April 18 – May 2, 2019 As APIA (the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association) continues their ongoing Unangam Tunuu revitalization project, members of the WAYK team will travel to Anchorage for 14 days of sessions in the spring of 2019. The WAYK team will continue to work with the Niiĝuĝim Tunuu and Qawalangim Tunuu language teams based in Anchorage… Read more »
When I first learned about Where Are Your Keys, and that they offer summer internships in Unangax̂ Territory, I was really excited. I am an Unangax̂ that grew up away from my homelands, and I saw this an opportunity to learn my language, visit my homelands for the first time, and build stronger relationships with other… Read more »
Technique: Mumble In the movie Finding Nemo an adventurous young fish wishes to break free from the strict world his father constructed under the reef. During a school field trip, he escapes and swims into the open ocean. Nemo eventually gets lost and finds himself in Australia. Without the support of adults, Nemo has to rely… Read more »
Madeline Snigaroff, who joined the team for the 2018 Summer Intensive in Anchorage sent us this update in November. It’s been four months since I left Anchorage, and I now find myself in quite another world. College, distance, and busyness make it difficult to keep the active language-learning mindset that WAYK taught me over the summer, but… Read more »
Will Monroe, who made a short cameo appearance in Anchorage for the 2018 Summer Intensive wrote about his summer experience in July 2018. Aang, everyone! Will Monroe here, and I’m back in Alaska working with Where Are Your Keys for the second time. In 2013, WAYK introduced me to the Kodiak Alutiiq community. Since then, I have started… Read more »
My favorite part of the WAYK Summer Language Intensive on St. Paul Island has been getting to witness an amazing team of young people who are taking language revitalization into their own hands. I feel very lucky to have been able to learn from the Unangam Tunuu language team and to witness their many years… Read more »
My favorite thing from the 2017 Summer Language Intensive on St. Paul Island was becoming more comfortable learning and teaching language in immersion, by which I mean staying in the target language and avoiding English. In the past, I tended to divide language learning and language use. There is an essay by Greg Thomson, “Leave… Read more »
I would like to give a shout out to the Unangam Tunuu Speaking Listening Teaching Team (UTSLT) on St. Paul Island. 2017 was WAYK’s third year partnering with the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island, and I was brought here to be patient and supportive student for the UTSLT members. As a fellow Unangax̂, and… Read more »
One way to describe a summer with WAYK is that it provides the on-the-ground work experience that should be part of any training in language revitalization and documentation. In this blog I’ll describe it in these terms, mainly by contrasting it with the only other “official” training I’ve had, a masters degree at SOAS in… Read more »
With any intensive experience, there will be moments that really appeal to you and others that probably appeal to you less so. As a reflection of my time here this summer, and hopefully as some insight to interns that hope to apply for the WAYK Summer Intensive in the future, I hoped to share some… Read more »
December 21, 2018 – January 5, 2019 As APIA (the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association) continues their ongoing Unangam Tunuu revitalization project, members of the Anchorage Unangam Tunuu team will travel with WAYK to St. Paul Island and Atka and return to Anchorage for 10 days of sessions in the winter of 2018. The WAYK team will continue to work… Read more »
I joined WAYK for the 2017 Summer Language Intensive on St. Paul Island, Alaska, because I wanted to learn more about the techniques involved and to learn more about approaches to Indigenous language revitalization. Visiting a remote island in the Bering Sea and its flora and fauna was a wonderful perk, too. After the summer… Read more »
When you work with Where Are Your Keys, a common question you encounter is “What do you actually do?” It’s a great question and I love to talk about my WAYK experience, but it is still also a tricky question to answer. The reason is that, in a lot of ways, to understand what we… Read more »
December 9, 2018 – December 20, 2018 As APIA (the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association) continues their ongoing Unangam Tunuu revitalization project, the WAYK team returns to Atka for 10 days of sessions in the winter of 2018, accompanied by members of the Anchorage Unangam Tunuu team! During this visit, the WAYK team will provide additional training and support for members… Read more »
December 9, 2018 – December 19, 2018 In partnership with Aleut Community of St. Paul Island (ACSPI, supported by ANEP and CBSFA) the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association (APIA) the WAYK team returns to St. Paul Island for 10 days in the winter of 2018 accompanied by members of the Anchorage Unangam Tunuu team! During this visit, the WAYK team will continue to… Read more »
Summer Language Intensives have a lot going on. All the time. Whether it’s lesson prep, an important conversation to be had, hunting language from elders over tea, or even just keeping the coffee station running, there’s always something that needs to be done. How does one keep everything going smoothly, especially with a larger team?… Read more »
Learning a language is exciting, but it can also be scary. I get nervous when I stumble over new sounds, hoping no one nearby noticed. My cheeks feel hot every time I ask someone to pronounce a word so that I can understand and copy the sounds correctly. Suddenly it feels as if my ability… Read more »
Picture this: I grab a beautiful blue egg shell, a white feather, and two model birds, and join my group at a table in the back room for immersion time. Without any discussion or planning, we five young women blow up an imaginary immersion bubble to bid farewell to English – from here on out,… Read more »
2017 WAYK intern Mary Leighton explains Technique: Full Sentences, a simple trick for getting more language out of your immersion sessions.
My name is Timothy A. Zaochney and I’m from Atka, Alaska. I’ve been doing the Niiĝuĝim Tunuu language program for three years. I’m joining the team this summer in Anchorage as an APICDA intern. I got involved in the language program when Evan came down to Atka for the first time in 2013. I’m interested… Read more »
