In general, the Samoan attitude towards aging is pretty similar to other cultures. To us, old age is wisdom and accomplishment. It’s a time to sit back and enjoy the spoils of life. But how do younger Samoans treat our elders? Samoan culture emphasizes alofa (love) and fa’aaloalo (respect). We believe that our elders are […]
The Lord’s Prayer in Samoan (with video)
It’s been a crazy several weeks on this side of the One Samoana screen. I could write a very boring book about the ‘technical issues’ that took this entire site off the interwebs for over a month. (Summary: if you’re going to run a website, find a webhost who loves you. Ours didn’t. We had […]
A Samoan Matai and Language Challenge
I love the Samoan culture the way I love my family: I would protect and defend it with my life I don’t always agree with it and sometimes we fight One aspect of our culture I always seem to be in the ring with is our matai system, or fa’amatai. On the one hand, fa’amatai […]
Fa’alupega and the Samoan lauga
Fa’alupega is often the first building block of a Samoan lauga (speech). When addressing a gathering of people, it is custom for the speaker to acknowledge all the other matai in the room, to greet each of them not just by title name, but with an acknowledgement of their village and recitation of how their […]
How do you say car in Samoan?
We’re continuing our series of Samoan language Toolbox phrases – those words and sentences that will help you begin learning directly from Samoan speakers. Last time, we looked at: How do you say [bird] in Samoan? In this very similar dialogue, we want to know about cars: A. What is the Samoan word for [car]? […]
How do you say bird in Samoan?
Some of the most useful words and phrases to learn first in a new language are those that help us ask native speakers for more help. For example, ‘How do you say [something] in your language?’ or ‘What is the [your language] word for…? Let’s call these our Toolbox Phrases – because they go in […]
Numbers and Counting
Counting in Samoan is pretty straight forward. Our numbers are very similar to those of other Polynesian languages. Here’s how we start: Numbers 0-10 0 O 1 tasi 2 lua 3 tolu 4 fā 5 lima 6 ono 7 fitu 8 valu 9 iva 10 sefulu To count into the “teens”, just think about what […]
Ie Sina – a lost Samoan art
I was back of house at the Melbourne Museum, browsing their hidden Pasifika collection, when I first saw one of these. This is Samoan? I asked. Yes, came the reply… and apparently, when a group of Samoan community elders visited a few weeks earlier, they gasped and shed a few tears at the rare sight […]
Days of the Week
The Samoan terms for our days of the week are made up of two parts: the word Aso, or day, and then a second word to describe that day. For example, Aso Sā is what we call Sunday, and the word sā means sacred. As Samoa is a very Christian country with most denominations observing […]
A proverb about being late
I’ve been hanging out with my uncle lately. He’s a pretty intense kinda guy. He’s loud, laughs like thunderclaps – or sometimes suffocation – and he tells those long, drawn out jokes with such conviction the anticipation kills you… and then the punchline is hit or miss depending on how well you get Samoan humour. […]
