Unseen Volunteers Provide Insight for Non-English Speakers

Trail Guides are now available in Japanese, Traditional & Simplified Chinese and German.

Have you ever thought about how different your experience in a national park would be if you couldn’t speak or read English? Imagine going to a national park like Pu’ukohola Heiau National Historic Site and having no clue what you were looking at. How would you learn who Kamehameha was or what deeds he accomplished? How would you know where to go to observe the sharks of Pelekane or where important historical events took place? Your language makes quite a difference, doesn’t it? Fortunately for many of our foreign visitors, the National Park Service has a team of dedicated volunteers all over the country and around the world who translate numerous materials into a wide-variety of languages.

Recently, Pu’ukohola Heiau National Historic Site became the beneficiary of these “unseen” volunteers. The Park is now proud to offer comprehensive trail guides in Japanese, German and both Traditional and Simplified Chinese. These trail guides give our visitors the opportunity to learn about the significance of the Park and to have more enjoyable, meaningful experiences when they visit. With other translations still in the works, it is our hope that through the dedicated service of our “unseen” volunteers, we will be able to provide new opportunities for all of our visitors to  experience ”America’s Best Idea”.