But all agreed that the ability to speak English is almost always critical for job seekers. Pidgin, they said, is a double-edged sword. Standard English is “an artificiality that doesn’t even exist.” Career Experts: Pidgin Can Hurt - or Help - Job SeekersĬivil Beat consulted several local career development experts to see how Pidgin use affects career readiness. “To say you should only have one language is restrictive,” said Ermile Hargrove, a Pidgin advocate and Hawaii Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development executive director. And the emphasis on so-called “standard English,” they say, disregards Hawaii’s cultural diversity. Cayetano grew up in Kalihi and graduated from Farrington High School.īut Pidgin advocates like Tonouchi - who got his master’s in English from UH - say that belief is nothing but a product of deep-seated discrimination. Teachers who allow classroom Pidgin aren’t doing enough to ensure their students realize their fullest potential, he said. Ben Cayetano, who has repeatedly said that Pidgin should be eradicated from Hawaii classrooms. “Our education system should be shooting to help our kids to be well-informed, well-educated people who can go into the community” and get good jobs, said former Hawaii Gov. They argue that students need to speak English to get by in life. Like it or not, Pidgin - the local creole language that traces back to Hawaii’s plantation era - has no place in the professional world, critics say. The poem is the result of an exercise Tonouchi did with his students in which he asked, “Try tell me all da tings dat people told you ova da years dat you CAN-NOT do wit Pidgin.” “Ho, from reading dis poem look like you pretty much useless, good fo’ nahting den, if you talk Pidgin,” writes Tonouchi, the self-proclaimed “Pidgin Guerrilla.” “Destined for be da kine deadweight to society.” In his “Da State of Pidgin Address,” Hawaii author and former University of Hawaii professor Lee Tonouchi includes a 63-line poem entitled “Dey Say if You Talk Pidgin You No Can …”
Read Part 1: Fo Teach Pidgin o Not Fo Teach Pidgin - Das Da Question. Editor’s Note: This is the second in a two-part series about whether there’s a place for Pidgin in Hawaii schools.
0 kommentar(er)
