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… Read more »

1 hr, 45 minutes, and 30 seconds. [direct download] In this really long episode, almost two hours long, we debrief our Chinuk Wawa conversation night, and realize that we’re experiencing the feeling of turning the corner on the revitalization of the language. We bask in the glow for a bit, and address many issues that… Read more »

59 minutes and 24 seconds. [direct download] 1. Technique “Backup“ Dustin brought Tiffany and her toddler son with him, two regulars from his Vancouver Squamish language night Squamish Valley is located in the country, about 80 kilometers from Vancouver 2. Technique “Set-up“ The game took place in a community/rec center He set up a “Lotus“… Read more »

1 hr, 1 minute and 46 seconds. [direct download] In this episode, Evan interviews Peter and Pulikli, two Chinuk Wawa WAYK game leaders. Listen in on how WAYK “curriculum” design works, by joining this discussion about how WAYK players designed the Chinuk Wawa “family” conversation. 1. Technique “Set-up“ Peter describes the “set-up” – rigorously using… Read more »

The “Universal Speed Curriculum” is a way of transcribing the core WAYK conversation, designed to go up to “want/have/give/take” transactional conversation in the target language. We have several examples of this online; the original English version, Estonian, and Spanish. Dustin Rivers has been hard at work, improving the Squamish language Universal Speed Curriculum (USC) with… Read more »

1 hour, 15 minutes, and 51 seconds. [direct download] 1. Technique “Agile“ Why did we offer a WAYK workshop for IT professionals who belong to the Agile software development community? WAYK teaches “teacher-trainers”. WAYK is a pattern language; a mentoring language that (in an open source, ever-improving fashion) codifies the successful strategies involved in teaching… Read more »

50 minutes and 56 seconds. [direct download here] 1. Technique “Where Are Your Keys?” What Evan means when he asks “Does she play WAYK?” 2. Technique “Fluent Fool“ Does Johann play “WAYK?“. The ideal “fluent fool” has no conventional training in teaching at all. 3. Technique “Shared Experience“ Finding the ideal “same conversation” for Willem… Read more »

For everyone either wanting to be, or already involved, in the WAYK community, we have some good news. WAYK player Jay Bazuzi, creator of the series of Palestinian Arabic WAYK videos with his grandmother, has gone ahead and started his own “unofficial” google group for discussing and sharing the game and the craft of “language… Read more »

49 minutes and 55 seconds. [direct download] How much language can you learn from a “fluent fool” in one minute? Evan Gardner and Willem Larsen discuss the value of even spending the shortest moments in “language hunting“, and also how to inspire more of their trained “language hunters” to go do just that. This podcast… Read more »

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49 minutes and 52 seconds. [direct download] We debrief Dustin’s fifth WAYK Squamish language conversation night, that he holds in Vancouver, B.C., with plans to start another in nearby Squamish Valley, B.C. 1. Technique “Accent“ Gabriel George attends – the grandson of the late Chief Dan George. Dustin speaks about his people, and the relationship… Read more »

[direct download here] Evan, Willem, and new WAYK game leader Peter, sit down to talk about how the recent Chinuk Wawa conversation night went. This kind of “debrief” conversation plays a critical role in the “constant improvement” cycle of WAYK. 1. Technique “Pairing“/”One-on-one“ Peter leads Rebecca in a game. 2. Technique “Level Fishing” In order… Read more »

WAYK Episode 15, “Honing Your Craft”. 29 minutes and 19 seconds. [direct download here] In this episode, Evan and Willem interview Ryan (a veteran of a 2 day WAYK workshop, and regular drop-in at Chinuk night) about the mission we gave him: to “language hunt” the first “fluent fool” he could find, especially if he… Read more »

48 minutes 47 seconds. [direct download here] If you regularly listen to our podcasts, you know by now how highly we value debriefs, and the tremendous insight and improvement that emerges from them. In this episode, Willem debriefs Dustin’s Squamish Language Night game, for the first time in a few weeks. 1. Technique “the Lotus“… Read more »

Yesterday, Kirstyn and Thomas, two of our Chinuk WAYK game leaders had an email conversation. I include it below to illustrate the comprehensive, simple genius of the WAYK game for revitalizing language. We encourage people to start just with speaking, and putting off any reading or writing till later, because of the easy magic that… Read more »

[vodpod id=Video.3385353&w=425&h=350&fv=] What does it take to involve young children in the community-wide game of WAYK language revitalization? Well, it can be as simple as allowing them to watch the game out of the corner of their eye, while doing their own thing, and intermittently joining in. If you can commit to holding a regular… Read more »

1 hr, 7 minutes, 6 seconds. [direct download here] [Note: This podcast isn’t designed to teach Chinuk Wawa. It is a demonstration of how to apply the WAYK method to an endangered language. By listening to it, you will improve your understanding of WAYK techniques, but you won’t receive any instruction in Chinuk specifically.] In… Read more »

[direct download here] Evan Gardner and Willem Larsen interview Dustin Rivers, a Squamish Nation WAYK instructor, in the ongoing progress of establishing a community WAYK Squamish language night, and other issues in applying WAYK to revitalizing language in his community. 1. Technique “Set-up“ Dustin describes his “set-up“; attendees, game flow, “the Walk“, use of technique… Read more »

[direct download] As prompted by Stefan, a WAYK player from Germany, Evan Gardner and Willem Larsen discuss choosing the ideal signed language for using as a bridge language, in relation to your target spoken language. 1. Technique: “Bridge Language“ Stefan asks: which is more effective, using the WAYK ASL/Pidgin Signed English (PSE), or a local… Read more »

[direct download here] In this episode, Evan and Willem speak about Willem’s session of “Where Are Your Keys?” he ran for story-gamers at ‘Gamestorm 12‘ in Portland, OR. WAYK is a highly designed game environment for community-driven language revitalization. This conversation about Willem’s game gets highly technical and into some of the minutiae that we… Read more »