That's an excellent effort, Geraldine. And your natural look is beaming with the classical features, beauty, pride and contentment. That pride is something I've found when having responded with even a few phrases to speakers, as they get so happy and are more often not judgemental as they're usually the older folks. Same thing I find with the French elderly; they're more willingly to speak English than to get annoyed when the Onkwehon:we don't speak French. Funny thing is, I can write it & pronounce it, I just need to put more effort into speaking it more. And that's one of the challenges we face back here. There are those who can speak it, but can't write it. Then there are those who can fully understand it, but can't speak it. Then there are also those young people who are fluent speakers, but are not so willing to speak it in public. Then there are those who seem to think all the responsibility falls on the children in the immersion program, when the children are overwhelmed with English media and materials. There are also those who believe French is more important than our language. And the list goes on. But the bottom line is there are folks like you who take the initiative and just do it. A Kanienkeha'ka & Oneida friend of mine did it a few years ago too, and there was a good response to them too. I wanted to translate English jokes into the Kanienke'ha language, but that didn't work out for the most part, as the thinking isn't the same. There are no nasty words in Kanienke'ha, except desert, wherein I've asked how to say 'hell' and was told "onéhson" that might be the closest since it means the place where there's no water. Interesting that the Objibway have words for 'king,' 'queen' & 'princess.' I wonder what they translate to. I asked a co-worker a few months ago a few corrections for French words/phrases and after a while, he told me in order to understand French, you have to think like a French person. I couldn't help but think to myself: 'here we go..soo different from the English way of thinking when both societies come from monarchies.' I guess the reason why I thought that right away was becuz my dad (who is a fluent speaker) told me long ago that our way of thinking and being was very different than the white man's way. It was only a few years ago, when I read Ernest Benedict's words in "Forgotten Founders" that I realized that. Only now - all kinds of dictionaries and language programs are out there from foreign languages to English. English, French, Spanish..Interesting too is that if you can speak french, then it's much easier to learn Spanish and Italian. Then again, English IS the lingua franca/main language of the business world..and the Spanish queen WAS told that, that language was the key for empire, but I'm rambling again, teehee. Senhniseriiósten tanon wa'tkonweraton Geraldine tsi satenienten ashatati saowenna. (Have a good day & congratulations Geraldine that you try to speak your language).