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Hawaiian is so rarely spoken in Hawaii that it also surprises me a little when I hear it. It is sung more than it is spoken. Listen to KAPA FM and then support the musicians who are keeping the Hawaiian language alive. You hear more French in South Louisiana (and that is fairly rare) than you do Hawaiian in Hawaii. It is a dead language that is in the process of revival, like Hebrew was (not sure how dead Hebrew was, but it was on life support).
It is difficult to find a Hawaiian language class that does not require a commitment of 15 class hours per week. Listening to music until you understand it is the best way to learn Hawaiian for the casual learner in my view.
Don't confuse Pidgin with Hawaiian. Pidgin is widespread and a GREAT dialect. I love the accent. It is hard to emulate because you have to talk very, very fast. But it is a fun, sing-song dialect of ENGLISH (not Hawaiian --English). When I hear pidgin I get all weak-kneed.
I am not one of those who thinks that you sound stupid if you emulate Pidgin. I respectfully disagree. Like ANY dialect or language, you sound stupid at first, but if you keep at it, it is conceivable to pass -- not for purposes of deception, but for purposes of perpetuating the dialect. I am not adept at it but I do apply it lightly. If I am being spoken to in pidgin, I change my inflection a little. Inflection is about all I can give right now, but it is important and I think my own speech has changed as a result. I LIKE the local dialect. If you don't change a little linguistically, that's when you stick out like a sore thumb. People from India move to Texas.....and then adopt what remains of the fast-vanishing Texas accent when they speak English. This is no different, except you are learning a new dialect and NOT a new language (again, spoken Hawaiian is rare except in schools).
A language is not just different words -- it is also a different take on life. Language is a product of thought. And locals think differently than mainlanders. That's the charm. It is expressed in the local English dialect.
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Pidgin, as spoken in Hawaii, is a wonderful, always evolving language (or, creole). However, acquiring fluency is a waste of your time. Phoney pidgin is seen as comical or condescending. Just be a regular friendly person and I am sure you fit in just fine. Puna is a very accepting place.
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As a side note...
There are many very local areas where Hawaiian IS the spoken language... most of us forget that speaking Hawaiian in public & esp. at school, was not only frowned upon, but forbidden, It is a very new thing (less than 2 generations) that it has not only been taught in school but encouraged in public.
Families here are now able to not only speak Hawaiian at home, but to have their children educated in immersion schools. Although many look at this as the 're-birth' of this language, it is more correctly the public re-interest in a language that has survived and progressed.
In this multi-culture, multi national tourist area, it might be that we do not notice when a speaker is speaking one particular language, as I have heard Hawaiian spoken on the bus, at WallyWorld, at the beach, and at the university... in fact, I hear it far more often than French & German...granted that proves nothing more than I do not hear that many French or German people talking to each other...
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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
Carol
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb
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When I worked in Waikiki and lived in Maili I usually road the bus home ($.25) when my hours permitted. Frequently, on the evening run there were two old ladies that always chatted in Hawaiian during that long run (and that was a long ass run). I couldn't tell you if it was their 1st or 2nd language but it seemed natural for them and I don't recall them using English, although I expect they knew it. I don't recall ever having heard anyone else back then using it it in casual conversation that way and I guess they could have been transplants from Niihau.
Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.
Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.
I think speaking a little pidgin is something you can do as you gain local friends. It sure wonÔt gain you local friends. You need to be hanging with people speaking pidgin and then it is OK to pick it up because itÔs what everyone is talking.
My husband moved here in the early 70Ôs and went to work in the field doing surveying in the brush on Maui working with local crews. He learned pidgin. He speaks it great. It doesnÔt sound fake. First he has an awesome ability to pick up language pronunciation of all kinds and second it was never stilted.
IÔm sure there are many similar stories from people who hang out with those who speak pidgin only.
One of my sons who has been here ten years speaks great pidgin with no fake touch, again, he goes to work with a pidgin-speaking crew of guys five days a week and then hangs out with them on weekends. He was always one who liked slang so it was just a new variety. His wife also had moved to Maui as a teenager with a Hawaiian boyfriend and she spoke pidgin without effort.
I wonÔt do it because it would sound fake from me. I just listen mostly.
Where I put in effort is learning to say place names and street names (and proper names) as best I can. Not the same as learning the language, which would be learning syntax and grammar. ItÔs only learning pronunciation of the words, and I think everyone who moves here ought to try that. People do appreciate that, whereas they donÔt appreciate half-assed pidgin.
Kelena, I change my inflection whenever IÔm talking to someone with a local accent. It helps them understand me better and shows IÔve been around for a while. I know I canÔt pull off pidgin, but after 12 years IÔd better be able to change my vowel sounds and phrase things like locals do.
No one ever blinks when I do that. To them, itÔs how people talk, so why shouldnÔt I talk that way?
When I went to Ireland I started doing that automatically, it was so fun, and about five days in an American tourist assumed I was Irish because of the way I was talking. Oops. [:p] My grandmother was from Ireland so it was kind of wired in.
I think that haole people who say haoles will always sound dumb with pidgin just arenÔt good with slang and thing no one else will be. I know IÔm not good with it. I was brought up by parents who spoke properly all the time and IÔm cursed.
My kids were skate rat punks who used their own language to talk to their bros. ItÔs not at all hard for them to pick up pidgin, and turn bro to brah. But I will say if you have to use your brain to think about it when you speak it, thatÔs probably going to be mockable.
It has to just flow effortlessly. The people who hear that will hear it is coming natural and they wonÔt mock you.
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Ask Joe More how long it took him to pick it up! 
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Before I moved to Hawaii my partner at the time had this weird habit of talking to whoever she spoke to in their accent. I'd never come across something like that before. She was a photographer and occasionally travelled to the US. When she spoke to someone on the phone from the US she'd start speaking with a US accent, even getting the regional dialect right (Chicago mostly, but she could do other areas as well). When speaking to people in London she spoke with a UK southern accent and when speaking to family she went back to her strong Welsh accent. I never understood how she did it.
I'd have loved to see her try pidgin as it's not only an accent but a different language. I have a hard time with it. However, if some local heard me speak pidgin with an English accent, I think they would just fall down laughing. So I don't even try. Most of the time I can make myself understood and some people have actually said they like my accent, even if they don't always understand what I said.
Don't fake it, be yourself.
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KAPA has a very interesting language segment on the morning show. They present a definition and ask callers for the local word / expression. Quite interesting how many callers before they get the correct response sometimes.
David
Ninole Resident
Please visit vacation.ninolehawaii.com
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