Workshop #3: English (and Pidgin) Practice, Pearly Shells, and Eating Haupia!

  Last month, we had our third Hawaii workshop, and we invited two special guests to give presentations about Hawaii and help us practice our English speaking skills. Raine Sakka, an American English professor from Fukui Prefectural University, lived in Hawaii most of her life after moving there from Alabama, 

Raine (second from right)

and Aya Watanabe, a Japanese English professor from Fukui University, lived in Hawaii for a few years while studying at the University of Hawaii for graduate school.

Aya (center)

  Aya gave us a brief description about her experience living in Hawaii and gave us a few pieces of advice when visiting. She also used a slideshow to show us some pictures of the places, people, and food she encountered.

  Raine told us about her experience of moving to Hawaii from Alabama and described various things we might experience on our visit, including the complexities of pidgin English.

  After the presentations, everyone broke up into small groups to practice self-introductions and explaining the interesting sights of Katsuyama.

  Then, Raine taught us the words and some hand motions to "Pearly Shells," and Aya played the Ukulele to accompany her. It didn't take long for everyone to catch on, and soon we were all singing along.

  Finally, we all ate some haupia (both plain and chocolate flavor) that I had made the day before.

None of the students had ever had haupia before, so they were all curious and eager to try it.

It was gone in a flash and everyone agreed... the grindz was ono!