Don’t lose our language!

Hafa Adai! I read the Saipan Tribune everyday and I want to say great job! I don’t know if the Tribune has ever had a letter to the editor written by a teenager but I would love to be the first!

At 2:30am my plane left Guam for our sister island of Saipan and at 3am, we landed, I didn’t know what to expect. As a teenager growing up in Guam, I’ve always wondered what our sister islands up north were like. In September 2008, I had the opportunity to travel to Saipan for the first time to attend the 3rd Annual Chamorro Conference. In Guam, hardly any Chamorro children born in the past couple of decades know how to speak or understand Chamorro. I was fortunate enough that my mother and father realized the importance of learning my language, therefore I can speak it quite well.

During my stay on Saipan, I was at a grocery store in Garapan when I heard an elderly Chamorro woman speaking to her grandchild in Chamorro and I have to say, that made my day. Put fabot, don’t lose your language and don’t make the same mistakes Guam has made. My mother and father are doing their best here in Guam to help preserve the language and culture. My mother, Lynn Taitano Iriarte, owns and operates a Chamorro language daycare while my father has a Chamorro chant group. I think that opening a Chamorro language daycare on Saipan would do the community well in helping retain the language there.

On another note, I commend all residents of Saipan, Tinian and Rota who have stayed and are doing their best to make the CNMI a better place to live in. I read the Saipan Tribune and a couple of local blogs such as Marianas Pride (Ed Propst), Must Be the Humidity, and Tinian Times and watch KSPN online daily. Therefore, I am aware of all the problems the CNMI has. As we move into the new year, I am urging all lawmakers in the Commonwealth to put all petty problems aside and help your people! I fear the worst for the Commonwealth if the current trend of events continue, but I am hopeful that the new year will bring more prosperous times for the CNMI.

The Commonwealth is a beautiful, beautiful place despite its problems. I urge all residents of the NMI to work together to make the islands a better place for all! In the future, I hope to open up a business on Saipan that the island currently does not have so I can do my part to help my sisters and brothers. And finally, si yu’us ma’ase to the people of Saipan for being so kind and giving me a memorable trip I’ll remember for my entire life.