Saolelei

Thank you for visiting us. We are updating our website. Our course is currently being migrated over to our new system and we will update here when it is ready to go. For now, you can read about it below.

Learn to speak Samoan online!

The Samoan 101 language course includes the following to make learning Samoan easy:

• 20 complete lessons, which include a mid-term and final assessment.
• Over 700 audio clips of vocabulary words, sentences, and dialogues.
• 360 audio quiz questions with immediate feedback to aid comprehension.
• Over 300 images to visually aid learners to memorize lesson vocabulary and begin thinking in Samoan.
• 100+ sentences with vocabulary that can be interchanged to create an exponential number of new sentences and phrases to build confidence and fluency.

Programmed Learning Approach

This Samoan Language Course uses a programmed learning approach.  Each lesson builds on the previous lesson materials.  Giving a comprehensive and expanding language base.

Language is an expression of ideas through the medium of sentences.  Samoan 101 will show you properly built sentences and give you numerous vocabulary words that can be substituted or inter-changed to make new sentences.  The grammar section of each lesson will give you greater understanding of how this inter-change can work and help you create your own original sentences.  As you begin to make your own sentences to express your ideas, YOU’RE SPEAKING SAMOAN!!!!  CHAAAAHOOOO!!!

Building off the success of our free Samoan language lessons format, we have enhanced our fee-based Samoan 101 Course lessons with grammatical explanations for the material covered in each lesson, audio quizzes to test your retention and understanding of spoken Samoan, and a midterm and final to test your understanding of the concepts learned throughout the duration of the course.  Each lesson still includes Samoan phrases, sentences, dialogues, plus double the vocabulary to make for a more varied and expanding language base. 

Geared for Everyone

Are you married to a Samoan who doesn’t (or won’t) speak Samoan at home?  Did you grow up without the opportunity to learn Samoan but have always wanted to?  Do you have Samoan friends and want to join in on their conversations?  Is there a brown-skinned cutie in your class that you’ve been dying to talk to but doesn’t speak a lick of English ‘cause of being Fresh Off the Boat? 

We can help in any of these situations, except maybe the cutie.  (Try brushing your teeth first.) For the rest of you though, you can learn to speak Samoan to your friends and loved ones.  Your kids can learn to speak too.  The key to this successful approach is three-fold. 

First, there are audio clips for each lesson section.  The audio is of native Samoan speakers.  You can hear how words and sentences should be said with proper accents and intonations.  You can play them over and over until you can say them correctly without annoying a spouse or parent to constantly repeat a phrase.  If an adult is willing to go through the lessons with a child, the audio makes it possible that children can hear how to properly pronounce sentences and phrases.  (Don’t be surprised if your young child picks up Samoan faster than you!)  The audio clips make it possible for anyone to learn to hear, recognize, and understand Samoan.  The audio clips also give you the opportunity to repeat out loud Samoan words and sentences to aid in your own pronunciation and fluency. 

Second, focus on conversational Samoan.  The Samoan language we are teaching is of a conversational nature.  The kind you would most likely hear around the house, amongst friends or family, and in everyday use.  This gives you the opportunity to immediately begin using what you’ve learned, which will aid your retention.  It will give you opportunity to talk to children so they may begin to understand.

Third, all the content is available online.  Maybe you’ve wanted to take a course in Samoan at a local college but can’t make the time to take the class.  Maybe it’s not even offered where you live.  Our course is available 24/7 anywhere you may have Internet access.

Availability

Samoan 101 is available anytime you are, is of a conversational nature making it easy to find situations to begin using it, and is full of audio clips to aid in proper speaking and understanding of spoken Samoan. 

Our fee-based course provides 365 days of access to the Samoan Language materials.  Allow yourself around 2½ weeks per lesson to finish on time.  However, you are not limited to this time frame.  Since all the course materials are available any time, you can complete the course materials as quickly as you’d like.  Additionally, you can repeat the quizzes as many times as you wish until you’ve reached proficiency.  They, like the midterm and the final, are milestones.  So, if you are not passing these milestones with at least 90% proficiency it is not advisable to move on to the next lesson. 

Following your paid subscription, the NEXT BUSINESS DAY you will receive an email containing your login information. You will have unlimited access to the course for 1 YEAR from the time you receive your login information email.

Knowing the Samoan language opens the doors to the culture of Samoa

To preserve our culture we need to know the language.  As we familiarize ourselves with the language we can better understand the culture.  Cultural understanding breeds appreciation and respect.  This appreciation and respect for the culture inspires us to know the language better.  As we involve ourselves in this cycle of learning we enrich our own character and become respectful people; we become Samoans.
The Samoan language is very rich and it is easy to describe or say the same thing in many different ways.  Therefore, the focus of all these lessons is on COMMONLY SPOKEN SAMOAN.  We will teach the language that you are most likely to hear spoken around you.   We will not go into writing or proverbial speaking.

Samoan Success Steps

The following steps will greatly help you to become a fluent Samoan speaker:

1. We encourage you to speak Samoan as much as possible to everyone you know.  Even if they don’t understand.  Why?  Because, the brain grows by use.  Similarly, our language skill will grow by use.  There is no better way to solidify what you have learned than by applying what you have learned in as many situations as possible.

2. Teach someone else what you have learned.  It is often said that a teacher gets more out of a lesson than the student.  Take time to teach someone  …anyone who is willing to listen, what you have learned.  Kids are usually willing students.

3. Ask your spouse, friend, grandma, auntie, or dad to reply to you in Samoan.  We say reply because often when you ask a Samoan a question in Samoan, they will reply, out of respect to you, in the language of your greatest comprehension, in your case this is probably English. 

4. Listen.  Listen to others speak Samoan.  Listen when they speak to you.  Listen to yourself speaking Samoan.

This is a good start of a list.  As we hear from you what has worked we will add to this list.

Teaching Tamaiti

You do not need to know how to speak Samoan to teach your child Samoan using this method.  You will need to learn the material and use the language around the house.  When using this resource to teach Samoan to your kids remember this:

ANYTHING YOU CAN LEARN, THEY CAN LEARN QUICKER.  THEY CAN LEARN ANYTHING QUICKER THAN YOU!

God endowed kids with the ability to learn everything.

Follow these easy steps to successfully teach your child Samoan.

1. Never bore your child.  End before they are ready to end, even if they appear to be gobbling it up.

2. Make it fun!

3. Be prepared.  We will provide all the tools (lessons, audio clips, images, etc.) you need to be prepared to give it to them.

This Samoan language course is real.  It is not just a collection of vocabulary words translated for you, but an actual system to teach language.  It is based on elemenary language aquisition.  It starts with the most commonly needed phrases for basic communication and builds on that foundation.  Learning the language this way is fun and easy!

What you will need

Registered users will have access to all the multimedia elements for the lessons.

To hear the audio clips, see vocabulary images, or other media you will need the latest version of a modern browser on your computer or mobile device.

A modern browser on a computer or mobile device, the lessons, and a willingness to learn Samoan is all you will need!

To make leaning fun and easy we are using the power of the Internet. The media player will allow you to hear and sometimes see the language. The following list will explain what the media items can do to aid the learning process.

Dialogue and vocabulary audio

Every dialogue and vocabulary word will be available for you to listen to and memorize.

This icon button will appear when a sound clip is available. During the lessons press the icon and listen.

The audio recordings of the vocabulary and dialogue are to aid proper pronunciation. Many native English speakers have a difficult time speaking Samoan from written text. This is mostly due to the fact that in Samoan all the vowels have a voice. To make learning the language easier we have recorded the saying for you to hear. We encourage you to listen to the audio (frequently if needed) and repeat what you hear like a parrot (intonations, emphasis, and all).

Listening to the audio will also aid in hearing and understanding a Samoan speaker. You can read the text as you listen to the audio. This can help you differentiate between words. This ability to differentiate will allow you to recognize the words used by people you know in contexts other than those in the lessons.

To enhance learning we have included a media item that will display an image for each vocabulary word in random order. This resource should be used often. It will enhance site recognition and the appropriate Samoan word to be used.

The purpose of the random vocabulary is helpful for keeping the content fresh. It is easy to slack off when we know the order of things; it can breed complacency. As the images are displayed randomly the mind is forced into use, defeating the tendency for complacency.

We’ve broken each lesson into seven areas.

Fast Phrases

These will be phrases you can and should begin to use around the house. They will be comprised of commands, responses, and formalities that will aid your mind in converting to Fa’asamoa ( The Samoan Way).

Vocabulary

Twenty words per lesson with the accompanying English translation.  Memorizing these will be your key to fluency.

Media

This is the random vocabulary player.  You will see pictures representing the 20 vocabulary words for the lesson.  Each time you press “Start Media”, the words will be displayed in random order.  Watching and listening to this resource will increase the speed at which you make the vocabulary words your own.

Audio Quiz

This is to test your listening skills. Random vocabulary words will be spoken to you. You must answer from the definitions provided in the vocabulary section you will have studied.

Sentences

If vocabulary is the key then sentences will be your door.  We will provide sentences that can be used with the vocabulary words learned from past and present lessons. 

Grammar

This is where we explain the rules that govern the Samoan language that are being taught in the lesson. We will try to keep the explanation as simple as possible. Staying away from words like past participle, transitive, etc, so you don’t have to be an English Major to understand our course in Samoan.

Dialogue

This is your chance to interact with others.  We will provide you with situations and common dialogue that can take place in those situations.  For example how you might greet someone for the first time or asking where they are going tonight.  We will try to make it as diverse as possible so you can find many ways to use your Samoan Language.

We may add additional areas as needed.

We hope you enjoy the course and find it useful!

You may notice that whenever you see a Samoan word that starts with the letter T the audio clip says it with a K. This may seem odd at first but you will become acquainted with this very quickly. In a CONVERSATIONAL context, Samoan is spoken with the K sound for the letter T. A few exceptions for this would be songs, formal speeches, and prayers (if the singer, speaker, or person praying feels like it). Listening to Samoan spoken with the K sound will make it easier for you to hear, differentiate, and understand Samoan as it is spoken around you. However, written Samoan is predominantly written with the T.

The written Samoan in the lessons will use the Macron and Glottal Stop. Although these are rarely used in Samoan writing today it is still very helpful in aiding proper pronunciation.

The Macron

This is a straight horizontal line over a vowel. Whenever used the vowel is held longer than a normal vowel.

The Glottal StopThis is an inverted comma ( ‘ ). Its use gives the sound similar to the word mutton which is pronounced mu’un.