A new language app developed for Gagana Samoa — the Samoan language — has been launched in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Samoa Capital Radio in Wellington, the oldest Samoan radio station in Aotearoa, is behind the production and development of the app.

Samoa’s Acting High Commissioner to New Zealand, Robert Niko Aiono, said it would help to bridge the gap for people wanting to learn more about the language.

• READ MORE: Other Pacific languages reports

“They’ve made this app available and it caters for a lot of Samoans who are born in New Zealand,” he said.

“Not only in New Zealand but everywhere else in the world.”

With Samoan being the third-most spoken language in New Zealand, Samoa Capital Radio initially thought language classes delivered on Zoom was the best way to draw in learners.

However, it was decided developing an app would be better as it was a tool that can be accessed anywhere, any time.

‘Labour of love’
Work on the software began in January and according to the radio station’s social media manager, Murray Faivalu, it was a “labour of love”.

“We started to get a team together; get an advisory panel to advise us because no one can claim that they’ve got the knowledge of everything in terms of the Samoan language,” Faivalu said.

“We had two lecturers from the National University of Samoa, one of them being Dr Niusila Eteuati who was able to bring an academic perspective to the language; we got one of the teachers from Samoa who’s teaching the language and the Language Commission.”

Faivalu said he hopes the app helps users overcome their shyness when trying to converse or pray in Samoan.

“We’ve got a big population of people who associate as Samoans and a lot of them are young,” he said.

“A lot of them may know some Samoan but being able to speak it is a whole different thing.

“Some of the young ones get embarrassed when they go up to do the prayer at family gatherings.”

Basic language
The app covers the most basic of the Samoan language — from the spelling, grammar, placement of macrons and glottal stops. Audio is also built in so users can hear how words are meant to be pronounced.

“When you read Samoan on its own, you lose the meaning of it — so unless you have those glottal stops, the macrons, you won’t get the actual meaning of what you’re trying to say.”

At the launch, Pacific Peoples Minister Barbara Edmonds shared how she became distant from speaking Samoan.

“Like many of our families who crossed the Pacific Ocean to come to New Zealand, we too had many families come to stay with us, and my cousins came to live with us.

“My cousins, who could only really speak Samoan, became quickly frustrated when they went to school, and they started giving other kids beatings because they couldn’t understand what they were saying,” Edmonds said.

“So what my dad said to us was, we needed to speak English more, so we could help teach our cousins how to speak English. So unfortunately as time progressed, Gagana Samoa came less and less out of my mouth.

Youngest and fastest growing
“With the Samoan population being one of the youngest and fastest growing [in New Zealand], it’s clear that we need to do everything we can to support the next generation to understand and use our language.”

School student Ti’eti’e Frost is eager to improve his Samoan speaking skills, especially as he is the only member of his family who has yet to master the language.

“Sometimes I’ll be speaking Samoan and there will be people who grew up speaking it who will make a joke about my Samoan,” he said.

“Right now, I feel like I’m 60 percent with my Samoan, but hopefully by using this app I get to 100 percent.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

• The app is now available to download.

In Samoan Language Week, The New Zealand Herald’s Vaimoana Tapaleao welcomes the revival of all things fa’asamoa.

Anyone with an ethnic name will tell you it can be anything from a conversation starter to a lesson on pronunciation, or just a struggle.

For me, it’s a story that belongs to my aiga (family) – one of migration, cultural differences and new beginnings.

Named after my dad’s only sister, aunty Moana got her name from my great uncle Tapaleao Moega Anisi — the first person on that side of the aiga to arrive in New Zealand in the 1950s.

• READ MORE: Pacific Language Weeks

He left Samoa on the MV Tofua bound for Fiji; before getting on a flight headed to Whenuapai in Auckland.

When he arrived, he found everything to be different. The palm trees, humidity and the scorching sun he was so familiar with were nowhere to be seen.

It’s this part of the story I tend to explain by putting both hands out, palms facing up like some kind of human balance scale — one side being Samoa and the other Aotearoa.

“Everything and everyone he knew and loved was now va i moana — separated by the sea.”

Gagana Samoa or fa’asamoa has always been an integral part of my life; not just in my name.

One of the earliest memories I have is of our grandpa Paleao teaching me and a few cousins the Lord’s prayer in Samoan, as we sat cross-legged on the sitting room floor.

I could never properly say the word “fa’aosoosoga” — temptation.

My parents only spoke to me in Samoan as a young child, so when I started primary school, the only language this New Zealand-born kid knew was gagana Samoa.

For some reason it was at times seen as embarrassing if your mum or dad rocked up to school speaking to you in Samoan, or any other language for that matter that wasn’t English.

I had friends who would anglify their very Samoan name to fit in or to make it easier for the teacher to pronounce.

That shame, for want of a better word, has resulted in the now adults who are unable to hold a simple conversation in their mother tongue.

The bright side is that there has been a resurgence for all things fa’asamoa among Samoans growing up away from the islands.

There are language classes that start from the very basic “Talofa” to the more advanced lessons teaching the intricate dialect used by matai (chiefs).

That love for Samoana also extends to a heightened interest in learning cultural siva (dance), getting tatau (traditional tattoos) or creating tusi (books), poetry, pese (song) and even rap in Samoan.

Even the palagi-est of palagi is likely to know what “uso” – the Samoan word for brother – means now; as it’s widely used on social media and on the sports field.

In my own life, speaking Samoan fluently was just a given. Most of my cousins speak fluently and so too do the tupulaga (youth) at church.

However, the value of being able to speak Samoan was only shown to me when I started working as a reporter and realised I had a special way of connecting with people on a different level.

It is one of my greatest assets to have as a journalist; especially when speaking with older Samoans, who breathe a sigh of relief when they hear the familiar words of home.

In some cases, their eyes fill with tears when they realise they can talk to me.

There have also been the low-key jabs, of course, like when a woman I interviewed jokingly mixed up the word tusitala (journalist) with faitatala — gossip.

Jokes aside, fa’asamoa is not just about one’s linguistic abilities.

Every child is taught the old proverb: “E iloa le Samoa i lana tu, tautala ma lana savali.” You can tell a Samoan by the way they stand, speak and walk.

It’s a reminder that fa’asamoa and being Samoan is about service, action, respect and much more than words.

Vaimoana Tapaleao is a journalist with The New Zealand Herald. This Samoan Language Week article is republished with permission.

• TJ Aumua’s video story on Samoan Language Week