tribal3wiki

= = = = =Wiki Sharing Our Learning Experiences in Ojibwe and/or Other Languages=

How to use:

 * 1) Insert your ideas below the bar below by clicking on the "edit" button
 * 2) Then scroll down the the place in the evolving document where you would like to insert your idea, and type your contributions. You can also make changes to existing entries (e.g. expanding on what is written, inserting words, taking out words). Note: you may prefer to compose your ideas off line (e.g. using a word processor), and then copy and paste this into the wiki once you have clicked on the edit button and locating the cursor at the place at which you want to place your entry.
 * 3) Once you have made your changes, click on the "save" button at the bottom of the page.

//__Note__////: A wiki is a page that can be edited by anyone. The beauty of wikis is that you can add and change what is on the page, but not destroy it, because all previous versions are archived in the history part of the page. Thus, if you want to refer to earlier versions, or go back and retrieve something from an earlier draft, all you need to do is refer to the history section (see history tab).//

//What methods have been most helpful/memorable/fun in learning Ojibwe or other languages? Share some of your experiences...//
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 * It really has helped me to be able to hear the words spoken. When I was trying to learn Swedish, I used a CD that enabled me to click on a picture of the word with the word written below the picture, and hear a native speaker say the word. Also, I could play this again and again as many times as I liked.
 * Actually doing the tech stuff hands on.
 * When I first learned Ojibwemowin I received grammar instruction first. This has always helped me w/understanding conjugation, negation, locatives, and dubitatives. I had a hard time learning the double vowel system, so I started reading road signs and literature in double vowel. Lakeside became la-kay-si-day. Immersion makes me REALLY nervous. I have to be in a group of people I feel extremely comfortable with before I can begin using just ojibwemowin. I also have conversations w/myself. Aaniin giin...aaniin...aaniin ezhi-ayaawaad gidaanisag?...mino-ayaawag.
 * I think songs are very helpful
 * ditto: to help myself learn words and to make it fun for my kids, I often try to make up a song. The hardest part is finding a catchy melody. But it can also be "borrowed" -- I made up a song using the melody of "it's raining, it's pouring" to help me remember the names of the Minnesota Ojibwe reservations and a few other place names.
 * if I get immediate feedback, such as tape recording myself and play it back.
 * Learning even the "easy" words in Menominee was and is very difficult for me. It takes a long time with lots practicing and often I would find myself practicing over and incorrectly. It seems to take a lot of group practice, but has to happen in a positive environment. Too often I have seen people become competative and it discourages others that struggle.
 * This morning, I came across a website the is devoted to less commonly learned languages, and it offers a wealth of information on one's learning style and how that relates to which strategies work and why. I haven't finished reading yet, but it's good so far: [|mplications of your learning style for language learning]
 * Flashcards. I've used index cards alot to study while waiting in line, etc. I've been looking for some electronic index card software and have found several programs that I'm going to download and try out. Most come with built in quiz features. Does anyone else have any experience with these programs? Any recommendations? NL
 * Before You Know It http://www.openwindow.com/pages/whatisit.htm
 * Teach 2000 XP http://www.teach2000.nl/international.php
 * WinFlash Educator http://www.byki.com/byki_descr.shtml
 * I have found that flash cards are good. Some of my students have used these and it was gratifying to see them showing this much interest in the language when they were making their own. Songs, yes. I teach k-12 and the younger students are more open to singing than the older ones. We (they) sang the ditty "Are you sleeping, Brother John," but we inserted words for mom, grandma, dog! dad, younger sibling(s), you name it. Fun! One day the older students asked my why I taught those "darn little kids" that song because they all sing it on the bus ride home! It was driving them crazy listening to this!
 * My advice: build from the ground up by learning the very basic stuff like animals, family, relatives, months, weekdays, places, parts of the day, and then go into verbs. After you learn these, connect them and make sentences. These will be awkward at first but eventually you will string all the parts together and then you will be speaking Ojibwe!!!
 * I had a hard time learning French because it was taught as noun-based. I know lots of nouns but can't make very many sentences or converse at all. It has been very empowering for me to learn lots of Ojibwe verbs because then I can make sentence.
 * I hope you don't tire of me but I have found that using the phonetic form is very helpful. I believe that by writing the Ojibwe word this way helps one say/pronounce the word the way it supposed to be said. I don't want to open a "can of worms" here and get into a debate on the double vowel v phonetic form. This just works for me and my students. I use both, by the way, in my classes. Bebagamash.
 * Hey boozhoo giinawaa...this Pebaamibines. I like reading about how people learn the language and the stratagies that are working for them. In my own journey, there was a period in my life when I no longer spoke the language. I believe that I did lose it. Most people think that I have reatained my language all my life but that is not the case. I started teaching Ojibwe so that I could relearn it and use it in my life. So this makes me a relearner of the language. mii sa eta minik waa-ozhibii'amaan akawe...niin sa, pebaam..
 * In my opinion from my learning experience I think one should learn verbs first. VAI's are the simplest and you could start slow by beginning to learn the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person first. In Ojibwe you have to know if a noun is animate or inanimate, then use the correct verb. If you learn VAI's and VTI's first, all you have to do is look up the noun and see if it is NA or NI (noun animate or noun inanimate). I'm a grammar freak and its how I learned. I am able to translate many things on my own by referring to grammar rules and then seeking a speaker for corrections. Also, I think the phonetic system is unreliable because it isn't set in stone. Everybody spells it differently how it sounds to them. My buck-uh-dae might be your buk-a-day. With double vowel, its concrete. I'm a Virgo though so I require order, organization, and consistency! Ha Ha. Lisa
 * HI my experience in learning the lang is that hearing it over and over until u get it and that the words u learn should be conversational words Hi how r u? Aniish ezhiyayan? etc. RA Nigwiis P.S some how i started a new page on where are we from, sorry dont know how to get old one back. Helen I am open for suggestions? Aaniin RA. If you click on "new page" at the top of this wiki, it would start a new wiki page - so it sounds like what you did. What I would do is go to the new wiki that you created, copy what you wrote, and paste it here. However, by all means start you own wiki if you like, as this way you can use it for "side" discussions or for your own use (to create a new wiki you have to create a wiki account, which is done simply by filling out the form at wikispaces.com. If you want to learn more about that, I have guidelines on creating a wiki at: [|Wikispaces guide]. Helen.
 * How Pebaam! Gaye niin gegaa ing gii izhii webiz. Gi noodoon. Bebagamash.
 * boozhoo nindawemaaganidog, good evening to every other one and al the odd ones too - i have develope d a new technique and i naow have a chance to implement it k thru 5 its called you are the center of your world - giin nawaiyi'ii -awiiyan gidakiim - its based upon anaotomy and matches nouns with assosiated verbs with mostly vai, vti and vta's - and othe r lists of language learned by cateragory - layers are added to lists so tat a person's person and how it/we interact with the worls around us - whereever we go our bodies go/props adm also sets up for future disscussion in health areas for natives such a disproportinate rate of chronic disease- ie. diabetes, smoking related illness and broken hearts - sincerly dc with wheel chair no longer
 * Using a variety of methods to learn language works well for me as it did for my elementary students. I think it's important to have a scope and sequence, unless you can totally immerse. I liked the Ojibwemowin text for it's VAI method. I have to practice daily listening and speaking-Mickinaac Ikwe
 * Well... I try to use many different tools from a toolbox to help me learn to Ojibwemo. I'm so interested in learning ojibwemowin, that all learning to me has been helpful. I've done classes at high school and college level. various methods used in the different classes: memorization of vocab lists, grammar lessons, immersion work in classes, verb charts, diagrams, literacy is very valuable to me, but that's just how my mind works... Working in an immersion setting with K-grade 2 kids, there's lots of repetition, so we learn a lot here. Plus, the ability to use relevant language (in an immersion setting) makes the learning experience so much more rich. One-on-one work outside of classroom walls includes visiting with speakers of our language and just listening to tune my ear to the sounds, and asking the old ladies what the heck they're laughing about. Maybe the same for many of you, but in my family, when the oldsters didn't want us to know what was being talked about, they'd Ojibwemo... Funny, salty stuff, or really serious stuff, or maybe just time away from kids.. I talked a mindiimooye into working with me one-on-one for a little over a year for a concentrated period of time, which was structured in daily life. Our lessons were daily living situations, we'd visit at each others' houses, or go out and do her laundry at the laundromat, or run errands like checking mail and grocery shopping - whatever it was that we'd do with our lives for the day, she had to Ojibwemo, and I had to listen and learn. If we were tired, we watched tv with the sound off, or we'd read the newspaper and translate, talk about what was going on around us. Relevant language in usable situations. We had to create an immersion environment because one does not exist in our communities - there is not a place around here where people speak our language for daily situations. As well, having a child has helped to drive my learning... I can use him as a prop when I go to speak with the oldsters around here - he's much cuter than I am when speech mistakes are made - and I used to be able to remind them that my learning level is at a baby level, I could point to my son and say, "But Antie, I'm just at his level of speech". No longer. My son is in second grade now and has surpassed my level of understanding.... So now, he drives me to learn, and I think: what can I pass on to him about being Anishinaabeg? Our land base is ever shrinking, the average age of Ojibwe as a First Language Speakers here at our communities is 70, and we only have a couple handsful of First Speakers between the ages of 50 and 70. None younger than that. That is helpful in my language learning: the sense that Ojibwemowin is still relevant to our lives, that it is valuable and useful, that we will need it to sustain our nationhood -- because we have to have a use for language, right? Indonzaamidoone, I'm going on too long, but that's what works for me to learn a language: any tool from the learner's toolbox, and relevancy. Mii sa iw. LH
 * Well I know that I responded to this on the weekend of our class, however, I don't see it on here now. So What helped me when I took German class for 4 years, I really learned nothing until I actually went to Germany and spent 2 weeks there, I was apart of the language, and there for I had to speak it, and understand it. [From HMR: If you put something up and it disappears, you can click on the "history" link and go back to view the entry that you made. Copy what you wrote, and then come back to the latest version and paste what you originally wrote back into the wiki]
 * i like learning the conversational text, this way u can communicate with people and learn as you go along. but i know that this take alot of work for the beginner, but in the end it will pay off. But, if anyone has a useful way to learn i am all ears, magiizha someone would help me so that i might be able to speak at are openings on monday mornings. I would like to learn how to talk to the creator, and the supporting beings that help us on our bimoseyang aking oh migwetch RA. waawaaskashi ziibing.
 * Okay, I hope people are still reading this. So, it seems this is obvious to everybody else, but what do VAI's and VTI's mean?- MP I'm glad you asked this MP -- I had this same question! :) HMR
 * VAI: verb animate intransitive. An action word involving an animate form such as a human or animal. Intransitive: the verb stands alone and is a sentence by itself. Example: nibaa. He/she is sleeping.
 * VTI? I can't recall anything on this. Sure you don't mean VII?
 * VTI - Transitive Inanimate verb. This verb basically involves an animate actor and an inanimate subject. onakwebidoon - s/he catches the ball.
 * Howahh!! wow - lots of great info-- I cant wait to go over & figure out my learning style!Well, I can say,, I speak english, spanish, french, & italian,,& very modest beginners ojibwemowin. have studied by book, in class room and had impromptu immersion--i studied french & spanish in highschool & college---and by chance ended up living in italy for a while--never taking a class,,or reading a book or had any formal intstruction what so ever--and out of those three, I was able to become moderately fluent in Italian,,,,granted studying the other languages gave a strong foundation for Italian--they are very similar--but being forced to just be completely surrounded,,sink or swim--, tv, radio, billboards, street signs, magazines with the horoscopes, packages of food at the grocery store--counting money with the chance of loosing my cash if i get it wrong, getting to the right train at the right time---all in italian--it just packed it all in there, till i was dreaming in italian,,, however--after that,, I noticed that my english vocabulary & grammar suffered a little,,it took longer to find some simple words,,,but had a better grasp on a bunch of bigger $5 english words-amanj igo--I would very much agree with Sagajiwekwe(LH) that Relevant language use--in any form,books, lessons, immersion is critical other wise it just becomes an abstract, novelty, evercise of the mind instead of a lived, usable thing--Obizaan(DE)