Yo’onik Learning Center: Our mother tongue.

The importance of the mother tongue

It is important to speak and maintain the mother tongue, because it is an inheritance from our ancestors. The mother tongue is the only thing that is learned within the family, and it is the means by which the people themselves communicate.

In the case of Yo'onik, we encourage the learning of Tsotsil through the teaching of reading and writing. There the children not only learn to speak their mother tongue, but also to never forget that Tsotsil belongs to them and identifies them.

Yo'onik has trained teachers and teaching methods that make it easy for students to learn to read and write. For example, when students read and enjoy Tsotsil stories, they also ask questions in their own language.

The truth is that I have learned stories that the children themselves share. Sometimes I have not even had the opportunity to know those stories myself. So teaching is really fun, because you also learn from your own students things you didn't know about your past and your language.