This week was the most brutal of the week I had before. After
all the work I had added up and kumu told us that the amount of knowledge we
know no and the quiz we are going to have on Friday. It is a whole quarters
worth. At first I was like no kumu you must be crazy, this has to be a joke, it
can’t be true. The hard reality was all of it he said was very true. The day we
came back we had a quiz. It’s not like a didn’t study or anything (which I didn’t)
but I got an F. Of course I didn’t look on the bored cause it would have said
what we were supposed to study. Then I tried studying the other days but it didn’t
help. Finally I got to get average grades on my quizzes and it started to get
easier, but the olelo Hawaii was not as easy. It felt like we learned I knew
pepeke or something to do with a pepeke every day. It started off with the
simple one right next to pepeke aike he. Which was pepeke aike o which was the
next thing to a pepeke aike he. Instead of being a regular statement pepeke
aike o was to describe what the noun was. Like instead of saying you are the
teacher. Pepeke aike o steps up the sentence. By creating you are the Hawaiian
language teacher, or that is a green pen. It didn’t make sense at first like everything
else that was introduced to me. Again practice, practice, practice but this one
was hard and I still have trouble doing this pepeke. Then during this week we
learned a chant or oli how u say it in Hawaiian. Kumu told us the reason to oli
wasn’t only for entering and exiting but it is also for historic purposes. You can
oli when you are at the pali. Some of us forgot what the pali was about. The pali
was the last war before Kamehameha the great joined all the islands. So now
every day before we enter class and after the 20 minute break we have to oli. Our
oli is called kunihi. He put this on the test as well just so we can remember
it and says it louder than the other Hawaiian language classes. We have the
words down but still need some help on projecting our voice. P.I.N.K is very
important for the pepeke structure which is both two new things we learned this
week. I know and this is only half of the information we still have some more
pepeke sentences. P.I.N.K is an acronym for papani, ioa, nonoa, and kikino. Papani
like you know is a pronoun. There are eleven papani which is au `oe `o ia. These
are the singular pronouns which is I, you and, he or she. Kumu tells us there are
problems always in the English and he is right. After two weeks I get more and
more confused when I let go of my English mind little by little. Anyways and
ioa is a proper name. There are two types i`oa paku and maoli. Maoli is a
person’s name while paku is a place name. Not chuck e chesses or leonards but
an actual region name. For example Las Vegas or pali. Nonoa is for possession and
there are six of them. We call them the fab six. These six words are ko`u,
ka`u, kou, kau, kona, and kana. The first two ko`u and ka`u is for mine or my. You
use ko`u for your name, parents, grandparents, basically you generation and up,
and anything you can get on top or in to. Ka`u is for possession basically
everything else except for any word that starts with hoa. That is where u put
ko’u. Your kids generation and down is not ko`u it’s ka`u. Last but not least
is the kikino which is a common noun. We call it P.I.N.K for short. Wait there
is still more. If I didn’t know this class would be so brutal I might have just
stayed home. The pepeke structure is based on a he`e or octopus. This is the
basic for any pepeke sentence it has a po`o (head) piko (body) and awe (leg). The
pepeke structure is based on an octopus cause of how many legs an octopus so
can a pepeke sentence. There has to be an `ami to every awe cause that is what
makes it connect to the piko. The po`o is what contains the description,
action, or verb. While the piko anything P.I.N.K can go into it and the awe is
the add-on to what it describes the sentence. There are one more pepeke we
reviewed for the very long test. It was pepeke `a`ano. This is a descriptive
sentence. An example is he is a smart student. This is the pepeke I had no
trouble at all. Only for the sentence structure I was completely fine with
this. Also on the test we also had to ho`ole the pepeke we wrote. Ho`ole is to
make the sentence a negative. To do that was what we call the golden rule. The golden
rule means in order for the sentence to be a negative. We have to take any
papani that stands alone and put by `a`ole which means no in Hawaiian. Other than
some more counting that was our entire week with the quiz. After the quiz which
took the whole half the day we went outside to make tea leaf leis, learn yet
another pepeke. Which is a locational pepeke and we had to work in the tiny lo`i
patch. Kumu was sorry for giving us all this work. It felt to me that I was
getting pounded by waves and waves of olelo Hawaii. Again I didn’t know the
next week will be sooooo much worse.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Reflection week 1
This morning in summer school kumu took us down to konia
field to see how poi was made by pounding. He tested us on what poi was called
in olelo hawaii then asked us if we wanted. I flew by the test but denied with
manners, when the activity was done he asked why he did it so early in school.
It took some time but at the end we found out it was for the connection from
teacher to student.Then when we got back
to class and immediately received bad
news. Well news i'm sure no one wanted to hear but we were getting quizzed on
five questions. It turned out to be pretty easy questions. Although in order to
remember the questions and responses so it is stuck in our brains we had to test
our class mates. When the clock was winding down and down to pau ke kula kumu
Kalani took us down to Midkiff learning center. We were given a scavenger hunt
and the meaning of the scavenger hunt was to look at the manual for infractions
and dress code regulations. When we were done me and my classmates all thought
"wow if the first day was like this I wonder how the whole summer school
would be like" little did i know it would get better and better when we
totally block out our "English" mind. The next day in the beginning
of class we moved the desks out and put the mats down to read about the first
born Haloa. Haloa was born from papa and wakea. He is the first born. The olelo
hawaii was hard but manageable. Then like yesterday we all as a class helped
each other study for the quiz outside. After our longest break that lasted 20
minutes we all got singled outside one on one with kumu. I didn't struggle at
all with the quiz it was pretty easy when u listen for key words. Anyways after
that kumu Kalani taught us a song that made us learn zero through ten, and
again for those words to soak in our heads kumu played activities to make us
remember. Personally when I first learned the numbers I got stuck from seven
and eight, but when we had our final break I studied a little plus a couple
more sessions in counting and I could manage. Later when class was about to be
pau or finished. He put us in groups and my group was to find the meaning of
pepeke aike he. It was easy this is a general statement that states something
is a, are a, or am a. Thursday was all review for the test we had Friday. Kumu
paired us up with partners yet again to go over everything. Yesterday we learned
how to count from 1 to 100. When we were reviewing for the test or ho’ike we
went over everything from the five questions we got quizzed, pronouns or papani,
four rules for olelo Hawai,counting, and the keao rule for the word the. It was
another day filled with information but again I could handle. Even though I was
struggling I still could float. Friday was the day of the test tension rose. When
the kumu gave me the test paper I was super nervous. Even though later on the
test was pretty easy. Studying really made the Hawaiian click and it all made
sense. During my study session I had a lot of “aha” moment where something just
clicked in my head and it all made sense. Kumu was right when you let go of
your English mind everything is so much easier. Later we had a surprise where
we played jeopardy. Of course our class won because we are the bomb. That was
an intense but yet very fun weekend I couldn’t wait for the next.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Reflections 'elua (2)
In the beginning of class we moved the desks out and put the mats down to read about the first born Haloa. Haloa was born from papa and wakea.He is the first born. The olelo hawaii was hard but manageable. Then like yesterday we all as a class helped each other study for the quiz outside. After our longest break that lasted 20 minutes we all got singled outside one on one with kumu. I didn't struggle at all with the quiz it was pretty easy when u listen for key words. Anyways after that kumu Kalani taught us a song that made us learn zero through ten, and again for those words to soak in our heads kumu played activities to make us remember. Personally when I first learned the numbers I got stuck from seven and eight, but when we had our final break I studied a little plus a couple more sessions in counting and I could manage. Later when class was about to be pau or finished. He put us in groups and my group was to find the meaning of pepeke aike he. It was easy this is a general statement that states something is a, are a, or am a.
Reflections 1
This morning in summer school kumu took us down to konia field to see how poi was made by pounding. He tested us on what poi was called in olelo hawaii then asked us if we wanted. I flew bye the test but denied with manners, when the activity was done he asked why he did it so early in school. It took some time but at the end we found out it was for the connection from teacher to student.Then when we got back to class and immediately received bad news. Well news i'm sure no one wanted to hear but we were getting quizzed on five questions. It turned out to be pretty easy questions. Although in order to remember the questions and responses so it is stuck in our brains we had to test our class mates. When the clock was winding down and down to pau ke kula kumu Kalani took us down to Midkiff learning center. We were given a scavenger hunt and the meaning of the scavenger hunt was to look at the manual for infractions and dress code regulations. When we were done me and my classmates all thought "wow if the first day was like this I wonder how the whole summer school would be like" little did i know it would get better and better when we totally block out our "English" mind.
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