Former bandmaster Aaron Mahi testified in favor of a bill which would require future bandmasters of the Royal Hawaiian Band be able to speak Hawaiian. I’d like to see it go further – all future members of the band should be required to speak the language or must commit to learning it. At the very least the ability to speak Hawaiian should be a “desirable qualification” for any potential future employee of the band.
Combining drama and the Irish language is the way to go.
This sounds like an outstanding initiative to get children excited about and using the Irish language, and something we should probably look at for Hawaiian.
Useless and worthless.
This article is filled with so many inaccuracies and generalizations it’s hard to pick a place to begin. First and foremost, the Hawaiian language is not extinct. It never was outlawed, however, its use as a medium of education was. The word “Hawai’i” does not mean “homeland.” The author informs us that he has “studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents” and has written two unpublished two books. Hopefully they are better researched than this article.
O’ahu median home price tops $500,000!
This figure is up over $100,000 from last year. How in the heck are our children supposed to be able to afford to live here anymore? Here’s a question for the financial gurus out there: How may people working at McJob salaries does it take to afford a half-million dollar mortgage? The Board of Realtor’s president called it a “robust start.” I could call it something else.
Governor Lingle’s State Of The State Address.
I’m most happy to see this line: “…I’ve included $20 million to build the long-promised Hawaiian Language Building at UH-Hilo.” Yes, it is long-promised and long-overdue. We’ll keep our fingers crossed that the legislature funds this request. Mahalo e ke kia‘āina!
Namu Pa’i ‘Ai.
Sarah Roberts’ weblog features “News and Linguistic Sketches on Hawai’i Creole English and Other Pidgins and Creoles.” One of the web examples she posts, though it is not her own, is curious: Lyk da ada dae… he wen stay making troubLe… so den she wen make hym go in tha breakout room… en den Lyk he was pLaying wif everything in there. I grew up in Kihei, Maui. I spoke SE (Standard English) in front of the parents, and HCE (Hawaiian Creole English, or “Pidgin” as it’s called here) with friends. I never heard th become f in Pidgin as…
Scott summarizes the past 15 years of my life.
I guess on a subconcious level I realized what all of this work meant, but never focused on it in this way. It’s simply been a matter of trying to keep the Hawaiian language contemporary and viable in today’s society. There have been times that I just want to let it go and focus just on the language, but every once in a while we hit a new high, like getting the OS X support for Hawaiian, and it recharges my battery. Hopefully we’ll get Microsoft on board as well and I’ll experience that all over again. I’ve registered the…
Survey finds wide support for Irish-speaking youth radio.
I’ve thought about this quite a lot myself. In our Hawaian language radio program, Alana I Kai Hikina, we only play music in the Hawaiian language. Most of this is perfomed in a traditional style. However, what if we had a show that played the music that appeals to today’s youth, but with the DJs conversing in Hawaiian? Hmmm. Something to think about.
I was truly saddened to learn of the passing of ‘Elama Kanahele.
She was a true gem of the language, a native speaker of Hawaiian, and treasured teacher. Her passing is deeply felt in the Hawaiian language community.
The state legislature is gearing up for the 2005 legislative session.
Senator Kalani English mentioned a bill that would strengthen the use of Hawaiian language in government documents. I helped him put together a bill that was introduced last year; unfortunately it went nowhere due to the very high-visibility legislation that had to be dealt with. I hope he can get some movement on it this year.