What is your attitude towards Pidgin?

[Composite 2992]

Re: What is your attitude towards Pidgin?

Someone in Pidgeon would say " Eh brah I like one candy ova dayah?"

That's not polite.

The polite way to ask is, "Eh, can have one candy ova dea?"

[Seeking Penance]

Re: What is your attitude towards Pidgin?

i have no problem with the pidgin thing.........actually a turn on for me .....especially hearing it from the country kane's ......like to sit and listen to them

LOL

[Lei K]

Re: What is your attitude towards Pidgin?

Growing up we were not allowed to speak pidgin in our home even though all the rest of our family spoke that way. My father was very much into English/Speech so it was a biiiig no-no to speak da kine.

I just loved it when he would scold us for speaking pidgin and no mo' than 5 minutes later get a phone call from my Grandpa, or a friend of his, and speak DA KINE! Full on accent and all.

My mom's side of the fambam speak pidgin so thick it took my husband a while to get adjusted. It's cause they country.

[cyleet99]

Re: What is your attitude towards Pidgin?

I love to listen to it; it kinda rolls over you comfortably and you "get the gist" of what is meant by absorbing it. I had the same experience with Gullah in SC, but only rarely.

Pidgin expresses differently. I like that way.

[Barry]

Re: What is your attitude towards Pidgin?

Sorry but I don't understand any of it.

[Pedro]

Re: What is your attitude towards Pidgin?

Pidgin to me is sort of a short cut way of saying something where I would say to you "Can you grab me a snicker bar out of my hat please? It's sitting on the chair near the T.V." Someone in Pidgeon would say " Eh brah I like one candy ova dayah?"

Of course I grew up speaking pidgeon but when I hit twelve the pidgin switch flipped off and I could never turn it back on for some reason. It doesn't mean I quit hanging around my friends who spoke pidgin but than again I hung around with both those who did and didn't. What did it matter to me?

One day a few years back working at an old museum in Hawaii as a security guard I was doing traffic control, sadly I was stuck at the gate with a metal sign that read "lot full." There was an event going on followed by a few parties so I had no choice but to stand my guard against the onslaught of angry people. Mind you waiting around for parking is a bumbers so I don't blame either one of them for cursing at me and waving the bird, all the while driving round and round wasting time and gass.

One of the cars gave me a hard time he didn't want to leave and I kept telling him there was no parking in the museum or in the staff parking and he wouldn't comply. My friend just walked up to him and said easily "Eh da lot is full we aint got no mo parkin so you betta go." the guy in the car politely responded to him "Shoots brah tanks." But kept staring at me like he wanted to burry a knife in my chest and backed up his car and left. So like I said pidgin is a short cut. One I miss now that I live up here in Utah where every one here is so formal it eats at me.

[Kaonohi]

Re: What is your attitude towards Pidgin?

I like GypsyLika's comments. I think she's on top of it.

Language is one of those 'connector/divider' kine things. When we hear people saying things the way we learned, we think - "there's someone who was a neighbor" (of sorts). I spent some formative years in New England, and learned to call a 25 cent piece a qua-ter, instead of a quart-er. I still do. It brands me.

It is beneficial if children learn dialect switching, and ESPECIALLY multiple languages, early on, while still young. If one learns another language before high school, acquiring additional languages becomes easier.

I'm all for pidgin in non-school settings as long as one standard language is taught in school (English or Hawaiian or whatever.)
{But English is a stupid, isolated language! - I like the romance languages better! Mutually intelligible, easier to learn.}

If we cannot communicate clearly we devolve into conflict. Clear communication facilitates friendship and cooperation. Group identification is also valuable, but if you cannot communicate with people outside your group, you are at a disadvantage.

[Johanna]

Re: What is your attitude towards Pidgin?

Hey, did any of you participate in the AKAMAI, HOLOPONO or KEEP (Kamehameha schools) project? All took place between 1970 and about 1990... projects that used Pidgin as a way to promote learning for kids who had trouble learning in school...

[Chanpuru]

Re: What is your attitude towards Pidgin?

I like Pidgin. (:

But I think it's best to be able to speak pidgin as well as normal English.

[GypsyLika]

Re: What is your attitude towards Pidgin?

LIKE, i ku-dish.
stop da swear word dammit!!!

watt u fella no can . cracks u fulla goin get, jus fo dat no kau-kau, no recess an I go call u fadda and maddah, hard head u kids i tell u. whea da slippa fo give u guys cracks.

My Kauai relatives all use ku-dish ragalaly. I love typing pidgin cause juss make anykine. no moe standard pidgin rules hah, I no tink anybody body pay tention if had. LOL

My teachas neva bodda threaten o'tawk, dey buss out da rulah or trow erasas or chalk. Bean you in da head. Us learn fo'duck fass. Dese weren't LOCAL teachas eda nobody wen sue nobody back den. If us wen tell our parents da teacha did dat kine stuff shoots us get licking so us no tell.

[oggboy]

Re: What is your attitude towards Pidgin?

I didn't cringe, but was more surprised when a female teacher said a swear word.

LIKE, i ku-dish.
stop da swear word dammit!!!

watt u fella no can . cracks u fulla goin get, jus fo dat no kau-kau, no recess an I go call u fadda and maddah, hard head u kids i tell u. whea da slippa fo give u guys cracks.

[Likeke]

Re: What is your attitude towards Pidgin?

Whooie Aunty Lika!! whea u stay, li'dat. U just give'um yah! ( wit da motion swaying to the right ) Look at you!! bein' all da kine!!

Thank you, Aunty Lika, you make feel special yah! fo' reals!

[Walkoff Balk]

Re: What is your attitude towards Pidgin?

And yet you "cringe" when you hear her teachers speaking pidgin.

I didn't cringe, but was more surprised when a female teacher said a swear word.

[timkona]

Re: What is your attitude towards Pidgin?

Math is also the greatest common denominator in the world. All people use base-10 arithmetic. So it's a terrific way to compare intelligence.

[acousticlady]

Re: What is your attitude towards Pidgin?

Well, if it’s an English course or Newswriting class, maybe. But why would it matter whether a Math instructor speaks pidgin? If it helps the teacher better relate algebra equations to students, I’m all for it.

Ha! Actually, using Pidgin in a math (or physics......) course can be really useful. We always teach that math is a language. Kids don't always understand that there are different ways of communicating ideas. Speaking in Pidgin, and then translating into standard English can be used as an example of different ways to express the same thought. Math being yet another way to express an idea. I usually then write out an idea in standard English (which will take up quite a bit of board space) and then express exact same idea in three little letters and an equal sign.