The following is a compilation of information for helping those
interested in learning Sāmoan. There are other resources
available. This list constitutes information that I have found to
be most useful. If you know of better ones, feel free to let me know.
Samoan keyboard
(as well as other keyboards that support oceanic languages).
Samoan
Dictionary by G. B. Milner. This book is easy to buy from
Wheelers
in New Zealand. They will ship to the U.S.
Tusiʻupu Sāmoa by Papaāli`i Dr Semisi Ma`ia`i. This book is a
relatively new book and is primarily printed by Little Island Press.
Wheelers carries them but in low stock, so recommend ordering
from Little Island Press direct. This is definitely a must-have.
Audio flashcard for practicing introductions. File is for Mental Case. Best way to
use them is to listen to the audio and then attempt to answer
the question.
There are
very few audio resources available. Neither Pimsleur nor Rosetta
provide language training for Samoan. These are pretty much the
only two well compiled sets:
University of
Hawaii at Manoa and Brigham Young
University (and BYU in Hawaii) -
pretty much the only places in the US to get formal Samoan
language training, other than the Peace Corp. Otherwise you'll
have to try your luck in Samoan churches (e.g. in Carson-
California, Salt Lake City- Utah, Auckland- New Zealand).
Learn About
Samoan Culture
Matt's
Samoa Blog - a truly excellent blog about Samoan culture
that is not in the travel guides.
Samoan
Legends - Attempts to document legends as a means to help
you practice learning the language.
Radio Stations
A good way to
gain more exposure is by listening to native speakers. They will
speak way too fast, but gradually you'll start to pick up the
words as you learn more of the language. It will also help you get
a handle on how to pronounce words.
Songs will
also help you wrap your tongue around pronunciation of words and
keep you motivated. Best way to find these songs is to go on
Youtube and search "samoan songs". Lyrics are also typically available online to
give you another opportunity to practice translating.
Unfortunately few songs are translated into English.
Some Tips As
You Learn
Start by learning how to pronounce the letters. Be patient
with this and get it right or else everything else afterwards
will get screwed up. Even if you are just pronouncing words
without knowing their meaning- just practice having them roll
off your tongue correctly.
Since there are only 14 letters in the alphabet (5 vowels, 9
consonants) you will often find words with lots of vowels,
which adds a bit more of a challenge when learning vocabulary.
Also as you become more experienced you will often find it's
easier to translate from samoan text to english text rather than
english to samoan. So really proof of whether you really know
the language is to be able to easily do english to samoan
translation.
Samoan is a context
language. That means where
a word is used can affect its meaning. Therefore
dictionary entries will often have several seemingly unrelated
meanings for any given word.
Often on the Internet native speakers will leave off symbols
when writing words, like macrons (the dash above a vowel such as
the one above the a in Sāmoa) or the reverse quote symbol
(called a glottal stop in the word faʻamolemole). Leaving the
symbols out can change the meaning of the word and can also be a
source of confusion for beginning learners. For example: tama
means boy, but tamā
means father. loʻu means
my, lou means your.
Learn some basic pronouns relatively early (e.g. I, you,
he/she, we, they) since so many conversations you typically hear
(especially on radio or in songs revolve around people). However
samoan pronouns are more of a challenge to learn because they
have the notion of inclusive vs exclusive forms, as well as
singular and plural forms. You will learn those in detail from
the Gagana Samoa book mentioned above.
Sāmoan
Language Resources