10 things you should NOT say or do while in Hawaii
Dear travelling friends who make their way to the friendly islands of Hawaii... this one's for you!
10 things you should NOT say or do while in Hawaii
1. Do NOT shorten the word Kamehameha by saying Kam. For example, "Kam Highway". I have a hard time just writing that. A Hawaiian will cringe if you don't say Kamehameha all the way through. Kamehameha was one of Hawaii's greatest leaders and it hits a nerve to hear his name shortened for the sake of convenience.
2. Do NOT walk into someone’s house with your footwear on. It doesn't matter if it's work boots or slippers. Take them off before walking into someone's house! A local may let it slide to be gracious, but trust me...There will be an internal struggle going on.
3. Do NOT allow your children to call local elders by their first name! It's either Aunty or Uncle. Sometimes we hear Mr or Ms from foreigners and its alright. But here in Hawaii, you show respect to your elders by treating them as instant family members. So Aunty and Uncle is how we refer to our elders.
4. Do NOT insult local food. We will take it personally. When you say something rude about food its like saying something rude about our culture and our mom, aunty or grandma who made it. You can politely say "no thank you" or "oh boy I'm so full!" but don't say "eww that looks like poop! How can you eat that!?" (like squid luau which, by the way is one of the tastiest foods on the planet!)
5. Do NOT try too hard to speak pidgin. It helps when you understand pidgin just for the sake of communicating with a local, but don't be all like "ho brah look da kine! Killahz!". I get it, it's worth a try. But as soon as you leave the room you will be the laughing stock of the party! Just be yourself. We like you for being you and appreciate real people.
*note: this isn’t the same thing as speaking Hawaiian. We suggest you try your best to say Hawaiian words. We appreciate you trying to learn the native language. Pidgin is a different story.
6. Don't think that someone has a crush on you because she kissed you on the cheek. It's a local Hawaii tradition and we are not flirting. It's what we do across the board to greet people.
7. Do NOT start a sentence with "you know, it would be better if you locals...." for ex "you know, it would be better if you locals made larger street signs" or "You know, it would be better if local people learned how to speak better English". Just figure that it is the way it is and there’s either nothing we can do about it, or we like it that way.
8. Do NOT start off learning to surf at Pipeline or any other famous surf spot like Jaws. Okay, this may seem like a no brainer. But, I remember some guys who looked fresh off the plane, commenting about how “small” it looked at Ali’I beach and they couldn't wait to dominate those "small waves". It was NOT small. Maybe from afar it was small but actually being out there upclose to the waves was scary for me and some of my very experienced surfing buddies. Despite a few warnings, they went out anyway and got drilled! Badly! This rule for any other questionable spot, whether it’s hiking, swimming in a stream… if the locals say it’s dangerous, it’s dangerous!
9. Do not get into a food fight. This kind of goes with point #4, about how we take food seriously. I don’t know if this really happens commonly in the mainland, but I remember seeing it on TV shows and thinking “Wow who’s gonna clean that?” and “How much money did that cost?” Then, I went to college in the mainland and saw grown adults jokingly throw food at each other. They would do this often. Granted, this was college and I guess they felt they had the license to act immature, so really I don’t know. I didn’t spend more than 2 years in the mainland in order to do a long term study on it. So don't get offended, I'm not stereotyping mainlanders as habitual food fighters. But, just an FYI: This is just plain unacceptable here and even more insulting if you leave it for someone to clean up. Again, just an FYI.
10. Do NOT call a lava lava a skirt. A lava lava is a traditional clothing. It's a piece of material worn around the waist of Polynesian men or women. You may see a Polynesian man wearing one and trust me...you don't want him to hear you call it a skirt.
That’s all I have for now! I hope I didn’t offend anyone or scare anyone away from visiting the Aloha State! Truthfully, there are so many cultures here and we are quite used to the diversity.
For the Christians:
I wanted to conclude with this, when Gentiles heard the Gospel and became born again, there were major cultural differences that the early church encountered. But here is what Paul said,
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus.”- Galatians 3:28
In short, we have differences due to our cultures and upbringing. The most beautiful thing about being a part of the body of Christ, is that it doesn't matter who raised you or what culture you are from... we all have one heavenly Father and one rule book to follow (the Bible).
Hope you enjoy your trip here!
Peace,
Erin
