Nahuatl programs throughout the world

[IDIEZ]

David,
	The reason I asked the question is that Yale is considering making a greater commitment to the Nahuatl Program (wish me luck), and the administrators want a broad vision of the state of teaching of Nahuatl in the US. Quiet another less practical, and more important issue is what the state of Nahuatl teaching is in the world and what all of us who participate in this activity can do to develop it qualitatively and quantitatively. An interesting conference/workshop would be for all Nahuatl instructors to get together and discuss the present and future of our endeavor. For a start, we could begin this discussion on the list.
	And good luck with the new edition of your grammar!
P.S. One problem issue is the denial of visas for Latin American scholars who wish to participate in US conferences. Another more fundamental problem is that Latin American scholars are usually not present at US conferences on Latin America because they aren’t invited. I can‘t count how many conferences in the US I’ve participated in where I was the only Latin American academic, and I’m a gringo!
Mohuampoh,
John

On Sep 2, 2011, at 7:05 PM, David Wright wrote:

> John:
> 
> The heading of your message says "Nahuatl programs in the US," while your
> message seems to imply a wider scope. I wrote the following description
> before I noticed the phrase "in the US." I considered deleting what I had
> written, but then decided to send it on, hoping other colleagues working in
> Mexico or in other nations will follow suit, so we can get a more accurate
> picture of the teaching of Nahuatl throughout the world. After all,
> international borders aren't particularly relevant to teaching and research
> (except when Latin American colleagues are denied U.S. visas when they try
> to attend a conference in this country, which sadly I've seen happen more
> than once).
> 
> I've been teaching Nahuatl, specifically the translation of early colonial
> documents from Nahuatl to Spanish, in the undergraduate program in History
> at the Universidad de Guanajuato, since January 2005. At first the class was
> a one-semester course called "Lectura del Náhuatl." When we reformed the
> History curriculum in 2007 (the new version being implemented in August
> 2008), the Nahuatl program was expanded, becoming one of three options (with
> Latin and Greek) for accrediting "Lengua Clásica I" and "Lengua Clásica II,"
> required of first-year history students. Other participants include students
> from other departments and graduate students who need to learn Nahuatl as
> part of their thesis or dissertation projects.
> 
> Most of the content of "Lengua Clásica I" is grammar; the lessons can be
> found in my book "Lectura del náhuatl: fundamentos para la traducción de los
> textos en náhuatl del periodo Novohispano Temprano," which began as class
> notes and was published in 2007 by the Instituto Nacional de Lenguas
> Indígenas. (A revised and expanded version is now in the hands of a
> potential publisher; please wish me luck.) In "Lengua Clásica II" the
> students work as a team, selecting a chapter from the Florentine Codex and
> undertaking a word-by-word phonological and morphological analysis on
> five-column tables, then use the results to produce a less literal and more
> literary translation. They have the English translation by Dibble and
> Anderson to lean on, but this doesn't save them from having to break down
> each word into its constituent morphemes to see how it works, explaining any
> morphophonological changes. It took me a few years to work out an effective
> method for teaching Nahuatl to Spanish translation, but I now find that the
> students who show up regularly and do the homework manage to acquire the
> skills needed to produce reasonably accurate translations by the end of the
> second semester.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> David Wright
> Departamento de Historia
> División de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades
> Campus Guanajuato
> Universidad de Guanajuato
> 
> -----Mensaje original-----
> De: nahuatl-bounces at lists.famsi.org [mailto:nahuatl-bounces at lists.famsi.org]
> En nombre de IDIEZ
> Enviado el: jueves, 01 de septiembre de 2011 19:33
> Para: nahuatl at lists.famsi.org
> Asunto: [Nahuat-l] Nahuatl programs in the US
> 
> Piyali listeros,
> 	Administrators at Yale are interested in knowing what Nahuatl
> programs exist at other universities. Normally I would say, “Reply off
> list,“ but I think everyone would like to know exactly where Nahuatl is
> being taught.
> John
> 

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