The Cherokee language training and trip to the immersion school were indispensible pieces of the study abroad program. Currently, Chief Chad Smith is focusing on the sectors of language, culture, and economics to revitalize the Cherokee people during his term in office. In this era of recovery of the Cherokee language, it is fitting that we began learning Cherokee while in Tahlequah and that UNC will be starting a Cherokee language program this year.

Spoken Cherokee and Sequoya’s syllabary are both so beautiful. I am grateful that we got to hear native speakers using Cherokee. Through listening to Ed, I realized that the language is spoken much more slowly and meticulously than English, perhaps due to the tonality or general complexities of Cherokee. At any rate, English speakers are accustomed to just spitting out thoughts, and I had to consciously speak more slowly when learning Cherokee.

I was really intrigued by the complexity of the language in contrast to the elegant simplicity of the syllabary. I had no idea that Cherokee was so complex, and I now have no doubt in my mind that Cherokee can truly fulfill UNC’s foreign language requirement.

The Cherokee Immersion School is truly an amazing program and (I think) will save the dying language. The children are engaged and nurtured at school, and are very important to the future of the Cherokee language. The facility and the resources that the children experience are phenomenal, and many people have worked very hard to get to where the school is now. Integrating the Apple computers into the coursework of the older children is an inspired idea, as it is both modernizing the use of the language as well as keeping the kids engaged in their learning. They are very skilled with their computers, which will certainly serve them well as students in the future, and are able to spend more time interacting with each other and the teacher in Cherokee using many of the computers’ innovative features. I am interested to see how the school adapts as its students get older, and how the transition from the Immersion School to the 7-12 Sequoia Schools is negotiated. I hope for nothing more than to see the language revitalized and thriving in a few years.

Donadagohv’i.