More than 120 volunteers learned how to smile — and mean it sincerely — and to properly pronounce Hawaiian words as basic as "Honolulu" and "Waikiki" on Saturday so they can help delegates from 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation economies navigate around Oahu.
The volunteers are part of a contingent of 1,000 people who will spend an entire Saturday learning the fundamentals of Hawaiian language, culture and hospitality to help thousands of APEC delegates for November’s APEC conference.
The first volunteers went through an all-day training session on Aug. 13 at Honolulu Community College. They were followed by Saturday’s group at Windward Community College, where Ann Marie Ho joined fellow APEC volunteers in a three-hour session on ho‘okia (hospitality) training.
There were role-playing exercises that reinforced the importance of positive body language, a sincere smile and how it makes people feel when they’re greeted by their names.
The class was energetic, positive and fun — aspects that Ho plans to apply to her APEC volunteer work and to her job as a fourth-grade teacher at Waimanalo Elementary and Intermediate School.
Like most of the other volunteers on Saturday, Ho had no idea where she’ll be or what she’ll be doing during the APEC conference.
But Ho was excited about the possibilities.
"I’m sure it’ll be something really fun," she said.
Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz told the volunteers that organizers decided that none of the 18,000 APEC delegates would be singled out for VIP treatment.
"Everyone gets treated like a VIP," Schatz said. "But there’s no way we can treat everyone like a VIP without all of you."
He called the APEC conference "our economic Olympics," adding, "This is the biggest meeting that could ever happen in the state of Hawaii."
The 1,000 volunteers who already have been scheduled for cultural and hospitality training had to be interviewed and selected. There already is a waiting list of people just hoping for a chance to volunteer.
Robert Wu, 45, of Mililani, went through the first training session and said, "It is a long day. But it was very productive. I grew up here, but I didn’t understand the depth of some of our simple words and how profound they are to our daily lives."
Wu, who immigrated to Hawaii from Vietnam as a boy just before the fall of Saigon in 1975, even learned the etymology of the word "aloha" through his APEC training.
"There’s a lot more meaning behind ‘aloha’ than just saying ‘hello,’" Wu said. "If you can explain it to a visitor, they’ll appreciate it more. In my lifetime, we may never have APEC back here again. So it’s important that we represent our country and Hawaii in the best manner we can put forward."
In just three hours, Saturday’s Hawaiian cultural training spanned generations of Hawaiian history, offered fundamentals on the Hawaiian language — and even included a lively discussion of pidgin, which will help the volunteers tell the story of the islands, said instructor Hi‘ilani Shibata, who works as the operations manager for Bishop Museum’s education department.
"Pidgin is part of who we are," Shibata said. "Talking about pidgin gets them (volunteers) comfortable to learn more about this place, so they can be a true host."
Nancy Schildt, a 63-year-old retired Department of Education librarian, volunteered for the chance to meet people from Asia-Pacific countries.
But after spending Saturday morning learning about Hawaiian language, history and culture, Schildt already was looking at her island home differently. And she vowed to never shortchange the name of perhaps the greatest Hawaiian of all time.
"I learned that we mispronounce common place names," she said. "And I will never say ‘Kam Highway’ again."
