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.
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