A New Year, A New Class

Our abundant December snowfall, coupled with the holiday season, kept our hula class from meeting for several weeks. We'll gather again on January 8. Hugs all around, I'm sure.

Once the snow melted on the last weekend of December, our 'ukulele class was reunited, also with hugs all around. After being confined to our homes by huge snowdrifts, it was fantastic to see some fellow humans (other than the ones we live with). We met again last Sunday and even had a little spiked eggnog to go with the strumming.

This week another class began for me, the continuation of the Hawaiian language class I'm taking as distance learning adult education from Kamehameha Schools in Honolulu. This is my second course; my first was in November. There was actually an introductory class before that, which I missed. But from the Hawaiian I learned in two one-week intensive classes from a teacher visiting from Honolulu, Tuti Kanahele, I was able to keep up.

I really enjoy the online language class and all the multimedia aspects of it. There are lots of background articles, photos, videos, songs, as well as interactive quizzes and games to make learning Hawaiian even more fun. On top of all that, Kamehameha Schools rewards people for finishing their classes with lovely gifts! From my efforts in November I received a green A'o Makua (adult education) T-shirt, which I wear to the gym; a children's book about the life of Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the Hawaiian princess who was the founder of Kamehameha Schools; and my favorite gift, a Hawaiian Word-A-Day calendar. Today being Iänuali 6 (January 6), the word of the day is 'alani, which means orange (the fruit and the color).

Can't wait to see what my reward for finishing this month's class will be!

'Olelo Hawai'i (Hawaiian Language)

Here is the Fun Fact I shared with my hula class last week:

This year is the 30th anniversary of the year Hawaiian was made an official language of the state of Hawaii. But in 1978, when the Hawaiian Legislature made that law, it was still illegal to teach in the Hawaiian tongue in public and private schools.

That English-only law had been on the books since 1896, a souvenir of the influence of the missionaries. Indigenous children were disciplined in school if they slipped and used their native tongue. As a result, even though Hawaiian was made an official language in 1978, less than 1 percent of the population could speak it.

The law was finally repealed in 1986, thanks to the founding three years earlier of 'Aha Punana Leo (Language Nest), a Hawaiian immersion preschool. The preschool concept spread rapidly from Kaua'i to other islands. The thirst of the Hawaiians to hear their language again caused lawmakers to reconsider the restrictive law.

Now Hawaiian immersion schools are common and the University of Hawaii has college- and graduate-level Hawaiian-only academic programs. Hawaiian-language songs are so popular that the Grammy Awards now have a special category for them. And the Language Nest preschool model is widely used by Native American tribes in an effort to revive their native languages that were in danger of becoming extinct.

My Fun Fact provoked a spirited discussion among my hula sisters. Those who had lived in Hawai'i could only nod sadly at the recollection that the original language of the islands was once forbidden by strict Christian missionaries from New England and their descendants. One Oregon woman was outraged and did not understand how speaking a language could be made illegal. A Hawaiian woman said to her, "Let me put it to you this way: it has taken this long for the United States to elect a black president." The outraged woman was not taking racism against the brown-skinned Hawaiians into account. Older Native Americans who were forced to attend boarding schools and adopt the English language and American clothes and customs would understand how the Hawaiian language and culture almost died out.

Hula halaus all over the world are doing their part to keep 'olelo Hawai'i alive by learning the dances, songs and chants of this beautiful language.

Aloha, Oregon, that is . . .

I've been a student of hula for almost two years at the Bally's gym in Aloha, Oregon, a suburb of Portland. I am not Hawaiian, rather, I am pretty much German, except for a wee bit of Scottish and Irish. I trace my initial interest in hula back to my honeymoon, when he and I visited the Polynesian Cultural Center on O'ahu. I do remember being quite taken with the Tahitian dancing -- hips revving from zero to 60 on the very first drum beat -- more than the relatively sedate hula.

But when I first observed the hula class in Aloha, I remember thinking that the dancing was more athletic than I'd remembered from watching the sedately swaying ladies in Hawai'i. Now that I'm a member of the class, I can attest to that fact. It's a workout. I refer to our weekly class as Hula Boot Camp.

Last year I took a week-long Hawaiian language class when a teacher came from O'ahu to teach members of our halau (hula group). About a year ago I joined a 'ukulele class that began at our halau. I'm still hula'ing, playing the 'uke, and speaking Hawaiian as best I can. Lately I've been sharing with my class some of the fascinating things I've learned about Hawaiian culture.