Being Successful for Generations to Come

This week I had someone reach out to me on IG. She’s a Native Hawaiian mother and was looking to make a book in Hawaiian for her keiki. She wanted me to check the first couple of translations in her book. After taking a look I could see the translations were incorrect and had a strangeness to it that I’ve seen a lot with Google Translate so I asked how she was doing the translations. She confirmed that she was using Google Translate along with what she learned in High School. This was my response to her and I wanted to share it with all of you as well as I wish I had realized this for myself sooner when I was learning Hawaiian to specifically share it with my kids:

“[Aloha] I don’t want you to get discouraged cause learning Hawaiian is 💯 percent something you should be proud of doing. My suggestion would be to be comfortable with where you are at and build little by little using good resources like teachers, textbooks, and old recordings and newspapers of native speakers OR hire an expert to help you do higher level projects like books or translations. If you’re just looking to read baby something in Hawaiian there are books out there. You could also read from the bible (if that’s something you’re comfortable with) as that was translated many years ago with the help of native speakers. You could also make really easy books. One word books about colors or numbers or things around the house. These are important to learn for baby and easier to get right as they don’t involve grammar so you just need to research your vocabulary.

Like I said, don’t be discouraged. I want you to be successful in the long run for generations to come!”

To all of you learning - I know the feeling of wanting to do more in the language. I still feel that every day! Every day I wish I could be at a level I’m not, doing the things that the people at that level can do - but if I’m not there yet then I’m not there. One day I’ll get there if I keep learning and so will you!

Also I’m not gatekeeping on this, but maybe next week I’ll explain why I don’t consider myself qualified to help with quick translations.