We are grateful to Okanagan College in Penticton for loaning us a classroom today ... kʷu kʷułntməlx iʔ sn̓m̓aʔm̓áy̓aʔtn ʕapnáʔ sx̌əlx̌ʕalt...and the Dean for welcoming us. It happened to be a day with a smaller group and a lot of Nsyilxcn 2 grammar. We made good use of the wall sized whiteboard. The atmosphere of intensive learning helped offset the headaches from the new grammar. The new Jim Pattison building is beautiful, state of the art, and a great place for nqilxʷcn. We are grateful for this amazing curriculum which continues to build our language proficiency every day, for the support from our communities, Penticton, Westbank, Osoyoos, and OKIB.

​Kiʔláwnaʔ Andrew McGinnis visited us today and shared his extensive knowledge about plants. In full immersion 
t̓i kmax nqilxʷcn!

He was happy to be with us and we are very lucky to have him assist with our learning.

The class has nearly accomplished eight full months in the Language House, and we have started having Elder visits. Our first two visits were with K̓ninmtn t̓a nq̓ʷic̓tn Grouse Barnes. We made x̌ʷəx̌ʷƛ̓miłp Indian tea and talked about family. It is amazing to see how far we have come and to know that we are able understanding our fluent speakers more and more.  It is an exciting time for us! 

We had a magical day on Thursday we took our afternoon language immersion and review lessons onto the land, learned some plants, wikntm pqlqin naʔł yilíkʷłkn and visited one of our q̓y̓íksxn pictograph sites. qʷamqʷəmt iʔ sx̌əlx̌ʕaltət. xərxart iʔ nqəql̓xʷáqaʔs naxmł qlnunm uł x̌əstmintm iʔ swíklaʔxʷtət. We are going strong after Spring break, this week the class completed Lessons 8 & 9 in Nsəlxcin 2 as well as several C1 and N1 review lessons. The Language House and Sʔímlaʔxʷ received appreciative words from our Elder Sʕamtic̓aʔ, to ʕAn̓n last week ... "x̌ast iʔ sck̓ʷul̓s Sʔím̓laʔxʷ... c̓x̌ił t mnim̓łtət, k̓ʷul̓m uł qłnus." 

We are very happy to see that the Penticton Newspaper  has picked up our story.
the ​Syilx Language House celebrates milestone of completing our second book,
Captíkʷł 1 ,  and we will be moving onto our third book, Nsyilxcn 2!
​http://infotel.ca/…/okanagan-first-nation…/it27856/penticton

This is our last week of classes before the Winter Holidays. We were honored to have 2 Fluent Speakers come to visit, they had really good and encouraging things to say to all of us learners. One of the Fluent Speakers also taught us some very fun winter words for us to try: sqʷʕaqʷʕaʔilpm (sled), kłsʕapíkam (hockey), sqʷʕaqʷaxnam (skiing or snowboarding), sy̓iriwaxnm (snowshoe).
 
Reflecting over the past while, its really amazing to think how much we have really accomplished since September. Time is passing by so quickly, and we have been learning so much. The last update is we are happy to announce we have 3 more students that have come to join us for Captikł 1. We also are expecting one or two more students to join us in the new year.

With that we would like to wish everyone a very happy holidays & Way̓ X̌ast Sputa! 

I am happy. The class is learning the sixth story of Captikwl 1 and Xastitkw is teaching the first teaching set. I watched her introduce the sentences and was struck by how much she has improved over the past 3 months. She was making gestures with her hands while she was saying the sentences. “x̌ʷʕaylxʷ kʷis iʔ tinx uł kʕacúpsəs sn̓k̓lip.” Fox grabbed the sinew and tied it to Coyote’s tail. With an eloquent gesture of grabbing something, and tying it around something. We all practice making gestures and I model the technique when I am teaching but is not easy to do for beginner teachers. I am immensely proud.

Today I have a sense of lightness, a sense that we are getting caught up with ourselves. We started with incredibly high expectations and I worried briefly we would not be able to accomplish everything, but little by little we are adding on new elements to our schedule and accomplishing our goals.

​St̓aʔqʷálqs and I did a first recording session with a new Elder last week, and she is off right now doing another recording session with him. She also recorded Andrew McGinnis and her Father on Monday, in conversation and has plans to record her father and uncle speaking together. I recorded Andrew McGinnis last week and got some great new stories. Sənpokcin just came in and asked if she could help get the marking caught up. I am so grateful to have all the help. I brought in an electric guitar and a handdrum a while ago, and now and then during breaks someone picks one of them up and makes some noise. Last week X̌atma Sqilxʷ was teaching Qʷʕayqʷʕayax̌n how to do flint knapping during lunch hour. My heart sings. 

The First Nations Language Centre at SFU is coordinating the activities of grassroots community partners across BC and academic linguists from SFU, UBC, UNBC, and many other universities in a new project to document, analyse, and revitalize Aboriginal languages. SFU's program is one core support pillar in making the Syilx Language House a reality. We are proud to see our project written up on their website and to be supported by them. You can read the write up by clicking this link.

This is our first full week doing Captikwł 1 and its really working out great. The curriculum style helps us to break the story down into reasonable pieces. We start out with the vocabulary from each set, this helps the class to learn the harder words first. Then we begin learning the story, in 3 sets. It has been really fun and interactive for us teachers and the cohort. What is also helpful is our use of TPR (total physical response), especially when we are working through some of the harder sentences. Through much repetition, the students are able to recite the whole story as well as act it out.

What also makes this perfect is historically for the Syilx people, winter time has been the time to share our stories. We are really doing this in a good way, so its working out in that sense as well. Overall Captikwł has been a good change of pace for all of us.

Last week our class passed an epic waystation. On Wednesday we completed Nsyilxcn 1 with a written exam, oral exams, a community celebration, and a language planning meeting. My heart sang. It was a very full day and a full house and I was proud to see the students speaking their Nsyilxcn presentations with so much confidence and enthusiasm and humour. I filmed the presentations and they were good! We had a great turnout with Chief and Council from OIB, the Chief of PIB, two Elders and an assortment of educators and family members. Our new student joined the class and we will have one more join next week. During the feedback session we asked and answered three questions: What are the best parts of this program? What have we missed? How do you see this being incorporated in your community (and what can you do to help)? I wrote a detailed feedback report with summaries and comments made by participants and guests. I will need to put the N1 film together for community feedback as well as assessment research (and C’aris volunteered to help with the editing).