[vimeo = 19412787]
In this video Willem and Holia explore doing a language trade, where Willem will learn Farsi, and Holia will improve his English, and also will be trained to rapidly teach and learn language through language hunting.
Please keep in mind, that if you find this video confusing, then you probably need to start with the WAYK fluency tutorial.
Holia actually has a fascinating story – he is a newcomer to Portland, OR, and a refugee from Iran. He escaped oppressive Iranian goverment anti-LGBTQ policies via the Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees (irqr.net/ ).
We hope that WAYK and language hunting gets in the hands of as many marginalized communities and peoples as possible, including refugees, immigrants, LGBTQ, and others, so we can all take back the ability to teach ourselves and others the languages we need not just to survive, but to thrive!
We see WAYK as a way to maintain one’s heritage and traditional culture in the face of the need to adapt to changing economic pressures. This includes refugees coming to the United States needing to learn English, while retaining their identity.
How many of us descend from immigrant families in which our ancestral languages were not passed on? This is a tiny language death – this is how languages die.
“How many of us descend from immigrant families in which our ancestral languages were not passed on? ”
That’s me! None of my generation speaks Arabic. When the family gets together, everyone speaks English. Before, people spoke Arabic to my grandparents but now that they are gone, it’s all English. I’ve tried to get us speaking Arabic with WAYK, but there isn’t much energy for it.
It is a tiny language death.
Yes, it’s really heartbreaking. I never had a chance to learn Danish – my grandmother never spoke it around me. Nor does anyone else in my family speak it anymore.