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  • Hawaiian language growing in popularity

    In what may be the "second" Hawaiian cultural Renaissance, mo'olelo o Hawai'i is listed as the only indigenous language that showed growth in usage in the US.

    I think it's really wonderful that kids in some Hawai'i schools are being given the opportunity to learn Hawaiian (makes more sense than teaching them French), and when I was on Maui last week, I noticed that all the signage at Kahului Airport is now bilingual (English/Hawaiian). It would be great if all public signs could be bilingual so everyone (Hawaiian speaking or not) at least learns some Hawaiian words. Imua!

    Miulang
    "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

  • #2
    Re: Hawaiian language growing in popularity

    That is great news. And you'd mentioned the bilingual sign movement before. I'd be for it on a voluntary basis - tell us you want to do it (as a business, agency, group, school, etc.) and we'll help you translate - but a whole-hog mandatory conversion including government signage would strike me as too much too soon. We should look into adding Hawaiian to new signs, though, as they're replaced, of course... just as we've done with street signs (adding the diacritical markings).

    But the growth of the use of Hawaiian is no surprise. I hear it in many places. The daily morning Hawaiian news report by Kekeha Solis on HPR/KIPO, and the Hawaiian music show on KTUH, for example. I hear kids using Hawaiian in the park, and that inspires my daughter to learn a word or two. It's not a language that'll get you that high-paying Wall Street job, but it's a beautiful language that should be preserved... and the people enrolling their kids or themselves in classes is testament to their agreement.

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    • #3
      Re: Hawaiian language growing in popularity

      One 'language' I lament we are slowly losing is pidgin, to the point phrases and words are now, since they are so rare and "dear", are becoming fodder for t shirt slogans and bumper stickers.

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      • #4
        Re: Hawaiian language growing in popularity

        No hilahila, Kimo. Us expats on da Mainland stay practicing pidgin loud and strong! It's the only thing that really ties expats together, because we all lead different lives in different cultures now up here.

        Too bad many locals in Hawai'i don't see pidgin as something that needs to be preserved, too. It's part of Hawaii's past and a testament to our immigrant grandparents and parents that they were able to speak a language that everyone could understand without having to learn a new language.

        Miulang
        "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

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        • #5
          Re: Hawaiian language growing in popularity

          Originally posted by Miulang

          Too bad many locals in Hawai'i don't see pidgin as something that needs to be preserved, too.

          it's not so much that as a preponderance of mainlanders filling our shores. The influx of foreigners diluting the language.

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          • #6
            Re: Hawaiian language growing in popularity

            Originally posted by kimo55
            it's not so much that as a preponderance of mainlanders filling our shores. The influx of foreigners diluting the language.
            So speak more pidgin around them, then! They will have to learn some of it in order to know what you're talking about (or maybe they want to remain clueless). You know, "when in Hawai'i, speak as the locals speak"? Rap Replinger had a great skit about a tourist trying to order a room service cheeseburger...I can imagine more Rap-like episodes even today, when a tourist tries to talk to a "local" local...

            Tourist: "May I please see that bracelet in the case?"
            Clerk: "Which one? Dis one (points to bracelet)?"
            Tourist: "No, the one in the back."
            Clerk: "Oh, you mean dis one behine dis one?"
            Tourist: "Yes, that one."
            Clerk: "OK, why you neva just tell me was da one way in da back?"

            Miulang
            Last edited by Miulang; March 14, 2005, 10:30 AM.
            "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

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