 Who and what I am, for me it makes me a whole person because I was raised with Metshif language. I was born hearing it, I spoke it all my life and it makes me a whole person. It doesn't seem like any part of me is missing so when I use my language, when I use it every day, I pray in it, I do all kinds of things with my language, it makes me feel holistic I am who I am. It's my identity, you know that's what it is. I can see speak in another language but for me Metshif is like I said before it's who I am other than that I can take up another language but it won't be me, it won't be part of my culture, it won't be part of my values, my beliefs because I was taught when you know since I was a baby everything and anything that I did we were taught in Metshif so that's who and what I am it's my identity, it's part of my culture, it's part of my values, it's part of my beliefs, it makes me a whole person. I've been teaching language for about 30 years now, I speak my language with anybody that I know speaks Metshif and I teach it in the schools, I teach it to my son, I start to teach it to all anybody that would listen, I do it in the community, I do it, I've been doing it for a lot of years already, I speak to my spouse, my sister-in-law, my brothers, my sisters, how we all speak it, the last two of my sisters they understand it but they can't speak it like too much, there's no few words better than that but they can understand so I talk to them in Metshif so in hopes that it would they'll pick it up you know I've talked to my nieces, my grandkids, anybody that would listen to me, I speak it to them. Preferably I like speaking to someone that I meet who has as much knowledge in Metshif as I am because you can converse, have whole conversations, talk about anything and everything but it doesn't matter who you meet that knows how as long as you have you know even a short conversation is beautiful anybody that can speak that it is anybody. I even met a little gentleman just out there at the lunch hour and I didn't realize he didn't know how to speak Metshif but he came out, he had a biggest smile on his face so I asked him, Tanjikia, and then Takia set off a memory for him I guess so we started chatting so anybody and everybody. There's Vivian Smith, George Pellchee, my spouse Harvey, myself, there's a few others that know a little bit like some professors at university that I taught, other people in the community, everybody, anywhere and everywhere, shopping, playing schools, it's starting to come to the schools in Brandon, I've taught it at the high school level for four years, three years, fourth year I taught it at kindergarten, grade one, that's where I am right now is I go daily and I go teach Metshif, the little guys, because it's a language that's becoming extinct, it's a language that's slowly not going to be here anymore, people my age were the last ones and there's not that many out there anymore, in the last 15 years I used to have a data of speakers, you could call on these speakers anytime if there was a conference or if you wanted to do something community where you needed someone to come, you know just to have a conversation or go for coffee or tea and in the last 15 years I've had a database and the last five years about 75% are not here anymore, so it's very very crucial that we teach others to anybody and anybody like I said who wants to learn, who's interested because there's a keen people want to learn, they're very eager to learn because it's part of your identity, if we lost it it'll be part of us that's not here because every nation has a language and if we don't have Metshif here well part of us will be gone, part of our identity, part of our culture will not be there because language, values, teachings, they're all in one stories, they're all in one right, so a little bit of us will not be there, so it's crucial that we teach it because it's slowly becoming extinct that part of who and what we are, part of our identity, part of our teachings, part of our stories, part of our history would not be there, if I didn't know my language part of me would be missing you know we always have that little part that's not there because every nation has language you know we have Metshif, other people have Soto, Ojibwe, Dene, they have the Dene language they have that's who then what they are that's their culture that's their identity that's where their history their culture everything comes from it's the same with us so if it was not there then a part of us won't be there anymore so that's why it's very very very important very crucial that we try to preserve it we try to keep it for future generations you know so that we know who we are for them to learn Metshif would be kind of like having it as a family thing because not only one but you know the thing is not just changing subject here if you if you have a child who is learning Metshif where does that child take that you know sure they're learning a new language but where do they take it who did they communicate with you know you need someone to be able to communicate with in order to keep that language alive if you don't there's no sense in learning it because you have nowhere to take it you have no one to converse with you have no one to you know to to use the language with so it's very important that for me to learn it as a family or even right now I teach it at preschool daycare and grade one but now I'm also targeting the parents because there's no sense for that little one to learn that language and not be able to use it anywhere because when I was growing like when I was small we did everything my mom wasn't able to speak any language other than Metshif and French of course in Crete but we at home learned at that setting we learned every day activities through our language which which was Metshif we didn't learn it in English we didn't learn it in Crete we didn't learn it in any other language but that so all our daily activities were you know and and Metshif that's how we learned and kept our language I didn't know how to how to speak English until I went to school I knew my work my numbers up to 10 my sisters they made sure they taught me and then my my alphabets up to F but interesting enough when they did that you know they had these little books called the Kin Jane at that time they read them to me so many times that I was able to memorize those books when I went to kindergarten you know so I had at least had that advantage or they didn't they didn't even know how to ask to go at that time we didn't have indoor toilets like now you know we had to run outside and they didn't even know how to do that you know so I was taught that how to put up your hand in his bathroom go out but they didn't have that so can you imagine coming into a classroom where English is that preferred language and you couldn't speak your language at all and you didn't know how to ask it's almost like now it's the same concept like somebody does no much of and trying to learn that much of and the best way to do that is doing daily activities you know cooking and shopping and you know eating and all those I don't think that's going to ever happen but at the same time I think it would be good because you're able to it's more like a family thing like you're able to speak to anybody and everybody without having to switch from English to Mitchef or Cree to Mitchef or whatever right like every nation has their own language so I'm not saying everybody should learn Mitchef but at the same time our people should so that we can at least communicate at one time the elders they spoke five or six languages you know so whenever they met someone that was that spoke Mitchef they switched to Mitchef I remember my dad doing that and my parents doing that Cree they switched over the Cree you know they kind of knew another language was it's kind of like Mitchef French we call it but it's more French in it than the Cree so whenever they met my auntie or family from that family they would switch over to that language so can you imagine the world what all our people learned Mitchef you know and then if we met someone from a different tribe or different nation speak converse with them in their language and for them to understand us because everybody we need to understand each other you know