LANGUAGE
1. We have what we call the oral
language program to provide
English instruction
to the Navajo in order to teach them
English as rapidly
as we can. We teach
English to the Indians, hoping
they will learn
the language well enough
to help their parents
be understood. The program
was designed first
to help the Indians
understand a bit
of newspaper or what
they hear on the radio, to have
a little more of a pleasant
life. But then the program shifted
towards making them
employable. But these people
are not dumb. They're
smart enough to know
they're never going to get
a job like you and I
have got. So why
are they now learning English
except to insist
their children become
better educated than they are?
Sometimes I feel our programs
fail because when we
wrote up the guidelines
we built failure into them.
2. As there are no Diné
words for
radon progenies, radio
activity
Alpha and beta
particles
we are constructing
a new Navajo
glossary
of radiation words