learning Tikuna

[asakiyume]

My friend Francy is looking for work, and I am eager to learn Tikuna without taking advantage of her, so I proposed to pay for a month or so of lessons (I don't want to saddle her with a long-term obligation and don't know how long I can afford to do this) as a source of income while she looks.

I should have known from how graciously and easily she taught me words when I was visiting that she'd be an excellent teacher, but I've been truly blown away. She's made me two diagrams of the forest field site where I got to join in the fariña roasting, labeling everything in both Spanish and Tikuna, and she sent me a video where--as the rain beats down on the roof overhead--she goes over how to pronounce each word, slowly and clearly.

Here's a portion of the diagram: you can see the yuca plant with the big tubers, the fariña being sieved through the cernador (in Tikuna, cuechinü), and that figure is me !



I also should have known she'd be an excellent teacher because she's taken one of her nieces in hand, helping her with school work. (This is one of the kids who was so eager to show me her notebooks ^_^)



There are NOT a lot of resources in Tikuna. When I visited the community of Mocagua (a community with three indigenous peoples living together, Tikuna, Cocama, and Yagua), I got to see some textbooks that the kids in the community used, but they were few and consequently very precious: they had been created through the work of a foundation, Codeba, itself the creation of one remarkable Cocama woman, Emperatriz Cahuache. When she passed away, no one kept the foundation going, so there haven't been any more textbooks made.

The books share Tikuna traditions, and also provide general instruction in both Spanish and Tikuna. Here, an explanation of the water cycle:







I asked if there was a Spanish-Tikuna dictionary, and they showed me a children's picture dictionary. Behold a káurë bird, *just like in my story*. It's so vindicating when research doesn't lie to you.



And some more ^_^



I don't know how for-real for-real I can learn Tikuna. But I am really loving trying. It's a language for speaking about a life so totally different from my own! (And the sounds are more-different from English than the sounds of any other language I've ever learned.)

In the Peace Corps manual for learning Tetun, there's a very good piece of advice: Don't ask people, "How do you say XX in Tetun?" Don't do this, because if you ask like that, they will offer you a word-for-word version of how to say that... even if culturally speaking, such a thing is never said. (A big example relates to condolences: in Tetun you never say "I'm so sorry for your loss"--it sounds as if you're saying you're taking some kind of responsibility for it.) Instead, ask, "In XX situation, what do people usually say?" Then you'll learn something culturally appropriate.

I am thinking that's going to be what I need to ask ALL THE TIME for however we do lessons together.

Comments

[sartorias]

That's a terrific distinction.

She sounds like an excellent teacher.

[asakiyume]

She is *wonderful*

[queenoftheskies]

How exciting, Francesca!

[asakiyume]

Yes^_^

[smokingboot]

Change the language, change the mind, change the world.

Your lessons sound refreshing and extraordinary.

[asakiyume]

Absolutely! Change the language, change the mind, change the world --I love this. I don't have any illusions about my world-changing power, but I sure do feel like Francy's changed my mind and world, and maybe she feels something mutual. And we talk to other people and bring our our changed minds into those conversations, and the ripples flow outward.

[yamamanama]

Does that word have three diacritics? Eat your heart out, Vietnamese.

[asakiyume]

LOL!! Now if I only knew how to pronounce it! That's why having Francy send me recordings is really, really important.

[wayfaringwordhack]

This sounds like a blessed situation, no matter how short term for both of you!

[asakiyume]

Learning it via a second language adds to the fun. I can feel my brain getting a workout. And my mouth! And it's so great to hear her laugh when she has to correct me (and she always praises me too--SUCH a natural teacher). And in the background of her recordings, ALWAYS BIRDSONG.

[amaebi]

Ooooooh.

[wayfaringwordhack]

I love that you are being serenaded (even if they aren't doing it for your benefit) by birds so far away!

[asakiyume]

I do too. ^_^

[cafenowhere]

In the Peace Corps manual for learning Tetun, there's a very good piece of advice: Don't ask people, "How do you say XX in Tetun?" Don't do this, because if you ask like that....

This is such shrewd advice! I am not looking to learn a new language now, so I will have to try and remember this for the future.

Your mind must be so limber from learning Tikuna via Spanish! I imagine blossoms of activity in different parts of your brain.

[asakiyume]

That's what I feel like! Like there are fireworks going off up there, like I'm playing 3-dimensional chess or something. Seriously, I just look outside and everything even looks somehow different. Like that's probably just an overactive imagination, but that's how it *feels*

[mallorys_camera]

Wow. How fabulous.

[asakiyume]

It *is* I am beside myself with delight!

[amaebi]

How absolutely wonderful, in so many ways. Thank you smooch for the gift of telling it.

[asakiyume]

Thank you for sharing in my delight! I am so psyched!

[light_of_summer]

Oo, I like that about asking what people usually say in X situation, to get a culturally appropriate learning, rather than a word-for-word translation that might be inappropriate. Thanks!

[asakiyume]

You're very welcome!

[asakiyume]

You're very welcome!