Tag Archives: Hawaiian Islands

News Hawaiian style and the first new language in the U.S. in 80 years

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As a communications, marketing and public relations professional, I have a strange habit while traveling: I love to watch the local television news. Call me weird, but I find this a fascinating study in local culture.

For example, when I travel to Los Angeles for work or fun, I always tune in to the local CBS station. For readers from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, I have two words for you: Paul Magers.

In Hawaii, the local newscasts are fascinating. First, the news coverage is Oahu and Honolulu-focused, but also covers the other islands including the Big Island, Maui and Kauai. The local newscasters, especially those covering weather and sports, are almost always decked out in aloha wear—fun, colorful Hawaiian clothing. The weather? Well, it’s almost always 78 and usually sunny, but the surf report is ever-changing and necessary to report. I once heard that in the Hawaiian language, they don’t even have a word for weather since it really doesn’t change.

On our most recent trip to the Big Island in March of this year, I tuned in to discover something fascinating. Linguists had discovered the first new documented language in the United States in 80 years: Hawaiian Sign Language. Leave it to the Hawaiians to make language this beautiful. Hawaiian Sign Language, which researchers estimate dates back to the 1800s, is not a subset of American Sign Language. Rather, it has a distinct vocabulary and grammar. On the news, they showed a demonstration of Hawaiian Sign Language versus American Sign Language.

No surprise that it was beautiful to watch.

Aloha

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aloha

In August 2000, my now husband proposed on a hot air balloon ride above the scenic St. Croix River dividing the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin. It was one of the happiest moments of my life. I quickly discovered, however, that as much as I wanted to be married to Tom, I didn’t want a wedding.

I had visions of us running down to city hall over our lunch breaks. Still, we both wanted a special and memorable event to launch our new lives together. Tom looked at me one day and said, “How about Hawaii?” See why I love this guy? So, off to Hawaii we went.

With a generous wedding gift of a week in a timeshare, we requested anything available in March 2001 on any of the Hawaiian Islands. Our luck of the draw was the island of Hawaii—or the Big Island as it’s called. What? I thought they were all the islands of Hawaii. It turns out that the Big Island of Hawaii shares its name with the state of Hawaii. It is also, as its name implies, the biggest of the Hawaiian Islands. So big, in fact, that all of the islands together could fit onto the Big Island. It is also the largest island in the United States.

As we flew into Honolulu in early March 2001, I looked out from my window seat to see a rainbow sweeping the sky as we landed. It was a magical layover before our flight into Kona. Who knew that a layover could be magical? It was. After an airport mai tai, we were off on Hawaiian Airlines for a quick flight into Kona. It looked like we had landed on the moon. And so, the adventure and love affair with Hawaii begins.