Jellek Kowani-Histie Degadeir Quamp.

I'm learning how to speak Cherokee.

Learning Cherokee is humbling.

Recently one of our Cherokee speakers told me that I speak as well as her granddaughter

speaks English.

Her granddaughter is five years old.

That might sound like an insult, but I totally took it as a compliment.

What she meant is, she gets suggestive what I'm saying, even if it's not correct.

But today I'm not an Oklahoma learning Cherokee.

I'm in the studio in LA working on this podcast.

If I was back home, I would be spending most of my time talking with fluent speakers

and the other second language learners like me.

We'd be conjugating verbs, cooking wish, making up stories.

We tease each other and try and get an ajat diei, which is basically the Cherokee equivalent

of, that's what she said.

The time I get to spend learning my language is irreplaceable.

But after just a couple weeks away, it's scary how rusty I feel already.

There are a few Cherokee phrases that I want to use in this podcast.

So I called John Ross, who you might remember from the last episode.

John is a citizen of Cherokee Nation and works in our tribe's translation department.

I often visit with him in Cherokee.

On this call, John patiently listens and corrects me.

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