Ka Lei Ha'aheo: Beginning Hawaiian (Paperback)

by Alberta Pualani Hopkins (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes
Text: English

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: University of Hawaii Press; illustrated edition edition (March 17, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 082481259X
• ISBN-13: 978-0824812591
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #558,394 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Except for Lesson One, it's a wonderful book, October 6, 2004

By	Fast Forward (Nagoya, Aichi Japan) - See all my reviews

I found 4 great tools for learning Hawaiian, at Amazon. Your success in learning will depend on using them in the right order. They're all great.

Beginner level
1. "Learn Hawaiian at Home", by Kahikahealani Wight
If you're new to the language, this book will walk you patiently through all the basics. Slow? Yes, but it was just what I needed. There are two cassette tapes included, with all the vocabulary, dialogs, reading material and even songs! I found the package reasonably priced.

Beginner to intermediate
2. "Ka Lei Ha'aheao--Beginning Hawaiian", by Alberta Pualani Hopkins
For continuing what you learned in "Learn Hawaiian at Home", this is an excellent book. It will take you all the way through all the Hawaiian grammar, and there are lots and lots of dialogs, giving variations on what you learn.
The downside? Cassette tapes are available, and I know my progress would be much faster if I had the big bucks to buy them. I don't.

Intermediate to advanced
3. Instant Immersion CD
Good points: Very natural-sounding Hawaiian, and lots of it
Downside: If you're a beginner, this will knock the wind out of your sails. The lessons have reading passages, some with very difficult grammar.
No printed matter comes with the CDs. You have to download it from the internet.
Some vocabulary from the lessons are NOT explained. You'll need a big Pukui-Elbert Hawaiian Dictionary to find out the meanings. Not exactly user-friendly!
Still, if you love hearing the lilt of Hawaiian spoken as much as I do, you may opt to get this.

Intermediate to advanced
4. "Let's Speak Hawaiian" by Dorothy M. Kahananui & Alberta P. Anthony
Too difficult for beginners, as it was for me! Explanations are minimal. An exorbitantly-priced tape set is available, but I couldn't afford it.
I was always frustrated with myself for not being able to understand this book. However, after doing a fair amount of learning through the first two books given above, I found that "Let's Speak Hawaiian" is a wonderful extension to what I know. Get this one last!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The seminal textbook of modern Hawaiian, August 31, 2004

By	K. Anthony "ProSec104" (The Sunny South) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Hawaiian is not a language that someone who has no experience with can simply pick up: the nuances and pronunciations alone are enough to scare off the uninitiated and the differences between Hawaiian and Western (and Eastern for that matter) cultures create difficulties that are not easily overcome by obstinate minds. Mrs. Hopkins' book was intended primarily as a textbook to be used as the text for a Hawaiian class and in a classroom environment. Having grown up in Hawaii, the pronunciations were not difficult for me and the exercises were both useful and amusing. While the grammar section in the back is by no mean comprehensive, it should be remembered that this was not meant to be a dictionary.

This is an excellent text for someone who has access to a native speaker with whom he or she can practice with and the standard by which Hawaiian textbooks should be measured.

If you don't agree with me, you are welcome to challenge my opinion in a duel--smallswords or epees--and seek a gentleman's satisfaction.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best foreign-language text I've ever used, June 25, 2003

By	Seth Watkins (Palo Alto, CA USA) - See all my reviews

If you thought lanugage-learning was boring, think again! Ka Lei Ha'aheo is a horse of a different color. No more memorization of useless phrases like "the pen of my aunt is on the table." No more obtuse grammar lessons. Full of concise explanations of grammar, carefully selected useful vocabulary, all cemented into place with interesting dialogs and stories, "Ka Lei Ha'aheo" makes language learning a breeze.

Better still, "Ka Lei Ha'aheo" gives the student a taste of Hawaiian history and culture, and an insight into how the language might influence its speakers to view the world differently from English speakers.

Having studied seven other languages using dozens of text books, Ka Lei Ha'aheo is by far the best language text-book I have ever used.

Mahalo nui i ka mea ka:kau.

Seth Watkins