Living in Oahu - learn Hawaiian or Japanese?

Learning Japanese would definitely help you get a job in the hospitality or tourism industry. Another thing I recommend learning is pidgin English here in Hawaii for a better understanding of the local people.

Overall, just understand the local Hawaii lifestyle and how people go about things and you will be fine with no worry of disrespecting anybody.

These days you can learn how to speak Japanese over the internet. Check out this online course, it's voted as the best Japanese online course of all time: http://www.rocketlearner.com/japanese The course is very easy to follow, I was able to learn Japanese in just 3 months.

I live in New York City, I wanted to go to a Japanese language teacher but that would have cost me over $800 per month. Good thing with this internet, $800 it's a lot of money for me.

You will have a much better chance of a job in the Hospitality industry (hotels, restaurants, tours, etc.) if you can speak to the tourists from Japan! That would be my recommendation!

I think it is way cool you are learning some Hawaiian, but know that many Hawaiians can't speak Hawaiian. A lot of the local singers in fact learn to speak the songs phonetically (heard that on an interview on KINE the Hawaiian music station playing the best mix of yesterday and today..).

You do not have to learn to speak fluent Hawaiian to gain the respect of Hawaiians. Here's an alternative: research and join a good halau in the area of your home, a hula school. That will help you get to know people too! And it is sooooo beautiful with so much of the soul of the Hawaiian people as you know. Music and dance is the INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE that all can understand, respect and enjoy.

Note that most of the population of the islands are NOT Hawaiian, they are Asian (the world infected Hawaii with western disease and decimated their population which never rebounded, there are almost no pure-blooded Hawaiians left, most are of mixed heritage), And more precisely the largest ethnic group in Hawaii are Japanese-Americans.

Other things I have found to be helpful:

* Food is sooo expensive, get a CostCo membership

* Buy a lot of things online. Since it is on the web, the prices are no more expensive than the mainland, they don't usually charge extra for shipping to Hawaii and NO TAX.

* Even if you don't drive, get a state id card, this gets you into places and buy things with a "kamaaina" (local) discount.

Good luck and aloha!

Learn Hawaiian

Simple Math:

(Hawai'i'an is a lovely language however)

125 Million or so Japanese, on average 5 to 10 thousand visit Hawai'i in a given month and the number really has not change in a dozen years.

1.9 BILLION Chinese their Government has loaned AMERICA several BILLION Dollars to wage war in IRAQ and Elsewhere - - - so their economy and their middle class is growing by leaps & bounds. Whereas once no one had ever seen more than a hundred, and then maybe a thousand Chinese visitors to Hawai'i, arrivals from China now equal Japanese visitors and are expected to grown by 15 % per year!

Chinese and then use it as a gateway language for Japanese would be your best bet if you want a good solid hospitality job and better yet if you go to CHINA to teach ENGLISH for two Years or so, then you will learn Chinese in the process and hence get paid to learn!

Peace/////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Learn phrases from both Japanese and Hawaiian, because you'll need it to understand pidgen. But, learn to Speak fluent Chinese and you will have a real skill.

It is true that there are still tourists from Japan in Hawaii, but that has slowed WAY down.

Chinese is where it is at right now. If you learn that, you will be ahead of the curve.

English is almost always heard...you will here people talk Hawaiian slang but never really the "language". I never heard Japanese although there are many Japanese people living there.If I had to learn something I guess it would be Japanese but the Hawaiian culture is so fascinating to learn about too.

My advice would be to make sure you respect the land, they are big on protecting it. If you are white you can expect to experience racism (haole) but there are many wonderful Hawaiians too. If I had to move there again it would be Kauai or Maui..Dont go into Wainae at night either lol. Visit Ko'Olina beach. Go to the Paradise Cove for your Luau. It is very expensive to live there, my house (3 bedroom) in Mililani ran us $2700 a month. You have to see "stairways to heaven" on the windward side if you are terrified of heights.

If I think of more I will add

Mahalo

Speaking Japanese & Loving Japanese Culture!

Nobody except the real locals speak actual Hawaiian. Majority of us speak pidgin (slang language) from time to time (with a few exceptions), but English is the dominant language.

If you were to get into the tourist industry (hotel business), then Japanese is the language to learn, as a LOT of Japanese tourists come to Hawaii every year.

RE: How Is Living In Oahu? Im still in high school right now, but I would really love to move to Oahu when I graduate. I love to surf, love their paradise weather and their beautiful land. I have been their twice. But I don't know how it would be like to actually live their. Like would I be able to find a job? How...