Greetings

You have already been greeted at the very start of this program with the two words “aloha kākou”, which means “greetings to us all”. It’s always very important in Hawaiian to greet the people you meet, and there are many ways to say a greeting.

The simplest way to say “hello” is “aloha”. Let’s try together. Aloha [2x]. Maikaʻi! Good!

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If you are greeting just one other person, you could say “aloha kāua”, which means “aloha to you and I”. Aloha kāua. Let’s try it. Aloha kāua. [2x].

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And if you are greeting three or more people, you would say “Aloha kākou” as we did earlier. Letʻs try “Aloha kākou” (2x)

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Now let’s learn how to ask how a person is doing. If it is one person you are asking, then you would say “pehea ʻoe?”. Say it with me. “Pehea ʻoe?” [2x].

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If there are many people, you would ask “pehea kākou?” – how are we all? Let’s try together a couple of times. Pehea kākou? [2x].

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Now what do you think would be a good response? How about saying “fine”, or “good”? That word is “maikaʻi”. Say it after me: maikaʻi [2x].

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All right. Now we are almost ready to practice a short dialogue. First though, the word for “and” is “a”. So if someone asks us how we are doing, we can say “maikaʻi, a pehea ʻoe?” Use the “a” to join the two separate phrases together.

Here is a short dialogue for you to try. Listen and repeat:

“aloha!”
“aloha!, pehea ʻoe?”
“maikaʻi, a pehea ʻoe?

Did you manage to follow along? Good! Maikaʻi!
Now we have to learn one more word before we go to the next lesson. It is the word “mahalo” which means thank you. Say it after me: mahalo [2x].

With a mahalo added for good measure, let’s try that dialogue once more.

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“aloha:
“aloha! pehea ʻoe?”
“maikaʻi, a pehea ʻoe?

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Did you manage to follow along? Good maikaʻi! Now we have to learn one more word before we go to the next lesson. It is the word “mahalo” which means thank you. Say it after me, “mahalo”! (2x)

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“aloha:
“aloha! pehea ʻoe?”
“maikaʻi, mahalo, a pehea ʻoe?
“maikaʻi mahalo!”

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Great! Now here’s how we say “goodbye”: “a hui hou”. Say it after me: a hui hou [2x]. A hui hou means “until meeting again, or, until we meet again, Repeat after me, “mahalo. a hui hou”.

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OK. Now we will learn how to introduce ourselves. Listen to the following example dialogue:

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Kiele: Aloha kāua. ʻO wai kou inoa?
Kaliko: Aloha. ʻo Kaliko koʻu inoa. A ʻo wai kou inoa?
Kiele: ʻO Kiele koʻu inoa.
Kaliko: Maikaʻi. A hui hou kāua.
Kiele: A hui hou nō kāua.

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Now we’ll all say it together. Try it several times, until you feel comfortable. Don’t worry if you cannot understand every word yet. You will come to understand it more by feeling than by intellectual processes. Ready?

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Kiele: Aloha kāua. ʻO wai kou inoa? (Hello, what is your name?)
Kaliko: Aloha. ʻO Kaliko koʻu inoa. (Hi. My name is Kaliko) A ʻo wai kou inoa? (And what is your name?)
Kiele: ʻO Kiele koʻu inoa. (My name is Kiele)
Kaliko: Maikaʻi. A hui hou kāua. (Good. Until we meet again)
Kiele: A hui hou nō kāua. (Until we meet again indeed).

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