A Paradise Lost - KOPS - Universität Konstanz

they invite the reader to sound out what the initially ‘unintelligible scrawls’ might mean.
Bob Krauss, columnist of typical Island people and places, quotes Hadley: “My
calligraphy has been my biggest point of criticism. It just takes patience. It’s an art form.
Poetry needs time and my stuff slows people down. Neighbor Island people read it the
best.” 487
As Pidgin transcends its significance as Local identity marker, its touristic appeal
derives from a combination of authenticity and accessibility: While few would bother to
learn any more Hawaiian than aloha and mahalo, a crash course in Pidgin becomes more
easily part of the itinerary. 488 However, more serious efforts have been made to educate
the Local community both about Pidgin’s history and its creative potential. While locally
prominent linguists such as Charlene Sato and Suzanne Romaine have devised courses on
pidgin and creole languages, 489 Eric Chock, Bamboo Ridge editor and poet, has
incorporated HCE in all his educational and creative endeavors, leading creative writing
classes and workshops such as “Try Write,” encouraging students as coordinator of Poets
in the Schools, and, of course, choosing to write several of his own poems in Pidgin. One
could argue that Chock is one in a long line who employs the language mostly for
sentimental effect, to convey adolescent speech, or to evoke ‘small kid time,’ a popular
theme in Local literature, consisting of history, nostalgia, and innocence. The superb
expression of a Local sensibility in his poetry, though, shows that Chock unerringly opts
for Pidgin when appropriate.
Frank Chin and Sheldon Hershinow are prominent among the critics who have
complained that Pidgin “is used to characterize not heroic figures, not even mature adult
487 Bob Krauss, “Pidgin Poetry to da Max,” in Honolulu Advertiser, 04/21/2002.
488 The Bishop Museum currently offers a Pidgin class at its Waikiki satellite site, the Hilton Hawaiian
Village. The museum’s education supervisor who designed the class argues that “a lot of visitors think
Pidgin is Hawaiian,” adding that her job is “to make them realize it’s not just a slang language. It’s
something that is part of our history, unique to our islands.” Due to its success, the class will be introduced
to military people next (see Lee A. Tonouchi, “No make fun,” Honolulu Weekly, 05/15-21/2002). A more
ambitious project indicating the contemporary awareness of Pidgin’s significance and relevance in Island
life and letters is the production of “Da Jesus Book,” a translation of the New Testament into HCE, which
took twelve years to be finished. A Local reverend trained in hermeneutics and translation asserts that “the
most useful version is what’s understandable to you,” summing up readers’ feelings that “English speaks to
my head, pidgin speaks to my heart” (Rev. Sharon Inake, “Bible can speak our language,” in Honolulu
Advertiser, 02/13/2002). When a CD version was added, its speaker had to adjust his specific brand of
Pidgin to what is called “generic” Pidgin, which is what the translators employed as a kind of middle
ground that is supposed to be intelligible by readers/listeners of all Islands and districts.
489 Romaine testifies to the empowering side effects for her students who are often educators such as public
school teachers themselves (see Romaine in Rickford/Romaine 1999: 288 and 299).
187