Jane Said:

Whats it like living in Hawaii?

We Answered:

In some ways, Hawaii really is the greatest place on earth, but it is not necessarily the easiest place to live either. I am not sure why, but over the past month we have had plenty of questions about moving to Hawaii & racism in Hawaii. If you type those phrases into the search box, you should have a lot of hits. But to try to answer your questions:

Living in Hawaii is a lot like living anywhere else, but with warm weather & palm trees. It is totally not like vacationing in Hawaii. Don't get me wrong, I love living here, but so many folks who move here have totally unrealistic expectations for Hawaii being paradise.

On Oahu, there aren't many beaches that are totally secluded, but there are lots that are not crowded.

Racism... that is an interesting one & I strongly suggest you search YA, because there has been a TON written about that. Everyone has there own experience, which is valid for them, but is likely to be different from the next person's. I have lived here since 1975 & truly have not had any significant problems with racism. Other people write bitterly about how they or a friend or relative were treated. Why the difference in experiences? I have some thoughts on that, but I don't have the time to expound on them. Do the reading.

If you plan on teaching, you will need to be able to work with kids from a variety of cultures, including immigrants & kids who are not fluent in English. Many teachers come from the mainland & don't last all that long. If you work for the Department of Education (public school system), you start out in the more challenging neighborhoods & work your way up with longevity. Some schools have huge teacher turnover every year as a result of this, which makes for a tough situation.

Leona Said:

is being a teacher a good job to have in Maui hawaii?

We Answered:

I've been a teacher in Hawaii for five and a half years. I have a master's degree, and they finally decided to pay me like a teacher who has a master's after several years. Still, I couldn't afford to buy a one-bedroom condo, or even a vacant lot here on Maui, with a 30-year mortgage on my current salary. So I rent an attached studio apartment that used to be my landlord's garage, and spend quality time at the laundromat every week. This may not be the standard of living you have in mind.

As someone answered to your other question, teacher have taken a pay cut and schools are being closed down 17 days out of each school years. As I understand it, the governor's current proposal to get the kids back in the classroom on Fridays would eliminate all the teacher workdays, waiver days, and planning and collaboration days. The teacher's union has not signed off on this plan.

I'm surprised the Department of Education agreed to this plan, because they use all the training days to give us new procedures to follow to try and meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind. I think Hawaii has more schools than any other state in corrective action because 2/3 of its schools do not make "Adequately Yearly Progress" toward the federal goal of 100% grade level proficiency by 2014.

Most teachers end up having to take one or six of the expensive Praxis exams before they can be properly licensed in Hawaii. And of course, teachers are expected to take continuing education, usually on their own time if not out of their own pocket, in order to renew their license.

In most years, it has been fairly easy for someone with teacher certification from 30 other states to be hired on a provisional basis. Of course, most of the vacancies came from the high turnover of teachers, especially those who were hired from other states. A dean of the UH School of Education told me years ago that a teacher hired from the mainland had about a 20% chance of staying in the system longer than five years. It turns out, many of them get to Hawaii and find the reality isn't anything like the picture they had in their heads. You hear stories about people getting off the plane, looking around, and getting right back on it, or crying every day for three weeks and then leaving.

However, budget cuts in the last couple of years resulted in the elimination of hundreds of jobs at the state office and district office levels last year. Those senior teachers were placed back at the school level, so there were few people from outside the system hired last year. We are not expecting many vacancies this year, either.

The Hawaiian language isn't much of an issue in getting hired, unless you're trying to be a Hawaiian Language Immersion teacher, and that's a small percentage of vacancies. The vast majority of residents here know many Hawaiian words, but would not be able to understand a newspaper article or speech written in Hawaiian. It is a bit helpful to understand the dialect called Hawaiian Creole English by university types, usually called "Pidgin" by people who actually speak it.

Heather Said:

Can we make it in hawaii?

We Answered:

Ah wahine, you very good mom, asking what mobetta for kids important. Yeah, some teasing here, specially for haole's, but remember, Hawaii very "homogenous" society, lotta different races, called "great mixing bowl" by some people, ok? So kids gonna be ok, but they gonna be in minority, which is ok, cause we ALL minority, cause no majority race here, ok? We have native Hawaiian, Filipino, Korean, Japanese, Black, white, Indian, Mexican, Chinese, and everybody else, ok? We all become part of Hawaiian family, ok?
Bartending/waitress very difficult here right now, hospitality industry hurting, yeah? So my suggest, come and look round for work first, then decide if you can make it, ok? Many people make it here with high costs, and low wages cause they like to live here, only way you gonna know is to come and see for self.
Peace and aloha from Hawaii to you and yours.

Renee Said:

where can i find a job application for aquatic jobs in oahu, hawaii?

We Answered:

www.hawaiijobsondemand.com
www.jobshawaii.com
www.careerbuilder.com
www.monster.com

Judy Said:

How can teachers afford housing in Hawaii?

We Answered:

A teacher's base salaries goes from $36,486 to $66,203 a year back for the 2004-2005 school http://www.hsta.org/articles.php?article… in Hawaii which would mean at a probably increase of at least 3% over the following to years that a beginning teacher would be making 38,000+ to a top senior teacher making 69,000+ for this school year. A top school teacher is making significantly more than a median income of Hawaii so the fact of the matter is they probably can afford to live in Hawaii - but it would be nice to pay them more.

Good Luck!!!

Perry Said:

A question for people in hawaii...?

We Answered:

What you probably heard about someone's friend getting beat up by locals is true. 3 months ago, a local punched a tourist (white man) & this tourist ended up in the hospital (Queens Medical Center) he died a couple days later from Brain Hemorrhage. This was on the news, here's the link:

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?sectio…

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/articl…

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/articl…

http://www.thehawaiichannel.com/news/132…


Notice, the last article states "not everyone is Paradise is friendly." THAT IS VERY TRUE. Becareful where you go in Hawaii & becareful what you say or do to locals. I know that sucks, but that's just what Hawaii has turned into. Every morning on the news, I watch & there's always something happening & the majority of it is to someone from the Mainland, a form of racism, etc. My husband and i never had problems with locals since we're good people & usually get along great with everyone, anywhere, but I got to admit, there we're some locals that I encountered who we're very rude, racist & I'm not even white, I am filipino (but you can tell I come from the Mainland), I felt that I was treated wrong & disrespected in some places because of where I come from, but then again, there were also some locals I encountered to be very kind, respectful & professional. So, not all people in Hawaii are bad. I think there are more bad then there are good. We just ignored the rude & racist, we focused more on the positive & stayed away from the bad areas.


They say, they need more teachers in Hawaii, but to tell you the truth, the career is no good in Hawaii, not too much of an opportunity, the pay is too low & it's NOT worth it. As far as living somewhere crowded or busy, Hawaii is exactly that (O'ahu/Honolulu is the worse). It's crowded & busy EVERY DAY. If you want something more rural, try another island, Kauai is a suggestion, not as crowded, not too many tourist, but the career opportunities i mentioned is about the same. The Natives will hassle you, depending on who it is & their character, the people of Hawaii is known to hassle people from the Mainland & white people (they call them "haole"). Long story, it's better you look it up & study the culture, racism, etc. Your plan about being a teacher sounds great, but I think you will benefit better with your career or any career for that matter in the Mainland. Good luck to you.

Betty Said:

moving to hawaii to be closer to my coast guard boyfriend. need advice.?

We Answered:

not a good idea