Haoles and Friends

[Guest]

I think it is important to meld and learn the culture of any place you go, even if its another area of your own state.

I know a lot of Patois (Jamaican Pidgin), and can understand it well. I am hoping that will help me to transition to learning Hawaiian.

I was curious to know how long it took everyone to pick up the language, if you have learned it at all.

1 month ? 1 year? Never got it ?

[oink]

I don't see how your being familiar with Jamaican patois will help learn Hawaiian. It might possibly help with singing Jawaiian if your musically inclined.

I found it interesting how greatly the commonly spoken Hawaiian pidgin has changed from what I was familiar with from 40 years ago. I did run across an older guy in the phone store at the mall that spoke the pidgin I remembered. Looked like he was probably a cowboy. I always found it odd when non-locals went out of their way to sound like locals. Never sounds right to me. That said, when I moved back to the mainland years ago I had people comment on my strange accent. It supposedly sounded a bit like something from the N.E., oddly enough. While not picking up Hawaiian pidgin grammar, or lack thereof, I had absorbed some accent. It quickly faded.

Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.

[Guest]

Jamaican Patois and Pidgin have a lot of similarities, as they are both basically a form of broken english.

I would guess, because essentially Pidgin is a slang of dialect, it changes with the times as any slang does and thus seems so different than 40 years ago.

[unknownjulie]

The languages here are confusing for an outsider. The various Micro/mellanesian/Marshalese languages- combined with the japanese I hear around town, have me utterly confused. Yes, you do also hear occasional snip-its of Hawaiian and portogee also. I would just stick to english as to not make a fool of yourself. They put all the kids in ELL classes in school with the hopes that everyone at least speaks english. AT Hilo High, the kids can take either Spanish, or Japanese. They did away with the french- and I don't think latin is avail either.
This is a bit of a different topic, but this is why the test scores for Hawaii are low. It has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with the "smartness" of the kids, or the "teachers" or the "administration". It's that the kids are often not speaking "proper english" at home- and all the tests are in "proper english" so the kids here are - as a group- at a disadvantage.

[4antares]

According to my linguist phd friend the local "pidgin" is actually Hawaiian Creole, creole being a language that has emerged from the intermingling of a variety of cultures and arose from the cane fields where Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, etc worked side by side and had to find a way to communicate. While the words are largely English now the syntax, structure and intonations have a great deal of Asian influence. I suspect Jamaican patois has other roots.

life is short. enjoy it

[bananahead]

'Hawaiian pidgin' IS NOT 'Hawaiian', its a language now evolved from one developed in the 19th Century by recently arrived Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Puerto Ricans, hapa, etc. sugarcane farm workers to communicate w/ ea. other...

PS most Hawaiians here CANT Speak 'Hawaiian' ... they only know some words, certain words used by EVERYONE here, even Haoles... ie mauka/makai, ono, hana, 'aina, puka, 'okole, aloha, mahalo, lanai, pupu, pau, pono, ohana, kapu, keiki, heiau, etc. etc. and these so called Hawaiians (most are 'hapa') CANT put sentences together or understand someone fluent in 'Hawaiian' like say someone from Ni'ihau, where MOST do still speak Hawaiian everyday...

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save our indigenous and endemic Hawaiian Plants... learn about them, grow them, and plant them on your property, ....instead of all that invasive non-native garbage I see in most yards... aloha

[snorkle]

It helps to be familiar with the local dialect, but Haole trying to speak pidgen come across as fake.

Learning Hawaiian is another matter. Taking a Hawaiian language course honors the host culture.

edit; sp

[Guest]

So I am gathering,so far, that no one on here learned the local dialect ? To me thats sad. If I moved to Spain I would learn Spanish.

My world experiences have been far different. Jamaicans loved that I could relate to them and understand what they were saying and converse. it was like a secret "in".

Yuh cyan judge na book by di cova

Side note, that makes sense Julie.

[Seeb]

"More people speak Klingon than Hawaiian"
quote from Hawaiian linguist that was on PBS

[oink]

Yeah, well at the time I could understand Hawaiian pigdin just fine. At least I could understand my ex and my in-laws and my co-workers. Actually I did have some trouble understanding my FIL sometimes. He spent his life working Haleakal#257; Dairy or whatever it was called at the time, and had little formal education. His pidgin was pretty extreme. He understood me just fine. At least he understood my language. Actually he probably understood that I was a crazy haole hippy type being a bad influence on his only daughter and so had me pegged pretty good..

Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.