Epoch Times Blog

O’ahu, Hawai’i, April 17-22

When tourists think of traveling to a relaxing, tropical vacation destination like Hawai’i, likely the first thing they will think of are beaches and suntans. Whether intentionally or not, most of us travel with a predetermined mental image of what awaits at the other end. The risk of this mindset is that it is a mindset, instead of a state of mind. If one is fortunate enough to visit the Hawai’ian Islands and see their rare beauty firsthand, try to see beauty in the unexpected.

Hawai’i is a diverse milieu of not only outdoor beauty, from the lush, green mountains that literally sprang from volcanoes beneath the ocean to the sparkling ocean surrounding it on all sides. The tapestry of the people and the local culture is also rich and rare and surprisingly unique.

During the 19th century, the sugar and fruit plantations of the islands were in a booming state and peoples from all over the world were coming to Hawai’i to work, settle down, marry and start families. In the midst of this unlikely mixture of nationalities and languages encompassed together on a tiny web of islands, there arose less of a clash of cultures and more of a blending of traditions.

Much of this blending is still evident today in the local culture, even with the advent of modern life and modern technology. It can be seen in the local pidgin dialect that was born out of necessity to communicate. Chinese, Filipino, Hawai’ian, Japanese, and many others could not speak English fluently. They borrowed and blended words, sharing their cultures and identities in the process. As a tourist, it is not wise to try to speak pidgin in Hawai’i, out of respect for locals and their traditions and cultures. It is actually a complicated way of communicating whose nuances take a great deal of time and patience to understand. Here are some simple examples:

“You pau with work already?” (pau is Hawai’ian for done/finished)

“You like try go to the____fill in the blank___” (this is self-explanatory)

“Small kind” (a little bit)

Again, it is complicated and difficult to explain in such a simplistic form as a blog. There are entire university courses in Hawai’i designed to decipher Hawai’ian pidgin and explore its roots. Of course, there are some words you might overhear during a visit:

Shoyu: Japanese for soy sauce

Slippers: What locals call flip-flop sandals

Haole: Hawai’ian for a white person (can be derogatory or affectionate, depending on the context)

Brah/Bruddah: Don’t even try to use this–ever. You’d probably have to marry into a local family and live in Hawai’i for 40 years before you were allowed to say this without being laughed at. It means something like “man”.

Small kind: A little bit

Mainland: The entire United States aside from Hawai’i.

There are many, many more turns of phrase and words that locals in Hawai’i use. The colorful, warm phrases and speech reflect a diversity that should be explored slowly and treated with respect. Locals in Hawai’i are proud of their distinct cultural heritage and ways of living it has maintained even to this day. As a visitor there, if you stand back a bit and let go of any preconceived notions, you just might hear the soft, lilting accent of the locals as they speak pidgin, and realize that you are definitely not in Kansas anymore.