Post: From a Newcomer in Hawaii to Other NewcomersPosted by Andy on 5/12/06
To Whom It May Concern,
I've recently moved to Hawaii with my family from Taiwan,
where I lived for more than a decade. In the year prior
to our move, I often logged on to the Hawaii chatboard in
order to get some practical advice as well as general
impressions of the area of the U.S. I was planning to move
back to. As it seems that people interested in moving to
Hawaii and teaching there frequently access this website,
I am writing to try to satisfy their curiosity on certain
points and to give them a newcomer's set of impressions on
what it's actually like here.
First, I'd like to comment on the cost of living here,
about which you read a lot of negative commentary. My
impression at this point is that the proverbial high cost
of living in the islands is exaggerated. True, I lived
outside the U.S. for many years and am just now trying to
get a sense of what day-to-day costs are like in my home
country after being away for so long. But I have taken
frequent vacations throughout the years to visit my family
in Pennsylvania, and my sense is that, apart from the
costs of housing, the day-to-day costs of getting by in
Hawaii are about the same as on the mainland - IF, that
is, you shop where the locals do and avoid paying the
greedy middlemen who run things in areas where (often
extremely wealthy) tourists hang out. I've read horror
stories of people having to pay $6 for a gallon of milk or
a box of cereal, but where we shop we don't pay more than
$3.50 or so for either. Gas is 10% more expensive, but of
course you don't really feel it in most situations as
you're living on an island where everything is in close
location to everything else and the farthest distance you
can actually drive from one place to another is about 44
miles.
The biggest difference, as might be expected, is with
respect to home costs. Of course, things have gotten just
as expensive in many areas of the U.S. mainland (and
probably more expensive in fact in a lot of places such as
California). The key thing is that you have to get used
to living in smaller spaces. This is relatively easy for
me, as I've spent the last decade living in the second
most densely populated country on Earth, where you don't
get much for your money when it comes to space. In fact,
I've gotten so used to it that I've come to like living in
modest spaces as you have that much less work to do
keeping everything in good condition. My impression is
that most people in Hawaii simply don't feel the need for
the grandiose spaces that people in general enjoy on the
U.S. mainland. The majority of people here either have
either immigrated from or descend from people who
immigrated from heavily populated East Asian countries
where people simply don't have so much space as we have in
America or in Western Europe. The other thing is that, in
an area of the world where the weather is so perfect, you
don't feel the need to have such commodious indoor spaces
simply because you don't feel the need to spend so much
time indoors. I suspect that many people from the
mainland who relocate to the islands, particularly those
raising families, (understandably) can't get used to
dealing with the smaller spaces associated with living on
a space-hungry island. If, however, you're in a position
such as myself, coming from a part of the world where
people live in similarly crowded circumstances, or if you
are single or don't yet have children, you'll have a much
easier time adjusting to the smaller spaces and will be
able to accept not having so much space for the same
amount of money.
In short, I believe that the perception that Hawaii is so
much more expensive than the mainland is only correct from
the point of view of people who are not willing to
sacrifice the great amount of space they enjoy on the
mainland and force themselves to pay double or more when
they get here than what they would have to pay if they
were willing to make such a sacrifice.
Second,to all the people, whether locals or mainlanders,
many of them apparently mean-spirited, who are constantly
griping about ethnic issues and racial slights on this
chatboard, I will say this: lighten up a bit, and you're
sure to a much nicer time of it. Doubtless there are a
lot of people who go through life looking for trouble of
this sort, and doubtless, in a frequently mean-spirited
world, they're able to find it. My impression, however,
is that there is FAR LESS of this sort of trouble in
Hawaii than anywhere else in the U.S. My daughter,
although she is half-Chinese, looks far "whiter" than any
of the other kids in her class, in an elementary school
where there are only a handful of white kids. She
certainly doesn't notice that she looks any different from
the rest of her classmates, comes home with a big smile on
her face every day, and is overjoyed to be out of the
crazy, high-pressure study environment of public school in
Taiwan. She's already picked up the local accent and
apparently fits right in. The other white kids I notice
at her school all seem to be just as happy as everyone
else. Doubtless in high schools you do encounter
problems, some of them involving ethnic or racial slurs,
but doesn't this happen everywhere in the American public
school system? Adolescents can be nasty and groups of
them will frequently treat poorly anyone who is perceived
as non-conforming, including when it comes to appearance.
This is a just an unfortunate part of American youth. My
suspicion is that the sort of kids who encounter this sort
of trouble in school here are the sort of kids who would
encounter this sort of trouble anywhere (and possibly
administer to this sort of trouble to other kids). And
I'd like to add that, while I understand that I've only
been here for a couple of months and likely haven't had
much occasion to experience certain negative aspects of
living here, so far I have found strangers and especially
people doing any sort of public service (grocery clerks,
bus drivers, etc.) to be far more relaxed and FAR
FRIENDLIER than most of their counterparts in the frantic
East Coast area where I grew up.
To conclude, my experience so far as a newcomer has been
entirely positive, and I would recommend it to other
teachers or prospective teachers who are looking for a
change of locale and who would like to make a contribution
to a part of the U.S. which desperately needs more good
teachers. The costs here really seem to be exaggerated,
as do the reports of poor, mistreated haoles.
If other newcomers or prospective newcomers would like to
contact me for an exchange of info, I'd be happy to hear
from them!
Best wishes,
Andy
Posts on this thread, including this one
From a Newcomer in Hawaii to Other Newcomers, 5/12/06, by Andy . Re: From a Newcomer in Hawaii to Other Newcomers, 5/27/06, by Joan. Re: From a Newcomer in Hawaii to Other Newcomers, 5/31/06, by nicole. Re: From a Newcomer in Hawaii to Other Newcomers, 6/19/06, by traci. Re: From a Newcomer in Hawaii to Other Newcomers, 6/19/06, by Gigi Gillespie. Re: From a Newcomer in Hawaii to Other Newcomers, 6/19/06, by traci. Re: From a Newcomer in Hawaii to Other Newcomers, 8/08/06, by Jeff Morris. Re: From a Newcomer in Hawaii to Other Newcomers, 8/09/06, by Anonymous. Re: From a Newcomer in Hawaii to Other Newcomers, 8/12/06, by Jack. Re: From a Newcomer in Hawaii to Other Newcomers, 5/07/07, by Arden Mccollum. Re: From a Newcomer in Hawaii to Other Newcomers, 5/26/09, by Sherry. Re: From a Newcomer in Hawaii to Other Newcomers, 8/12/09, by Jackie. Re: From a Newcomer in Hawaii to Other Newcomers, 12/20/09, by Donna.
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