We skipped our meet-up the night of September 9th because Rob was camping, Diana was sick, and I was feeling “full,” but we were back in full swing on September 16th.

It was a beautiful night out, so I decided I wanted us to get started on a TQ: the walk so that next time, we can start creating sentences around the various buildings that we introduced. We tried to avoid killing any fairies by not translating the parts that come before the –w’kamik suffix, although some were easier than others to guess at. I think there will be some great TQ: how fascinating! moments when everybody figures out what okimâhkân’kamik comprises, but those moments aren’t nearly as good if you’re given the English translation!

We did start out with a TQ: no-pressure refresher of the nouns we’ve been learning so far, as well as a miyweyihta/nitaweyihta round:

No-pressure Refresher (sample)

kîkwâyôma?

amômey ôma.

kimiyweyihten cî amômey?

eha, nimiyweyihten amômey.

kinitaweyihten cî amômey?

namôya, namôya ninitaweyihten amômey.

After we started feeling comfortable in the language again, we headed out for our walk around downtown Edmonton. I had to bring my iPad with my ASL dictionary app (which runs without wifi!) because I couldn’t remember all the signs!

The Building Walk, Part I

kîkwâyôma?

kapesiw’kamik ôma.

kîkwâyôma?

ayamihew’kamik ôma.

kîkwâyôma?

sônîyâw’kamik ôma.

kîkwâyôma?

minihkwew’kamik ôma.

kîkwâyôma?

mîcisow’kamik ôma.

kîkwâyôma?

ayamihcikew’kamik ôma.

kîkwâyôma?

okimâhkân’kamik ôma.

kîkwâyôma?

atoskew’kamik ôma.

Once we got back to my place, we did plus/deltas and found that we were all feeling pretty positive about the lesson, although our two newest learners got really full at our second-last stop. This was likely because I introduced two buildings from the same spot on the corner of Churchill Square: the 3 Bananas mîcisow’kamik and the ôkimâhkân’kamik. Next time, I think we should go up to the pool in front of the ôkimâhkân’kamik to introduce it.