Meaning of "Haole"

Welcome to my Blog!

I am on the Quality Service Committee at Southern Utah University (SUU) so I thought it would be interesting to blog about lessons I learned growing up in Hawaii that provided quality experiences and also vacations and meals with quality companies. The Aloha Spirit that is so popular in Hawaii is the impetus for quality service. SUU already has the Aloha Spirit, but we are always striving to improve service to our students and fellow employees. Take the Aloha Spirit wherever you go so that you can provide quality experiences for everyone you encounter. 

Me as a young girl

First of all, let me start out by explaining what "haole" means. It's the Hawaiian word for "non-native person to Hawaii," but it's mostly used for Caucasians. So, growing up in Hawaii, I felt like a native, but I had the skin of a haole. I was always one of the few haoles in my classes in my Nanakuli elementary school, but that doesn't mean there was a majority race. My classmates were Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Filipino, Negro, and mixed race. Everyone in Hawaii back then was friendly and loving. The locals were the epitome of quality service. They always made you feel special, no matter who you were or how old you were or what race you were. They would give you fresh mangoes they just picked from their tree or guavas or bring leis made from fragrant plumerias or even portuguese sausage (the most delicious sausage in the world!) and chocolate covered macadamia nuts. Yes, Hawaiians were born with quality service flowing through their veins. Quality Service lesson:  Make people feel special!

I learned the Hula as a young girl and was in many hula pageants - my mom always made all the muu muus (dresses) for the hula pageants. She could have been the leader of the quality service movement in Hawaii. She volunteered her time for anything and everything. One day, she was having labor pains from my impatient brother who wanted to be born while she was finishing up the muu muus for all of the girls in my dance group for the pageant later that day. She did not leave for the hospital until she had every muu muu finished. The show must go on and the hula pageant was wonderful.  Quality Service lesson: Volunteer your free time to help others! It makes you happy and it makes others happy!

Here's a link for a hula video.  If you go to Hawaii, every island provides some type of luau (dinner party) with Hawaiian, Tongan, and Tahitian dances. The food is generally traditional Hawaiian fare and is ono (delicious)!  When my husband and I went back to Hawaii after several years on the mainland, we decided to try out a commercial luau. We heard that Germaine's Luau was the best so we booked with them. Check out these reviews from TripAdvisor.  Always check Living Social and Groupon before you make any reservations in case they have specials. The luau company picked us up from Waikiki in a luxury bus and drove us out to a private beach on the other side of the island. The bus ride was amazing because the tour guide was hilarious. He kept us laughing the whole way there with his stories about Hawaii and a ton of jokes. When we got to the luau, they gave us leis and took pictures of us and led us to an area where they taught us how to make Hawaiian crafts and play Hawaiian games or we could just listen to music. When it was time for the luau, we had delicious food and saw great Polynesian performances, then we had another hilarious bus ride home.  It was an amazing experience. We thought we were just getting food and dances, but we got so much more. Quality Service lesson:  Give them more than they expect.  

You will learn some Hawaiian words from this blog, so write them down so you can use them in conversation with your friends and family.  In order for you to pronounce the words right, I will give you a lesson on the simple Hawaiian alphabet.  The vowels are:  a, e, i, o, u.
The "a" vowel is pronounced ah, while the "e" vowel is pronounced like a long A sound. The "i" vowel is pronounced like the long "e" sound, the "o" is simply oh, and the "u" is a soft u sound, like ooo.  Ah, A, E, Oh, ooo.  The consonants are, h, k, l, m, n, p, w.  Pronounced: hay, kay, la, moo, noo, pee, vay.  Simple yeah?

The language of Hawaii is a mixture of Hawaiian words and pidgin English which also includes words from other languages.  If you go to Hawaii and hang around any of the locals, you can use this dictionary if they say something that you don't understand. The dictionary is a crack up I tell you! Click on the link and pick a letter, say "P" and the first thing that comes up is "Pakalolo" which means Marijuana. It is pronounced Pah-kah-lo-lo.  When I was in Hawaii, each island had their specialty brand of pakalolo, like Kauai Electric, Maui Wowee, Kona Gold, etc. They grew the good stuff there - so I was told! Anyway, pidgin English is a simplified form of language that could be used by many different races.  Hawaii is called "the melting pot" because of all the different races on the islands, many of which were brought over as labor to work in the sugar cane fields and factories.  If you have never smelled sugar cane being processed, take a trip to Waipahu on the island of Oahu where the smell of cooking sugar permeates the air. I love that smell! Did you know that instead of harvesting sugar cane, they burn the fields and then collect the sugar stalks. That gets rid of the mice and clears the stalk of all the leaves, then they just scoop up the stalks. Here's a great link for learning about sugar cane.  I hope I have given you more than you expected so far and that you continue to visit my blog! I look forward to hearing from you! Please tell me if there are certain things that you would like to know about.

Last year, my husband and I went back to Kauai. I hadn't been there since the late 70's. What a big change.  I reviewed some places on TripAdvisor if you are interested or will be visiting Kauai any time soon. Some ono food there!

My next post will include other quality service lessons from Hawaii, a Hawaiian recipe or two, and some information about my tandem surfing days with Wata the Beach Boy. 

Yes, I had a pretty good tan, but not as good as Wata!

Remember - every day is Aloha Friday! Take the Aloha Spirit with you wherever you go and make it a good one!