Belizean and Guatemalan soldiers join for language training

They used to avoid each other like sworn enemies … and when the two armies did meet it was often disastrous, like the time four B.D.F. soldiers were kidnapped by their Guatemalan counterparts in 2000. But these days–thanks to sharp prodding and generous financial inducement from the U.K. and O.A.S.–the military forces are looking more like partners than adversaries. Today I found them studying together in a classroom in the nation’s capital.

Janelle Chanona, Reporting
For the past three days, the George Price Centre in Belmopan has been a hodgepodge of English and Spanish as more than thirty military officials from Belize and Guatemala participate in a language exchange project.

Side by side with the eleven members of the Belize Defence Force are twenty-one high ranking officers of the Guatemalan army, navy, and air force.

Today, the participants maintained that learning a new language is important to the job.

Sgt. Guillermo Chi, Belize Defence Force
?On a daily basis, we have to use it on a daily basis because we encounter people in different areas where the language is very important.?

?For example, if we go to the southern part of the country, we will meet Ketchi Maya, some people are Garifuna in some areas, and it?s very important for us to have a knowledge of different language to be able to ask or give. We have to know how to ask in the language at the moment or anytime, that we encounter.?

Janelle Chanona
?Quiere practicar conmigo? En Ingles??

Lt. Col. Rudolfo Godoy, Guatemalan Infantry Officer
?I am trying okay.?

Janelle Chanona
?What have you learned so far? Que aprendo??

Lt. Col. Rudolfo Godoy
?I am learning about how you live, how do you do … a little bit your folklore culture, so I learning, I learning.?

Claudia Vasquez, Course Facilitator
?Really in the area of Spanish we don?t have a lot of difficulty because Belize has a lot of Spanish speakers, especially in the border communities. So for this course, it?s just to give more exposure to the language. For some people, it?s the pronunciation of the words and we are memorising a lot of vocabulary words. But in general it?s not been a hard task; it?s been easy to teach.?

According to administrators of the project, learning a new language is actually an extra benefit to the real reason for the initiative.

Javier Ayuso, Course Facilitator
?A better understanding of the other country, its people, its culture. We really are very alike, very similar in our values and in our lifestyles and so on. Guatemalans and Belizeans are not so different after all.?

?The workshop and the project revolve around interaction between both groups of participants. This is achieved in the classroom whereby we have them do joint activities, language learning activities, andwe also take them on outings. I know that after hours they go out a lot to enjoy the nightlife in both countries and it happens naturally really.?

Nacia Carillo, Coordinator, Language Exchange Project
?The essence of the project is to build relationships in terms of friendship, in terms of culture, understanding each other. And we are hoping that this a way that this dispute that we have been living with for almost a hundred years, you know, can be solved at some point down the line.?

The first courses of the language exchange project began in July 2003 with the support of the Belizean, Guatemalan and British governments. Since then, more than a thousand participants from graduated from the workshops with basic, intermediate or advanced skills in Spanish or English.

And these salt and pepper operations are not confined to the two country?s armed forces.

Nacia Carillo
?We?d had education, that would be teachers, university students, we?ve had health groups, we?ve had trade, immigration, fisheries, foreign affairs … we are trying to put together one with the legal, the media, customs, just to name a few. So the workshops can be fruitful and the public awareness would be much more effective.?

The participants in this month’s language exchange project will travel to Guatemala on Saturday for another week of instruction.