Preparing for Dine Bizaad

This is my attempt to be more accountable in my journey to learn my traditional language Navajo (or more accurately, Dine Bizaad). While learning my traditional language has always been on my "to-do list" for life, I have only had inconsistent spurts of learning the language. Now, I am trying to build back up to the last time I learned the language at my highest level and go beyond that point. Not only do I want to do this, I need to.

My other reason why I am doing this is to also study for a test that could possibly secure me college credit for my school's language requirement. Navajo is not offered there, so this is my attempt to instead learn my language. I will need to take a test to demonstrate my familiarity with it. While I have no issue with learning the languages currently offered there, in fact I was for a while learning Japanese, my main issue is that learning the language has become more important to me but to Navajo society overall.

As a young person in my 20's I can still remember those days when I sat in my high school Navajo language class thinking that it was good to be in the class. But taking it didn't mean I was serious about learning it. Since then I have had many experiences, one of the most meaningful being a visit to Zapatista territory in Chiapas, Mexico, where I witnessed other indigenous peoples' resistance to globalization. One of their tactics was keeping their traditional language intact and a priority before learning the dominant Spanish language. I was very moved by this and realized that I needed to view my language like this. I initially thought that in order to do anything to help my people I would need to go to college, get a job, etc but I also realized, in addition to those expectations, is that I need to also educate myself on my culture. I need to learn the different ways to communicate and acknowledge the fact that I am a Navajo person. Hence learning the language has become important to me.

So that is a part of my reasoning, I could write more but...I don't think I could accurately describe why learning the language has become so important to me....Nonetheless, I plan to and want to. My main strategy is to use books, a rosetta stone program, and my relatives to learn this language. I will periodically update on my progress and talk about other interesting topics that may come up as I learn more. So, I hope I can provide some insight on the topic and possibly inspire others to learn their languages as well. Wish me luck and good luck to you if you are learning any languages now too! :)

P.S. After writing all that...I know I'm not the best writer, so if you have any suggestions or corrections please let me know.