The Hawaii Traveler

Hau’oli Kepakemapa! (Pronounced how-oh-lay key-pa-key-ma-pa) Or, happy September.  It’s another lesson in the beautiful language of love you’ll hear everywhere in the islands.
You don’t need to learn Hawaiian just to visit the islands, but it’s fun to learn a few words and phrases.  You may or may not decide to use them, but here are a few choice bits that you might recognize while you’re in the land of aloha. Check out some of the basic rules of Hawaiian pronunciation first, and remember: the Hawaiian  language is not the same as “Pidgin.” 

Aloha–Hello, goodbye, and is an expression of love.
Mahalo–Thank …read more

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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 …read more

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