The local's guide to Hawaii

Jennifer Carlile Reporter • Profile • E-mail

HONOLULU - "We go stay or we stay go?" (Shall we stay or go?) I jokingly asked my British friends in an attempt to teach them a little pidgin English — also known as Hawaiian Creole.

"Or you like go to da kine?" I teased them using our king of pronouns, which refers to anything (person, place, item) that you can't remember the name of.

Having lived away from my hometown of Honolulu for a decade now, I was back for a visit with my boyfriend, who like me is from Hawaii but lives in London, and our two haole (foreign/Caucasian) British friends.

Upon arrival, we stripped them of their tourist-identifying features and tried to teach them a little local lingo to pass them off as kama'ainas (local inhabitants) before taking them around the island to explore our favorite beaches and hangouts.

Before your next trip to the 50^th state you may want to swap your Florida duds for the following:

The little fish with a big name
After the lad-to-local physical transformation, we had to give them the vocabulary to back up the look.

Pidgin English is a potluck of languages strung together with a simplified form of English that echoes what is perhaps the world's most isolated island chain. From a Polynesian monarchy, to an English and American whaling outpost, to a U.S. territory with plantation workers from China, Japan, and the Philippines and ranchers from Portugal's Azores, to U.S. statehood in 1959, the language reflects all of Hawaii's people.

For example: Directions are given and received using the Hawaiian terms makai (toward the sea) and mauka (toward the mountains), as in "Drive straight until the traffic light, then go mauka."

We use the Japanese word shoyu for soy sauce (which is important to know as rice is served with every meal), the Hawaiian words ono for delicious, wikiwiki for very fast (notice the wikiwiki shuttle at the airport), and mahalo for thank you (which many tourists mistakenly think means trash because it's written on our public trash cans).

Other common pidgin terms are: Shoots for OK, choke for many or plenty, pau hana for the end of the work day, and hana hou for play it again or encore.

Once our friends had learned the basics, we pulled our tongue-tying favorite word on them: Humuhumunukunukuapua'a, or "triggerfish with a snout like a pig." It's often joked that the name of Hawaii's state fish is longer than the little reef-dweller itself.

Armed with sleepahs and choke pidgin terms, the Brits were ready to hit the North Shore.

Where the North and West shores meet
Hawaii's state motto is: Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono — the life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness. And it's true.

Despite the high-rise hotels and Waikiki concrete, even Oahu — Hawaii's most populous island — hosts myriad beautiful beaches, each with its own unique personality.

Courtesy Of Jared Dalgamouni Pink ginger is seen growing wild in the back of Manoa Valley, on Oahu. Locals and tourists can enjoy Hawaii's tropical beauty on hikes just outside Honolulu.

Scientists estimate that our rain forests and unique habitats are home to 10,000 species found nowhere else on Earth. And the ancient Hawaiians' presence is almost palpable when visiting a heiau — or temple remains.

A sight-seeing trip to the North Shore is a great way to get a mix of natural beauty, ancient wonders, and some good grindz (food). So, we loaded the Brits into an open-top rental Jeep and headed from Waikiki to Kaena Point — the spot where the Waianae mountain range plunges into the ocean, dividing the North from the West shore.

En route we passed through the former pineapple fields and nascent coffee plantations, from where we pointed out the Kolekole pass — the V-shaped dip in the Waianae range that the Japanese bombers flew through to reach Pearl Harbor for the Dec. 7, 1941, attack that drew the United States into World War II.

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