The Hawaii Traveler

You’ve no doubt at least heard the word pidgin or pidgin-English in an island context, and if you were without the luxuries of Google at the time, you may have deduced that the conversation referred to some kind of bird.

Actually pidgin is an informal hybrid language; one simplified language that has risen from one or more mother tongues. It’s not exactly a dialect, and not exactly slang, although the pidgin spoken in Hawai’i is often confused with slangy, regional English. Spoken slowly, you will probably understand enough of it to know what the speaker is saying. Spoken rapidly, it sounds decidedly foreign.

There are two very opposite opinions about pidgin:

1. It’s OK to try speaking it, and to even try your hand at “conversational pidgin.”

2. It’s rude to try speaking it; you’ll only make yourself look and sound stupid and rude. (Hawaiian words are OK.)

There you have it. It’s up to you to make the ultimate decision. My advice: stay on the safe side, and refrain from exercising your skills around complete strangers. Apparently, you can’t lose by learning Hawaiian words such as aloha and mahalo, so train your tongue accordingly. (Your mileage may vary.)

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