When I moved from Moloka‘i to Kapolei earlier this year, my goals for retirement were to spend time with my granddaughter, become involved
in my new community by volunteering at the library and local school, and to continue what I enjoy doing — walking daily, reading, acrylic painting, gardening, cooking healthy meals, attending art shows and educational workshops, and hosting new students from Southeast Asian countries who are currently pursuing their degrees at UH-Mānoa.
I also have the pleasure and great opportunity to attend the Intermediate Level Hawaiian Language class at UH-West O‘ahu this Fall semester. The class consists of regular students taking it for credit, and non-credit students, like myself, taking it through the Senior Citizen Visitor Program/Nā Kūpuna. The class meets three times a week in the afternoon and we also have the option of attending a conversation session on Wednesday mornings at the student lounge where we can communicate in Hawaiian with students from other classes.
We have been learning some sentence patterns and new words, as well as familiarizing ourselves with Hawaiian websites and databases. We navigate the internet to read “old” Hawaiian newspapers to practice our reading, pronunciation and comprehension. In class, our instructor encourages his students to speak in Hawaiian and, every other week, we take written quizzes.
To learn more about free enrollment in UH courses through the Senior Citizen Visitor Program/Nā Kūpuna, call 808-956-4642.
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