Winter Greetings E-letter to members of the Okinawa Club (Oregon area)
21 December 2007
Haisai Gusuyo -- chuu uganabira?
(Warm Greetings, how are you doing?)
Happy Winter Solstice!! The sun will be less and less shy in the days to come.
So, is everyone staying warm? I hope so; it's been pretty frosty out there lately. This just makes a great excuse for us to snuggle with the ones we love -- family, significant others, furry creatures....
I want to thank all those who came to the last gathering and brought such great food and company. It really was wonderful to hear your stories and talk with you about any and everything Okinawan!
Birthdays!
Before I start my ramble, I would like to make a request -- do members care to send along their birth dates to me for birthday wishes in the future? For example, mine is shichi-gatsu jyuuhachi-nichi: 18 July. It would be so fabulous to include happy birthday wishes to the members of our islander family.
Blog Space Coming Soon!
I also want to mention that although I've been doing some pro bono computer and IT work lately, I believe I do have some time to put up a temporary blog space devoted to the Okinawan community in the Oregon areas. Please contribute your histories, your words, your talents, and your love so we can share these easily with everyone who has internet access! (perhaps we can also print a version for enjoyment by people who don't have computers or internet)
Our next Potluck gathering
I'm writing to remind everyone that we will have a shinnenkai (New Year's) gathering coming up in January. The time and location will be announced very soon, but it will most likely be one of our famous potluck gatherings held in a very central area.
This is the opportunity to voice any preference for the shinnenkai to happen in February - definitely possible, and besides, in the old days Okinawans liked to mark celebrations by the lunar calendar, so the option of February would be just great too.
Do you have a favorite location you'd like to see us use for the gathering? Don't hesitate to let me know and if the location can work for the gathering I'll take care of all the booking arrangements.
Do you have a talent, skill, or knowledge that you would like to share with us? Please do! I'm preparing something for a future gathering that has to do with making kankara sanshin, which might be fun, but please send your ideas to me so I can arrange for that instead!!
(As we heard at the last gathering, we have a lot of musical talent in the club. =) smile!)
Do you have friends or family visiting soon? Go ahead and invite 'em if they're here for the time of the gathering! This is a gathering of the Uminchu (ocean people) community in Portland -- that definitely includes a warm mensoore welcome to those people who are important to us and who care about us.
Do you wish to be part of the ad-hoc steering committee in the Club? If so, please email me; I will be keeping track of this for now, and we'll make arrangements to meet. I'm also meeting with others who do not have email, so please send any names and phone numbers if you know of others who do not have email or internet access. Do not worry if you are traveling or on holiday vacation right now -- we will be accomodating the schedules to best include everyone who is interested -- chibariyo! Just let me worry about that, y'all।
Other Stuff!
Now, for some tasty okashi...(or mikan and beni imo always made me think of Okinawan winters too!) I wanted to send along some links and information about uchinaaguchi.
Uchinaaguchi is rapidly disappearing from the modern world; less people are speaking the language, or learning and passing it down to their children. The debate continues as to whether this is a hougen, or dialect of Japanese; it's been pointed out that this is probably more of a political rather than academic debate. I bring you these thoughts because I recently came across a couple of resources that I thought might be of some interest to the members OKC.
The first is the link to the entry about Ryukyuan languages (in english) on Wikipedia. There's no accuracy notation on this entry, so the integrity of the article is not being debated:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
The second is a link to a recent Japan Focus article about the waning presence of uchinaaguchi, co-authored by an incredible man I met in Okinawa when I last visited in 2001. He and I sat and talked over awamori for hours about language, and being a mixed Okinawan (they used to call us haafu, but nowadays the least offensive word is amerajian).
He also was the first to mention to me that women and men used to conjugate uchinaaguchi differently.
"Wanne Uchinanchu – I am Okinawan." Japan, the US and Okinawa's Endangered Languages
http://www.japanfocus.org
Fija Bairon (he was also billed as "Higa Bairon" or "Hija Bairon") now teaches uchinaaguchi via an OkinawaBBtv podcast show called "Pirin Paran! Katayabira!", and here's a link to a page where the show's descriptions are in English:
http://www.okinawabbtv.com
The podcast lesson links from the English page may not work, however, so if you're interested in watching the uchinaaguchi lessons please use these links below. The lessons ARE in Okinawan, with Japanese subtitles; Bairon's co-host, Muromizato Sugiko, speaks to him in Japanese. Might anyone be interested in helping put together a transcript in English language for English speakers in the club? (me, I get the "gist" of the lesson and can understand but don't trust a transcript of *everything* they're talking about)
Lesson One:
http://blog.okinawabbtv.com
Lesson Two:
http://blog.okinawabbtv.com
Lesson Three:
http://blog.okinawabbtv.com
Lesson Four:
http://blog.okinawabbtv.com
Here's a clip from Byron's bio:
"Although having a Western appearance, Byron Fija has a deep Okinawan soul। He speaks only Uchinaaguchi, the Okinawan Language, in the radio programs, as he feels distressed that less and less young people speak the Okinawan Language today. Uchinaanchu ! or Okinawans॥ Never forget your own cultural language!"
So, perhaps this can open the dialogue among us about not only language, but the unique challenges faced by children who are mixed. Our "Western Appearance" can sometimes hide who we are but it can't erase our Okinawan souls.
Of course, I enjoy everything that we talk story on. Until we sit and eat together again, have a happy and safe holiday season, and a great start to the year of 2008! Year of the Rat coming up!!
My love to you all,
Anna Kakazu Preble
grasshopper@riseup.net
503/313.5212
