Why ‘Aloha’ Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means

You spent thousands on a Hawaii vacation and still feel like something's missing.

It's not the beaches or the food. It's the language, the culture, the deeper connection that turns a vacation into something more meaningful.

👉 Hit play now to learn 26 essential Hawaiian words and phrases from a local language teacher so you can travel with respect and confidence.

If you've been looking for ways to connect more authentically with Hawaii beyond the tourist experience, this episode is for you. You'll learn the words locals use every day, what they really mean, and why they matter for responsible travel.

In this episode of Hawaii's Best, we break down essential Hawaiian language with cultural practitioner Kahanuola Solatorio so you can travel with deeper understanding and respect.

👉 In this episode, you will:

• Learn pronunciation and meaning of 26 core Hawaiian words from aloha to pau hana
• Understand cultural context behind terms like kapu, malama, and kamaaina that shape how you experience the islands
• Learn practical phrases for directions, dining, and daily interactions that show respect for Hawaiian culture

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Scroll up ⬆️ and hit play now to speak Hawaii's language and travel with authentic aloha.

🎧Related episodes:

• The Ban of the Hawaiian Language

💻Related blog posts:

• The History of Hawaii
• Ways to Travel Responsibly to Hawaii

🤓Chapters:

• 1:55 Common Hawaiian Words and Phrases
• 4:40 Understanding Hawaiian Terms for People
• 9:09 Significance of Land and Water in Hawaiian Culture
• 14:38 Practical Hawaiian Words for Visitors
• 16:53 Understanding Hawaiian Directions
• 19:04 Pronouncing Hawaiian Islands
• 24:16 Respecting Hawaiian Wildlife
• 26:50 Resources for Learning Hawaiian
• 28:15 Pau

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About Your Host: Bryan Murphy is a Certified Hawaii Destination Expert and the founder of Hawaii’s Best Travel. He helps first-time and repeat visitors plan unforgettable Hawaii vacations with clear, practical advice and authentic cultural insight.

👉 Book a Hawaii Travel Consultation

📲 Connect on Instagram: @hawaiis.best
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✉️ Free Hawaii travel tips and guides at hawaiisbesttravel.com

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This Hawaii travel podcast helps you plan a trip to Hawaii with clarity and confidence. Discover practical travel tips, island itineraries, and local insight to help you explore Oahu, Maui, Kauai, the Big Island, and beyond.

Edge of the Ocean, Stick Figure (w/ permission)
Ukulele and Chill (w/ permission)
Talk Story (w/ permission)

Chapters

• 1:55 Common Hawaiian Words and Phrases
• 4:40 Understanding Hawaiian Terms for People
• 9:09 Significance of Land and Water in Hawaiian Culture
• 15:06 Practical Hawaiian Words for Visitors
• 17:21 Understanding Hawaiian Directions
• 19:32 Pronouncing Hawaiian Islands
• 24:44 Respecting Hawaiian Wildlife
• 27:18 Resources for Learning Hawaiian
• 28:43 Pau

Transcript

212_Why ‘Aloha’ Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means

[00:00:00] Bryan Murphy: You spent thousands on a Hawaii vacation and still feel like there's something missing. It's not the beaches, not the hikes, not the restaurants. It's the language. It's the culture. And February is Hawaiian Language Month. And today, Hawaiian language teacher, CAALA Sorio, shares the top words and phrases that every visitor should know and why they matter.

[00:00:23] Bryan Murphy: So let's go.

[00:00:28] Bryan Murphy: Aloha, and welcome to Hawaii's Best, the podcast helping you plan an unforgettable Hawaii vacation with clear, practical guidance. I'm Brian Murphy, a certified Hawaii destination expert, husband and dad of three. And each week I break down what actually matters for your Hawaii trip, drawing from local insights

[00:00:46] Kahanuola Solatorio: and firsthand experience so you can plan with confidence and travel with aloha.

[00:00:53] Bryan Murphy: I'm a traveler just like you, and have visited Hawaii many times. Now. Over the years, it's been my passion to bring some of the stories of the islands to you to help educate all of us on how to travel to Hawaii more responsibly.

[00:01:09] Bryan Murphy: And in today's episode, we're gonna talk a little bit about how to do that and happens to be a replay of a previous episode at.

[00:01:16] Bryan Murphy: Episode 63, which happens to be one of our most popular episodes with my friend Kahana Sorio, our unofficial cultural practitioner. And God knew he goes over 26 phrases and words to be familiar with before visiting. So I hope you enjoy this episode in my conversation with Kahana. Today we are joined again with our unofficial cultural practitioner, Kaha.

[00:01:48] Bryan Murphy: What's up man?

[00:01:49] Kahanuola Solatorio: Aloha.

[00:01:50] Bryan Murphy: Aloha.

[00:01:50] Kahanuola Solatorio: Emphasis on unofficial.

[00:01:53] Bryan Murphy: Unofficial.

[00:01:55] Bryan Murphy: Today we're talking about some words and phrases to know. Some of these you probably already know as you're listening to this, you probably heard some of these, and even one of the phrases we're gonna be talking about, we did a whole podcast episode on the word aloha.

[00:02:10] Bryan Murphy: The official language of Hawaii is the Hawaiian language and. It's really at the heart of the culture of Hawaii. So we wanted to get together again and do, uh, another podcast and talk about some of these phrases that you may have seen, you may have heard, and you might come in contact with as you visit the island.

[00:02:30] Bryan Murphy: So, continuity, we're gonna kind of, we we're both looking off the same list here. We're gonna just take it from the top and. As you're listening to this, we're also gonna link a blog post below where you can go ahead and, and grab all these words and phrases, print 'em out. Don't feel like you have to memorize all 'em.

[00:02:47] Bryan Murphy: We just want you to kind of be familiar with some of the phrases and words you may come in contact with, and some that you just, uh, cha know as you're traveling to Hawaii. So, Kanu, we're gonna kick it off with number one.

[00:03:01] Bryan Murphy: Aloha. Which means

[00:03:02] Kahanuola Solatorio: exactly, aloha means aloha. But, um, normally, I guess the simplest terms would be, hello, goodbye.

[00:03:11] Kahanuola Solatorio: And also love. So, I mean, Aloha is pretty well known throughout the entire world as at least hello, people kinda aloha, aloha, you know?

[00:03:21] Bryan Murphy: Right.

[00:03:21] Kahanuola Solatorio: Refer to our, our last one.

[00:03:24] Bryan Murphy: Yeah. Yeah. We did a deep dive into, into that. And having aloha more of a way of life. So definitely want you to go back and, and check that episode out.

[00:03:34] Bryan Murphy: All right, number two, what do we got?

[00:03:36] Kahanuola Solatorio: Another one that's pretty common or pretty well known throughout the world, and that is Mahalo.

[00:03:42] Bryan Murphy: Mahalo.

[00:03:43] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. So Mahalo kind on the other side. When you leave, someone can say, Aloha. Which means also means goodbye and you can say Mahalo, which means thank you or I appreciate you.

[00:03:54] Kahanuola Solatorio: And two, Mahalo is bigger than just those two things. You know, Mahalo is a whole lifestyle. It's a being appreciative of someone else's time and their efforts and their work. So yeah.

[00:04:06] Bryan Murphy: And these two words are, are probably the most frequent that people visiting would come in

[00:04:11] Kahanuola Solatorio: contact with. Yeah, pretty much.

[00:04:12] Kahanuola Solatorio: Right? When you get off the airplane, you're gonna hear 30 alohas at the airport, or you know, um, you, you're gonna see so many signs that say, Aloha and Mahalo. Thanks for coming. So. Two very important words, but again, packed with so much meaning, hard to water it down to, you know, one specific definition.

[00:04:32] Kahanuola Solatorio: But if you were to, it would be aloha. Hello, goodbye love. Mahalo is thank you. Or appreciation.

[00:04:39] Bryan Murphy: Gotcha.

[00:04:39] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah.

[00:04:40] Bryan Murphy: Number three.

[00:04:40] Kahanuola Solatorio: Number three, this is, uh, maybe a new one to many of you. And that's going to be Malini.

[00:04:48] Bryan Murphy: Malini.

[00:04:49] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. So that's a, um, common, I don't wanna say mispronunciation, but Yeah. A lot of people think there's a actual a after the.

[00:04:57] Kahanuola Solatorio: The L, but it's a I. So it's gonna be Malini, malini,

[00:05:02] Bryan Murphy: Malini.

[00:05:03] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. There you go. If you're not familiar with that word, it means like a tourist or a visitor. So everyone who comes to Hawaii for the first time or who travels here as a tourist would be considered a malini.

[00:05:16] Bryan Murphy: I've also heard, and a malini could also be someone who has lived on the islands for a short time, or is that,

[00:05:23] Kahanuola Solatorio: yeah.

[00:05:24] Kahanuola Solatorio: So you probably may know that many people choose to move to Hawaii to live after retiring or whatever. You would still considered a malini for, you know, however many years. It takes you to become accustomed to how we are, how we our way of life and all that kinds of stuff. And that brings up our, our next word, which is Right.

[00:05:44] Kahanuola Solatorio: Kama. Ina. You wanna try that with me? Kama Ina

[00:05:47] Bryan Murphy: Kama. Ina,

[00:05:48] Kahanuola Solatorio: yeah. So Kama Ina is a native person, someone that's, um, native to Hawaii, someone that knows the culture, knows the land, the people. So yeah, on the opposite spectrum of Malini, you have those two different words, Kama, ina, and Malini. So I would be considered a Kama ina.

[00:06:05] Bryan Murphy: So Ka Ina doesn't necessarily deal with culture, is that correct? It's basically like you said, native born. So you're born in Hawaii?

[00:06:14] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. Yeah. So there's actually a lot of, I don't know if you heard this term, KA ina discounts?

[00:06:19] Bryan Murphy: Mm-hmm.

[00:06:20] Kahanuola Solatorio: So if you're like, you know, if you're a Hawaii resident, then you, you get a discount at a restaurant or whatever.

[00:06:26] Kahanuola Solatorio: So yeah, if you're born here and you have a Hawaii state, ID then. Get that discount. Yeah. But it's actually, um, if you break it up, the two words in it is KAA and Ina, ina we know as land.

[00:06:39] Bryan Murphy: Mm-hmm.

[00:06:39] Kahanuola Solatorio: And KAA means to bind. So it's pretty much saying that you're being bound to the land or even KAA could also mean a, a child.

[00:06:48] Kahanuola Solatorio: So a child of the land. So many different ways to look at that one word.

[00:06:52] Bryan Murphy: I know we're kind of maybe splitting here a little bit. So can a malini become a Kama ina?

[00:06:58] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah, definitely. And I know a lot of examples of people in my life. Mm-hmm. Who, you know, they immerse themself in the culture. They immerse themself in this place.

[00:07:08] Kahanuola Solatorio: And I think one of the most, the things people love about Hawaii definitely is the aloha spirit. And it's hard to embrace it if you weren't taught it or if you weren't born and raised here.

[00:07:19] Bryan Murphy: Mm-hmm.

[00:07:19] I

[00:07:19] Kahanuola Solatorio: don't know. I'm not the the person that decides if you become a malini or you know, a Kama after a Malini.

[00:07:26] Kahanuola Solatorio: But yeah, I think it's pretty much up to you how you embrace the Hawaiian culture and the Hawaii ness of being here. You know, that's when you can become a Kama now.

[00:07:37] Bryan Murphy: Gotcha.

[00:07:37] Kahanuola Solatorio: It's up to you. Yeah.

[00:07:39] Bryan Murphy: That makes sense. Okay. Number five.

[00:07:42] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah, so number five is kind of controversial.

[00:07:44] Bryan Murphy: Yeah.

[00:07:45] Kahanuola Solatorio: It's a very interesting word and it is going to be hale.

[00:07:50] Kahanuola Solatorio: Interesting enough is that people automatically assume hale means Caucasian or white, you know, but hale in the dictionaries actually comes out to foreigner, someone that's, you know, is not from here. Mm-hmm.

[00:08:03] Bryan Murphy: So the controversy around the word, maybe you can give us a little insight on that.

[00:08:09] Kahanuola Solatorio: I guess over time people just maybe automatically attach the word howle to white people or to Caucasian people, but I try and just think of it as just a general foreigner

[00:08:21] Bryan Murphy: mm-hmm.

[00:08:21] Kahanuola Solatorio: Term, you know, it's hard because. We talked about it a little bit in our first podcast that we did about the troubling history of Hawaii. Mm-hmm. With the foreigner, you know, American businessmen coming to Hawaii, stealing whatever they stole. So that's why Howle, that terminology gets kind of misconstrued and.

[00:08:43] Kahanuola Solatorio: You know, people are like, there is some kind of racist attitudes in it, you know? Mm-hmm. With that word, you kinda have to go back and watch our first podcast to kind of understand it a little bit more if you don't yet.

[00:08:53] Bryan Murphy: Right. Really at the heart of that word is kind of what you already said, and, and sometimes words and phrases kind of take on a different connotation as.

[00:09:06] Bryan Murphy: Time goes.

[00:09:07] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah.

[00:09:08] Bryan Murphy: Got it. Okay.

[00:09:09] Bryan Murphy: Number six. We've already touched on it with Kaa Ina, but Ina,

[00:09:13] Kahanuola Solatorio: so Ina is very important to the Hawaiian people and Ina just simply means land. But like we kind of went over, land means so much to our people because that's where we get our, you know, our food or resources. If you're born here, you know, you have a connection to the land that no one can ever take away because.

[00:09:32] Kahanuola Solatorio: We are a part of the land. And this kind of takes me back to another story about our first kalo plant, which is a very, you know, tarot, which is a very, the stable food of our people back in the day. And from what I learned, we all descended from that one tarot plant as Hawaiian people. So. We are definitely connected and bind to the land no matter who you are.

[00:09:57] Kahanuola Solatorio: If you're born here and if you're Hawaiian especially, then you have that connection to the land that is pa, it's secure. It's always gonna be there for you. So it's a cool thing. Way to think about it.

[00:10:08] Bryan Murphy: That's probably one of the most important takeaways traveling into Hawaii is the connection that Hawaiian people have to the land.

[00:10:18] Bryan Murphy: And that's why you probably hear us say over and over again different ways that if you are gonna choose to visit Hawaii, how you can malama on, take care of the land and be a part

[00:10:30] Kahanuola Solatorio: yeah.

[00:10:30] Bryan Murphy: Of that. Because the land is so important and, and sacred.

[00:10:36] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah, I think just a couple things to remember is, you know, when you go somewhere or when you go to the beach, make sure you take your rubbish with, you.

[00:10:43] Kahanuola Solatorio: Take, you know, leave something better than when you got there.

[00:10:48] Bryan Murphy: Makes sense? You got number seven.

[00:10:51] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yep. So number seven, you have vi, VI means water. Try that with me, vi. And then you see we use that V sound for that.

[00:10:59] Bryan Murphy: Mm-hmm.

[00:10:59] Kahanuola Solatorio: But you can also use Y with a W. But mostly what I hear is in Hawaii, you know, we're surrounded by water, we're surrounded by ocean for miles and miles, so we're definitely water people.

[00:11:12] Kahanuola Solatorio: We have many chants and songs dedicated specifically to water. Our source of water where water comes from. And if you look at the Hawaiian word for valuable or for rich, it's gonna be so pretty much water. Water is the word for valuable. So you see how much we price or we hold water in and how much we we respect it.

[00:11:33] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah.

[00:11:34] Bryan Murphy: Yeah. All right. Number eight.

[00:11:36] Kahanuola Solatorio: Number eight. Very important because pretty much why many people come to Hawaii is our Kaha Kai. You wanna try that? Kaha kai.

[00:11:44] Bryan Murphy: Kaha kai.

[00:11:45] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. So kaha kai means beach. If you break it down, Kai actually just means like ocean or sea. Like we were talking earlier, when you go to the Kahaka, definitely enjoy the experience, but leave the beach better than how you, how you arrived.

[00:12:03] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah.

[00:12:03] Bryan Murphy: Yeah. So an example of that would be to obviously take out what you bring in.

[00:12:09] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah.

[00:12:09] Bryan Murphy: And if you see something on the way out, take it out with you.

[00:12:13] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. And I guess while we're there, what is your favorite beach?

[00:12:16] Bryan Murphy: I can't tell you.

[00:12:18] Kahanuola Solatorio: Is it a secret?

[00:12:19] Bryan Murphy: White Plains?

[00:12:20] Kahanuola Solatorio: Cool, cool, cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So mines is W Manolo right after Ma Cap.

[00:12:24] Kahanuola Solatorio: So on the eastern side. Yeah. It's the best. Or maybe that's the secret. Yeah. Yeah, our next word, we kind of touched on it when we talked about ina, but malama. You wanna try that

[00:12:38] Bryan Murphy: Malama?

[00:12:38] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. So malama is to take care. Just take care of not only your surroundings, but take care of yourself. Take care of your family.

[00:12:48] Kahanuola Solatorio: That's why we always say malama ina. Malama, AKA malama your mama. That's another thing that I always say, take care of your mother. That sounds like going around

[00:12:56] Bryan Murphy: during mom's day. Yeah,

[00:12:58] Kahanuola Solatorio: yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah. So many things that we can malama and take care of.

[00:13:03] Bryan Murphy: Yeah.

[00:13:03] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. Okay. Number 10, we have, this is one of my favorite words.

[00:13:08] Kahanuola Solatorio: Our

[00:13:08] Bryan Murphy: favorite, I was gonna say, yeah.

[00:13:09] Kahanuola Solatorio: Our favorite. Yeah. And that's going to be Ono Ono.

[00:13:13] Bryan Murphy: Ono.

[00:13:14] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. So this one has a oka at the beginning of the word, and that's just like, um, an accent. So when you say the word, you're gonna have kind of stress the, the o So you're gonna go, oh no.

[00:13:25] Bryan Murphy: Oh, no.

[00:13:26] Kahanuola Solatorio: So, oh, no. Means delicious.

[00:13:28] Kahanuola Solatorio: Good. You know, when you eat something and you really like it, you can say, Ooh, so Ono, you know, if you're in Hawaii and you're at a restaurant and you go, oh no, they're gonna be like, oh, how do you know that word? You know, that kind of stuff. So, yeah. Moving to our next one, you have Kapu.

[00:13:43] Bryan Murphy: Kapu.

[00:13:44] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. So kapu means sacred, or it literally is a Hawaiian eyes word version of taboo.

[00:13:50] Kahanuola Solatorio: Mm. So ka means sacred. So if you ever see a sign. Out in the in nature or wherever you're going, and that's this couple, just know that it means you cannot enter that space. And that could be for many reasons. One being it could be dangerous. Another means meaning it could be sacred. You know, there could be bones una una there that you shouldn't be going around or just, it's just culpable.

[00:14:16] Kahanuola Solatorio: Mm-hmm. It's just sacred. So those are some of the, the reasonings behind it.

[00:14:20] Bryan Murphy: Like I mentioned, we're gonna have a blog that we're gonna link to where you can get all these words, you can follow both of us on our Instagram accounts. We'll link that to the blog posts we're, you know, we'll add some more phrases and some other terms.

[00:14:35] Bryan Murphy: We really want dive deep into the ones that we just touch.

[00:14:38] Bryan Murphy: And then right now we kind of do, we wanna do this like lightning round of some other common. Words or phrases that you might see, and probably we'll see, especially when you first step off the plane. If you're coming to Hawaii for the very first time and you look towards the restroom after that, you know, six hour flight and you're gonna see is a.

[00:15:00] Bryan Murphy: Can. What is that?

[00:15:02] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. What's a cane? Yeah, so, so that's exactly it. When you come to Hawaii and you see two signs, one saying kain and one saying hin, just know that they're very important words. Right. Okay. So the first one is, it would actually be pronounced Kane.

[00:15:17] Bryan Murphy: Kane.

[00:15:18] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. So kne means male or any like a man.

[00:15:21] Kahanuola Solatorio: So if you are a male, use that bathroom that says Connie. And then the anoth, the other one is Waine.

[00:15:27] Bryan Murphy: Waine.

[00:15:28] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. So wahine means female or woman,

[00:15:30] Bryan Murphy: right. And then probably sandwich in between. I'm, I'm just utilizing this bathroom illustration kind of sandwich in between, you probably will see Ohana.

[00:15:39] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. So Ohana means family and you, I mean, we all watch Lilo and Stitch hopefully.

[00:15:44] Kahanuola Solatorio: So we all should know what family means. Yeah. So Ohana means family. And then if you, there's a Kiki probably on the sign, um, then that's going to be a child.

[00:15:54] Bryan Murphy: Also, you may hear the word kanaka.

[00:15:57] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah.

[00:15:57] Bryan Murphy: Which means

[00:15:58] Kahanuola Solatorio: kanaka means like a just a human or a person. Sometimes it can be translated to like mankind or like a man, but that's where it gets kinda blurred lines because

[00:16:09] Bryan Murphy: mm-hmm.

[00:16:09] Kahanuola Solatorio: Kanaka, I would just consider it as a human, since Kane is a man. Yeah.

[00:16:14] Bryan Murphy: Yeah. Okay, that makes sense. All right, moving on. Maybe you're gonna be asking for directions. The word for towards the C would be,

[00:16:23] Kahanuola Solatorio: so it's funny in Hawaii, like when you ask for directions, it's a little bit different. You know, it's not like, turn left on, blah, blah, blah.

[00:16:31] Kahanuola Solatorio: Turn right on that. Right? We use these two very general terms, and the first one is Mackay.

[00:16:37] Bryan Murphy: Mackay,

[00:16:38] Kahanuola Solatorio: which means towards the C or C word. So if you wanted to say like, you know, where is a beach? You can say, oh, just go mackay of go seaward from this location, you know? And then the other one would be Malka.

[00:16:52] Bryan Murphy: Malka.

[00:16:52] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah.

[00:16:53] Kahanuola Solatorio: So Malka means towards like Mountain Word or towards the mountain. So those are pretty much our. Two senses of direction. We don't have North, so East West we have Mountain or Maka and Malka.

[00:17:03] Bryan Murphy: Yeah.

[00:17:04] Kahanuola Solatorio: And we just get it. It's easy, you know, we just get it. Yeah.

[00:17:06] Bryan Murphy: That's it. You figure it out.

[00:17:08] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah.

[00:17:08] Kahanuola Solatorio: Next we have coa.

[00:17:10] Kahanuola Solatorio: Try that with me.

[00:17:12] Bryan Murphy: Coa. Coa.

[00:17:12] Kahanuola Solatorio: Okay. So COA means to help and you know, KU just help whoever you can help. The old lady who is carrying her groceries or help, you know, a friend that has to move, you know, that's, cocoa is a word that every can use. You don't have to only be in Hawaii. You can also always cocoa anyone wherever you go.

[00:17:31] Bryan Murphy: And then a word that we unpacked a few weeks ago. Yeah. From the time of this recording,

[00:17:35] Kahanuola Solatorio: Mayday Le Day is, um, our next door is Lei.

[00:17:38] Bryan Murphy: Yeah.

[00:17:38] Kahanuola Solatorio: And Lei. Again, it's uh, hard to translate lei because lei can be so all sorts of things, but if you break it down, it pretty much just means garland. Something you wear on your body around your neck would be considered a lei.

[00:17:51] Kahanuola Solatorio: I would highly recommend tuning into that podcast a couple weeks ago. 'cause, you know, kind of just unpacks what lei, what lei are, or the importance of the

[00:17:59] Bryan Murphy: mm-hmm.

[00:18:00] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah.

[00:18:01] Kahanuola Solatorio: So our next word is hale, and hale means house. So kind of important because you, again, another word that you can use wherever you're from.

[00:18:10] Kahanuola Solatorio: You know, not only when you come to Hawaii, you can malama your hale, take care of your house, or you know, that kind of thing, right? We can go into another one and that's gonna be, you wanna try that? Ho so means hotel, you know, and you can, it's kind of another, um, Hawaiian nice word, uh, version of hotel. So, yeah.

[00:18:30] Kahanuola Solatorio: So many people are gonna be staying at Ale, or if you're at a Airbnb then Ale.

[00:18:34] Bryan Murphy: Mm-hmm.

[00:18:35] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah.

[00:18:35] Bryan Murphy: Got

[00:18:35] Kahanuola Solatorio: it. Yeah. Most of your hotels or your houses come with this. And I, you know, I hear this on, on some shows and another word that kind of is popular, maybe

[00:18:47] Bryan Murphy: Adopted.

[00:18:48] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. Adopted. Yeah.

[00:18:49] Kahanuola Solatorio: And that's Lanai.

[00:18:50] Bryan Murphy: Lanai.

[00:18:51] Kahanuola Solatorio: So Lanai is your patio or like a balcony.

[00:18:54] Kahanuola Solatorio: So you know, many hotels. People like to just sit on the night, look at the ocean, you know?

[00:19:00] Bryan Murphy: Mm-hmm.

[00:19:01] Kahanuola Solatorio: Just enjoy the Hawaiian breeze. So yeah. Lanai

[00:19:04] Bryan Murphy: all.

[00:19:04] Bryan Murphy: So right here we're gonna do a little, little pivot. Kanu doesn't know this is coming.

[00:19:08] Kahanuola Solatorio: Oh, I'm scared.

[00:19:09] Bryan Murphy: But I think it would be important to do justice to the islands and how to pronounce each island correctly.

[00:19:20] Kahanuola Solatorio: Got it.

[00:19:20] Bryan Murphy: Because when you look at the spelling. And then you see the island that's spelled

[00:19:26] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah.

[00:19:27] Bryan Murphy: The same way, but pronounced differently. Yeah.

[00:19:29] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah.

[00:19:30] Bryan Murphy: So maybe, maybe starting with, uh, big Island.

[00:19:33] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. You know, big Island has also always been known to me when I was growing up as Big Island.

[00:19:39] Bryan Murphy: Mm-hmm.

[00:19:40] Kahanuola Solatorio: Just 'cause it, you know, it's the biggest out of the eight islands, but the real name, or the main name of that island is Hawaii.

[00:19:47] Kahanuola Solatorio: So, Hawaii Island

[00:19:48] Bryan Murphy: Hawaii.

[00:19:49] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. And you can, you know, people say it like, ugh. With a v Hawaii, or people even say Hawaii, either or works. And even my mom, she goes Hawaii. So it's, there's many different pronunciations. Mm-hmm. And I'm not saying which one is right or wrong, but the way I would say it is Hawaii.

[00:20:05] Bryan Murphy: Hawaii.

[00:20:06] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. Good job. Okay. Moving to the next island would be Maui.

[00:20:10] Bryan Murphy: Maui,

[00:20:11] Kahanuola Solatorio: and this is a weird one because people go Maui or you know, Maui. Maui. So kind of more buting down on the, on the vows. Maui.

[00:20:21] Bryan Murphy: Maui, okay.

[00:20:22] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah, yeah. Good. The longest one is probably the hardest to pronounce, is Kaho. Lave, KA.

[00:20:30] Bryan Murphy: Kave.

[00:20:31] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. And I, I hear so many weird pronunciations, this ka

[00:20:35] Bryan Murphy: kave.

[00:20:36] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. Yeah. Kve, you know, so Kave Kave, and this is one of the islands that you cannot go to unless you, you're doing like a cleanup kind of thing with them. So.

[00:20:49] Bryan Murphy: It was probably a year or two ago now, there was a pretty big fire.

[00:20:55] Kahanuola Solatorio: Mm-hmm.

[00:20:55] Bryan Murphy: On the island.

[00:20:56] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah.

[00:20:56] Bryan Murphy: And I know there's been efforts in a restoration project too there.

[00:21:01] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. So for years and years they've been working on restoring tu. It's original, you know, way, but you know, it was bombed earlier by America, just as it was used as bombing. Practice or targets. So yeah. That's why one of the things, you gotta watch where you're going. Mm-hmm. Because there's still live bombs that

[00:21:23] Bryan Murphy: crazy.

[00:21:24] Bryan Murphy: Yeah.

[00:21:24] Kahanuola Solatorio: Are in the ground. So, yeah.

[00:21:26] Bryan Murphy: Yeah.

[00:21:26] Kahanuola Solatorio: It's, it's crazy. I haven't been there, but hopefully one day I can go.

[00:21:29] Bryan Murphy: Yeah. Okay. When you land. Maui, you're driving from the airport, you got West Maui Mountains.

[00:21:36] Kahanuola Solatorio: Mm-hmm.

[00:21:36] Bryan Murphy: On one side, halala on the other. And you, so you're driving, you're like, oh, this is why it's called the valley aisle.

[00:21:42] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah.

[00:21:42] Bryan Murphy: And you're seeing these three other islands too. Yeah. So, um, yeah, this is one of 'em. And then there's the other two are.

[00:21:49] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah, so the one we were talking about earlier, Lana. Lana.

[00:21:53] Bryan Murphy: Lana.

[00:21:54] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. So Lana actually has a Kaha Cole, or over the first A, which is, it's just a line over the vowels and that just tells you to draw the vowel sound.

[00:22:03] Kahanuola Solatorio: So Lana.

[00:22:04] Bryan Murphy: Lana,

[00:22:05] Kahanuola Solatorio: yeah. So different from Lana. Yeah, but Lana. And then the other one would be Molokai. Moloka.

[00:22:11] Bryan Murphy: Moloka.

[00:22:12] Kahanuola Solatorio: And this is kind of tricky because even the natives of Molokai. Have different ways of pronouncing it. Some say moloka without the oka mm. Some just say moloka. I dunno. I've always known it as Molokai, so that's what I call it as, and that's, that's my actual favorite island.

[00:22:27] Bryan Murphy: Yeah.

[00:22:27] Kahanuola Solatorio: Out of the eight. Yeah, because my, my dad was born there.

[00:22:30] Bryan Murphy: Oh,

[00:22:30] Kahanuola Solatorio: okay. I have family there. You know, I've ties there. It's called the friendly aisle for a reason. 'cause the people are just so, so nice, so family oriented, so you know, they become your friends quickly. So yeah. Love that island.

[00:22:43] Bryan Murphy: That's awesome.

[00:22:43] Kahanuola Solatorio: Moving on to the island that I'm on right now. Oahu.

[00:22:46] Bryan Murphy: Oahu.

[00:22:47] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. And this one's interesting too. A lot of people pronounce it with a W. They go Oahu. Oahu. But just know that there's a okina between the O and the A. So that shows it's a. You know, so just make sure you pronounce that ok. Very strongly. Or ahu, the last two, ISI one,

[00:23:08] Bryan Murphy: ua, K.

[00:23:09] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. And some people call it ua, even some of the natives. So it depends. I, I call it ua. And then the last one is niha.

[00:23:18] Bryan Murphy: Niha,

[00:23:19] Kahanuola Solatorio: yeah. So Niha is the other island that you cannot just go and visit. It's a couple. It's Sacred Island. So. Yeah, so those are the eight islands. And I think one of the things to keep in mind too, when you're saying Hawaiian words is just know where the okina are.

[00:23:33] Bryan Murphy: Mm-hmm.

[00:23:33] Kahanuola Solatorio: And all the kos, all those di criticals. 'cause it helps you to, you know, get the word correct. If you keep that in mind, then you'll know what you're saying or how to say it a little bit better.

[00:23:42] Bryan Murphy: Gotcha. All right. Any island you visit, you want to be. Mindful of picking this up, and that is,

[00:23:50] Kahanuola Solatorio: yeah, so Aala, AALA,

[00:23:52] Bryan Murphy: AALA.

[00:23:53] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. Aala means trash. So every time you, you leave some place or make sure you pick up your aala. And you know, Hawaii has been very good in the past couple years about, you know, making laws, banning plastic, banning plastic bags, styrofoam, all that stuff. So we're very conscious. Of our impact on the earth.

[00:24:15] Kahanuola Solatorio: So yeah.

[00:24:16] Bryan Murphy: Probably anyone who's wants to visit Hawaii is hoping to see one of these, and that's what

[00:24:23] Kahanuola Solatorio: a nu, so ANU is a turtle, a Hawaiian green sea turtle. So yeah, if you're lucky, you can come across a beautiful nu either at the beach nesting or in the water. And I was luck. I was lucky enough to see them.

[00:24:37] Kahanuola Solatorio: Many whole new throughout my life. But don't touch 'em. Yeah. Like, just don't go near them. That's the thing.

[00:24:42] Bryan Murphy: Right.

[00:24:43] Kahanuola Solatorio: They're couple, they're sacred. Just don't mess with them. You, you can admire them from afar.

[00:24:48] Bryan Murphy: Mm-hmm.

[00:24:48] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah.

[00:24:49] Bryan Murphy: Right. Please don't be that person. Yeah. That person that, that one. Story on Instagram.

[00:24:56] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. I saw,

[00:24:58] Bryan Murphy: you know, it goes viral and, and not a good way. Yeah. And it's, it's not,

[00:25:02] Kahanuola Solatorio: yeah. You get fined, you know, so

[00:25:04] Bryan Murphy: yeah.

[00:25:04] Kahanuola Solatorio: Just mind your, mind, your space. Six feet, no, actually more than six feet. No, it's more than that. Yeah,

[00:25:09] Bryan Murphy: yeah,

[00:25:09] Kahanuola Solatorio: yeah.

[00:25:11] Bryan Murphy: That, that's Coronavirus, bro.

[00:25:13] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Sorry, I forgot.

[00:25:17] Bryan Murphy: Okay, so.

[00:25:19] Bryan Murphy: This is probably my favorite.

[00:25:21] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. P Hana.

[00:25:22] Bryan Murphy: P Hana.

[00:25:23] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. So PA actually means like done or finished. And Hana means work when you're done with work and you just wanna go home and relax and you know, spend time with your family. Open up a cold one. We call that Paul Hana. What's that mean? We call that, oh, I don't kidding. Like, uh, juice or water, you know, that kind of stuff.

[00:25:42] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. So Paul Hana. Yeah. I gotta wait a little bit. So

[00:25:45] Bryan Murphy: it's five o'clock somewhere, right?

[00:25:47] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah, exactly. I like the words there's lit. Really? Very random. So

[00:25:53] Bryan Murphy: super random. Yeah. But these are, I think, a lot of terms that you'll come in contact with.

[00:25:59] Kahanuola Solatorio: Mm-hmm.

[00:26:00] Bryan Murphy: As you're. In Hawaii, or even as you're dreaming and maybe researching about Hawaii, you'll probably come across a lot of these words and having a, just an understanding of these words and phrases is so culturally important to Yeah.

[00:26:16] Bryan Murphy: Where you're traveling and,

[00:26:18] Kahanuola Solatorio: yeah.

[00:26:18] Bryan Murphy: You're gonna have a great time and you're gonna do all the things that you're going to do in a responsible way. But everything that we do at Hawaii's best, we wanna make sure that we draw back to the Hawaiian culture the best as we can. So,

[00:26:33] Kahanuola Solatorio: mm-hmm. Thank you so much. Yeah.

[00:26:35] Kahanuola Solatorio: That's very important. And you know, sometimes overlooked. Yeah. On part of traveling, but. Try your best to immerse yourself in the language, the culture, everything. So yeah.

[00:26:45] Bryan Murphy: Yeah.

[00:26:46] Kahanuola Solatorio: Good intentions maybe. Yeah, that's a good way to put it.

[00:26:49] Bryan Murphy: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:26:50] Kahanuola Solatorio: We actually have a very convenient website and that is gonna be.com.

[00:26:56] Kahanuola Solatorio: So W-E-H-E-W-E-H e.com. And that's not our Hawaiian language dictionary. So everything from our book dictionary is online as well. So if you ever want to look up a word or you're like, come across a word that you think is very beautiful, just go to je.com and you can look them up right there.

[00:27:14] Bryan Murphy: And maybe just kind of on that same topic, if there's anybody who is interested in maybe.

[00:27:19] Bryan Murphy: Taking steps further towards learning about Hawaiian language, what would you recommend?

[00:27:24] Kahanuola Solatorio: So there's many resources for you to to use. One thing that I really enjoy are the apps, Duolingo. There's a whole language.

[00:27:34] Bryan Murphy: Mm-hmm.

[00:27:34] Kahanuola Solatorio: Version of Duolingo. And also drops, which helps you with your vocabulary, Hawaiian vocabulary.

[00:27:40] Kahanuola Solatorio: So that's a good one. Also, you can follow my channel. We do daily Hawaiian language lessons and we have a online Google Classroom resource that you can tap into so many resources that are convenient and accessible online. So

[00:27:55] Bryan Murphy: yeah, absolutely. From following your page and utilizing personally, Duolingo has been good for, for me, it's not sponsored by the podcast or anything like that, so that's just what I.

[00:28:08] Bryan Murphy: Personal use, but there's a lot of

[00:28:09] Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah.

[00:28:10] Bryan Murphy: Great resources out there. So be sure to, to check that out and we'll link all that and all that good stuff.

[00:28:15] Bryan Murphy: So Kahani, our unofficial cultural practitioner. Thank you so much again.

[00:28:21] Kahanuola Solatorio: No worries.

[00:28:21] Bryan Murphy: Thank you, uh, for your time and looking forward to hanging out again and.

[00:28:26] Bryan Murphy: Thank you so much for listening to this podcast and if you found it valuable, go ahead and leave a rating review below. That helps out both myself and Coni and being able to spread this message. So thank you so much and until next time, be well. Aloha.

[00:28:47] Kahanuola Solatorio: Mahalo for listening to Hawaii's Best. If you found today's episode helpful, make

[00:28:51] Bryan Murphy: sure to hit follow on your podcast app so you don't miss future episodes. You can find all links and resources mentioned today in the show notes below. Hawaii's Best is produced by Shore Break Media Group, edited by Easy podcast.

[00:29:03] Bryan Murphy: Solutions and with music, buy our friends stick figure.