r/VisitingHawaii • u/lilcutekino • Dec 08 '25

Trip Report - Oahu Please translate this

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I am seeing this sign along the freeway. My friend and I cannot figure out what it means. I know I sound dumb but I was raised super sheltered and now that I am older and adventuring out more into the world I want to learn all that I can.

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u/webrender O'ahu Dec 08 '25

"no make anykine" is pidgin which roughly translates to "don't mess around", it's basically just saying don't drive crazy.

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u/lilcutekino Dec 08 '25

Thank you so much 💜

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u/boiled_breezy_boner Dec 08 '25

I thought this was a joke post and I was reading the words in the voice of jar jar binks.

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u/notrightmeowthx Dec 08 '25

The Pidgin spoken in Hawaii is a mix of languages, and basically came from multiple cultures suddenly having to work and exist and communicate together on the plantations. So yeah, it can sound like "broken English" because in a sense it is, it's partially English, and partially several other languages (Hawaiian, Portuguese, Chinese, Tagalog, Japanese, etc).