 My name is Victoria Mikus and I come from Dulig, First Nation. I'm a Kobi, I work for, my title is Oral Language Lead and I work with all the kindergarten teachers in the communities that I co-serve. I travel a lot for work. Mostly I work with kindergarten, so they're ages four and five, most of the kindergarten are four and five. And I just started the job actually in August, so prior to that I had been a teacher for like 28 years or so, so I've always been involved in education. And recently I've been getting into First Native Language, so that's what I'm passionate about, learning the language. I'm also still learning. I can read and write in syllabics. I still practice. There's a thing, when we first started it, we went to our elders to ask for their opinions and what we should do, because as a solo co-district we're trying to standardize the writing, like let all the districts use one chart as in syllabics. And then we went back to the elders and asked them if it's possible that we could switch, you know, use one whole for all the communities, but the elders said no. They wanted to stick with what they know and they wanted us teachers to teach the students our writing style. Our writing style, where I'm from, is different than any other reserves. And then the elders decided to stick with how we write. And we did. We write the way they wanted us to. And now in my community, my home community, we still have the full immersion program running today. It's just only in kindergarten. And then grade one, it doesn't... They have native language teachers for primary and intermediate level, up to grade nine. They have native language every day. It depends on the times, but they do continue. In kindergarten, I'm only speaking in kindergarten, we talk and we label stuff so they'll know. And, you know, so they talk more in the language. They really not learning how to write at that time. They just like oral language is what we are like. And that's how it should be, even any language. Oral language should be taught more in kindergarten. Because it's based on if you have a good oral language skills, you'll have a good literacy skill thing. It leads to... Usually it's funny because parents come to us and say they learn more from their kids because young parents, they don't speak the language and then their kids teach the words to them. I would think that they should... They used to plan it the way it was before prior when I started teaching. The vision in the full immersion program was that they would start in kindergarten, the full immersion in kindergarten, JK and SK, and then they go up. But it didn't continue the way they did. The board left and they changed board members and such, so they stopped. So what they were planning was from what I understood was the full immersion would be in kindergarten and then 50% in grade one and so on. And then I think it stopped like 20% in grade eight. And it goes, you know, it will increase and they add another program. I mean the language in each grade, but that didn't happen. So that's what I would like to see, like to come back. And I mean, you know, to follow through that so our kids can learn the language. I think even just the skills, you know, they need to learn how to live the way we did before. We, our parents and grandparents and great-grandparents did. It's different how they do it now. The tools you get, you know, modern tools. And when I taught, I taught native language for a number of years and during that time I had a cultural program. And I took, it doesn't, I took all the way kindergarten to grade ninths. For every Friday I wrote it. So I did skills that they could do. So like we did checking the net or bail net, setting it out and all that. And building a shelter. We didn't use any tools that, you know, modern tools or whatever. And I always make sure that I had an elder teaching them. I didn't teach them, but I helped the elder. So they should learn, yes. Not just the language, the way they lived. We need to teach them everything, you know. Not just portions of it, like portions. You know, that's how we are. We teach right now. Like, well, I used to teach, not anymore. But, you know, just, we do the language and then we do the skills later. You know, we have to do everything together. I mean, all of it, you know. Especially in the communities. On the first nation, I'm really learning too awesome. It takes me a while. Like when I pronounce, when I talk in my language, it takes me a long time to say something and sometimes I say it wrong. Yeah. But I try. I use my language more and more. Well, I guess the older I get, the more I just get it. I'm learning too fast. I'm learning too fast. I'm learning too fast. I'm learning too fast. All I said was, like, learn your language and listen to your parents and grandmas and, I mean, grandparents and great-grandparents.