Chamorro language urged (fwd)

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Article published Mar 27, 2005

Chamorro language urged

By Oyaol Ngirairikl
Pacific Sunday News
ongirairikl at guampdn.com
http://www.guampdn.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050327/NEWS01/503270306/1002

Hundreds of students competed in "I Fino Chamorro: I Bentånan I
Ketturå-ta," either as individuals reciting poetry or as groups that
chanted stories of the ancient Chamorro mariners who lived, loved and
died on Guam.

It was the second year of the Chamorro Language Competition, and
competition was fierce.

And while competition usually is viewed as a healthy way to encourage
hard work and perseverance in children, the language competition is
helping to perpetuate the use of the Chamorro language, said Peter
Onedera, a Chamorro instructor at the University of Guam and one of the
island's most prolific authors and playwrights.

"We're slowly losing sight of our language because there are so few
occasions to use it," Onedera said. "English has superseded everything
when it comes to communication."

The problem created by a Chamorro culture speaking a foreign language is
that cultural ideas and values are lost in translation. And once lost, a
language and its culture can never be regained.

But Onedera said the language competition perpetuates the use of
Chamorro language at different levels, requiring students to know the
history and the meaning of the words they speak or chant.

"One of the criteria when the students are competing is they have to
execute the pronunciation and the actions that accompany the verbs and
what not," Onedera said.

Students from the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands schools again
joined Guam's public school students in the competition this year.

"Those kids gave so much flavor to the competition because CNMI has more
Chamorro language speakers in the younger generations than we do on
Guam," Onedera said. "That serves as a kind of impetus for our kids on
Guam to know their language better."

Onedera hopes that the competition will grow in the future to include
students from Department of Defense schools and private schools.

"We plan to make this a traditional part of the UOG Charter Day
festivities, and hopefully, we'll be joined by other schools," Onedera
said. "That's an ideal competition."

Several of Guam's students may end up participating in a Chamorro
language writing workshop that Onedera is organizing.

"It's called 'Ta Tuge,' which means 'to write,' because it's important
that our children be knowledgeable in the different forms of Chamorro
language. A lot of people think Chamorro is mainly a street language of
sorts, but there are levels of Chamorro, such as educational and
political," Onedera said. "I'm hoping that we perpetuate the written
language so that we can ensure the language doesn't die."