I want to talk about reclaiming your traditional language, not the how, but rather the things that come up during the journey.

It starts with the hard question, "Why don't you speak your language?"

For a lot of folks, the answer to that question is fraught with a lot of history and violence. But before that, is the feeling of shame, or even of guilt, for not being fluent in spite of all that history.

After all, aren't things "better now?" Should that history matter?

It's very common for people to simply internalize all this, to think of it as a personal failing. That has to change. The transmission of language is not an individual choice, it requires a community. Were you surrounded by your language, fluency wouldn't be a choice.

Nonetheless a lot of us really buy into this "if I wanted it, I'd do it" mentality and then constantly beat ourselves up for not becoming amazingly fluent all on our own.

That's where a historical/social analysis can help a bit. But oh, if you think it clears up the feelings...

Nevermind. Start with that first question, "Why don't you speak your language?"

Is it because you're lazy and don't value it? NO. Again, if you were raised in a natural, fluent environment, you'd come out, if not totally amazingly fluent, at least some level of fluent.

A lot of families make a deliberate choice to not pass on language because of hostile sociopolitical factors wherever they are living. There is a common belief that children of migrants in particular, will find more success with the dominant language, and it's true!

It's true because the society people find themselves in often makes it true, punishing and marginalizing "outsiders," particularly when they don't "speak right."

Those forces are SO POWERFUL. More powerful than your individual desire to reclaim your language!

Add to that a history of violent repression of your language and culture, something so many peoples have experienced, and at some point you need to release yourself from the burden of responsibility for why you don't speak your traditional language.

As you're thinking about this though, that history of violence and repression is so awful, and damaging. It changes language reclamation from a fun thing you can choose to do, into a sacred responsibility. A burden. That can really make things difficult as well.

If your language is "endangered" especially. But let's be clear, your language is endangered because it's been slowly killed off, deliberately, it didn't happen because your language is somehow less viable, less able to survive!

Feeling like you MUST reclaim your language before it dies is a really intense burden.

So there are all these really negative feelings, before you even start to look for a way to learn your language! Shame, guilt, inadequacy, horror at the history of all of this, etc.

People need to understand that this is a common experience for many Indigenous peoples, and many people of colour. It impacts the ability to learn, and if it's ignored, folks often just give up.

So you've got all that going on, and you start looking for opportunities to learn your language. If your language has many speakers around the world, you might have some more opportunities. If yours is an Indigenous language, it's almost certain the access is limited.

You can attend community conversations classes, which are often drop-in, and so rarely get beyond the basics.

You probably have to take a university course, and in most cases, there's only one Indigenous language represented. So you might not even have that opportunity.

Okay well imagine that you somehow manage to get access to the University class.

And it's full of people from outside your culture who are having a grand, fun time learning.

But you go home crying sometimes, because you can't seem to learn as fast as you wanted, and you're struggling.

The course is all about grammar and memorization and the accent of the instructor is different than what you're used to.

Maybe you find out that the bits of the language you do know, mixed in with English, aren't "proper." Maybe classmates "helpfully" correct your grammar and pronunciation. Maybe there are stars in the class who seem to learn so easily, who speak a bunch of languages.

Maybe you do well! But you find you can't speak the language, just read it and write it. Folks back home make fun of your stilted language use, or laugh when you make mistakes. You stop trying. You feel more shame. You feel like you failed.

If we don't talk about all of this, all the impediments to learning your traditional language, we all but guarantee that students will keep having these common experiences, never knowing that they ARE common. They will blame themselves. They will find themselves lacking.

When we divorce learning from the learner, and pretend that we do not have to address these things as instructors, we perpetuate and make larger the impediments that violently de-tongued people in the first place.