Clan of 10 studying Hawaiian

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

The Laimana family attend Hawaiian language class at Windward Community College. From left: 75-year-old matriarch Jane Laimana, son John Laimana Jr., grandson Jarom Laimana, daughter-in-law Lei Laimana and granddaughter Jamie Laimana in foreground. Classmate Paula Faga is at far right. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

The family's 75-year-old matriarch, Jane "Grams" Laimana, deftly squeezes the truck into a tight space as 10 members spanning three generations descend on the parking lot — proof that you're never too busy, bored, old or tired to go to school.

Theirs is the biggest family group that the Windward campus — and maybe the entire University of Hawai'i system — has seen in classes at one time, according to enrollment officials.

But Hawaiian language instructor Liko Hoe said other family groups are also coming to school together to study their native Hawaiian. With 30 percent of its student body of Native Hawaiian ancestry, the Windward campus attracts the highest percentage of Native Hawaiians on O'ahu's campuses, he said.

"It's kind of neat to have a whole family coming at one time," Hoe said. "Part of the challenge with language is getting practice outside of class. They can help support each other."

Associate professor of journalism Libby Young calls the Laimana family a touching role model for other students and families. And a story in the student newspaper has ensured that they're becoming campus celebrities.

But 20-year-old Jamie Laimana wasn't thinking of any of that when she came back home from Brigham Young University in Utah to continue school closer to home after Sept. 11 and help out with some family medical issues.

Jane Laimana arrives at Windward Community College to attend her Hawaiian language class. Ten members of the Laimana clan, spanning three generations, squeeze into the truck for the trip to the campus. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

"If they can do it, we can," she'd tell them one after another. "It's just not a good enough reason that you've got no time."

Sticking applications under noses, nailing down financial aid packages, unearthing old transcripts, Jamie and her brother Jarom, both at Windward, gave their elders no choice but to pick up educations that were put on hold 30 years ago when her parents got married and more than 50 years ago when her grandparents wed.

"Jamie is very persuasive," says her mom, Lei Laimana. "And I think what was rattling around was we all wanted to learn Hawaiian."

"I had to reel them in," says Jamie, kidding her mom. "I had to cry."

Cousins Bethny and Maegan Laimana already were signed up at Windward, and so was her auntie, Lynnette Laimana, who at 40 has gone back to school in pre-med hoping to go into genetics research when she's finished in five years.

If they all took Hawaiian together, Jamie reasoned, they'd have each other to talk to — and share "in" jokes.

"Grandma jumped on board pretty fast," she said.

Soon five Laimanas were signed up for Hawaiian.

"It's like life has opened up again," said "Grams," who left her yard work and house chores behind for campus life and has gained a following of student friends who gave her the affectionate nickname.

Grams has also signed up for a computer class. So has Lei along with an astronomy class. And Jamie's father, John Laimana Jr., who has a home-based business selling vinyl windows, has begun pondering completing his degree and added a distance-learning accounting course from Leeward Community College.

Jane and John Laimana Sr. are surrounded by members of their family — from left, grandchildren Bethny Laimana, Maegan Laimana, Shyla Kamaunu, Leimomi Barrows, Jarom Laimana and Jamie Laimana; and second-generation members Lei and John Laimana Jr. For the patriarch, Hawaiian 101 classes bring back memories of his boyhood in Ka'u, where his own grandfather used to speak to him in Hawaiian. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Even patriarch John "Papa" Laimana Sr. won't stay home, though it's a struggle to get into the truck and his wheelchair after a stroke last year. But the class is bringing back memories of his Big Island boyhood in Ka'u and the grandfather who spoke to him in Hawaiian, even though the language was forbidden at that time.

"This is really something for me," he says. "It was the best idea."

Grams, setting out crackers and dip on the hood of her truck, marvels about all that has taken place.

"A year ago I never would have thought of being in school," she said. "But it's fun. We have more things to talk about. Every day is like a new opportunity."

The new school schedule means pinpoint timing in the morning to get everyone to the right place.

Lynnette and two nieces, Shyla Kamaunu and Leimomi Barrows, live with the senior Laimanas, and they juggle who's going to pick up whom, when, where and in what. Meanwhile, in Lei and John Jr.'s 10-person household, Lei spends two hours dropping off younger children before arriving at King Intermediate where she bookends her Windward classes with two jobs — morning accounts clerk and afternoon Title I "parent involver."

"I didn't know how we were going to do it," Lei said of fitting in school. "My husband tutors in the afternoon and coaches basketball in the evening, and he was Aloha Week king this year, and my father-in-law had a stroke and my mother-in-law was taking care of the family taro patch on Maui before she had to come home, but it's working."

And now she and her husband are even talking about finishing their bachelor's degrees.

"The biggest drawback is I have a business and what do I need a degree for?" John said. "But this is so nice and the atmosphere is so open, that it's now turned into 'why not?' "

Added Lei: "We just may do it, no matter how busy we are."

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.