The Immersion School

When we first walked into the immersion school, I was really worried that I would say something in English, and unravel all the hard work that the teachers had been doing to teach the children their native language. So the first thing I made sure to remember, even before all the Cherokee we had already learned, was the phrase “Tla Yo-neg” (No English!) “No English!” was plastered all over the walls of the Immersion School, and its no wonder why. The Cherokee language has come close to going extinct before, and the Immersion School represents every effort the tribe has been making to make sure that that never happens. Teachers and students alike have put so much into the Immersion School, all in the hopes that more and more adults will one day speak Cherokee as their first, if not second language. While I was walking through the halls I saw signs, numbers, letters, and words in Cherokee. When I realized that all the posters, and even some of the books, were all made in the school, it really hit me how much hard work the administrators have put into the school. And why shouldn’t they? Cherokees have so much riding on the success of the Immersion School, and the hopes that the children from that school will carry their lessons and language with them to the future, it makes perfect sense that they would put so much work in to it.
The teachers, as well as the students, were very excited about our presence at the school, and I was very excited to be a part of something so important to the Cherokee Nation. I felt like being there, in some way I was contributing to their learning process, whether it meant playing (and losing) Simon Says, or shouting “tla yoneg!” when people including my self spoke English in the classes! Being at the Immersion School made me feel more apart of the Cherokee Nation than I had until that point because I really felt like I was helping shape the future leaders of the Cherokee Nation, or at least helping to remind everyone “Tla Yoneg!!”