Year: 2026

Churisus Påkpak by Chilang Delgado – Chamorro Lyrics and English Translation

On By Schyuler LujanIn Chamorro SongsLeave a comment

Two Saturdays ago our evening practice group listened to and transcribed Churisus Påkpak by Chilang Delgado. On the surface, the song appears to be about churisus påkpak, a sausage that is common in Chamorro kitchens and gets its name from the fact that it bursts open when cooked (hence the word påkpak which means “explode” or “pop”). But this is a song full of innuendo, and the churisus påkpak is just imagery to represent something else. It wasn’t until we reached the final lyric that it suddenly clicked for the group what the song is actually talking about. (Jay only had us listen to the audio, as the music video makes the underlying meaning obvious).

This post includes the music video, Chamorro lyrics, an English translation, language notes and a cultural context note for the song Churisus Påkpak by Chilang Delgado. Happy listening!

Continue reading “Churisus Påkpak by Chilang Delgado – Chamorro Lyrics and English Translation” →

How to Say “How” in Chamorro

On By Schyuler LujanIn Chamorro Lessons: Beginner1 Comment

This lesson is part of the Beginner Chamorro learning path.

In this lesson, we’ll explore different ways to ask how something is done in Chamorro. These are the kinds of questions we use when we’re curious about a process — whether we’re asking How was the soup made? or How does one fish? Chamorro uses the word taimanu (“how”) in several patterns, and we’ll learn some of the most common ones that are easy for beginners to apply. We’ll start with questions about actions done to something, like making rope or building a shelter. Then we’ll shift to questions about activities, such as swimming, dancing, or running on the sand. Each pattern builds on the last, helping you expand the core patterns step-by-step.

As always, this lesson includes example sentences, English translations, and audio narrations by Jay Che’le to guide your learning. Happy studying!

Continue reading “How to Say “How” in Chamorro” →

Nihi Fan Che’lu by Walter Manglona – Chamorro Lyrics and English Translation

On By Schyuler LujanIn Chamorro SongsLeave a comment

I was recently reminded of this song when Jay and I were walking into the city a few days ago. We often like to have a good walking song, which manifests in either improvising Chamorro lyrics to random tunes (Jay is great at this and I am terrible, haha) or just singing our favorite Chamorro songs. Last week we sang this song, which is fun for walking because it’s sung in a call-and-response style, framing a conversation between two friends trying to decide what to do next. Admittedly, one of the friends in this song seems like a pain, but that’s also what makes the song so fun. Our Saturday evening group actually transcribed this one back in 2024, so it has been sitting deep in our Chamorro music backlog. I’m glad I finally got around to posting it 🙂

So here are the Chamorro lyrics, an English translation (with plenty of notes!) and the audio recording for the song Nihi Fan Che’lu by Walter Manglona. Happy listening!

Continue reading “Nihi Fan Che’lu by Walter Manglona – Chamorro Lyrics and English Translation” →

HITA i Lengguahi-ta! A Chamorro Language Workshop

On By Schyuler LujanIn WorkshopsLeave a comment

This morning, Jay and I facilitated a language workshop for this year’s Mes CHamoru celebration with MÅGI (Marianas Alliance for Growth of Islanders) here in Oregon. It was such an honor to be part of the event and to offer this workshop to our local community. We were excited — and honestly a little nervous — since it was our first time teaching a workshop like this. But it went well, and we’re excited for more opportunities to offer language classes and workshops.

We designed this workshop as a “foundation builder” for beginners, starting with pronunciation, sounds, and word shape. From there, we jumped right into a simple fill‑in‑the‑blank introduction before moving into vocabulary and basic sentence building.

The sentence building portion centered around one core pattern: “_______ yu’.” Using that as our anchor, we slowly expanded into different thoughts by introducing new vocabulary and the small connecting words needed for everyday dialogue. Activities alternated between learning new words, language pattern exercises and applying concepts in simple dialogues. By the end, we had moved from short sentences like Maguf yu’ to fuller thoughts like Ti ñalang yu’ sa’ chumochu yu’ pån yan magof yu’. One of the participants even read and translated that final sentence — and she did wonderfully. Jay and I left the celebration with our hearts full, and we will probably write a more full reflection of the workshop in a different post.

For anyone who would like to access our presentation slides and accompanying booklet, they are linked below:

Link to Workshop Presentation:

HITA i Lengguahi-ta! A Chamorro Language Workshop

Link to Printable Booklet:

Booklet – HITA i Lengguahita (FINAL)Download

Un dångkulu na si Yu’us Ma’åsi to everyone who attended our workshop – we so appreciate your time and your graciousness with us. And dångkulu na kulu to everyone at MÅGI (and particularly Bertina!) who made this celebration happen.

How to Say “How Many?” and “How Much?” in Chamorro

On By Schyuler LujanIn Chamorro Lessons: Beginner2 Comments

This lesson is part of the Beginner Chamorro learning path.

Questions with kuantu are a useful way to ask about quantities in Chamorro, such as How many books did you borrow? How much money did you spend? In this lesson, we’ll learn a core sentence pattern using kuantu (“how much” or “how many”) and practice expanding it to ask about past, present, and future actions. We’ll also look at how kuantu is used in questions about time, and how those questions can be extended to talk about past events. By the end of the lesson, you’ll have several flexible patterns you can use to ask simple but meaningful questions in everyday conversation. As always, this post includes example sentences, Chamorro audio by Jay Che’le and English translations to support your learning. Happy studying!

Continue reading “How to Say “How Many?” and “How Much?” in Chamorro” →