I knew Nora Okja Keller when...

Re-reading the entries about local writers reminded me of a time when I took an English class (Short Story & Novel) at UHM taught by Nora Okja Keller. She had to be one of the best English instructors I had and will have. In that class was my first experience with recognizing pidgin' English as a language. We actually read a couple of pieces from the "Best of Bamboo Ridge."

While many of the students in the class were from Hawaii, we had a good share of "mainland" students. They were usually the ones who used the excuse of taking a summer school class to spend 6 weeks in Hawaii. My experiences in that class taught me that local literature is legitimate literature and that just because you speak pidgin' doesn't mean you aren't as smart as the next person. I think it was wonderful to have such a diverse class because one of the fun parts was watching these mainland students try to speak pidgin'.

I teach an interpersonal communication introductory class at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. In my class I show the video "American Tongues" which discusses dialects around the United States. One part of the video shows how people use different words, such as slangs, in their everyday speech. There is a person from Hawaii who says "pau hana." And he says that "pau hana" means "work is done."

I think that slowly but surely people are beginning to recognize that we should be proud of our heritage and culture. Nora Okja Keller helped me to realize that speaking pidgin' doesn't mean you aren't as well-educated as the next person. I admit that after living almost 8 years on the mainland, I have lost most of my pidgin' though some of it will re-surface in conversations occasionally. However, when I go back to Hawaii, within 30 seconds of stepping off the airplane, it sounds as though I never left the islands.

So I knew Nora Okja Keller when she was just an instructor at UHM. And I appreciate the way she taught me to embrace my culture and be proud of who I am. Thanks for listening to my talk story here. I felt like I wanted to post this. Comments welcomed.

Comments

Joy,
Thanks for this. Do you happen to have a contact email for Nora Okja Keller. I know it's a long shot but thought I would ask.

Happy Lunar New Year and thanks for your kind attention.

All best,
Jean Kim.

I, also, was wondering if someone has contact e-mail for Nora, or any other authors from Hawai'i. I am a student at Wellesley College, looking for a lecturer for this semester. Thank you.

In case anyone is interested, I'm helping Nora run an online workshop over and www.bambooridge.com.

I realise I might be out of topic but check out this collection of best song lyrics http://www.lyricshosting.com

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