Never Been to Hawai'i

[KrisB]

man you are absolutly right i hear locals calling blacks haole all the time. yes sir happens all the time. why just yesterday........

You haven't exactly shown yourself to be "well-integrated" into the community, so your sarcasm makes little sense.

 

[Black_3000psi]

intergration is an illlusion embrased by those with a desperate need to be accepted. people can co-exist (well most can). but the word on its merit implies an imposiblity. i am who i am and talk the way i talk. i have no need to run around town spewing aloha and mahalo in a vain attempt to sound local. in other words im not trying to be someone im not im cool with who i am.now my daugther on the other hand has been here since she was three i would be the first to agree shes local.understanding a local custom.and its culture is one thing but trying to become something im not for the sake of fitting in , well lets just say I dont need that type of reasurence.

 

[KrisB]

intergration is an illlusion embrased by those with a desperate need to be accepted. people can co-exist (well most can). but the word on its merit implies an imposiblity. i am who i am and talk the way i talk. i have no need to run around town spewing aloha and mahalo in a vain attempt to sound local. in other words im not trying to be someone im not im cool with who i am.now my daugther on the other hand has been here since she was three i would be the first to agree shes local.understanding a local custom.and its culture is one thing but trying to become something im not for the sake of fitting in , well lets just say I dont need that type of reasurence.

You're confusing integration with adoption.

I'm not suggesting that saying "aloha" and "mahalo" integrates you into the Hawaiian community any more than Michael Jackson's plastic surgery integrated him into the Caucasian community.

Understanding the concept of "aloha" and expressing it through deeds is a good start. Also, taking ignorance and "ai no kea" attitude like you did above with the "no ka oi" and "mahalo" phrases (rather than doing a search) doesn't help your case.

I'd say you're lucky you picked Hawaii to come to with that ignorance -- I don't think New Yorkers would have been nearly as tolerant!

 

[Black_3000psi]

confusion is a state of mind brought on by lack of understanding i have no problem with the locals.hello works for me thank you works for me.tell you what. you want to intergrate ill take you on a tour of south central L.A. and we can see your theory in action. and i will teach you all the local lingo and you can see how well you are accepted. a person is accepted or rejected based on how they carry themself not by knowing the local lingo. and im sure i'd fit right in with the new york crowd. well maybe not on wall street.( and even if i didnt im sure that what ever their lack of tolorance caused them to do would be nothing new to me and not something im incapable of dealing with) that is untill i started trying to talk like them. using Michael Jackson as an example was a nice glimps at your true personality.because in the end one can not hide their true feelings, they will reveal themselves given the time and a long enough rope.

 

[Puddle Pirate]

Having dove Oahu a few times, and Maui a bunch... I'd say spend the time and money diving Maui (unless you really like wrecks), and spend your Oahu time topside doing tourist stuff.

I don't think I'd call Oahu diving "great" unless the only thing I had experienced was 5' viz freshwater on the mainland. It is "ok" -- and yes, it's diving -- but it was pretty disappointing for someone coming from Maui.

It all depends on what you are looking for. I have dove Maui a few times, Oahu a bunch, and the big island twice. If I could only dive one island it would be the big island, I think by far the best diving of all the islands. I can't comment on the diving in Kauai as I haven't dove there, but it was way too slow topside for me. To be fair to Maui I only dove four shore sites, five caves/graves, Makena landing, Ahihi Cove, and Ulua Beach. From what I had heard of how great Maui shore diving is, it was pretty disappointing for someone coming from Oahu. Oahu does have great diving as parts of all the islands have great diving and other parts are just ok, it all depends on conditions and where you go. As for North Shore of Oahu not being diveable in the winter, I guess I will have to delete the two dives I did at Sharks Cove and Three Tables on Dec 26th out of my log book, along with the two dives at the trench (Haleiwa Ali'i Beach) on the 3rd of Jan. since these dives are not diveable in the winter.
I would agree with Steve (Friscuba) pick one island to dive, then on your next trip pick another island. The charter boats on Oahu all want to make at least two trips or more per day so very seldom can you dive your air or computer, but rather it is back to the boat in 45 minutes or less. It looks like most the charter boats on Maui want to be back in before noon to avoid the wind and sea state so I am not sure if they let you take your time. The big island charters are slow, easy going and they let you dive your air or computer as they usually only do one day trip and then the Manta night dive. Whichever island you go to I think you will enjoy the diving.

 

[Thalassamania]

confusion is a state of mind brought on by lack of understanding i have no problem with the locals.hello works for me thank you works for me.tell you what. you want to intergrate ill take you on a tour of south central L.A. and we can see your theory in action. and i will teach you all the local lingo and you can see how well you are accepted. a person is accepted or rejected based on how they carry themself not by knowing the local lingo. and im sure i'd fit right in with the new york crowd. well maybe not on wall street.( and even if i didnt im sure that what ever their lack of tolorance caused them to do would be nothing new to me and not something im incapable of dealing with) that is untill i started trying to talk like them. using Michael Jackson as an example was a nice glimps at your true personality.because in the end one can not hide their true feelings, they will reveal themselves given the time and a long enough rope.

If you've followed SB at all you'll know that there's very little that Kris and I agree on. But we do on this one. The situation here is nothing like either LA or NY. Learning the local language and customs is considered honoring the locals, not trying to be like them. It is expected, if you want to be accepted (at least here on the Big Isand ... I can't speak for Oahu). I'm, frankly, not too comfortable with the whole "aloha" and "mahalo" thing, but I go along, and it's starting to feel more comforable with time. I've got some books and some disks and I'm starting to pick up enough Hawaiian to manage, "the green book is on the table" kinds of conversations and the Hawaiians that I see on a daily basis seem to both enjoy and appreciate my attempts.

 

[Black_3000psi]

the sociological changes that take place in ones speech patterns caused by ones emersion into another culture is not something that takes place over night in a day.since english is still the predominate language in hawaii that change would take even longer. the change it self happens in three ways.

1.peer influenced: by this I mean your speech pattern is effected by your everyday socioliztions with locals in a closed environment such as work or school. as an individual continues to interact on a daliy basis they will "subconsciously" embrace words and phrases into their vocabulary. this is not a forced change rather an influenced caused by everyday associations. this is a natural change that affects most individuals. however for those who come from a social background that has its own strong customs these individuals are less likely to be affected, or the change would take much longer then others.

2.survival instincts:in this case one finds themself in a social situation where there is an obvious language barrier that must be removed in order for the individual to survive in that environment.

3.fear/insecurity/need for acceptence:so often when a person is cast into a new social envirvonment the pressure to fit in is so overwhelming that they feel compelled to do anything in their power to "fit in" these individuals unquestioningly adopt local customs and languages in a desperate attempt to be accepted in the new environment.
class dismissed.

looking back on all that writing i can see now why my sister says i dont sound black anymore. ok wait. i can fix this....Um...um....word...? awh frack it im goin divin.

 

[Thalassamania]

There's a fourth (that's quite critical, at least in rural Hawaii): A conscious decision to show respect, which is quite different from any of the three ways you describe. I've worked in developing countries and the first thing we were taught was to learn all the we could about the local customs, the mythologies and language. Face it, when your doing fisheries biology work the time invested in that process combined with one night drinking in a fisherman's bar will give you a better feel for what's going on in the fishery there than will a couple of years of tag and recapture and fishing effort studies. Maybe not as publishable though.

 

[murdrcycle]

Are you guys gonna throw up some gang signs and brawl for your 'hood?

Listen you two, I am from St. Louis. YOU GUYS LIVE IN HAWAII AND YOU ARE ARGUING OVER WHOSE ISLAND OF TROPICAL PARASIDE IS BETTER. Come to St. Louis for a winter. Do you know what the temperature was today? 1. Try diving in that.

 

[Thalassamania]

No, but I am likely to add one more entry to my ignore list however.