The Nahuatl language is the main language of the Nahua people, a population of roughly 1.7 million strong in Central Mexico. Once spoken by tens ofmillions throughout the Azteca regions, Nahuatl was the main language of the Aztec Empire and was widely considered a language of prestige, carrying with it generations upon generations of ancestral stories and knowledge. This knowledge was decimated in the face of Spanish colonization as European teachings forcefully overtook the cultural dominance of this linguistic staple. Now, Nahuatl continues to carry its history, but in the face of potential linguistic and cultural assimilation. This project focuses on explaining and illustrating the cultural and linguistic significance of Nahuatl, encourages discussion on the topic oflinguistic preservation and the importance of preserving the cultural heritage inlaid in written and spoken language, and would also focus on teaching individuals bits and pieces of the language as well!I have spent the past several months learning Nahuatl and aboutits cultural importance and will provide a snapshot of a language that has existed since the dawn of organized civilization in the Americas. I will discuss why not only this language and culture should be preserved, but why all languages that are facing the same existential threat should be preserved just as well.
Vietnamese is an Austro-Asiatic language spoken by nearly 70 million people worldwide. It is the official and national language of Vietnam. Its vocabulary is heavily influenced by Chinese and French with numerous words and terminologyborrowed from both respective languages. As a result of immigration following the Vietnam War, Vietnamese is widely spoken across other parts of Southeast Asia, East Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia. Similar to Chinese and other East Asian languages, Vietnamese is an analytic language with multiple phonetic tones. There are five to six phonetic tones used in Vietnamese (depending on regional dialect). Historically, Vietnamese was written using an adapted version of Chinese characters calledCh·ªØ N?¥m, however, French colonization led to the adoption of the current Vietnamese alphabet based on Latin script. In the Fall of 2019, I studied abroad in Vietnam for four months and took a language intensive throughout the semester. I learned basic vocabulary and day-to-day conversational Vietnamese during this four-month period. Upon my return to Union, I wanted to continue learning Vietnamese and utilized a Minerva Exploration Grant to fund continuation classes. I took twice-weekly online classes where I learned grammatic structures and continued to grow my vocabulary. I also learned the differences in dialects and word choice from different regions of Vietnam. As a heritage learner, I wanted to learn Vietnamese to reconnect with my family's culture and improve my communication with my extended family abroad.
Language learning is how we transcend borders. It creates global affability, and trust among strangers. A part of every culture, languages can help humans communicate across continents. With learning a language, you learn so much more than just its words. Languages help show you how other communities think and perceive. Languages, also, can be a tool. People travel across the world wanting to help others, but forget that English is not a universal language. If a group wants to implement sex education, vocational training, or medical aid in remote areas where they need it most, they must do so in the language of the community they are trying to help. I am going to Ghana this summer to teach a course on entrepreneurship, and to do this, I took lessons on the Akan language, Twi. This language is spoken by almost 20 million people around the globe, and a third of Ghana speaks Twi as a first or second language. Though my 10 Twi classes have ended, I have developed a foundation off of which to build further language competency. This poster aims to share my Twi foundation with you, and to educate the public on the intricacies and beauties that exist within the Twi language.
“ … again this season! Acknowledgments Special thank you to LauraMunkres, the director of the Minerva program, and my family … ”
Abstract
Last fall, as a part of the Minerva Exploration Grant program, I was awarded access to the MasterClass platform to take Ron Finley's class in gardening. Like most people, during the beginning of the pandemic, I was eagerly searching for productive and gratifying ways to spend my time. Stuck at home for the spring and summer, I decided to start gardening. With the funds provided by the Minerva Exploration Grant, I enrolled in the online platform, MasterClass and took an introductory gardening class taught by Ron Finley, a Los-Angeles based fashion designer, and founder of the Ron Finley Project which teaches communities how to transform "food deserts" into "food sanctuaries." I learned the basics of how to cultivate food, determine soil health, and make effective compost.
Through the support of the Minerva Exploration Grant I participated in an online education course at Finger Lakes Community College in the spring of 2020. My goal was to learn educational techniques and strategies to apply to my work at COCOA house (Children of Our Communities Open to Achievement). I was especially interested in practical activities to promote reading comprehension, improving engagement with math lessons, and generating a more socially conscious curriculum. As a tutor and supplemental instructor, I also saw the value in broadly improving my teaching abilities. Union offers many opportunities for students to serve as peer mentors, tutors, and other forms of informal educators, but does not offer formal education classes. Through education classes at a local community college I hoped to gain useful skills that would enhance my own teaching abilities and would allow me to share this information with other volunteers and tutors on campus. During the course I learned about the history of educational practices and the transition to more student-centered learning. The course also covered the complex roles of race and gender in education and the ways in which the modern education system favors affluent and predominantly white communities. Finally, we discussed the goals of modern educators and the need for educators to have a growth mindset towards their students. This material provided a useful theoretical background to understand my own education and the experiences of others. Unfortunately, I did not learn specific strategies for improving my teaching abilities as I had hoped. My experiences suggest that, due to the emphasis on teaching history and theory, traditional introductory educational courses are not the best way to enhance the teaching abilities of Union students. Instead, for students who are educating others but not planning to pursue education as a career, informal teaching seminars and opportunities may be more effective. Offering courses or lessons on effective teaching strategies to tutors and peer educators may enhance the quality of education that Union students are able to provide to each other, and to the broader Schenectady community.
