Buenas yan håfa adai! Na’ån-hu si Shai ya hu e’eyak fumino’ Chamoru!

Greetings and hello! My name is Shai and I am learning to speak Chamoru! I am a diasporic Chamoru, born and raised in the continental United States within a large and loving Chamoru family. I was raised primarily by my maternal grandmother who was a native speaker of the language. Although I always wanted to learn Chamoru, she would not teach me. I also took it for granted that I might be able to convince her to teach me one day. When she passed away a few years ago, I thought I had forever lost my chance to learn.

However, this year I was given an unexpected gift and opportunity: community Chamoru lessons with Dr. Michael Lujan Bevacqua! He usually teaches these classes in a local coffee shop on Guåhan, but moved them online due to coronavirus. I’ve been taking these classes since April 2020 and am learning more Chamoru than I ever thought possible for myself. As time passes, I find myself falling more and more in love with lengguahi-ta, or our language. I am trying to learn as much as possible and to use the language every day in my life. I’ve decided to start this blog to help me organize my learning and all the resources I’m finding online.

The headline of this blog, Karerå-hu gi fino’ Chamoru means “My journey in the Chamoru language.” It’s a journey I started a few months ago and I intend to be on it for the rest of my life. I apologize ahead of time for all of the mistakes I’m likely to make – I have a long way to go in the language! But I’m excited to continue learning and using the language.