The
Classroom Package: Curriculum
Connection
Fun
With Words
Part
3 of the poem contains three foreign words (in
italics): chicha, minga and barco. Have students posit definitions
based on the context, then tell them the actual meanings: chicha (Quichua)
- a widely used fermented drink made with cassava (cassava is also known
as manioc or yuca and is the stuff that tapioca is made of), sometimes
taken as a meal and always served at festivals; minga (Quichua) -
a community work event where all community members work together to complete
a job; barco (Spanish) - a hopscotch-like game where children also have
to kick the stone from box to box.
The words minga and chicha are so widely used in Ecuador
that Spanish and English speakers who live there have incorporated them
into their vocabularies. Thus, mingas occur throughout Ecuador and
not just among Native Americans of the rain forest. Note that, in the poem,
the word mingas is anglicized in the plural (added -s). In Quichua,
the plural is mingacuna. To make a word plural in Quichua, -cuna is
generally added. For fun, have students make the following words plural
in English and Quichua:
chuspi - fly; huarmi - woman; muyu - seed/fruit; atallpa
- chicken; huahua - child; runa - man;
didu - toe; panga - leaf; apu - boss; amarun - boa; huagra - cow; churu
- snail; quihua - grass; llacta - country huasi - house; punja - day;
casha - thorn; challua - fish; chaqui - foot; puma - jaguar; mishi
- cat.
BACK
TO INDEX
Please choose another
page below.
Amazon
Rain Forest |
The
Galapagos Islands |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
© 2007 OneWorld Classrooms - All rights
reserved.
