03-15-2014, 10:05 AM
There are families who speak Hawaiian first and English second, but these are mostly, although not entirely, families who have made a real commitment to using Hawaiian as their first language by sending all their kids to the Hawaiian Immersion schools and only speaking Hawaiian at home. On more than one occasion I have had a student call home in my presence and speak to a parent or grandparent in Hawaiian. It is not a dead language, although it was close to dying before the Hawaiian Renaissance, and now there are more Hawaiian speakers than there have been in generations.
Most of my "local" students speak pidgin with each other or at home some of the time, all friends who grew up here have said you hear less and less of it in day to day interactions than they did growing up. Some pidgin words and phrases have crossed over into common usage here in Hawaii, just as some Hawaiian words have. But Pidgin here in Hawaii is not slang, it is a creole language with a grammar and syntax of its own.
Carol
Most of my "local" students speak pidgin with each other or at home some of the time, all friends who grew up here have said you hear less and less of it in day to day interactions than they did growing up. Some pidgin words and phrases have crossed over into common usage here in Hawaii, just as some Hawaiian words have. But Pidgin here in Hawaii is not slang, it is a creole language with a grammar and syntax of its own.
Carol
Carol
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb