddy“
12. Technique “Travels with Charlie“

• Donna reached the Intermediate-low proficiency that night, by showing she could “create with language”, asking who was going to a book-signing that night in Chinuk Wawa.

This video demonstrates how speakers of all levels can come together and support each other; we don’t segregate speakers of different experience levels. On the contrary, they need to mix with each other, overhearing more advanced conversations, and watching how other “speaker-teachers” lead games for different proficiency levels.

Remember: “We’ll All Get There Together” is a primary technique of WAYK.

Evan Gardner and Willem Larsen will be traveling to Vancouver, B.C., this June 5th and 6th, for a WAYK language revitalization training weekend amongst  a diverse community of B.C. First Nations. If you’ve wanted to learn the “Where Are Your Keys?” method of community mentoring, then this is your chance.

Registration for this 2 day event is only $50, so that as many people who want to come, can come, and support the revitalization of B.C. First Nation languages.

From the Save Your Language conference website:

“The major problems with language revival is that communities are not producing new teachers fast enough, and that for many no new generation of speakers are learning the language.  At this event, the special workshops, facilitators, and events will give communities and people the tools, methods, and processes to begin to save their language themselves, through community-led initiatives.  Past uses of this method have yielded unparalleled responses.  Within just a couple years, languages began to turn around with new fluent speakers taking place.”

For more information, visit the “Save Your Language” conference website. We invite “Where Are Your Keys?” fans, players, and community members of all kinds to come help us make this conference an amazing experience.

Register now!