Nr. 43
EESTI ELU reedel, 30. oktoobril 2020 — Friday, October 30, 2020
13
Alberta news roundup As with other Estonian commu nities in Canada, the Alberta Estonian Heritage Society (AEHS) had to cancel some events because of the corona virus pandemic, including Jaanipäev. However, the AEHS did manage to organize three events before the virus shut down the country, and estab lished an ongoing fourth pro gram online. Independence Day AEHS vice-president Evelin Fodor and family hosted the Vabariigi Aastapäev / Indepen dence Day celebration at their home on Saturday February 22. Ample food and beverages were provided by guests pot-luck style, resulting, as usual, in a wonderfully tasty and varied buffet, including chocolate di rectly from Estonia. The AEHS board was happy to introduce recent Alberta arrivals whom they hope to see at future events along with all members, in this long-term unprecedented, un predictable coronavirus misad venture crippling our entire planet. Hitmen multi-cultural evening game The Hitmen, the major Calgary junior ice hockey team, celebrates multiculturalism by featuring local ethnic groups at one game annually. This March, just before the pandemic’s shut down, Colleen Renne-Grivell and Toomas Pääsuke walked onto the Hitmen arena ice carrying a large Estonian flag to applause by fellow countrymen grouped together in the stands. A proud moment for the two, and for Evelin Fodor who had the same honour last year.
Tark Eda McClung and Dave Ain Kiil, editors of the much ac claimed twice yearly magazine AjaKaja, retired at the end of Estonia’s centennial year in 2018. The AEHS has tried but has not been able to find new editors to carry on the excellent standard they set. Thus, this year, the AEHS published a new newsletter, Tark, having local and current flavour, edited by president Kelly Schuler. Future issues will continue to feature AEHS and other Estonia-related news on an ir regular b asis. Excerpts from the firstissue are included here. Estonian language program Nine students in Alberta just finished their third Estonian language course earlier this month. The first course began via Zoom in January, well be fore the coronavirus disrupted normal life. Plans were to have one in-person class per month among the 12 weekly online classes. Two were held in rented Calgary facilities with 16 students driving distances up to 300 km to participate. Everyone especially liked the Indepen dence Day themed gathering where all were able to socialize after the lesson, joined by several board members and families of the Alberta Estonian Heritage Society, under whose auspices the weekly classes have been taking place. Instruc tor Marii-Heleen Mõtsmees brought kama and freshly baked ‘must leib’ to help introduce the students to Estonian foods while relaxing and getting to know each other. The students are mostly descendants of Estonians who arrived in Al
Independence Day celebrants find a spot on or by the stairs.
berta as homesteading pioneers just over 100 years ago. Thanks to support from the Estonian Foundation of Canada, the students have been able to benefit from instruction by lan guage professional, Dr. LiinaLy Roos of the University of Wisconsin, in Madison, Wis con sin for Courses 2 and 3, which consisted of 8-week sessions each. Unfortunately, Dr. Roos’ new position at the university this fall prevents her from continuing as lead instruc tor with the next Alberta course, but she promises to return as an occasional guest teacher. Course4 will proceed with studies based on the textbook E Nagu Eesti, team-taught by Helgi Leesment of Victoria, BC (also program director), Dr. Rein Pääsuke of Spruce Grove (near Edmonton), AB and Marii-Heleen Mõtsmees of Cal
gary, thus spanning distances of over a thousand km, via Zoom. Lessons include brief online quizzes producing immediate results, visual material and short breakout sessions into small groups at different points during the 1.5 hour class, where each instructor coaches 2 to 4 students. There has been a steady participation by nine stu dents for the past two sessions, with survey results showing that all these nine are looking for ward to the fourth session/ course. The program started as an experiment in January, with much experience gained since then about online learning and teaching, much of it thanks to Dr. Roos. The Alberta Estonian Heritage Society subsidized the cost of the textbook for students in the first course and provides other ongoing support and en
Linguists want to keep separate mother tongue question in population census ERR, October 2020
Young members of the AEHS take over the living room.
Students, from left: Lukas Schuler Desnoyers, James Tipman, Kathleen Renne, Helen Davis-Herdman, instructor Marii-Heleen Mõtsmees holds the microphone to amplify student response for online instructor Helgi Leesment who is located in Victoria, BC.
The national population cen sus is the most reliable way to gather data on the mother tongue of Estonia’s inhabi tants, linguistics academics say. While previous population censuses have specifically polled respondents on their mother tongue, this is not planned for the next survey in 2021. In an appeal to the Minister of Population Riina Solman (Isamaa), the academics write that according to the current plan, there would be an entry in next year’s survey where all languages a person can speak, including their mother tongue, need to be noted. A special question which would reveal if the person considers themselves as having one mother tongue or two, however, is not planned. The letter notes that this question – largely pertaining to bilingual Estonian and Russian
speakers, but also to minority languages such as Seto and Võru – has been asked in every census since 1959. “Data, which is gathered through the surveys, allow us to see to what extent language changes in Estonia are happen ing, as speakers of smaller languages are changing their definition for the benefit of more widely-spoken languages. The data gathered during the population census is actually the only source which allows for identifying such shifts,” the appeal reads, according to ERR’s online Estonian news. In addition, the linguists said that based on this data, the Estonian language development plan for 2021–2035 can be evaluated. Adequate language information helps to assign the funding of language and educa tion politics areas, they claim. Signatories were head of the Institute of the Estonian Lan guage (Eesti Keele Instituut), Arvi Tavast, head of Language
couragement for the program, as has done the Estonian Foun dation of Canada. The group is proud that AEHS President Kelly Schuler and her teenage son and daughter are among the enthusiastic students. The cur rent nine students indicated their thanks for support by sending a two-minute “Thank you” video clip to the Foun dation in Toronto. Next Currently the Alberta Esto nian Heritage Society board has under consideration a few other projects which can be ex perienced via the internet, one of which may involve other Baltic area nation organizations. Also, the AEHS website is undergoing major reworking, directed by Kelly Schuler. HELGI LEESMENT (More photos at eestielu.ca)
Council (Keelenõukogu) Birute Klaas-Lang, Doctor Margit Langemets, Representative of the Association for Applied Linguistics (Rakenduslingvis tika ühing), Professor Helle Metslang of the Mother Tongue Society (Emakeele Selts), Professor Reili Argus of the Institute of Humanities at Tallinn University, Professor Karl Pajusalu of the Institute of Estonian and General Linguis tics at the University of Tartu and Rainer Kuuba from the Võru Institute.
September 1st marked the tra ditional first day of school for children entering into the first grade across Estonia. Photo: ERR
