As you may know, I am a huge lover of the Hawaiian Hula dance. Puni au i ka hula. I am a native Virginian with some Austronesian ancestry, but am a child of Taiwanese Americans. I know, not very exotic. If you’re disappointed, imagine how I feel. All my life, people have guessed a million ethnicities. Doesn’t matter that I am of Taiwanese origin, I’m all American. Sigh.

Growing up in a multi-cultural family in a multi-cultural neighborhood, the common language was and still is English. Sure I picked up a few Cambodian, Vietnamese, Spanish words here and there, but nothing conversational. Everyone knew English. I’m not the type of person who’s ashamed of where my people come from. I just wish I came from my people.

That’s why I love Duolingo. They are not sponsoring me at all. I find the app so easy and fun. It’s like a game which keeps me coming back every day. I not only have Hawaiian as one of the languages to learn, I also have Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic, French, Japanese, and Greek. Mind you, I can only do a little at a time, but I’m making a lot of progress via Hawaiian.

This is not the answer to language learning, but it will give me the confidence to try conversing or not feeling completely lost when I try out another learning method. I think most people will like the format. Here’s a link for more info on Duolingo so you can see for yourselves.

Check out my progress in the videos below. Now, hopefully, I don’t have to scour the internet every time I hear a new Hawaiian song I want to dance to for the translation if it’s sung in Hawaiian. I will probably still need to do that for a while, but I’m hoping I will have more of a basic understanding by the time I finish my course. Greetings in HawaiianIntro to Hawaiian Language

If you’re not a linguist but still love cultures, check out my Hawaiian Wedding Song Dance Tutorial on Udemy.