The University of Chicago Center for Latin American Studies, in partnership with Vanderbilt University’s Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies, offers a summer intensive immersion language program in K’iche’ Maya on site in Nahualá, Guatemala. The program will next be offered from June 23-August 1, 2008.

K’iche’ is a Mayan language spoken by about one million people in the central highlands of Guatemala. The K’iche’ language has played a central role in the Mayan cultural revitalization movement and has a long literary tradition including such works as the Popol Wuuj (Popol Vuh) and Rabinal Achi. The Maya cultural revitalization movement and the subsequent rise in bilingual education in Guatemala have resulted in a number of interesting changes in both language structure and use, and has had important social and political implications for the cultures that speak the K’iche’ language.

Program Information

The goal of the program is to help students develop proficiency in modern spoken K’iche’. Students will spend mornings Mondays-Fridays with linguistics and anthropology faculty from the University of Chicago, Vanderbilt University, and University of Kentucky in a classroom setting in order to develop a strong foundation in K’iche’ grammar and vocabulary. During the afternoons, each student will work one-on-one with a native K’iche’ speaker in a conversation workshop. Each student will be placed with a local home-stay family during weeks 2-6 of the program, for a genuine immersion experience. Weekly cultural demonstrations, including wood-carving, backstrap weaving, foot-loom weaving, and metate fabrication, will compliment the formal instruction.

During the first week of the program the course will meet in Panajachel, where students will stay in a hotel and meet with faculty to prepare for living in Nahualá, including practice of basic K’iche’ phrases. At the start of week 2, the course will move to the town of Nahualá, where K’iche’ is the primary language used by the majority of residents. Nahualá has a laundry service, an ATM machine, a U.S.-trained physician, and several locations for using the internet.

The K’iche’ program uses newly developed teaching materials in addition to a revised version of the Stanley Wick and Remigio Cochojil-González textbook published at the University of Chicago in the 1960s. The University of Chicago houses one of the world’s finest collections of recorded K’iche’ materials, including recordings dating back to the 1920s, which form an important part of the curriculum. The course is appropriate for students with a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds, including anthropology, comparative religion, history, Latin American studies, linguistics, political science, and sociology.

Enrollment is limited to 12 students. Undergraduate students will be admitted only with consent of instructor. Students are encouraged to apply early. This is a field-based program — students should be flexible and prepared for conditions in rural Guatemala.

Travel and Arrangements

Students are responsible for their own airfare, and should plan to arrive in Panajachel on or before June 22.

Tuition/Fees and Credit

A $50 application fee is required (see below for details). This course meets all requirements for Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships; students are encouraged to apply to their home institution for summer FLAS Fellowship support. Tuition for students on FLAS Fellowship is $4,000 (students not planning to enroll with a FLAS Fellowship should contact Josh Beck, jpbeck@uchicago.edu or 773-702-8420, for tuition details). Eligible graduate students at other universities may apply to the University of Chicago and/or Vanderbilt University for summer FLAS Fellowship support, but priority for FLAS awards at both institutions will be given to University of Chicago and Vanderbilt students.

All students must pay a $1,150 program fee. The program fee covers local accommodations (including one meal/day with the home-stay family) and local travel.

Certain costs are not included in the program tuition or program fee, such as transportation to Guatemala and hotel accommodations in Antigua for the first night, course materials, laundry, snacks, souvenirs, etcetera. Students should plan accordingly and budget approximately $600-700 for international airfare, $50/night for a hotel room in Panajachel, $250 for course materials, and should budget for additional expenses.

All students will receive 3 credits from the University of Chicago for Beginning K’iche’ Maya 1, 2, and 3.

Full class attendance is required.

Application and Enrollment

Please download an application [PDF]. Completed applications should be sent to:

Josh Beck
Associate Director
Center for Latin American Studies
University of Chicago
5848 South University Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637

Applications are due by March 30, 2008 and must be accompanied by a non-refundable $50 application fee.

Additional Resources

Coming soon...