UNIT 4: Learning 2 Languages

✌Learning 2 Languages✌

In this assignment I am using family for my experience in trying to learn the Cree Language.  My bilingual parents believed that it was better to learn the English Language because that would be the medium we would use outside of the home. Today they are remorseful that we did not learn or maintain our language.

I come from a family that is bilingual. Speaking English as their second language and Cree as their first.  How I learned to speak English was through school and listening to conversations.  I learned the language through memorizing the sentences that were spoken because of that I did not learn the proper definition, but that came later when I started reading and had to define and comprehend words.  I also learned the language through visual learning, by interpreting pictures or photographs and always asking what things meant. It was not easy to learn the English language when both parents spoke fluent Cree and understood the world based on their language.  The differences I found it was never easy to translate Cree into English Language for example: they did not have the “ch” sound in the Cree Language and there were no words to describe he or she. Also, the Cree Language has elongated words and that can be very confusing to the learner because you have to have the correct pronunciation. There is a lot of humour in the Cree Language if you mispronounce words because it changes the meaning in a humorous way, but eventually you learn it correctly. 

Growing up my learning the Cree Language was sporadic whereas the English Language I had to learn it all the time.  I recall my grandfather would teach me Cree by using a lot of gestures to assist me in learning the Cree Language.  During my high school years, I also studied the Cree Language and learned syllabics, sounds (consonants and vowels), pronunciation and was able to speak in short conversations.  Once summer came around, I was not around Cree speaking people enough to maintain or enhance it.  By then people were also beginning to lose their language. This has been my experience in learning language.