I commend state Rep. Diamond Garcia for introducing House Bill 157 (“Bill proposes making Native Hawaiian language a required course,” Star-Advertiser, Feb. 6).
This bill is long overdue. I hope our elected officials in both houses can put aside the long-held views that there is no use for the Hawaiian language.
Kau‘i Sang, director of the state Department of Education’s Office of Hawaiian Education, believes the demand for Hawaiian language speakers should be discussed among the community. I believe it has been. We finally hear and see it being used more correctly in media, radio, TV and print. Thanks to our community, the city is finally correcting signage on our streets.
More importantly to me, as a child growing up in the 1950s, I picked up pidgin English from friends who butchered the Hawaiian language, without the proper guidance from kupuna who were suppressed and shamed for speaking Hawaiian.
Now, me and many of my peers are rightly being corrected for our gross misuse of the language.
Gary Oakland
Kailua
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