Written by Dyami Millarson

Eilauners, which means island language, is the language of the island of Schiermonnikoog (please find it on a map online so you know exactly where it is located on this earth). The language has only 20-30 active speakers left according to Eric Augusteijn from the cultural heritage organisation ‘t Heer en Feer whom I spoke on the phone. These are chiefly elderly speakers. Since I heard about the dire language situation of Eilaunders which is threatened with immediate extinction, I promised to Mr. Augusteijn that I would make haste to learn Eilaunders.

I believe that learning new skills successively is an effective learning strategy. So after the success of learning Aasters in one month, I decided on my birthday to immediately start a new language challenge: learning Eilaunders in 55 days. I observed that I was quite exhausted after learning Aasters in 1 month and that is why I decided to put somewhat less pressure on myself for the next language challenge by making it 52 days instead of 1 month. The new language challenge, which started on my birthday of 19 May, will last until 10 July.

I have the following 12 materials for my current language challenge: (a) all 5 titles (poetry) by Pita Grilk, (b) a biblical translation of Mathew, (c) 2 reading books (a mix of prose and poetry) for students, (d) 3 coursebooks, (e) one concise grammar of Eilaunders.