Eia nā mana'o o'u pili i ko'u mo'omeheu, i nā mea i hewa 'ia ai, i nā 'ōiwi 'ē a'e a, i ka mana'o o ka po'e a pau i ke ea Hawai'i, ke aupuni Hawai'i e ho'omau nei, a me nā mea mākou e pono ai e loa'a.

MY FINAL POST

ALOHA!

Today while my classmates Jenny and Nahula were emailing each other, Nahula got an email from her cousin asking if Alberto Domingo was her classmate because she heard that he died. Apparently none of us had any information so I said that I'll contact my cousins in WA who is related to him. So when I came home, checked MYSPACE, my cousin did say that it just so happened she heard from her mother (Annabelle Domingo) and that Alberto died Tuesday. They found him dead in his apartment, more than likely due to health issues. Jenny said that when she last saw Alberto on Molokai (Jenny lives in CO) his hygiene was not that great. Had all kine kaki'o on his feet, etc.

How sad though to find out that someone dies from something that could easily be avoided. Although I know that it usually takes years before you get really, really bad. But you also have lots of time to get better too.

So now we have 3 classmates that died. Angel Sibayan who died while swimming out to save his nieces, Rebecca Sanchez who was murdered by her husband and died a slow death from what I heard, and now Alberto. I heard of another classmate having cancer, I hope she's doing okay too.

Having said that though, here's a list of my classmates and the cousins that we share. Alberto's name is bolded.


1) G. Punahele (Punahele cousins)
2) N. Calairo (my brother and sister)
3) J. Bush (my grandmother's hanai brother's descendant; Loo family)
4) S. Rapanot (Hubin family)
5) R. Manaba (Jason Flores)
6) J. Willing (the Keahi family)
7) N. Duvauchelle (G. Halemano and the Keahi family)
8) E. Ragasa (Catherine M.)
9) J. Kuahuia (my grandmother's step-father's relatives)
10) L. Maliu (the Keahi, Sanchez/Miller families and my brother & sister)
11) D. Spencer (the Keahi and Sanchez/Miller families)
12) L. Dudoit (the Keahi and Sanchez/Miller families)
13) E. Negrillo (the Loo family)
14) S. Reyes (the Loo family)
15) A. Domingo (Andy, Andrea and Amanda)
16) M. Mollena (the Loo family)
17) J. Tokuoka (Iaea family)
18) D. Naki (the Loo family)
19) F. Corpuz (Molly Bush & Loo families)
20) L. Reyes (the Bush-Kaalekahi family)
21) R. Poepoe (Keahi family)
22) T. Arce (Bush/Kaai family)

Found this link where you can test your proficiency. It covers grammar, vocabulary and reading comprehension. Reading is always a bitch and worse, comprehending. I had problems with English too. lol

Anyway, I did both the Spanish and Portuguese and the results was what I expected. However, I did notice that had I been a bit more careful, I could've scored a little bit higher.

Spanish:

You are at the Advanced Beginner level.
You scored 89 points out of 150.
You scored 59% overall.

PART I: Grammar
You scored 30 points out of 45.
You scored 66% on this section.

PART II: Grammar
You scored 34 points out of 45.
You scored 75% on this section.

PART III: Vocabulary
You scored 14 points out of 30.
You scored 46% on this section.

PART IV: Reading Comprehension
You scored 11 points out of 30.
You scored 36% on this section.


Portuguese:

You are at the Advanced Intermediate level.
You scored 123 points out of 150.
You scored 82% overall.

PART I: Grammar
You scored 41 points out of 45.
You scored 91% on this section.

PART II: Grammar
You scored 41 points out of 45.
You scored 91% on this section.

PART III: Vocabulary
You scored 24 points out of 30.
You scored 80% on this section.

PART IV: Reading Comprehension
You scored 17 points out of 30.
You scored 56% on this section.


Funny that the only reason why I have been finding these "evaluations" on proficiency is due to me frequenting linguaphiles. I saw one evaluation there that lead me to others. And at the same time, I see so many language nerds wanting to learn ukupaila languages (like how I wanted) but can't seem to focus on fluency. Then they try to compensate by showing off their knowledge of the language and what makes it tick, yet can't show anything for it. They rarely, if ever, get to know the people behind the language. That's sad really. The only reason the language is what it is, is because of the people. This reminds me of people having a fascination with certain things of the Hawaiian culture. Sure, exotify the culture but forget, if not marginalize the people.

Sometimes, so many things just irritate me when it comes to languages including reading shit about people being undecisive. I always warn people at work that one thing I cannot stand is when you come to me looking for advice simply because you cannot decide for yourself wtf you want!

I watch on a daily basis REDE TV (SUL), and sometimes a couple of others. I also watch GALICIAN T.V., and at least once a week, I watch either the Azorean RTP or some other Portuguese station just to be exposed to it. Ironically since January since I started doing this regularly and practice with tutors, attend language meet ups (both in Portuguese and Spanish), my fluency has increased tremendously and I've noticed how much more comfortable I am speaking both languages, unlike before. My comprehension level has been growing too. I don't know however, how well my pronunciation is with Spanish since I speak without thinking so much. I know it's not bad, but sometimes I wonder. I was reminded about this as I read an entry in linguaphiles about someone trying to take on a particular accent without proper exposure. Unlike my accent which I know is pretty much "standard" especially since I am exposed to various accents. I mentioned how my friend Luis, a Salvadorian whose accent is pretty much Mexicanized. I hear the difference from his relatives who live near him and damn! lol That's all I can say.

I know for my Portuguese, my accent has been pretty much carioca. My first prof. was from Rio, then I studied for a month if not less with a Paulista. Then since January I've had 1 Mineira whom I dropped, and 2 cariocas. So my accent remains the same, unblemished I guess. lol If anything, it has perfected but it was the paulista who actually perfected my accent. That was pre-1994. I think that's what gave the cariocas the impression, or they're convinced I have no accent. In other words, I sound Brazilian. They never said it was very carioca, but at least Flavia has pointed out the most that I have no accent. In fact, this past Wednesday she told Anglea, a Chinese peruana that I am modest. lol It had to do with my fluency and level. hahaha I told her Angela that I don't view it the way Flavia does. But it seems that other Brazilians, at least the paulistas that I met last Tues. have the same concept. I still laugh at the fact that when I first walked in, that one Brazilian asked if I spoke Portuguese, but the others asked if I were Brazilian whereas everyone else they asked "...you speak portuguese?" lol Filipe, Anizia, Luis (Anizia's husband) all asked if I were Brazilian. I don't think Maria Fernanda asked me that though. That's 3 out of 5 native Brazilians...I say that's pretty impressive. The private tutoring is paying off! hahaha Oh wait, that was actually based on phenotype actually. Anizia said I had features like those in Bahia, and Flavia agreed. hahaha

On May 23rd we have another Spanish meet up and Flavia is definitely coming again. She enjoys it, so that's good. I still get confused but have been able to hold a conversation, although brief phrases, with Flavia in Spanish. I of course am comfortable speaking Portuguese with her. lol I notice though, that her accent in English is very strong. lol I never noticed before, mainly because we don't speak much English when we are together. And if anyone speaks English, it's me, not her.

Then early part of June is the Irvine Portuguese meet up. Not sure what is going to happen with the closest one to me because Luis stepped down. Flavia offered to help me, and I told her that I'd prefer the organizer be a native speaker. Like the Samoan girl Leilani who stepped up as the organizer for the Santa Monica meet up, and now she's been AWOL. *sigh* So I dunno, we'll see. I'm not that type of person to put that kinda shit together. Bad enough the Irvine one is super far, but every meet up is always eating out dinner. Fuck, it becomes expensive and then it's too fucking loud in that type of establishment. I just want to fucking practice speaking! Ironically you have all these native speakers, including with Spanish and they prefer to speak their language. But whatever works for them.

Anyway, the point of this post was exposure! You cannot gain fluency without proper exposure. Only so much you can learn from books and tapes/cds/dvds as a means of interaction. But the best remedy will and always has been, a native speaker.

Well, this week for the gym is pretty much not good. Monday I did my upper body, yesterday my lower, but my diet was spoiled since Tues. And today isn't helping either since i was too tired to go to the gym (since Tues...it finally caught up with me) and felt under the weather since yesterday afternoon. But oh well, there's always next week. Plus I got paid so I have to find a way to maximize what shit I can buy with little money.

My spanish class got even more challenging as the prof. is giving us tenses that don't exist in the book. But that's good to know. Last night though she made us read a few text in the book and talked about it, in Spanish. So that was good, interesting and ironically I liked that. Normally I hate to talk about what I read. lol

I asked her what does Spanish 3 entail and she said basically more vocab., no new grammar/tenses, and nuances and uses and I think it'll involve reading and writing a lot. But oh well, we'll see. As long as I can handle my Speech, English and Math class this summer, especially this particular math class which will be a combo. of media and class time, I will be taking the higher level math during the fall on Saturdays and Spanish 3 Tues & Thurs. So we'll see how that goes. I should be taking my science classes in the fall, but not sure how the higher math class may affect me, so that's why. And I am certain the next level of Spanish class will take my time this time. No such thing as last minute homework 20 mins. before class and not studying. Especially if it involves learning new vocabulary. Hell, didn't study any vocabulary in this book anyway. lol

I think people who love cats so much are fucking weird! Just plain weird! Love the cat, that's all. Don't act fucking stupid por favor! lol

Going through the pics. posted at these various cat commmunities here on LJ, I can't stand it when people like to put a caption as if they're cat is speaking. And they begin to spell stupidly, like it's fucking cute, and worse...use poor English. What fucking idiots!

Thank the gods my cats are very multilingual and even in English they speak it purrrfectly! LMAO

but well worth it. I was FLYING on the freeway! I was 6 mins. over my return time, so I think there may be a fucking penalty. Fucking shit! And that's b/c I couldn't leave at the time b/c I had to wait for the fucking list to say that I paid the stupid fee for the meet up. Fo daze! And I told the organizer I was leaving 15 mins. PRIOR to this shit happening! Fuck! Then I had to fill up gas too. Fuck!

Anyway, a good brazilian showed up. lol He, like all the other brazilians asked me at first if I was brazilian! lol Why don't the ask the asians and the haole looking ones? Hmm. I laughed. I asked where was he from (his name was Felipe or Filippo, not sure) and he said Santa Catarina. I was surprised. He asked if I knew it but I said I see it on t.v. all the time but the fucker cut me off. lol Anyway, he spoke actually kinda fast, softly too, so it didn't help.

Maria Fernanda, the organizer, along with Anizia, a prof. of Portg., her husband and another guy (forgot his name too) who married a Peruana were all from S. Paulo. Sometimes Anizia had that funky R, but not as much. Maria F.'s R however..you'd think she was from Portugal. lol Oh, there was Serginho who is an American but as a kid grew up in S. Paulo. Another funky accent, americanized though, but he knew Portg. well.

I liked that Peruana where later she just gave in to Spanish. lol It's funny how we all understood each other though. *sigh* I can imagine the plantations back in Kualapuu, Molokai. lmao Then there were the others off to the side and I felt bad for them. They arrived early too but it seemed they were away from the native speakers and the native speakers were just into their conversation. It was at some Mexican rest. which I had no idea it was, and therefore it was loud and I wasn't, or COULD NOT spend money. Especially after transferring some money into my account earlier today.

So now I am here at work, missed my bus, so have to wait an hour. And tomorrow is my fucking leg day too! I didn't eat much at all today, not to mention the shakes. Watch tomorrow when I go to Pasadena with Flavia to meet up with the Spanish meet up group. lol I have lots to tell her about tonight though, so it'll be fun. Practice spanish! Practice portuguese...i'm ready to move!

Oh yeah, since they all asked if I was brazilian, I had to laugh at Anizia b/c she later said that I "seemed" brazilian. I asked why, if it was my accent. LMAO She said my features, seems like I'm a BAHIANO! LOL Shit, more I laughed! Then she talked about how people can or can't discriminate even in Brazil. She said w/ the Koreans or Japanese...they see themselves as Brazilians but some Brazilians will see them as that first, versus someone w/ my features. Of course that's after until they start talking to you, but that they are more likely to walk up to a person like me, with my features and speak vs. the other type. Thought that was interesting.

She even made her eyes SLANTED, you know when people pull their eyelids far to the side? lol She said I had almost that, guess like the indigenous people there, plus my complexion. *rolls eyes* hahaha Ok, I am moving....for good! lol

WORKOUT: Yesterday my workout was okay. At that time, it felt like I was doing good but I could tell the results afterwards that I didn't push myself as much as I should've. Perhaps on Friday I'll make up for that. I did try to increase my shake in-take but then I remembered how full and bloaded I'd feel so that when the next meal came around, I just couldn't take anymore. In fact, I threw my eating schedule off late last night. I forced myself to eat a little for my last meal of the day and on top of that, it was only some beans. I meant to take a protein shake to get my dose of proteins along with my carbs (beans) but damn, I was tired and anxious to go to bed to prepare for a "visitor" this morning. lol Anyway, to make matters worse, this morning I skipped a meal and then I felt like my stomach acid was eating through the lining of my stomach. So as soon as I got to work I drank half a shake and now trying to eat my oatmeal. My schedule will be off for the rest of the day, I just know it. Plus I am going to Irvine tonight so that'll impede my normal schedule. Not to mention tomorrow night too.

BATEPAPO: Tonight, getting my FLEXCAR and driving all the way to Irvine just to meet a few Brazilians and others to practice speaking Portuguese. You gotta do what you gotta do! lol Hell, I think for the amount I'm paying for the car tonight (only $20) I can just get my private lessons done with Marcos. But it's good to be exposed to others and hear the various accents, including people who are still learning it and have nasty accents. lol Tonight is Portuguese, tomorrow night it'll be Spanish and in Pasadena. On top of that, my tutor Flavia (a carioca) will be going with me, or I'll be going with her, however you look at it. So if there's anytime to get confused, or depends on how you look at it, take it as a challenge, it'll be then b/c we'll speak both Portuguese and Spanish. Well, I'll be damn if I speak Spanish to her, maybe to the others, but not her. lol It's either English or Portuguese, no Spanish with her, although we talk about some things in Spanish and give each other examples. Other than that, we both will get mixed up. I know she does and I do sometimes without thinking, just as she does. Hers is more pronunciation whereas mine is more of words.

ASIAN PI: Of course the timing couldn't be more perfect since this month or whatever was designated Asian Pacific Islander Heritage month. *rolls eyes* Anyway, on myspace the kids who are arguing that Filipinos are Pacific Islanders are at it again. Then you have some mexican/haole kid (15 yrs. old) talking about Asians with small weenies. lol Kinda disturbing actually b/c....well, I'll ask him myself later if he continues. He must've been disappointed to end up with Asians who had small weenies. lol That'll make him pissed off. Unless he really is gay. lol

PROTESTING: Yeah what else is new. Today in downtown the streets were being closed very early due to the Immigrant/whatever-else-you-can-think-of march/rally. That's why I changed my flexcar reservations to an hour later and a different location. I want to avoid that crap although by the time we go home it should pretty much be over.

Bad enough last week I didn't do shit. Today I was going to clean, but so far it's a no go.

KALEO: I realized that my brother Kaleo did add me back on MySpace, so I left a comment for him, not like that it will do anything. So now I have 3 of my brothers on myspace. Kaimi, Kaleo & Travis. I know Kaimi rarely checks his page although someone checked it recently. I think it was my niece who did that for him that's why.

HAWAIIAN/BQ: Since a few mos. ago after experiencing shit from Micah and a few others, I've really distanced myself from Hawaiian issues, and not a conscious effort too. Coupled with the fact that I started my Spanish class and meet ups for people who want to practice Spanish and Portuguese, I just realized while reading someone's myspace in Hawaiian that it takes more effort to comprehend what is written. I guess just being inundated with Romance languages makes me think differently. I also realized this while responding in Portuguese on ORKUT regarding some aspects of the Hawaiian culture and people asking for translations from Portuguese into Hawaiian. *sigh* In any case, I was reminded why I wanted to distance myself from stupid people while going through some of the Hawaiian groups on myspace, I saw the post where everyone asks "How much Hawaiian you?" Or something to that effect, like how much "Hawaiian blood" do you have? Geez, I guess I have the same amount of blood that any normal human being would have, right? I mean, if I bleed, does that mean I lose Hawaiian blood? Or am I really losing Filipino blood? Or some other type of blood, or does it depend from where I bleed? Why is it that Mexicans don't talk about how much Mexican blood they have, or Japanese say the same thing? What about Haoles, why don't we hear them say how much Haole blood they have or don't have? People, you really need to get out of that stupid frame of mind and stop trying to minimizing us! Or worse, for you BQ-Hawaiians....stop minimizing yourselves!

BODY: While in the shower I thought of how I wished I was at the gym working out. lol It's nice to see some tone coming back to my body. I didn't eat much yesterday and I only drank one glass of my protein shake. Today, I haven't had a shake yet and not eating as much either. I normally would take measurements and self photos today since I did that last week but I guess I can wait till Friday to weigh myself and measure since doing that over the weekend may not result in anything. lol Although I haven't been eating too much crap with the exception of Friday, had some capuccino cake but after a few bites I could tell the difference. So eating right isn't that difficult especially since I was pretty consistent before. We'll see how much "gains" I make by the end of next week. This is going on the 3rd week and usually by the 6th to 8th week after really being strict, you can see results. I mean REAL results. So we'll see since I haven't gained any weight yet.

SCHOOL: Last Thurs. the prof was sick so no class. That means, she'll push for more class time in order to learn whatever we need to learn. I can't believe that our final is on the 29th. That means, 4 weeks from now or actually 9 more classes to go! I won't be attending Tues. class since I'll be going all the way down to Irvine in order to "bate papo" with a few Brazilians and others interested in Portuguese. It better be worth it, that's all I know! I have to remember to bring extra cash since I owe the group organizer $3. Then on Wed., my Portg. tutor - Flavia will be going with me to the Spanish meet up. I hope that the gods allow Alex to show up this time. lol Hector is suppose to be coming again and hopefully Roberto (from Sardegna) will show up. Always an incentive to go to these things. lol Anyway, I registered for my summer classes. I am scheduled to bust my ass during the summer. Taking Speech in the early part of the summer, then the math class that I needed to take will be on Saturdays and then when the speech class is over, it'll be the advanced English class latter part of the summer. I am thinking of going w/ the math prof. that I liked (Karapetyan) and take 2 math classes with him (versus 1) and take Spanish 3 during the Fall. The math class will be on Saturdays, but we'll see. I want to verify with the counselors first to see if that's okay with the math classes. I don't want to take a math class that I really don't need. That's of course assuming I will pass my math during the summer, if I can handle it.