Kåntan Chamoru: Nånan-måmi

On By Schyuler LujanIn Chamorro SongsLeave a comment

In early August, Jay and I traveled to O’ahu to celebrate my Aunty Lupe’s 90th birthday with family. My prima Torrey—Aunty Lupe’s granddaughter—wanted to honor her with a Chamorro song for this incredible milestone. She chose “Nånan-måmi,” a beloved tribute to Chamorro mothers and matriarchs. The day before the party we practiced together, and the next day we performed it as a sing-along.

Afterward, Aunty Lupe told us how special it was—no one had ever done anything like that for her before. Even my Aunty Faye, who used to teach Chamorro at UH Mānoa, hugged me and said how wonderful it was that we sang this song (she said it was even better than Happy Birthday!).

If you’re looking for a meaningful song to celebrate a mother or matriarch in your life, this is a wonderful choice. It’s well-known, beginner-friendly, and with a little pronunciation practice, even beginners can sing it beautifully. (My prima isn’t yet conversational in Chamorro, but she did an amazing job with the phrases and sounds!)

As always, you’ll find the Chamorro lyrics, language notes and an English translation for the song “Nånan-måmi”. Happy listening!

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Tired of Feeling Stuck? 5 Tips to Escape the Chamorro Language Learning Rut

On By Schyuler LujanIn Study TipsLeave a comment

Ever feel like you’ve hit a wall in your Chamorro learning journey? Maybe you’ve been in and out of classes for years, but still find yourself saying little more than Maolek ha’ in conversation. Or perhaps you’re struggling to follow native speakers, and the syntax or vocabulary just isn’t sticking. It’s frustrating, especially when months or even years of studying haven’t gotten you to the level you aspire to. But don’t worry – every Chamorro language learner has moments of feeling stuck, and there are ways to break through it and re-invigorate our learning process. In this post, I am going to give 5 tips for getting out of a language learning rut.

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Throw Net for Rabbitfish

On By Schyuler LujanIn Chamorro StoriesLeave a comment

This week’s story will turn back to the topics of food and where it comes from, specifically a particular fish that’s well loved by Chamorros. In this short piece, we’ll be reading about a slice of life from a family of four as they prepare at home and venture out together to catch mañåhak, the young rabbitfish. These tiny fish travel in large schools, usually presenting a great prize for the individuals and communities that pour their efforts into catching them. In this post we have the Chamorro text, an English translation, and a Chamorro audio narration by Jay Che’le. Happy reading!

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Kåntan Chamoru: Some Beach

On By Schyuler LujanIn Chamorro SongsLeave a comment

This past Saturday I got to pick the song we transcribed during Praktikan Pupuengi, so I chose this cover of an English song by the same name. I actually prefer this version in Chamorro to the original English song because I think the wordplay is more fun. There was definitely a lot of laughter with this one during our praktika, so I hope you enjoy it too. In this post you’ll find the Chamorro lyrics and an English translation for “Some Beach” by Daniel De Leon Guerrero. Happy listening!

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Plants of Guam, Part 2

On By jay.cheleIn Chamorro StoriesLeave a comment

For this week’s Saturday morning practice group, we will continue reading through the plant book that we’ve used the past two weeks. This book was found in the KPV Collection and has a number of short, interesting comments on flowering plants. But as a reminder, if you want even more about plants found on the Mariana Islands, you can check out the book Trees and Shrubs of the Mariana Islands, available from UOG Press.

In this post we have the Chamorro text, an English translation, and a Chamorro audio narration by Jay Che’le for the last five plants found in the book Tinanom Siha Giya Guam by Carmen C. Blas. Happy reading!

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