Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Cultural Perception

Hawaiian Pidgin Speakers


I went to my first year of college at BYU Hawaii and learned that many of the native Polynesians that live there speak a language or dialect called pidgin.  




Pidgin came about through these influences:




It’s still mostly understood as English, but it can be pretty hard to understand sometimes.  People who speak pidgin get are usually seen as pretty un-intelligent and lower class. 

Kids who speak pidgin are forced to speak regular English when they go to school to learn.  People who hear pidgin usually laugh at it and comment on how stupid a language it is.   This stereotype of stupidity also carries over to the people who speak pidgin.  They are usually made fun of in popular culture.


The message being sent out about these pidgin speakers is that they are not as intelligent as people who speak normal English.  It’s sad because this stereotype limits the opportunities they have for a real education and they usually end up being stuck on the Hawaiian Islands in poverty.

I had the opportunity to see first hand how this single story about the pidgin speakers of Hawaii is false.  I was trying to find my way from the beach back to the main highway once and I found two pidgin speakers trying to get back to the road as well.  Once we got to the road one of them had to walk a mile or two to go pick up their truck.  They offered me a ride home so I sat and waited with the other guy.  As I chatted with him I understood more and more of his pidgin.  I realized that he was a really smart, intellectual person and we had a great conversation about life.  My story of him was that he was an un-intelligent Taro (Hawaiian root) farmer or fisherman.  It was cool to see how wrong I was.

With the media and culture the way it is in Hawaii, pidgin is looked at more as a novelty or something humorous.  Many Hawaiians who speak pidgin find themselves tied down to their roots and unable to progress economically, academically, and socially. 


7 comments:

  1. This is very interesting--I had no idea about any of this.

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  2. Never heard of pidgin before, but now that I know about it, I find it fascinating. Thanks for sharing this.

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  3. I want to learn pidgin now! It would be interesting to research about this with other languages too. It seems like several languages have their own dialects according to where people are from. I would think that most cultures have a certain way the wealthier are "supposed" to speak vs. the poorer class. Good analysis!

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  4. This was great! Thanks for sharing your personal experience with us. It is interesting how just something as simple as the way we pronounce certain words can classify us in a different social group with many social implications.

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  5. I can definitely see how the media portrays this but maybe they are all just jealous because they can't speak pidgin ha!

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  6. I love languages and I think its awesome when they kind of converge to produce something unique. I think that's a cool part of Hawaiian culture and it's sad that its viewed in a negative light.

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  7. very interesting topic-one of my favorite pidgin phrases is "broke da mout" when something tastes so good that it "broke the mouth"

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