Learning Inupiaq can be a lifelong process. For 22-year-old Vernon Charles Elavgak, teaching it has been a lifelong dream - and it that just came true.
Elavgak started working as an Inupiaq teacher at the Ipalook Elementary School in Utqiagvik this month, and even on his first day of work, the majority of his students already knew him. Born and raised in Utqiagvik, Elavgak is known in the community by his nickname Punky Boy, and he has been already teaching local children what he knows about the language. Now he gets to do it in a classroom setting.
"Finished my first day in the elementary school as an Inupaq teacher," Elavgak wrote in a Facebook post that day. "I'm feeling every bit of it right now, not to mention the smiling faces who were happy Punky Boy was there. I had to tell them, 'I'm ilisaurri Tukak when I'm here.'"
Elavgak started learning the language when he was small. Growing up in an Eskimo dancing family, he was listening to his relatives talking and singing in Inupiaq.
"The moment I came into this world I was dancing and singing, sitting with the drummers," he said. "I think one of the biggest things about learning the language is that it really connects you to the land: the moment you walk up here in the North Slope, you get the sense of the language, and then you walk out into the world out here up in the north, and you get that sense of why we are who we are."
Learning the language is also a way for Elavgak to feel connected to the community. When he was back at school, immersing himself in language studies, he felt warm approval from the people he knew.
"Everywhere I went people were happy with what I was doing," he said. "They encouraged me; they made me feel really awesome for it, and for me to want to teach these kids, I want them to feel the same."
Original source can be found here.
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