Bragging Rights

So I meant for this post to be short and sweet with me bragging about Matt...well it's ended up being a long story. At least I've got it all written down for years to come I guess.

So I've been wanting to post about this for a while, actually started it a week ago.

To graduate Matt had to have a year of foreign language requirement. Well he had heard from a friend that he might be able to use, test out type thing, for the language he already knows. (For those of you who don't know, Matt served his mission in the Marshall islands, actually called the Micronesia-Guam mission. It was supposedly an English speaking mission. Once Matt got to the mission he soon found out that most islands had their own language. He served the majority of his mission on the island Majuro where they speak Marshallese. He taught himself the the language during that time. How awesome is that!?!) So he talked with his counselor who suggested that he should write a letter of petition about what language he knew and possibly a paper in that language and send it to the dept of foreign language in order to get credit for his Marshallese.

(Matt's Mission...that's a whole lot of area to cover!! But not much land...)

So he did all this and about a month later he gets a reply that they won't except it, since they can't be sure how well he actually knows the language. He was pretty disappointed that he couldn't use it. So he called the dean of his dept, and he said to contact the dept of foreign language. He was told that if he could find a professor from another school that could test him on his Marshallese, then they could accept it.

Meanwhile Matt still had to meet that requirement to graduate (he was still able to walk), so he signed up for an American sign language to take this summer. (Awesome, I was so jealous!!)

Well Matt googled "Professor of Marshallese" and came up with a Dr. Bender who is a Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the University of Hawaii. He doesn't actually teach Marshallese, but lived there and with the help of some colleagues has written some dictionaries and such for the Marshallese language. (Matt happens to own some of them.)

Matt contacted him and eventually, after Matt wrote him a short paragraph in Marshallese, decides he can try and help him. The day of graduation he emails Matt wanting him to call his colleague, Alfred, that is a native of Majuro, and was leaving Hawaii to go back Majuro in a couple of days. That night Matt locks himself in our bedroom, he was really nervous and wouldn't let me listen, and he has a 5-10 minute talk in Marshallese with Alfred.

(Marshall Islands flag)

In the 7 years I have known Matt, I have only heard him say a few sentences in Marshallese. Matt does not like to show off/be the center of attention. I'm not sure of all the reasoning of why when people ask him to speak it, he really tries to avoid speaking it. So as Matt was on the phone, I sat outside the door listening to him. It was so awesome to hear him speak in his language...it's an awesome language. So Alfred is impressed by how well Matt speaks! Matt was really pumped about being able to speak Marshallese again. It was so cute.

(Wow this is way more then I was planning on sharing/typing!)

Lastly Dr. Bender says that he would now just like Matt to write him a 4 page paper in Marshallese about his experience there. Matt wrote it and hoped it would all work out. Meanwhile his had been taking his sign language class anyways.

A sentence in Marshallese that Matt initially sent to Dr. Bender:

Yokwe kia inaj kwalok jidik kon ao jela kajin majol. (Hello now I will show a little about what I know in Marshallese.)

So a few things Dr. Bender wrote to Dr. Gonzalez, with the dept of foreign language here at WSU:
"I am happy to be able to report to you that Mr. Hardy's command of the Marshallese language clearly exceeds that which could be expected as the result of having studied the language at a college or university for two semesters and having received a grade of B or better." and "He and I concur that Matt clearly exceeds the one-year requirement, even without taking into consideration the fact that it is almost 10 years since he was using the language on a daily basis."

Dr. Bender also attached a letter Alfred had written to him. He's a few things he said:

"Frankly, I was impressed by Matt Hardy’s written Marshallese when I looked at the copy of the composition he sent you. The composition also led me to conclude that Matt did acquire a good command of the language while he was on Majuro. I don’t think the average student could learn that much Marshallese in two years time."

Then Dr. Gonzalez wrote an email back stating: "We will consider Mr. Hardy to have passed his foreign language requirement."

I actually read Matt's emails before he got home and couldn't wait for him to see them. I am so very proud of my husband!! He totally amazes me at how smart he is, and how much he retains!! Way to take control of the situation Matt and find a way to use Marshallese as your foreign language!!

Matt took a summer semester of ASL, but since he met his requirement didn't take the second semester. I was hoping he could come home everyday and teach me what he had learned, but since it was a 2 1/2 hour class everyday...he surpassed me on the first day. (I only know the alphabet!) There was no way I could catch up that fast!!


I found a few pictures of Majuro from some guys blog. Beautiful!!
Matt's says there is tons of garbage there...goes to show I guess! Not all just a paradise!