NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

The petition drive to protect language learning at UOG continues.  If you haven't signed the petition yet, please do so at this link . Here is the website for the UOG Language Drive , which is being spearheaded by myself and other UOG faculty to protect language learning at UOG in the face of GE requirement changes which could drastically affect language programs at UOG, in particular my program, Chamorro Studies.  Below is the petition statement for the UOG Language Drive, in Chamorro, Japanese, Tagalog, French, Spanish, Mandarin and English. ***************************** Kinalamten para Lenguahi Siha gi Unibetsedåt Guahan  I hinangai-ña este para u na’adilåntu yan u chonnek mo’na i fina’nå’guen lengguåhi siha gi Unibetsidåt Guåhan. Manmama’nånå’gue, manmane’eyak yan manmansesetbe i fafa’nå’gue siha yan i estudiånte siha gi UOG para u manteteini i takhilo’ na minetgot-ñiha i kottura-ña siha yan i guinaha-ña iya Micronesia. Ginen este, ...

While in Japan last month I didn't get to hear much Chamorro. When i nobia-hu Elizabeth Kelley Bowman visited we would speak Chamorro to each other and I did bring some Chamorro LPs with me that I would listen to in my apartment, but for my last week in Japan I got particularly homesick for the Chamorro language. Thankfully the group Famagu'on Tano' yan I Tasi was there to help me with my minahalang. They are a Japan based Chamorro dance group, comprised of primarily education majors at Teikyo University under the guidance of Dr. Kyoko Nakayama. I visited the group in Tokyo in my final days, conducted some interviews, gave a talk and was treated to a BBQ. On a crowded Sunday afternoon, in an ocean of people speaking Japanese, it was so nice to have a group singing and chanting in Chamorro. Given the occasion one song they sang over and over was "Nihi ta fanhanao ta fanpiknik." I've included the lyrics below. Nihi ta fanhånao ta fanpiknik, Guih...

--> The island of Pagan, in the northern Marianas has made international news as it might soon become yet another beautiful island to be destroyed by the US military for its testing and training purposes. Although now I regularly hear news about Pagan, in years past I scarcely heard about it in a Chamorro context, but rather always in either a strict environmental context or in a Japanese historical context. Environmentalists are the first line of defense in some ways against militarization, although history has shown they often have trouble working cooperatively with the locals and natives who claim those lands. For them Pagan is an ecological paradise and needs to be protected. I would hear random tidbits about Pagan in this regard, as being a place with exciting species (including snails) that should be researched and explored.  I also heard about it in the context of Japanese, as settlers lived there during the Japanese colonial period in the CNMI. In fact in histori...

For the Importance of Second Language Learning Forum that I helped organize a few weeks ago, we were honored to have a very diverse and exciting panel. Coming at it from different angles, they covered a number of way, some more philosophical and others more practical, as to how learning a second language can be important and as a result, something that should be required at UOG.  The panel featured the following guests: Kenneth Gofigan Kuper, a Ph.D. student in Political Science at UH Manoa and former student of mine. He is a young activist who has taken up both the banner of decolonization and language revitalization. I've been working with him on a number of projects such as Ha'anen Fino' Chamoru Ha' and the upcoming Lalahen Sinahi project. He took Chamorro as his second language requirement at UOG and it changed the course of his life.  Ronald T. Laguana, the current director of the Division of Chamorro Studies in the Guam Department of Education. He i...