The “Joo’uya Waashajaaiwaa Wanüiki” method for acquiring Wayuunaiki as a second language—“Joo’uya Waashajaaiwaa Wanüiki—Let’s Speak Our Language” is a proposal for teaching Wayuunaiki thru a grammar-conversational method featuring images, audio, and everyday communicative situations that enable learners to learn by speaking, listening, and completing practical exercises. This initiative is unprecedented, as no similar proposals for teaching Wayuunaiki have been observed.
It consists of a three-volume collection that has been widely accepted in various academic and cultural settings in Colombia and around the world, and is also used in indigenous educational institutions in the municipalities of La Guajira in Colombia and Venezuela as textbooks for Wayuunaiki studies. Moreover, they serve as a well-known learning reference for various professionals and tourists who interact with Wayuu communities, in terms of developing the competencies required for language learning: reading, speaking, writing, and listening.
This proposal is a historic and unique milestone in the Wayuu community, as it is the first audio-based initiative to reach Wayuu children who do not speak their mother tongue, those who cannot write it, and many who are unfamiliar with its vocabulary, concepts, and other elements, while also reaching the entire local, national, and international population who wish to learn an indigenous language thru a method akin to English courses or to replicate this proposal in their own native languages.