Reflection #4 Friday, June 29th, 2012

This week was definitely crazy. We had a lot to cover. First off, I need to say something: I’m not good at learning a new language. I don’t really believe that much people can easily change languages. I know that going to Kamehameha Schools entails that you must know some Hawaiian but to learn it in summer school is so much harder. Everything is being crammed down our throats and every day is a new test.  I should have known that it would have been this hard. Right now, as I type this, we’re having an ongoing test in Midkiff and waiting to be called. I try to study the best I can but really, there are some things that are going on. I do not that I have to explain exactly what is going on to the world but really, there are just some issues. I know that everyone has issues and that we all have to get over them but sometimes, it’s harder than others. I try my hardest and I try to get all the answers but I almost never do. My time here is just a flash and I can’t comprehend almost any of it. Some people in my class, talented, excellent, wonderful people, can figure out what is going on. The way that they do it is just so mindboggling and fantastic but alas, I cannot do the same thing. My brain isn’t hardwired to take in a new language but it is hardwired to take in science, mathematics, reading, and almost all Western concepts. Kumu always says the problem is in the English but I always found the solution in the English. But anyway, apart from my ranting, there were some pretty good things that we covered. First of all, this week was really just speaking oriented. The previous week, Kumu Kalani told us that we were going to have a change up from writing and worksheets to speaking, which seemed easier, and it was. Up until he decided to review the old sentence structures. I struggled to get the vocabulary and other things but the reality was that I just didn’t get it. I tried to deny it this entire time but really, I don’t get it. It doesn’t settle in with my brain. Then, came Wednesday. It was probably the worst day in the entire course. It all started with two worksheets that were assigned the previous day. I had gotten the help of my sister because she partially knows how to pronounce Hawaiian words and knows a bit on sentence structure. I had completed the worksheets as requested and the next day, we were reviewing them. There was something odd though because many of the people didn’t have an answer on their papers and some people even tried to make up the answer right then and there. I didn’t understand why so many people didn’t know the answer but Kumu was getting irritated. He finally stopped everyone speaking and told us to turn in our worksheets up to the front. I was the front so I could see everyone’s papers and every worksheet that came up were almost completely blank. Kumu took the papers with a disappointed and aggravated expression on his face. He then went on and didn’t talk to us for a good ten minutes when he finally got up and started to write something on the board. I didn’t really realize what it meant but he was asking us to write a full page of Hawaiian talking about ourselves and a person we know. May I please restate that it was supposed to be WRITTEN WITH A PENCIL/PEN ON PAPER IN HAWAIIAN. The first draft was horrible because we only just over an hour and that may sound like a lot of time but when you try to translate into Hawaiian, it sucks. I couldn’t even finish the first draft, only up to the middle. He also wrote on the board that we had to take another person’s paper and translate what they wrote and that if we don’t write a full page, we WILL get an F. First of all, the F part was really scary because I don’t need a note going home, telling my parents that I had not done the designated assignment and that we need to schedule a conference. I also don’t need something else to bring down my grade because I’m doing to best I can. He gave us this assignment because people didn’t even do the homework but I did. After we were done translating the other person’s paper and handed it back to them, we had to write our final draft. Before we could start writing it, he told us that if there is even but one mistake, we will receive and F. I can barely spell Hawaiian, let alone put it into a paper. I rewrote my paper, knowing I’m going to fail this assignment, and also had to put some new stuff into it, on the fly. It took me an hour to finish the first half and we had only twenty minutes to finish the paper. I was writing things that were almost completely irrelevant to what we were supposed to write. I was writing stuff like my sisters’ birthday, her boyfriend, completely random stuff. The time finally came and he said turn it in. I had written in the designated line and turned in my not-even-completed paper. That night, he had given us two more homework sheets and as sure as anything, we ALL did it. We are NEVER doing that again. The next day’s announcement was unexpected, laid back, and a bit enraging because he told us that the paper wasn’t for a grade and it was FOR HIS OWN AMUSEMENT. That means that we had done all of that for nothing whatsoever. How great is that? Now we’re here, typing out a 1,000-word reflection on this week and putting it on our blog. Thank you for reading.

Reflection #1 Tuesday, June 12th, 2012

Today, during class, we learned a lot of valuable things. We learned the symbolic
importance of the kapu because it shows that we must learn and depend on our kapuna and
our peers. If we don’t, our language will not last. It may not seem very important to some but
we all must face the fact that if we don’t maintain our heritage and our culture, it will be gone
in less than a century. We also learned our basic vowels and consonants so we at least the
know the roots of all the words we will use. I really liked how the kumu showed us the process
of making poi and how we’ll be quizzed tomorrow on the questions that were presented in
class and the process of making the poi. It should be fun. I think that we’ll have a great summer
school and our class we be great.

Reflection #2 Wednesday, June 13th, 2012

Today, during class, we learned many things that seemed childish but eventually
displayed a daunting challenge. My sisters tried to show me my different body parts in the
same song but I always messed up. The numbers are probably going to show that they will be
the hardest of them all. I never studied Hawaiian numbers when I was in elementary because
I went to a school where only English was known. I have the first ten down but I can’t really
seem to put the extra part of the word into the larger part making it a larger number. That
will probably mess me up for a while but I’m going to study because like kumu said, “Practice,
practice, practice.” And I agree. Practice does in fact make perfect but only if you practice the
right material. If you don’t, you’ll be perfecting the wrong way of doing things and that won’t
get you very far.

Reflection #3 Sunday, June 14th, 2012

This was the first week of our summer school course. I really did enjoy it but a lot of the
things that we covered were very foreign to me. Before I came, I never knew almost any
Hawaiian words. Before I even came to this school, I had known no Hawaiian whatsoever. But
by joining this class, I now know some things and yet to learn more. On the first day of class, I
was nervous, knowing that I would look like a fool for not knowing any words. But I soon
realized that a lot of people didn’t know so I felt a lot better. The beginning of class was
somewhat relaxing because Kumu was working on his computer for a while. Afterwards, we
went out and watched a very interesting demonstration of how to create poi. The process is to
take some water and wet the board for which the kalo will be pounded against. Then, you take
the pohaku and pound the kalo in an almost scraping fashion but eventually leading up to
interweaving between pounding and wetting the board and the poi in process. After the initial
poi is done, you then pound it into a yet a finer poi and finally, serve it onto a type of leaf which
was taken around sampled by students. It was a fun exercise and we learned the ranks in our
families which actually make a lot of sense. Once we got back inside the classroom, we then
began practicing our simple questions. I didn’t get it at first but I don’t think that anyone really
did unless they knew Hawaiian before-hand. The phrases were very simple in English but when
spoken in Hawaiian posed a real challenge. The next day, we began testing. I had practiced the
day before for at least an hour. I had the test in the bag and Kumu said I had an ‘elima out
of ‘elima. Speaking of numbers, that same day, we had started to learn numbers. Many people
in the class knew ‘ekahi to ‘umi besides me. The elementary school I went to had no connection
to Hawaiian language or culture at all. When we tried to count to twenty, I was pretty much
mumbling the whole time. I had no idea what we were saying. When we had gone around the
class counting to 100, Kumu told us we had a test from zero to 100. But Kumu was generous
and didn’t give us the test the following day. The next two days sort of intertwined with each
other because we simply did almost the same thing but on Friday, we had a new assignment
that seems somewhat easy but also hard. Kumu had given us five more questions to answer
and they will be added to the list which we’ll be quizzed on Monday. I have to study, especially
the last question because it is long. Well, that was my week. I hope that everyone had a great
week as well.