Aaron Gets Gordon's Truck Started

In the "isn't non-Indo-European morphology great" vein, look at the parallel between the words for university in Chinese and Hawai'ian...both are literally "big school". Huh! What are the odds?

Hawai'ian: kulanui
the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa: ke Kulanui o Hawai'i ma Mānoa

First, a few "freebie" straight TPR words from the beginning of the class session:

'ahinahina = gray (and didn't I get a gray rental car the next day!?)
'ele'ele = black
ke'oke'o = white

emi = cheap (came up in the context of the story and easily pantomimed. Plus, if you think of the Emmy awards, it's easy to remember that emi means cheap, as daytime television is nothing else!)
and an actual cognate/borrowing from English: pia = beer (pronounce it the Boston way and you'll see!)

And then the Fab Four for the day:

holoholo = to cruise around, drive around, go someplace in a car or truck
ho'omaka = to start
kalaka = truck
hiki i / hiki iā = can, is able to (use "iā" with proper names or pronouns, "i" elsewhere)

Makemake 'o Gordon e holuholu i ka Sand Island. Makemake 'o Gordon e ho'omaka i ke kalaka. 'Ahinahina ke kelaka. Emi ke kalaka. I'ini 'o Gordon ke kalaka. I'ini 'o Gordon ke holoholo i ke kalaka. Akā aia ka pilikia! Nui ka pilikia! A'ole hiki iā 'o Gordon ho'omaka i ke kalaka. A'ole hau'ole 'o Gordon. A'ole hiki iā 'o Gordon ke holoholo i ka Sand Island.

Hele aku 'o Gordon iā Aaron. Hiki iā 'o Aaron ke ho'omaka i ke kalaka 'ahinahina. Hau'ole 'o Gordon!

Ōlelo 'o Gordon iā Aaron, "Makemake 'ou e holoholo i ka Sand Island?"

"'Ae. Anu ka pia i ka 7-11 ma ka Sand Island."

Akā a'ole makemake 'o Gordon holoholo i ka 7-11 no ka pia. I'ini 'o Gordon i ka pia emi. Pipi'i nā pia i ka 7-11. A'ole emi! Makemake 'o Gordon e hele aku no pia i ka Foodland, no ka mea [because] emi ka pia i ka Foodland.

Holoholo 'o Gordon a me 'o Aaron i ka Sand Island. 'Ao'aokai lāua i ka wai. A'ohe nā manō. Hau'ole lāua.

Akā aia ka pilikia. A'ole hiki i kalaka 'ahinahina e ho'omaka! Akā a'ole māka'u 'o Gordon.

Hiki iā 'o Aaron ke ho'omaka i ke kalaka. Maka'i loa! Hiki iā 'o Aaron ho'omaka i ke kalaka 'ahinahina o Gordon. "Mahalo nui loa, e Aaron!"

Ōlelo 'o Gordon, "Hiki nō. Hiki nō. Holoholo kāua no pia pipi'i ma ka 7-11." A'ole i'ini 'o Gordon i ka pia pipi'i, akā no ka mea hiki iā 'o Gordon e ho'omaka i ke kalaka, hau'ole 'o Gordon.

Hau'ole lua 'o Aaron.

Ricky Swims with the Shark

Okay, we did some straight TPR this session to learn these words:

polū = blue
melemele = yellow
'oma'oma'o = green
ho'okahi = one (not for counting though)
'elua = two
'ekolu = three

Then, the "real" TPRS words for the day:
i'ini = like
'au'aukai = swim
manō = shark
māka'u = fear, scared of

The story:

Makemake 'o Ricky e 'au'aukai. I'ini 'o Ricky e 'au'aukai. I'ini 'o Ricky e 'au'aukai ma ka Shark's Cove. Hele aku 'o Ricky ma ka Shark's Cove. Makemake 'o Ricky e 'au'aukai ma ka Shark's Cover, akā aia ka pilikia. Aia ka manō ma ka Shark's Cove!

Polū a me nui ka manō ma ka Shark's Cove. Pōloli ka manō. Māka'u 'o Ricky! A'ole i'ini 'o Ricky nā manō pōloli. A'ole i'ini 'o Ricky e 'au'aukai a me ka manō pōloli a me nui.

Ōlelo 'o Ricky, "A'ole makemake 'au e 'au'aukai ma ka Shark's Cove. Māka'u loa au."

Hele aku 'o Ricky ma Waikīkī. A'ohe ka manō nui a me polū ma Waikīkī. Aia ho'okahi manō ma ka Waikīkī, akā a'ohe polū a me nui ka manō. Meleme ka manō ma ka Waikīkī. Li'ili'i a me a'ole pōloli ka manō ma Waikīkī. 'Au'aukai 'o Ricky ma Waikīkī. A'ole maka'u 'o Ricky. 'Au'aukai 'o Ricky a me ka manō li'ili'i ma Waikīkī.

Joe Wants Beer

New Words:
makemake = want/s
hele aku = go/es
aia = there is
a'ole = not

Makemake 'o Joe ka Budweiser.
Makemake 'o Joe ka Budweiser nui [big; indicated during the story, not taught]
A'ole makemake 'o Joe ka Budweiser li'ili'i [small].
Makemake 'o Joe e hele aku i ka "Mānoa Mart".
Akā a'ole ai ka Budweiser nui i ka "Mānoa Mart".

Hele aku 'o Joe ma 7-11.
Aia ka Budweiser nui i ka 7-11.
Hau'ole [happy] 'o Joe.

Aloha ka kou!

I am lucky enough to have found a wonderful Hawai'ian language teacher, Chivas, to tutor me in the Hawai'ian language over the next four weeks or so, as I am resident in Honolulu teaching at the University of Hawaii's summer interpreting institute. She's so creative and so patient with my strange requests about *exactly* how I want to be taught (TPRS, of course!)

So for anyone out there who has a strange desire to learn Hawai'ian language in a most unorthodox way, here are the (wildly repetitive) Hawai'ian stories we are spinning in my linguistic adventures. Don't know how far we'll get over the next couple of weeks, but we'll see.

Each post is a story, usually beginning with the four new vocabulary words for the day. I knew a few words of Hawai'ian before I started (the usual things like "aloha" and "mahalo" for "thank you", that you hear all over the islands) and also I can pick up quite a few "extra" words in the course of the story, since it's easy for us to indicate things like "big" or "small" without expressly teaching the word.

For more information on the TPRS method of language teaching, you can join the "moreTPRS" list at yahoogroups, where you will find over 1,000 teachers using this wonderful method of language acquisition.