Haoles and Friends

[Bullwinkle]

thats why we seem to be engineers or english majors

- being a major geek - we geeks have real issues with the inconsistency of the vowel structures.....

the person that invented spell check should get the nobel.....

[KeaauRich]

Just to add my two cents: You'll pick up pidgin pretty quickly once you're here. Don't worry, you'll get along fine without it until you do. My personal policy is to listen in pidgin (the language of the other person) and speak back in English (my language). Although I'm good with languages, pidgin is, IMHO, more than a language, it's an expression of a culture that's not part of my heritage. I'd feel and sound phony trying to speak it (i.e. Vanilla Ice syndrome). Pidgin speakers understand my language, and as a transplant, I feel it my responsibility to understand theirs -- and respect it by not trying to imitate it (other than the slight inflections and phrases such as those mentioned by Carey). But as others have mentioned, the words used to communicate in Hawaii aren't as important as the personality and attitude behind whatever words you choose to speak.

[Bullwinkle]

I found listening to the traffic bulletins and road closures a big plus


step one, learn how to pronounce the street names .... opens lots of doors.