Let Da Pidgin Begin!

So today I started to try and insert a few pidgin or Hawaiian words into Kai and Ivy's vocabulary. I hope, as time goes on, this doesn't totally mess them up with their friends. So, today they learned ono and onolicious (taste good and very delicious), moimoi (sleep, sleepy, time to sleep) and okole (butt). 

Kai had a little bit of a hard time reconciling onolicious because I was trying to teach it to her on our way to dinner. I said, "Kai, don't you think Zaxby's is onolicious?" She then responded with, "I don't know! I can't remember but I want to eat Zaxby's!" and she proceeded to cry.

I was able to finally explain what onolicious meant and once she got that I was teaching her Hawaiian (ono is Hawaiian along with moimoi and okole, but the licious bit is an English add-on from, surprise surprise, delicious) she started asking me how to say all sorts of things. Looks like this may be a bit easier to do then I thought.

I also came across this site which has sound bites of words and phrases in Hawaiian Pidgin English: Full On Pidgin. Take a listen to some of them and see if you can figure out what they're saying. o.O

To Start With

I'm a dad. Been one for just over four years. I've got two daughters and though I was born and raised all my life in Hawaii my family resides in Atlanta, Georgia. How I managed to find myself in the deep south when I was born in the middle of the Pacific ocean, I can't really say. What I can say is being a displaced islander in a southern state often makes me ponder the differences between how I grew up and how my girls are growing up. 

For all of you who haven't visited Hawaii here are a few things you should know: though we are the 50th state in the union, you wouldn't know it to live or visit there (it feels more like an Asian country in culture); though most people in Hawaii don't speak fluent Hawaiian anymore (yes there is a Hawaiian language), we all speak Pidgeon English which is like ebonics with borrowed words from Japanese, Philipino, Chinese and Portuguese; though Georgia has a lot of natural beauty nowhere I've been (and I've been around quite a bit before I settled in Georgia) is as beautiful as Hawaii (I could be a little bias). 

I wonder how different my children will be growing up without the sun setting on Waianae's coast or rising near China Man's hat. How can I teach them the difference between A'a rock and coral or how to catch opakapaka and u'hu? How do I relate to children who sometimes show fear in the water and are nursing southern drawls?

I'm afraid that one day I'll look at these two girls and see very little of myself in them. So, with that in mind, here are some of my goals, the results of which I'll be blogging about: 1) teach them some pidgeon (so there's no practical value in that except for knowing a bit of lingo for when we visit Hawaii); 2) learning how to cook everyday dishes from Hawaii and introducing them to it (easier said then done); 3) gotta do something about the swimming thing; 4) anything else I can think of along the way.

Good luck to me!