The bingo ball rolls. The caller at the front of the room deftly extracts a number. She hesitates and leafs through some papers.
"Under the O!"
The room is silent. Heads bow down in concentration. Some players juggle as many as six cards. They wait.
"Niizhwaasmidna ... shi ... ngodwaaswi!"
Nervous tittering and consultation ensues. Players do the math and seek confirmation from each other. Seventy and six. Was that 76? The players check their cards.
"Bingo!"
Relief shows on the caller's face. Helen Wassegijig, the teacher of this class of Ojibway language students, makes her way toward the winner with a basket of goodies. In addition to a prize, there is a price. The winner must take the caller's place and call out the next round, in Ojibway, of course.
Helen Wassegijig has been teaching the Ojibway language for many years. She has taught classes at Algonquin College, Carleton University and for the Ottawa Board of Education. Helen grew up on Manitoulin Island, near Sudbury, Ontario. In addition to teaching, she also does translation and has participated in the production of an Ojibway language video by Native Vision Productions.
I was privileged to be a part of her class for six weeks. We learned an Ojibway alphabet song which teaches the consonant and vowel sounds that make up the language. Our singing was accompanied by Helen's drum that she made herself.
We have learned that Ojibway speakers distinguish between animate and inanimate objects, or living and non-living things, which is a constant reminder of the spirituality of the Anishinabeg (Ojibway people).
The start of each class wass devoted to Ojibway chit-chat. For example: "Aaniish ezhibmaadziyan?" (How are you?) "Nmino bmaadis" (I am fine).
We were also provided with an Ojibway prayer for guidance and the Ojibway translation for "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star".
Helen is a practitioner of the "applied language method" and regularly brings in objects for language practice, such as play food and monopoly money. Classmates work in groups and devise methods of asking for and identifying the objects. One student thoughtfully brought in some homemade frybread. "Mbijiizgan". Another student proclaimed, "Mmmmmmmmbijiizgan"!
I wish that my English and French lessons had been this much fun. Miigwetch, Helen!
Beverley McKiver