Lākina: Teaching Latin Through Hawaiian

Lākina: Teaching Latin Through Hawaiian

One of the greatest challenges for the Hawaiian language movement is overcoming the assumption that English is the only other language that matters and Hawaiian is fighting an uphill battle to unseat that dominant language. The same is true for many of our fellow indigenous language movements and the overpowering dominant languages they are subject to.

At the flagship Hawaiian language medium school of Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu, teaching other foreign languages before the introduction of English as a subject has been a strategy to counterbalance this situation and to also increase English readiness in the process. One of these languages being taught through Hawaiian at Nāwahī is Latin!

Originally posted on Mokuola Honua: Global Center for Indigenous Language Excellence.