Funding Year:
2024-25
More than anything, the year of having a language nest has shown that a space for language sharing, learning, and speaking has been needed for awhile. By meeting 3-4 times weekly, everyone’s relationship with the language has healed in ways that they may have not realized needed healing and therefore our adult learners are learning at a pace faster than any other learners I know. Having the children meet for mainly the language has been beautiful, is now an expectation of them, but will also feel like home as they grow up just as it felt for the older crew within the nest.
For a long time, the speakers have not been able to speak to children in the language as they got older. Speaking to babies almost always meant speaking Mi’kmaw for them. Once children started speaking, the adults would have to switch to the language the children are most exposed to and understand and for the first time in a long time, they are able to continue speaking Mi’kmaw to both the kids and their parents and they are seeing that both understand them even as their own vocabularies grow with English pressures from everywhere.