Starting a Chamoru Language Podcast with My Teens

  

For all my children, since the moment they were born, no matter what the topic, I only speak to them in Chamoru. This doesn’t mean that every single word is in Chamoru, as sometimes English words, or other words must be used or translated into Chamoru. But given my commitment to perpetuating the native language of the indigenous people of the Marianas, it means we use Chamoru and adapt Chamoru, no matter what the topic or context.

Language are however social organisms, which means that for most people, children included, even if you use it with them, unless it is reinforced, and there is a sense of community or value associated with it, keeping the language alive and in turn passing it on will be difficult. Even if you speak Chamoru to your own children, they might speak it back to you, but if they don’t perceive that others around them speak it or that it doesn’t have any value expect in the past or within very narrow means, there is a marginal chance they will use it with their children and keep the language alive for the next generation.

For my two older children, Sumåhi and Akli’e’, this sobering truth was clear within a few years. Me speaking Chamoru to them would not be enough to give them the sense of the language being living and valuable to them. In their classes at school there were no other Chamoru speaking children. They also didn’t have any close cousins who could speak Chamoru. There was no consistent readily available media for them that could sustain their interest in Chamoru either, other than Chamoru music.

While as a family we interacted with plenty of Chamoru speakers, all were much older, hardly from the same generation. One thing that we find with children in multilingual contexts or in environments where their native language is in a highly stressed state, is that they will tend to gravitate as they get older, not to the language of their families, but rather their peers and popular culture.

So for me, in how we interact in Chamoru, I have always tried to extend the language into the realms of interest, passion or fads my children had to keep them speaking, keep them thinking, keep them growing in Chamoru. This meant talking about superheroes and “My Little Pony” in Chamoru. It meant talking about emo music and video games in Chamoru. It meant talking about Murakami and Tolkien in Chamoru.

All of this meant coming up with lexicons in Chamoru for things like spells, superpowers, mythology and lore. Sometimes these efforts would borrow from existing Chamoru frameworks, sometimes it would just be translations from whatever media we were watching or enjoying. Take for example the names that we used for Marvel comic and movie characters. Captain America was simply “Kapitan Amerikånu” and Spider-Man was “Si Sanye’ye’.” Iron Man however evolved slightly different as his name was “Lulok Hima” meaning a “clam shell made of metal” referring to how his armor covered his body, since calling him “Taotao Lulok” didn’t sound right since he was actually made from iron or metal.

Now that Sumåhi and Akli’e’ are older and have their own lives, keeping the conversation space for Chamoru language adaptation and evolution means starting a podcast with them. Through the weekly Fanachu podcast that I host, we have created a Fino’ Chamoru or Chamoru language podcast that we put out every two months or so called "MANsplaining Hit (Lao Chamoru na Klasi Nai).” The title (which Sumåhi came up with) translates roughly to “We are explaining (But it is the Chamoru kind c’mon)” It is meant to be a pun on what “mansplaining” means in English.

For this podcast, where we each take turns hosting an episode and use the time to extol, to the other two, the virtues of something we love, whether a book, a video game, a cartoon, a comic, all in Chamoru. So far we have released five episodes covering everything from My Little Pony (I Dikike' na Ga'-hu Kabayita), to Dune (Fanunaiyan) to Death Stranding (Finaitai Munaofragu). For each episode, one of us takes turns explaining in Chamoru to the others about how amazing something is.

In the latest episode hosted by Akli'e', he talks about the manga "Kingdom," which dramatizes the Warring States period of Chinese history. The purpose of this podcast is not only to keep my kids and I speaking Chamoru about the things we enjoy, but also to keep pushing the boundaries of Chamoru. For those that think that Chamoru is only meant to be used for talking about this or that, we proudly use it to talk about whatever is in our hearts, whatever we are passionate nerds about it.

The inspiration for MANsplaining comes from the late author Jose Måta Torres, who used to host a radio show on KPRG Guam where he would sometimes talk about classical music in Chamoru. I remember when I was working with him on his book “Massacre at Atåte” having long conversations with him in Chamoru about his love for Beethoven, Bach, Mozart and others. He told me that sometimes other Chamorus criticized him and said our language was never meant to be used for those things. He said both the Chamoru language and classical music are in his heart. For him there was something special, something unique and profound when he combined those loves together. 

 Below are the links to watch all the MANsplaining Hit episodes. Gosa ume'egga', sa' in gegessa' fumå'titinas. 

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