Aliihani (Reading)

Several weeks ago, I started using a book that teaches Garifuna speakers how to read their language. There are example sentences with little pictures and some short, imaginative, and entertaining stories. For example, how a monkey tried to eat an iguana and fell out of a tree on his head; how a cat swallowed a toy rat and died; and how a proud fish laughed at other fish's funny eyes or whiskers. Reading these is becoming a daily addiction! =)

Last week in my graduate program we looked at reading comprehension strategies in classroom language instruction, which is easily applicable to my own language learning ventures, as well. Here are my not-always-helpful tendencies:

1. If I don't immediately recognize a word, feverishly hunt for it in the dictionary.

2. If I don't immediately understand why a suspicious suffix is attached to a word, call it an emergency and run to my favorite language helper.

3. Read through a story once and want to immediately move on to the next.

These are some more effective strategies I've been using since being further enlightened (or reminded of fairly straight-forward reading comprehension principles):

1. Look at the title of the story and illustrations and predict what I think the story is about, recalling basic and familiar words I know that relate to the topic.

2. Read the story through to see if I get the gist, identifying parts I'm not sure of, and making some guesses on vocab words.

3. Read the story a second time, this time looking up words I still don't recognize (interestingly, waiting to look them up helps me decipher words I really do know that are brilliantly disguised by affixes or variant forms). I take my time and imagine the story in my head - the visual images, sounds, smells, dyamics between characters, etc.

4. I think about concepts that come up repeatedly in stories that might convey cultural practices or values. I also note similar patterns from the spoken stories I've heard in Garifuna.

5. ***If I don't understand every word or or grammar structure, I don't worry about it; I store it in the "for future research" category in my brain.

6. I read the story a third and final time, usually out loud, so I can remember it later and practice pronunciation.

I am thinking about taking these stories to read to nieces and nephews next time I get to see them! Social interaction always makes a learning activity more fun and meaningful. =)

Difficult? (Hénrenguti?)

In one of my graduate classes this week, we are discussing affective (emotional) and personality factors in relation to language learning. One of my colleagues posted the discussion question, "Are there difficult languages?" in relation to Bernard Weiner's "attribution theory," which "focuses on how people explain the causes of their own successes and failures (Brown, 2007, p. 156). Is language success and/or failure due to ___?:

1) my ability
2) my effort
3) my perception of the difficulty of the task
4) luck

I have been thinking and re-thinking this.

Before I started learning Garifuna, I would have attributed and celebrated successful Spanish learning to both (1) and (2), having to choose among these options. (NOTE: I'd want to add my own attribution of God's gracious gift of loving Spanish and Spanish speakers, wonderful professors, many opportunities to learn the language, kind Spanish-speaking friends who have helped me and loved me, etc....)

My perceived difficulty of Spanish was low:
• Lots of people learn Spanish.
• It has similar words and features compared to English.
• I had abundant resources and opportunities to learn it (widely-spoken and accessible).
• OTHER people had cracked the idiosyncratic quandries of Spanish and related languages and handed it to me in a digestible and structured way.

Spanish was not difficult! Instead, I see my learning process as a kind of love story with a happy ending that keeps going...

Returning to the question of whether there are difficult languages or whether the difficulty is in my perception...

If I had to answer the above question regarding Garifuna, I would be likely to put (c) first. I'm supposedly "good" at languages, I am disciplined about studying, but I feel like the language itself is my greatest challenge at becoming proficient.

This is what I've heard/know about Garifuna:
• "That's not a language... it's a language and a half!" (SIL professor)
• "When you figure it out, let me know" (SIL translator who knows about 10 languages)
• "Do you know of any outsider who has really become fluent?" (me to a Garifuna speaker) "Not really."
• "The grammar is... complicated." (I heard this one often from my favorite language helper)
• Question: How many Arawakan languages are widely spoken, studied, and taught? Answer: None that I know of.

My perception that Garifuna is difficult for me seems well-validated, right?

"Difficulty" from a linguistics angle can mean (1) complicated features in the language itself and (2) relative proximity to one's native language to the one being learned. From a sociocultural perspective, "difficult" can mean accessibility and receptiveness between the target culture and my home culture.

BUT... I think it is fair to say that you can have all of the perfect variables in order, yet your attitude toward yourself, speakers of the language, and the language itself can make or break your success. On the other side of the coin, you can view challenging variables as "doable" (or fascinating, opportunities for growth, etc.) and become a proficient learner. (Or so I say to myself.)

Do I think Garifuna is difficult ('hénrenguti')? I realize I use this word A LOT. It reminds me of a common saying in Cuba: "No es fácil" ("It's not easy"). After spending a month there, I found myself saying it quite frequently, and it really did affect my outlook on whatever "difficulty" I was describing. Do I really want to keep telling myself and others that Garifuna is difficult? There are days I feel like proficiency is an elusive goal... but maybe the greatest barrier is my own perception.

As excellent as my graduate readings are, nothing beats the Bible for addressing this. I find it interesting that Jesus Himself is called the Word ('verbo'), and our ability to use words reflects His fingerprints and purposes for us. I also find it interesting how countless narratives describe the outcomes of doubt ('hénrenguti') versus faith ('afiñeni') (note: not 'ménrenguti,' or 'easy').

So, my new learning goal is not a set of new vocabulary or a new verb paradigm, but to stop letting 'hénrenguti' color my perception of what could turn into a beautiful story of its own.

Brown, Douglas. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. 5th edition. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.

Bible Verses and Relative Clauses

One of my goals for 2011 is to memorize more verses from the Bible, so I've created my first trilingual set, with Garifuna, Spanish, and English for each of the 10 verses. For example:


John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Juan 3:16 "Porque tanto amó Dios al mundo, que dio a su Hijo unigénito, para que todo el que cree en él no se pierda, sino que tenga vida eterna."

Huan 3:16 "Aba lasigirun Hesusu ariñaga: “Ladüga wéiriti hínsiñe gürigia ha ubouagubaña lun Bungiu darí lun lóunahani Liráü le ábanrügüti, lun lounwen luagu hafigoun, lun sun lan ha afiñerutiña luagu, meferidirun hamaamuga, gabagarirügü hamaamuga aban ibagari le magumuchaditi."

I have the bad habit of knowing how to paraphrase a verse and more-or-less where to find it in my Bible (that green highlighted section on the bottom right-hand side...). I would like to actually memorize complete verses with their respective references. I also have been teaching my Sunday school kids verses in Garifuna. Today they said Psalm 115:3 in front of the congregation, who gave them a rousing applause.

I use NIV (New International Version) for Spanish and English . You can see that the verse in Garifuna is considerably longer (!). Some language learning benefits from learning verses include:

• Having the main idea in my head from English and Spanish, so even if I don't understand the little bits attached to words (affixes), I still get the gist of what they mean.
• Learning discourse features (discourse is the study of texts or larger chunks of language), such as connector words ('but,' 'therefore,' 'because of,' etc.).
• My favorite new learning focus: relative clauses (a relative clause is a phrase that modifies a noun, such as "my friend who lives in Honduras").

Relative clauses in Garifuna intimidated me, so I avoided focusing on them. But learning verses is helping me get a feel for how they work. For example, in John 3:16:

• "gürigia ha ubouagubaña" means "people who are in the world"
• "Liráü le ábanrügüti" means "son who was the only one"
• "sun lan ha afiñerutiña luagu" means "all who believe in him"

I found this confusing at first because 'le' and 'ha' also function as demonstratives: 'gürigia ha' alone is 'these people' and 'halaü le' is 'this chair.' So the same function word acts as a complementizer to create a relative clause.

There are some details I still haven't clarified, but at least I'm getting the hang of the idea, so much so that I produced my first relative clause automatically the other day: 'this is the one that I'm going to do,' a moment of epiphany.

I have one other related tidbit to add, another eureka! moment while making coffee this morning:

'ideragubaadina' = 'you have helped me'

'bideragubadina' = 'you will help me'

In the first example, ideragua is the verb stem meaning 'help'; baa refers to second person singular past tense; dina is the first person singular object.

In the second word, the stem and object are the same, but the b- prefix refers to second person singular; -ba suffix is future tense.

I had been somewhat aware of this difference but finally was able to pinpoint and articulate it today, and my language helper confirmed I was right!

Electronic Flash Cards

One of the best language learning resources I've used so far is a computer program called Vocabulary Manager, which can be downloaded for free from SIL's website. In essence, this program allows you to create and practice words and phrases as if they were flashcards on your screen and classify your data in folders and subfolders.

Taking the example of "Food," I could create a subfolder for "Beverages" and make an entry for 'water.' Since I'm learning Garifuna via Spanish, my common language with people here, I would put 'agua' as my reference gloss and 'duna' for the orthographic representation in Garifuna. I can also include additional info in a "Modify Note" option, such as grammatical gender (masculine, in this case) or additional meanings and senses (such as "also means 'river').

Next, I input a sound recording of 'duna,' after editing and selecting it with Speech Analyzer, another SIL program handy for sound editing and phonetic analysis. Finally, I add an image, usually found on Google images or from my own personal photos. Now I have an electronic flashcard for 'water.'

As I build my database, I can add phrases and, wherever applicable, use images that invoke my sense when I hear the word and see how it's written, reinforcing the vocabulary in my mind. I can also select the words I want to review and test for comprehension (hearing the word and clicking on the correct picture). This has been incredibly useful since I don't live in a Garifuna community. When I visited Fernando and his family for the holidays in 2009, his cousin kindly recorded dozens of words for me, which I began learning with Vocabulary Manager in the U.S. before returning to Honduras.

What I like to do now is write down new words I encounter in conversations and songs, and then look them up in the Garifuna dictionary to ensure accurate spelling, as well as grammatical and etymological information (such as if the word was borrowed from English, French, or Spanish). Fernando records the list for me, and I edit individual words and create entries to study on my own. I can listen as many times I need, isolate more difficult words and phrases, without tiring a native speaker. In this way, I've learned many words this past year.

If you know of anyone who is independently/informally learning a language, this program might be a big help to them!

Some things I've learned about using pictures to learn vocab:

1. Include a picture that shows both the inside and outside of objects, such as this pineapple (and think about how it smells, feels, and tastes when listening to the word, 'yéyewa'):

2. For abstract words, use a picture that represents the idea to you personally. This picture is what I think of for the word 'life,' 'ibagari.'

3. If a real picture would be highly unpleasant or inappropriate, use a cartoon:

'wéibayawa' (an animal I dislike!)

'ágawa' (I prefer a funny animal picture or cartoon for 'bathe' rather than a real picture!)

4. Humor goes a long way for memorization! Remembering funny pictures helps bring a word to mind in the moment I need it for communicating in real life.

'magualiti' ('lazy')


'gurasun' ('courage')

Águru (Scorpion)

Happy New Year! I will now be able to blog more often, having gotten married (woohoo!) and had a few weeks to emerge from the massive pile of tasks I put to the side during wedding prep and graduate work.

I'm enjoying the benefits of having my personal language teacher as a roommate! 24/7 free consultation services (well, I do give him a break now and then)! One thing we do together is read Scripture in both Garifuna and either Spanish or English. He's also helped me transcribe songs, record new words and phrases, and clarify some of the grammatical haze in my brain.

Another good language learning adventure this month was attending a Christian Garifuna women's conference in a remote community where Fernando's family is from. I was surrounded by the language for 4 days and was warmly welcomed by many women. Since this was the 4th trip out there, I felt really comfortable, and I could converse much more this time than before. Yay!

Nothing helps a learner retain new words more then a striking experience involving the senses. The most notable new word was 'águru' ('scorpion'). I woke up at 3:00am when I was stung three times. I not only learned how to be treated (eat sugar and heat the affected area), but I got to hear words like 'luti' ('swollen') and 'gariti' ('pain') and repeat them in my head while the symptoms persisted the next day. So, in the end, it was a successful language and culture learning experience!

Soon I will talk about a computer program I use to learn new words, combining sound files and pictures (electronic flashcards), such as this:

Sunha! (Finished!)

I have not forgotten about this blog! I've been buried under graduate work and wedding plans. I just finished the last project for the semester: a description of imperatives in Garifuna (let me know if you want to take a peek). I plan on blogging more starting in January, so, until then, Merry Christmas and darí amu irumu (see you next year)!

Atúriahani (Studying)

I haven't posted much lately because I've been busy with an online master's degree program in applied linguistics that began recently. It's through the University of Massachusetts, and language learning is one of the central parts. I think it will be useful for teaching, missions, and my own language learning, which all tie together. One good thing is that I get to study Garifuna for some of my classwork.

The first class is applied linguistics. Not everyone in the program has a background in the field, so it's an introductory course, but aimed toward language learning and language teachers. One of my projects for this class is fieldwork in Garifuna. I'm looking at how imperative verbs (commands) work: intransitive, transitive, affirmative, negative, singular, plural, etc.

My second class is about cross-cultural perspectives. We have to spend time in a cross-cultural context, take field notes, and write a paper about several cultural themes. Since I get to interact with Garifuna friends in their homes, at Bible study, at church, etc., I can focus on some areas of interest and write about them.

My third class is about bilingual/multicultural education, and we are required to observe and write about some kind of program along these lines. There are Garifuna classes at an elementary school in a nearby community, and I'm hoping it works out to do my observations there.

My "cohort" ("classmates") and I have online discussion forums, so I get to share my experiences and learn from others. I'm still figuring out time management; the advantage is that I can program my own hours each week. I've done a lot of work today, so now I get to reward myself reviewing Garifuna verbs in a computer program. =) More on that next time. =)

Ábouguni (Cooking)

One of the most effective language and culture learning activities I've been using is cooking with Garifuna women. One advantage is hearing words and phrases repeatedly with minor variations: "Add salt," "Add a little onion," "We're going to boil it," "We're going to stir it," etc. I know a lot of kitchen vocabulary, so hearing it in a context while I complete an action reinforces what I know and helps me absorb small amounts of new information.


Another benefit is that doing an activity together reduces mental fatigue for me and patience depletion for the other person (!!!). =) It kind of takes the pressure off of conversations. Plus, I get to overhear what women say to their children, to other people who stop by, or even to themselves ("Where did I put ___?"). This is much more natural than explicitly asking how to say these expressions.


As some of you know, cooking has never been my forté. Furthermore, with a new array of ingredients available here (add yuca, for example, and take away CHOCOLATE CHIPS - sigh...) and cooking approaches (forget recipes, just call an older or sister or cousin if needed), I can use all the help available! It is a lot of fun and makes me think a Garifuna cookbook might be a fun project someday.

I thought I'd show you some of the things I've learned to make.



(The picture is not mine.) This is a typical meal of fried fish (úduraü), fried plantains (baruru), and rice and beans (literally called "rice and beans" in Garifuna). The hardest part is cleaning the fish (afúleihani), but the rest is easy: you just cut slits in the sides and put salt there before frying them. After almost losing a thumbnail, I can finally do a decent job slicing plantains. To make rice and beans, you season and boil the beans, and then add the residual water plus coconut milk (instead of water) to cook the rice, and you add the rest of the beans at the end. Sunha! (Done!)


This is tapado, a coconut soup with fish, ripe plantains, cooked green bananas, yuca, and spices.



Finally, I have to show a new cookie recipe I've found (cookies are typically the only edible thing I make). Step one is buying darara, yuca flour, at the local market (completing the transaction in Garifuna, of course). Then you just add a bit of salt (salu), an egg (gañéin), sugar (súgara), and oil (agüle), roll and flatten the dough into the size you want, and bake it. You might imagine the intended recipient of the cookies in the picture (my official tastetester).

Biama líburu (Two Books)

I've been using a variety of helpful resources to learn more Garifuna, one of the best being this dictionary:

As you can see, one of the authors happens to be my favorite person of all time. Another bonus is that the dictionary is trilingual: Garifuna, Spanish, and English. (There are Garifuna people who live in Belize and in the United States, and some don't speak Spanish.)

When I hear a new word in a conversation, I look it up later, or sometimes I want to refresh my mind of a useful term I still can't remember easily.

In Garifuna, nouns and corresponding modifiers have gender agreement. This is found in many languages, such as Spanish and French. ("La casa es blanca." "El perro es blanco.") When I learn new words, I make sure to remember the gender so I can use them properly.

Another fun and useful component is the etymology of borrowed words. For example, if I want to know the word for "window," I find that it is "funedere," taken from the French word, "fenêtre." This helps me remember it as well as understand the sound system better.

Just for fun, let's look up "suddenly": "sódini," with the etymology note showing it somes from the English word. Nice to know!

The word for "paper" is "gárada," which comes from "carta" in Spanish.

And one last example is "ereba," the traditional cassava bread (more about this in a future post). This food is common among South American indigenous groups. For those of you familiar with northern South America, you know about the "arepa," a thick corn tortilla that is a main part of diet and prepared in many ways. Both come from the same word in Arawak.

I love this dictionary and use it frequently, as you can tell by the picture! It was a long, tedious process for those who compiled it, and now it saves me a lot of work in language learning!

The second book I use is the Bible in Garifuna:

Garifuna is one of only 451 languages in the world with a translation of the entire Bible (many languages only have the New Testament and portions of the Old Testament, and many more still have no Scripture). Fernando was part of the translation team, and the project took years of work. Here is a portion from Psalms:

Every week at church, someone reads a passage and the sermon is given in Garifuna. We also use the Bible for the Bible story project. When L, the story crafter, needs to hear a certain verse to make sure she's telling something correctly, I look it up for her and read it. This helps me learn the language and also allows me to understand new details about familiar passages.

I hear people say how much better the Bible sounds to them in Garifuna, and I certainly feel the same about English. It's a good reminder to thank God for what we have and pray and support the effort for others to have God's Word in their own language!

Úraga lau garifuna (Stories in Garifuna)

I recently attended a workshop about crafting and telling Bible story sets for oral cultures. Stories are then taught in home groups where people can discuss them and learn to retell them.

One of these projects is underway in Garifuna. I was hoping to help in some way after acquiring a better grasp of the language (i.e., LATER). Well, two weeks ago I was invited to help with a new story set being crafted in Garifuna! "What?! I don't feel ready, but here we go!" Of course I wanted to help!

I'm working with a Garifuna woman (L) and a missionary (M) to produce a set of 12 stories about women in the Bible. So far, we have one about Eve and another about Sarah. Now we're working on the story of Ruth.

My job is to help L, the story crafter. First, I record the Bible verses about the story. If she were to read it herself, it would limit her ability to tell the story naturally. Usually I read in Spanish, but, if nobody else is available, I read in Garifuna (it's painful for both of us - ha!).

Then, I type the transcription in a Google documents template, together with the corresponding verses. Everything told must be "anchored" in Scripture.

When L feels good about the draft, we go visit Garifuna women with little or no Bible background. We have one person translate the story into Spanish so we can check for difficult terms (like "covenant" or "blessing") and reword awkward parts. Then we have at least two people retell the story after hearing it several times to gauge how reproducible it is. We also ask questions to find out how well the story is understood.

After we compile this information, we send it to a consultant, who checks for any necessary revisions.

Throughout the process, I hear the stories over and over and OVER again, which introduces me to new vocabulary and word/sentence structures, and reinforces what I've already learned. My favorite part is visiting people! I love how they hear God's Word in a new way, and it is fun to get to know more women by conversing in their language!

Please pray for those who hear the stories and for us as we move forward with the project.

Ka uagu? = Why (Learn Garifuna)?

Every day I remind myself why I want to learn Garifuna. I think language learning is like training for marathons, learning to play a musical instrument, or any other endeavor that requires commitment, effort, and (most of all) internal motivation.

In the language learning class I taught, we talked about different kinds of motivation for learning languages, such as:

• Foreign language classes are required in high school and college.
• Being bilingual is necessary to find a job or get better pay.
• Linguists and anthropologists are motivated to learn languages for their research findings, and some just enjoy the mental acrobatics involved!
• Then there are those who want to become part of a new language community, either because of missions, an interest in the culture, friendships, marriage, etc.

I loved foreign language classes, and knowing Spanish helped me get jobs. I also love linguistics and figuring out how languages work. However, I'm not a student anymore, not looking for a new job, and cold, hard data quickly loses its charm. Obviously I'm learning Garifuna because I want to communicate with people in their own language.

But this resolve can be rivaled by excuses, especially when things get more difficult and less fascinating than when I first started learning the language. Sometimes I'm tempted to think:

"Everyone speaks Spanish. I love Spanish!! Isn't trying to communicate in my second language enough of a challenge? Plus, I live in a Spanish-speaking city, so I'm not surrounded by Garifuna, and living in a remote community isn't an option now. I bet people get tired of answering my questions and repeating themselves several times when I stare at them blankly. So why try?"

Or...

"This language is incredibly complex and different from Spanish or English. It takes a lot of time and energy. There are no formal classes or textbooks. Is this really worth it?"

This is when I have to remind myself (repeatedly) of the many legitimate reasons for learning Garifuna. The most obvious reason is it is Fernando's language; it's what his family and friends speak. We go to a Garifuna church. He speaks English and understands my culture, so I want to do my part!

Another reason is that I taught second language acquisition and want to go through this process to help others learn languages. I have to practice what I preach. And, I confess, it is a lot of fun! I would be going crazy if I couldn't dive in and see how Garifuna works.

When it comes down to it, my biggest motivation is God's love. If Jesus spoke with and lived with the people He loved on earth, I want to follow that example. As the Bible says, I could speak all languages but, without love, just be making noise. In other words, without love, it is meaningless. Good thing Garifuna is so hard because I can use lots of practice in having love be my ultimate motivation!

Today I was remind of this "why" when I ran into a Garifuna lady selling coconut bread (another motivator!!!) and, instead of taking the easy out with Spanish, started the conversation in her language. Her smile was the highlight of my day.

Katei san Garifuna? = What Is Garifuna?

What is Garifuna like?

The answer to the question, "What is ___ language like?" is found in the history of the people who speak it.

Let's begin in northeastern South America, where the notoriously warlike Carib people began migrating north toward the Caribbean. They reached what is present-day St. Vincent Island (see map below), inhabited by the pacific Arawaks. Carib men killed Arawak men and took their women, which led to a creole (mix) between both languages. Men's speech resembed the Carib language and women's Arawak.

During the 17th century, ships carrying Africans sunk off the coast of St. Vincent, and those who escaped to the mainland were integrated into Carib society. Since they were from different regions of Africa and did not share a common language, they learned what was spoken on the island. However, the influence of African languages did lead to some changes in pronunciation.

In the meantime, St. Vincent was considered as territory belonging to France, and, through commerce, words in French were incorporated into Garifuna. Later, the British gained control of the island, and English words became part of Garifuna. After struggling to subdue the Garifuna people, the British sent many of them to Honduras.

When they arrived, Honduras was still under Spanish rule, and, as with French and English, the Garifuna language has many words adapted from Spanish. Garifuna people settled along the Caribbean coast of Central America and currently live in Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras; many have also immigrated to the U.S.



As I learn the language, I am reminded of this history through:

• Differences in men's and women's speech.
• Arawakan grammatical structure (Garifuna belongs to an Amerindian language family).
• Many vocabulary words assimilated from French, English, and Spanish.

Also, the Garifuna culture reflects this mix:

• Food related to what indigenous people in South America eat.
• Music and dance based on African rhythms and drumming.
• Festivals and holidays according to Catholic tradition.

Until next time... Binilabu Bungiu! (God bless you!) =)

Buidula bachülürün! = Welcome!

What comes to your mind when you think of learning languages? Maybe the thought reminds you of feeling bored in a high school or college class. Maybe it brings to mind an adventure traveling in another country. Perhaps you have friends from other countries who have learned English and become a part of your community.

For me, language learning began as a distant aspiration and is now a central part of daily life. I used to count down the years and months until I would take a Spanish class (which happened when I was 16). I now find myself in the middle of a new challenge: learning Garifuna in Honduras (more about this language in a future post!).

This purpose of this blog is to share various aspects about my language learning process: victories, challenges, funny stories, interesting linguistic findings, cultural background, Garifuna people who take the time to teach me, helpful resources, and more. Your comments and suggestions are welcome!

My desire is to encourage other language learners and share with all who are interested in Garifuna and my life in Honduras. Thanks for checking in!

P.S.1. The picture is with a friend who has helped me with learning Garifuna.

P.S.2. Thanks to my good friend, Christina, for the encouraging reminder to do this! =)