All about Hawaiian

I wholeheartedly recommend this booklet. It is an excellent primer of the Hawaiian language. It is not as all encompassing as the title might suggest, but it is a good starting point for learning Hawaiian. It covers mostly vocabulary, spelling and pronunciation. It does have a very small and limited grammar section, but grammar can not be expected to be thoroughly covered in such a small booklet. I read somewhere that "Hawaiian is phonetically simple, but grammatically difficult" and I believe that is true, especially for English speakers. If you want a book that extensively covers grammar and you really want to learn how to converse in Hawaiian, you might want to get Ka Lei Ha'aheo: Beginning Hawaiian. "Ka Lei Ha'aheo" is the textbook used by the University of Hawaii in their beginning and intermediate Hawaiian language classes and is a much more serious volume of work, perhaps best used in conjunction with an instructor in a classroom enviroment. This book also comes in a version for Japanese speakers at All About Hawaiian (Japanese). I noticed that somehow this review ended up on the Japanese version page, although I didn't post it there. If you are now on the Japanese version page and would like the link to the English version of "All About Hawaiian", here it is All About Hawaiian (Kolowalu Books). As a pocket sized booklet, "All About Hawaiian" is the most complete and correct publication of its sort I have seen. It is a very handy and useful introductory pocket guide. Despite the limited size of this booklet, much good information is provided about not only the language, but also interesting tidbits of information about Hawaii, its history and culture. For some more information from the book itself, see my uploaded image of the back cover.

I like this book because it is straight to the point of helping the reader rapidly begin to learn and appreciate the beauty of the Hawaiian language. I was pleased at how simply and clearly the material was presented by the author. Having taken a course in Hawaiian at the University of Hawaii, I bought the book for a quick review to get me up and speaking again after some time of disuse. It turned out to be exactly what I needed. I was also pleased that it was consistent with the more formal presentation of the material I had received in college. It is small, thin and easily packed into a piece of carry-on luggage, or stuffed in your back pocket for a day of adventure in the islands. It's size and shape and presentation are that of a primer, and as a whole, it does not pretend to be anything but that. Although the title is ambitious, the book delivers what the title promises by giving an overview, enticing more serious students to delve deeper through other means.