Comments on: More on Hawaiian Pidgin

By: Skeet's Stuff

Skeet's Stuff — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 05:08:22 +0000

[…] was only then that I saw the posters for today’s production. Living Pidgin by Lee Tonouchi! I know that y’all know that I’ve recently re-read this wonderful book by Da Pidgin Guerrilla. The play was comprised […]

By: skeet

skeet — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 07:03:00 +0000

I agree, techie. Pidgen is their first language. There will be situations througout life where they will communicate better in standard English. I’ve used the same analogy in the past that you used. If a Spaniard wants to live and work in Germany or France, he needs to learn the language. No one would expect him to give up his first language. It’s not about giving something up, it’s about adding to ones communication skills. Most of them don’t even realize that they are bi-lingual if they speak English and pidgin. That’s a wonderful talent to have.

By: techie

techie — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 05:15:00 +0000

I use to live in Hawaii. I love pidgin and think it’s great that Hawaiian’s keep their culture. I don’t think there’s any reason why Hawaiian’s should give it up. However, I personally believe that you should know how to speak proper english in addition to pidgin. Let’s be honest. Pidgin really is its own language. I don’t see why someone can’t embrace their pidgin culture and speak proper english too. In fact, a number of the people I worked with in Hawaii did just this. They could turn off and on the pidgin depending on who they were speaking with. The reality is that I often started speaking a few things in pidgin and in some ways we met in the middle. However, being able to communicate is absolutely essential in anything you do. If I move to Italy where the national language is Italian then I expect that I need to learn Italian to communicate with people. That doesn’t mean I have to leave english behind. Why not embrace both?

Really, I think most of these issues have been heavily debated in the spanish community. Would be an interesting comparison.

I think it’s great that you are working to keep pidgin alive.

By: Allan

Allan — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 20:39:00 +0000

I reckon it is, y’all.

By: Dirk_Star

Dirk_Star — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 19:56:00 +0000

Wha dey say, mon?

I agree with Allan, overrated activities not worth cleaning up the language for anyway.

By: whimsicalnbrainpan

whimsicalnbrainpan — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 19:04:00 +0000

I see a lot of people from the South treated this way because of their accents. It is such a stupid mentalilty isn’t it?

By: Allan

Allan — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 14:59:00 +0000

Eh, most of the stuff on that list is over-rated anyway:
-”Job interviews”
-”Join the Military”
-” …Neiman Marcus?”
I no can do that things…