Do Not Forsake Your Mother Tongue

The native language of a people, like the Hawaiian Language for the Hawaiian lahui, is called the mother tongue of the Hawaiians. From what we know, how many Hawaiian youths educated in our High Schools and outside as well are truly well-supplied in knowledge and are skilled in the mother tongue of their land of birth?

We see these days that are going by, the children are grasping English, while they really have no desire to seek out the native tongue of their land of birth. It is very clear that because the Hawaiian language government schools have been put to an end, the large water sources [poo wai] that fed into all the water ditches [auwai] of knowledge in that language for the youth of Hawaii nei have closed up.  Continue reading →