January 18-22

This week students are working on stories 11. stm̓tímaʔ naʔł spapʕálaʔ (Grandmother and Monster), and 12. k̓ʷík̓ʷxʷnaʔ naʔł kiʔláw̓naʔ 2 (Mouse and Grizzly pt.2). Only four more stories and the students will do their oral and written presentations in completion of Captikʷł 1.

Their presentations are on February 10th. Students will begin their oral presentations from 9am til 10:30. Then from 10:30-noon, there will be a community feedback session. We hope many of our community members from our surrounding communities will have the opportunity to come and see how the students have progressed and continue to strive for excellence in learning the language. Lunch will be provided. Guests are welcome to stay the afternoon while students finish their oral presentations.

Co-teachers continue to teach and transcribe. They are working on raising their fluency levels by teaching and transcribing records. By teaching it helps them to really focus on annunciation and clarity. But also allows them time to further improve their understanding of the grammar. By listening to the recordings over and over again, this improves their listening skills and gives them space to listen for grammatical structures that may get lost by only hearing a speaker once. It’s a really neat tool, and we are excited to see them work just as hard as the students in improving their language learning experience.

CBC Daybreak radio interviewed Sʔímlaʔxʷ and students January 21. Listen to the podcast below. Scroll down to "Saving a First Nation Language". Sʔímlaʔxʷ talks about the origin of the Syilx Language House and you can hear the class singing the Alphabet song and praying in the Language. Our hands go up in the air to Penticton Indian Band, Osoyoos Indian Band, Westbank First Nation, Okanagan Nation Alliance, and Okanagan Indian Band. kʷu sqʷaʔqʷaʔal!


http://www.cbc.ca/daybreaksouth/