1. What’s your story? How did you get exposed to this rare language?

I  was born at the Kaqchikel community and it is my first language. It is  spoken by around 500 000 (aprox.) members. The kaqchikel language can be  found mostly in the western central of Guatemala and it is part of the  Mayan community. However, there are people in the whole Guatemala that  speaks Kaqchikel . Besides that, there are people around the world  speaking Kaqchikel. They are few, but there are!

2. How would you describe the efforts being made, at the civil, social, and governmental languages, to preserve this language?

People  are more interested in learning mostly English or any other language.  Also, by speaking Kaqchikel one can get discriminated very easily  because other people think Kaqchikel it is not as important as a foreign  language or because it a native language. The government is doing very  little to maintain or expand the knowledge of Kaqchikel. They are doing  it because is part of the “Peace Agreement” to end the civil war that  took more than 35 years of war, but they are putting a little effort to  it.

3. How often do you get the chance to use this language in your daily life?

As  Guatemala’s official language is Spanish, in my daily life I speak  Kaqchikel and Spanish. As a matter of fact I speak Kaqchikel to my  parents, spouse, kids, friends and other people everyday.

4.  Are you satisfied with the response of students in your department and  your university to the available offerings in your language?

Although,  our own people not willing to learn Kaqchikel language, there are lot  of non-Kaqchikel people willing to, as part of their essay at the  university. I have seen Spanish speaking people learning Kaqchikel.  Myself have taught  Kaqchikel to an English speaker ( an US resident) a  few years back. So everyday more and more people are getting interested  to learn to speak Kaqchikel and that is very satisfying.

5. What is your message to young people who wish to learn this language?

I  would tell them that just the idea to learn another language it is very  satisfying not to mention the fact that it is an exciting and  interesting language, and most importantly, Kaqchikel is an exotic  language.