Hi all!
I’m a Japanese teacher and absolutely love teaching about the Ryukyu Kingdom. I recently started learning ウチナーグチ and have been having an absolute blast with it.
The problem is, none of my friends can speak it, and finding speakers on Tandem and HelloTalk hasn’t really gone anywhere. I’m based in Kansas with plans to extensively travel Okinawa next year, so I really would like to learn as much as I can before then.
Are there any ウチナーグチ speakers on here? Or does anybody have any suggestions on how to meet some? Thanks! 🙂
2 comments
I’m probably not telling you something you don’t know, but there are very few people who speak it but do not speak standard Japanese, and there are relatively few speakers under 50 in general, which is probably a reason you’re having trouble.
Note too that Tandem and HelloTalk are websites targeting English speakers learning other languages. This will dramatically limit your possibility of finding smaller-language speakers who live in a country whose primary language is not English.
For Uchinaaguchi, you’re probably better off searching the Japanese-language web for resources. For instance:
* [https://www.google.com/search?q=ウチナーグチしゃべりましょう](https://www.google.com/search?q=%E3%82%A6%E3%83%81%E3%83%8A%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B0%E3%83%81%E3%81%97%E3%82%83%E3%81%B9%E3%82%8A%E3%81%BE%E3%81%97%E3%82%87%E3%81%86)
* [https://www.google.com/search?q=ウチナーグチオンライン体験](https://www.google.com/search?q=%E3%82%A6%E3%83%81%E3%83%8A%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B0%E3%83%81%E3%82%AA%E3%83%B3%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%83%B3%E4%BD%93%E9%A8%93)
Good luck!