Pidgin Lessons

[DakineSlider]

Seeking lessons in preferably Melanesian Pidgin. Legit teachers only please. Let me know if you might be able to help. Aloha.

[GypsyLika]

Re: Pidgin Lessons

Seeking lessons in preferably Melanesian Pidgin. Legit teachers only please. Let me know if you might be able to help. Aloha.

I think da best way to learn it is by total immersion. But maybe its just me. Its a matter of listening really hard and knowing a few of the their words and slangs.

I know when people ask me to teach them something in pidgin its comes out awkward because its outta context and there's no flow; so to speak. Ok, I think its just me.

Oh sorry ~ I'm no help; I should have said that first. Not a legit teacher either. Although I did teach high school English for one semester. Thats only funny if you knew my first language was straight up Pidgin from back in da day. Eh, no laff.

[timkona]

Re: Pidgin Lessons

Pidgin is useful, and fun, and cute, and a uniting force, and all the other great things.

But without an on/off switch, it is a handicap. Social mores for the use of pidgin do exist. But some never learned when or where or how to speak any other language.

[damontucker]

Re: Pidgin Lessons

Pidgin is useful, and fun, and cute, and a uniting force, and all the other great things.

But without an on/off switch, it is a handicap. Social mores for the use of pidgin do exist. But some never learned when or where or how to speak any other language.

A person with a higher knowledge of linguistics would really shoot you down on this whole thought!

I remember from my linguistics teacher... he spoke in front of our class and said that "pidgin" can be classified as an official language!

I thought to myself "shoots" I'll take that from a Professor at UH who obviously would know what he was talking about.

[timkona]

Re: Pidgin Lessons

I never said pidgin was not a language. In fact, I compared it using "any other language" - inclusive.

[damontucker]

Re: Pidgin Lessons

hanicapable those that use it properly...

I'm sorry mr Timkona...

but calling people who choose to use pidgin in the same fashion of "handicap" is offensive .... and I'm not even from here originally.

I never said pidgin was not a language. In fact, I compared it using "any other language" - inclusive.

a handicap?

[SouthKona]

Re: Pidgin Lessons

Pidgin is useful, and fun, and cute, and a uniting force, and all the other great things.

But without an on/off switch, it is a handicap. Social mores for the use of pidgin do exist. But some never learned when or where or how to speak any other language.

Timkona, it must be just horrible for you to live in a place where you hold such contempt many of the other residents - especially those born and raised here! Your "high maka-maka" attitude surfaces again.

[timkona]

Re: Pidgin Lessons

Just horrible when I'm helpin a family get the house they want.
Just horrible when I'm coachin winners in football.
Just horrible when I'm helping schoolrooms get more computers.
Just horrible when I'm finishing concrete for the church hall foundation.

Hey SK, where you at?

[pzarquon]

Re: Pidgin Lessons

Take the personal grudges to Private Message, folks.

Hey, I'm born and raised here, and I feel like I should take pidgin lessons. Rap Reiplinger CDs can only get you so far!

It is a language, a nuanced, complex, colorful, functional, and fun language. Certainly something nice to have in one's repertoire. Absolutely something worthy of study, in terms of origin, linguistic links, and the like -- like any pidgin.

But like many languages, there are venues, regions, and circumstances were it's common, appropriate, welcomed and encouraged, and other places where it causes miscommunication, confusion, or conflict. So to say that someone who only speaks pidgin would find themselves at a disadvantage in some situations is hardly horrible or offensive. It's true. Someone who can converse fluently in both standard English and pidgin, meanwhile, would have some notable advantages.

To try and stamp out or marginalize "Hawaiian creole English" would be a travesty. And no one's suggesting that.

Wanting to understand a pidgin language is understandable, even admirable, and hence the original post. However, DakineSlider was asking about Melanesian Pidgin, with which, it appears so far, no one has any specific experience.

I agree with GypsyLika that the best way to learn any language, pidgin or otherwise, is through total immersion. I can actually approximate local pidgin when in a group where it's just flying fast and furious, but end up tongue tied if I were asked to suddenly demonstrate it in another environment.

[timkona]

Re: Pidgin Lessons

Thanks Pz. Is it me, or do I catch a lot of crap here for tellin it like it is?

It has been my experience, in Hawaii, that telling it like it is, blunt & abrasive, with no chaser, is frowned upon heavily. Do you concur? Why do you think that is the way things are here? I got this impression mightily while running for council.

[pzarquon]

Re: Pidgin Lessons

Believe it or not, I agree with a lot of what you say, though perhaps not with how you present it. Blunt isn't the issue. Presumption of knowing how "it" is, or what constitutes reality or the truth, is the main Achilles' heel of many otherwise talented rhetoricists.

That said, let's not turn this thread into another one about you and your style. (In other words, folks, don't take the bait... again.) It already isn't answering the question about Melanesian Pidgin, but a reasonable conversation about pidgin could develop if everyone would just lay off the barbs.

[timkona]

Re: Pidgin Lessons

Kill The Messenger !!

[Paul]

Re: Pidgin Lessons

I saw a show on The Travel Channel about the people of Vanuatu. The pidjin they speak over there is unintelligable to Hawaii pidjin speakers.

[pzarquon]

Re: Pidgin Lessons

Well, a pidgin is a class of language, not a specific language. What we call pidgin won't be what Melanesians would call pidgin, or what Vanuatuans (?) would call pidgin. The American Heritage Dictionary says pidgin is:

A simplified form of speech that is usually a mixture of two or more languages, has a rudimentary grammar and vocabulary, is used for communication between groups speaking different languages, and is not spoken as a first or native language.

So Hawaii's distinct mix of cultures and languages created "Hawaiian creole English," and the mix of languages in other places would create an entirely different animal. They're creations of neccessity that help people understand an area's history, and evolve to continue to serve their basic function, which is to form a bridge between two or more cultures.

Notable is the dictionary statement, though, that a pidgin "is not spoken as a first or native language." I think for some people -- here and elsewhere -- the regional pidgin is all some people can speak. And because of that, face some challenges.

Again, though, pidgin is great to know and be able to converse in as an option.

[Paul]

Re: Pidgin Lessons

Predominantly Melanesian, the people speak English, French and Bislama, a form of pidgin. The Ni Vanuatu have populated these islands for centuries and with more than 105 distinctly different cultures and languages still thriving, Vanuatu is recognised as one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world.