Some experiences and reflections of being a beginner and false beginner learner of Gagana Sāmoa, Vosa Vakaviti and te reo Māori in 2022
by Tui Tuia | Learning Circle Facilitator, Dr Angela Bland
Last year I began to put myself back into the shoes of a beginner and false beginner second language ākonga by being part of three reo courses in an online, and face-to-face learning context. Throughout the year I joined a Te Reo Māori, Gagana Sāmoa and Vosa Vakaviti akomanga. With each of these akomanga, I had had three different prior learning experiences of each reo. Here are some of the experiences and reflections I had, but first here is some vocabulary I will share when I talk about each reo.
Here are some words which I use in this article across the three languages:
Learning te reo Māori face-to-face . . . For te reo Māori, it had been a lifetime of ‘bits and pieces’, starting from primary school in the late 70s. Here I was curious about what receptive and productive knowledge I had. However, I had never been in a classroom environment to learn te reo Māori. The first te reo Māori class I did was a bit of a false start as I could only attend a few akomanga because of being away for work and whānau, but this class gave me a list of verbs which I enjoyed seeing what I knew – titiro, tangi, hikoi, pānui, whakaronga, all learnt through receiving te reo Māori over the years. And then what I didn’t know – mapu, katakata, piki. . .. I then enrolled in another face-to-face class. I really needed some grammar and to finally gain some confidence to give a mihi and be able to present a pepeha in a written format that was authentic. For this te reo Māori course, I was with a wide range of ākonga. They consisted of recent migrants, including from South America, and South Africa and New Zealand European (including myself) from across different sectors. I found really interesting the questions from ākonga, who were recent migrants. They asked questions that I would have never asked. A key part of our akomanga routine was that at the beginning of the class our kaiako made each of us stand in front of the akomanga and present our mihi – gradually pulling away the support (including notes). Each akomanga I was determined to add a bit more to the mihi, so I would decide what to add, and then I would recite the new mihi while driving to the akomanga! For the final night, I recited my mihi without any notes in front of the akomanga. I finally felt that I could do this again. My favourite sentence from my mihi and kōrero was:
Ka mihi ahau ki ngā iwi o te rohe, ki a Ngā Tahu, ki a Waitaha, ki a Ngāti Māmoe hoki
This was my favourite line as I could finally respectfully acknowledge whānau, hapu and iwi when I was in Ōtautahi and have a sentence structure to use when in other parts of New Zealand.
Some familiar territory with Gagana Sāmoa .... The Centre for Pacific Languages is the only organization in New Zealand which offers nine Pacific language short courses. Each consists of a ten-week programme. My first course with the Centre was an ‘Introduction to Gagana Sāmoa’. My experiences with Gagana Sāmoa had been through my facilitation of a Pasifika Studies course for about five years, my friends and colleagues who are Samoan as well as Gagana Sāmoa being a focus in my PhD. Again, I had not had the chance to study Gagana Sāmoa formally. In contrast to the participants in the te reo Māori night class, the tamaiti a’oga were all learning Gagana Sāmoa as a heritage/community language often with their aiga joining them in the vasega. I was the only palagi in the vasega. Some characteristics of the vasega was the use of sentence and dialogue frameworks and break out rooms for us to practise with each other. Then, we would have to present to the vasega on return from the breakout room. Our last vasega was set aside for our presentation. Our faiā’oga provided what he described as a ‘cheat sheet’. I spent a few days using the ‘cheat sheet’ to include my personal information. We were able seek feedback from our faiā’oga for our tautalaga prior to the final vasega. All of our presentations were via zoom, my tautalaga was carefully scripted, and I read from the script with efforts to try and look up at my online audience. My favourite sentence from my tautalaga was:
O mea ‘ou te fia fia e fai o le kuka mea’ ai, malaga i atunu’u ese, o le taimi ma tagata i lo’u aiga, savali ma fagota.
It was my favourite sentence as it had words such as malaga (journey), savali (walking) and fagota (fishing) which I had seen and heard in songs and children’s books.
Some not so familiar territory with Vosa Vakaviti...
For Vosa Vakaviti my experiences had been mostly through working with a range of gonevuli from Fiji in our Pasifika Studies kalasi and Fijian community leaders. Opportunities to learn Vosa Vakaviti in New Zealand is particularly hindered by its non-status as not in the Realm of New Zealand. Neither does it have a treaty, nor does it have the significant populations of which Samoa and Tonga have in New Zealand. However, New Zealand uses Fiji as a popular holiday destination. While the similarities with Gagana Sāmoa and te reo Māori are noticeable, the similarities with Vosa Vakaviti are not so noticeable. I was very grateful for our qasenivuli who made us do repetition and repetition in a chorus with other gonevuli. This was especially for the consonant and vowel combinations. Our qasenivuli suggested that for those who were able to, we could come to the Centre and give our vosa. Fortunately, I was able to join the kalasi face-to face to present our Vosa Vakavita vosa – with a microphone in front of the kalasi! Rather than a favourite sentence, I have some favourite words I learnt:
There are two reasons these words are my favourite. First, they are about vuvale. Second is that they use ‘qu’ as a suffix. This suffix combination is pronounced the same as the Japanese voiced ‘gu’ sound, as in the Japanese sound combinations of ‘ga, gi, gu, ge, go’.
I recommend becoming a beginner language learner to appreciate and navigate the positive and challenging feelings it brings, the new connections you see between languages and cultures as well as how it can support how we learn and grow in our family, work, and communities.
Some experiences and reflections of being a beginner and false beginner learner of Gagana Sāmoa, Vosa Vakaviti and te reo Māori in 2022
by Tui Tuia | Learning Circle Facilitator, Dr Angela Bland
Last year I began to put myself back into the shoes of a beginner and false beginner second language ākonga by being part of three reo courses in an online, and face-to-face learning context. Throughout the year I joined a Te Reo Māori, Gagana Sāmoa and Vosa Vakaviti akomanga. With each of these akomanga, I had had three different prior learning experiences of each reo. Here are some of the experiences and reflections I had, but first here is some vocabulary I will share when I talk about each reo.
Here are some words which I use in this article across the three languages:
Learning te reo Māori face-to-face . . . For te reo Māori, it had been a lifetime of ‘bits and pieces’, starting from primary school in the late 70s. Here I was curious about what receptive and productive knowledge I had. However, I had never been in a classroom environment to learn te reo Māori. The first te reo Māori class I did was a bit of a false start as I could only attend a few akomanga because of being away for work and whānau, but this class gave me a list of verbs which I enjoyed seeing what I knew – titiro, tangi, hikoi, pānui, whakaronga, all learnt through receiving te reo Māori over the years. And then what I didn’t know – mapu, katakata, piki. . .. I then enrolled in another face-to-face class. I really needed some grammar and to finally gain some confidence to give a mihi and be able to present a pepeha in a written format that was authentic. For this te reo Māori course, I was with a wide range of ākonga. They consisted of recent migrants, including from South America, and South Africa and New Zealand European (including myself) from across different sectors. I found really interesting the questions from ākonga, who were recent migrants. They asked questions that I would have never asked. A key part of our akomanga routine was that at the beginning of the class our kaiako made each of us stand in front of the akomanga and present our mihi – gradually pulling away the support (including notes). Each akomanga I was determined to add a bit more to the mihi, so I would decide what to add, and then I would recite the new mihi while driving to the akomanga! For the final night, I recited my mihi without any notes in front of the akomanga. I finally felt that I could do this again. My favourite sentence from my mihi and kōrero was:
Ka mihi ahau ki ngā iwi o te rohe, ki a Ngā Tahu, ki a Waitaha, ki a Ngāti Māmoe hoki
This was my favourite line as I could finally respectfully acknowledge whānau, hapu and iwi when I was in Ōtautahi and have a sentence structure to use when in other parts of New Zealand.
Some familiar territory with Gagana Sāmoa .... The Centre for Pacific Languages is the only organization in New Zealand which offers nine Pacific language short courses. Each consists of a ten-week programme. My first course with the Centre was an ‘Introduction to Gagana Sāmoa’. My experiences with Gagana Sāmoa had been through my facilitation of a Pasifika Studies course for about five years, my friends and colleagues who are Samoan as well as Gagana Sāmoa being a focus in my PhD. Again, I had not had the chance to study Gagana Sāmoa formally. In contrast to the participants in the te reo Māori night class, the tamaiti a’oga were all learning Gagana Sāmoa as a heritage/community language often with their aiga joining them in the vasega. I was the only palagi in the vasega. Some characteristics of the vasega was the use of sentence and dialogue frameworks and break out rooms for us to practise with each other. Then, we would have to present to the vasega on return from the breakout room. Our last vasega was set aside for our presentation. Our faiā’oga provided what he described as a ‘cheat sheet’. I spent a few days using the ‘cheat sheet’ to include my personal information. We were able seek feedback from our faiā’oga for our tautalaga prior to the final vasega. All of our presentations were via zoom, my tautalaga was carefully scripted, and I read from the script with efforts to try and look up at my online audience. My favourite sentence from my tautalaga was:
O mea ‘ou te fia fia e fai o le kuka mea’ ai, malaga i atunu’u ese, o le taimi ma tagata i lo’u aiga, savali ma fagota.
It was my favourite sentence as it had words such as malaga (journey), savali (walking) and fagota (fishing) which I had seen and heard in songs and children’s books.
Some not so familiar territory with Vosa Vakaviti...
For Vosa Vakaviti my experiences had been mostly through working with a range of gonevuli from Fiji in our Pasifika Studies kalasi and Fijian community leaders. Opportunities to learn Vosa Vakaviti in New Zealand is particularly hindered by its non-status as not in the Realm of New Zealand. Neither does it have a treaty, nor does it have the significant populations of which Samoa and Tonga have in New Zealand. However, New Zealand uses Fiji as a popular holiday destination. While the similarities with Gagana Sāmoa and te reo Māori are noticeable, the similarities with Vosa Vakaviti are not so noticeable. I was very grateful for our qasenivuli who made us do repetition and repetition in a chorus with other gonevuli. This was especially for the consonant and vowel combinations. Our qasenivuli suggested that for those who were able to, we could come to the Centre and give our vosa. Fortunately, I was able to join the kalasi face-to face to present our Vosa Vakavita vosa – with a microphone in front of the kalasi! Rather than a favourite sentence, I have some favourite words I learnt:
There are two reasons these words are my favourite. First, they are about vuvale. Second is that they use ‘qu’ as a suffix. This suffix combination is pronounced the same as the Japanese voiced ‘gu’ sound, as in the Japanese sound combinations of ‘ga, gi, gu, ge, go’.
I recommend becoming a beginner language learner to appreciate and navigate the positive and challenging feelings it brings, the new connections you see between languages and cultures as well as how it can support how we learn and grow in our family, work, and communities.
