Smithy Briand at the helm of the yacht Seal. Photo: Karen Earnshaw
After living in the Marshalls off and on for 15 years, the number of Marshallese words and phrases I know and use are pathetically few. ‘Hello’, ‘how are you?’,’ see you tomorrow’ and ‘can I have another glass of white wine’ are about the limit. This is for four reasons: I’m lousy at learning new languages; I’ve spent little time working at it; the language bears little resemblance to anything my ear has ever heard; you can almost always find someone who can understand English. That said, most volunteer teachers who fly off to an outer island come back for the Christmas break four months later fluent in Marshallese (damn it). But, like many cultures, ri-Majol (Marshallese people) love it if you at least try to wrap your mouth around their language, so below are a few words and phrases to get you going. The voice you will hear belongs to former Majuro Hospital employee Smithy Briand, who was happily ‘kidnapped’ from the Marshall Islands by Australian volunteer Virginia and now lives in New South Wales.
There is renewed progress for a new airport terminal in Majuro. The RMI Ports Authority late last week posted an architect’s conceptual view of a new two-story terminal for Amata Kabua International Airport along with a request for public comments by May 1. Ports Authority “is in discussion with Japan International Cooperation Agency for the […]
“I’ve never felt like a VIP before,” a partygoer said during the reception dinner onboard the Taiwan flagship Pan-Shi AOE-532d Tuesday at Delap Dock. The statement was made after the teenager was applauded by a squadron of uniformed mariners as he entered the reception area on the flight deck. Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade […]
Here is a startling figure. Of the 5,318 households in Majuro and Ebeye, 909 of these have no wage earner. The recent Technical Note by the Graduate School USA that focuses on the minimum wage reports on a recent RMI household survey and says the proposed basis for adopting an increased minimum wage is based […]
HILARY HOSIA, GIFF JOHNSON Investigators from the office of the Auditor General confiscated office equipment and reviewed documents during a court-approved search of an executive office at the College of Marshall Islands Tuesday. The team had police escort from Marshall Islands Police Department while they conducted their investigation at the administration wing of the college. […]
Journal 5/1/1987 P1 Forced to sign 177Marshall Islands negotiators told the United States that nuclear claims should be settled with individual Marshallese claimants but the US refused, using economic leverage and incentives in the Compact to get the Marshall Islands government to approve the Compact nuclear claims settlement with espousal, said Minister of Health Tony […]
