"O a'u o le Samoa." It's a line you learn pretty early when you are light-skinned, growing up in Samoa. Along with "alu ai gi ou kae" but that's not quite as uplifting.
It's a line I want my even more light-skinned children who are growing up in Auckland to be able to say. But more than that, it's a line I want them to think. A line I want them to feel. To know. Deep inside their bones.
So it has always been important for me that my children speak Samoan. I grew up in Samoa but Samoan is my second language. We all know mothers are the primary caregivers, the first teachers, the singers of lullabies and whisperers of comforting words. It is mothers that introduce us to the magic of nursery rhymes and books. My mother is palagi and I was born in Australia and lived there surrounded exclusively by English for the first three years of my life (so crucial for language development) while my dad was doing his PhD. We moved back to Samoa for three years and then we moved again to Fiji for three years. I came back in year 6 and went to Robert Louis Stevenson School (RLSS) where all the kids in my class spoke English and only English. I may have taken one or possibly two Samoan classes in my life (thanks Mrs Leuga) but I, a class geek and A type personality used to achieving academically, hated it. I was frustrated and bored and ashamed all in one class - this was my own language that I was struggling with.
I think Samoan really started gelling for me in Uni. Not by going to actual classes. We all know Uni wasn't actually for attending lectures or tutorials! But by hanging out with friends from Samoa. Homesick and at hostel we mostly spoke to each other in Samoan. It was fun. It was comforting. It was like coming home.
So many years later I still think that the key to learning language is using it. Having fun with it. Being encouraged to try, to make mistakes and be corrected in a fun setting.
My 5 year old has been attending Aoga Faasamoa since he was 3 and is now in Mua i Malae - a full immersion Samoan language unit at Richmond Road School. My 2 year old has been attending Aoga Faasamoa since she was one. Through these schools and my children's friendships I have made some amazing friends. One of my close Samoan friends Gina grew up with two non-Samoan speaking parents. But for the last 10 or more years she has been doggedly going to Samoan classes, and I admire immensely her persistence and dedication, how much she has learnt and her determination that her children will speak Samoan. We, who didn't grow up with Samoan as our mother tongue, are all the more committed to teaching our children Samoan. To have the language of our ancestors roll off their tongue in the way it has never quite rolled off ours.
So we have been talking about how we could encourage our children to speak Samoan more and we were talking about my experience. But recreating Uni for our kidsa.k.a taking them up to Shadows to get crunk constantly, did not sound like a viable plan may be frowned on by child welfare experts. We talked about the importance of elevating Samoan - of making it cool for kids to speak. So we came up with simple parent-led free classes where our kids could get together and have fun. The classes will be aimed at what I like to call "Sesame Street level". Our own kids range in age from 1 - 5 so we are aiming it at that level (I think kids up to age 8 would be engaged especially if Samoan is their second language). We are going to run these once a week. It will be a chance for our kids to get together and use their Samoan, it will also be a chance for us to reinforce grammar and sentence structure, increase vocabulary and so on.
I feel equipped to give these classes not the least because I'm no longer ashamed of acknowledging that my Samoan is not perfect (and am happy for my Samoan to be corrected). I am old enough now to recognise that learning is a journey. And that journey is life long. I recognise that I have had 13 years of English classes (as opposed to my one or two Samoan classes) so I have a lot of catching up to do. I am confident I can run a simple Samoan class for kids - to read books and sing songs and have vocab lists and follow-on lessons for parents to work with their kids on this blog. And I think a lot of other parents could do this too. We intend to revolve the teaching among parents who feel comfortable enough to take the classes. Come along tomorrow at 2.30pm for our Vateatea lesson by the Stardome Planetarium. Look out for me and Gina on a large blue mat.
It's a line I want my even more light-skinned children who are growing up in Auckland to be able to say. But more than that, it's a line I want them to think. A line I want them to feel. To know. Deep inside their bones.
So it has always been important for me that my children speak Samoan. I grew up in Samoa but Samoan is my second language. We all know mothers are the primary caregivers, the first teachers, the singers of lullabies and whisperers of comforting words. It is mothers that introduce us to the magic of nursery rhymes and books. My mother is palagi and I was born in Australia and lived there surrounded exclusively by English for the first three years of my life (so crucial for language development) while my dad was doing his PhD. We moved back to Samoa for three years and then we moved again to Fiji for three years. I came back in year 6 and went to Robert Louis Stevenson School (RLSS) where all the kids in my class spoke English and only English. I may have taken one or possibly two Samoan classes in my life (thanks Mrs Leuga) but I, a class geek and A type personality used to achieving academically, hated it. I was frustrated and bored and ashamed all in one class - this was my own language that I was struggling with.
I think Samoan really started gelling for me in Uni. Not by going to actual classes. We all know Uni wasn't actually for attending lectures or tutorials! But by hanging out with friends from Samoa. Homesick and at hostel we mostly spoke to each other in Samoan. It was fun. It was comforting. It was like coming home.
So many years later I still think that the key to learning language is using it. Having fun with it. Being encouraged to try, to make mistakes and be corrected in a fun setting.
My 5 year old has been attending Aoga Faasamoa since he was 3 and is now in Mua i Malae - a full immersion Samoan language unit at Richmond Road School. My 2 year old has been attending Aoga Faasamoa since she was one. Through these schools and my children's friendships I have made some amazing friends. One of my close Samoan friends Gina grew up with two non-Samoan speaking parents. But for the last 10 or more years she has been doggedly going to Samoan classes, and I admire immensely her persistence and dedication, how much she has learnt and her determination that her children will speak Samoan. We, who didn't grow up with Samoan as our mother tongue, are all the more committed to teaching our children Samoan. To have the language of our ancestors roll off their tongue in the way it has never quite rolled off ours.
So we have been talking about how we could encourage our children to speak Samoan more and we were talking about my experience. But recreating Uni for our kids
I feel equipped to give these classes not the least because I'm no longer ashamed of acknowledging that my Samoan is not perfect (and am happy for my Samoan to be corrected). I am old enough now to recognise that learning is a journey. And that journey is life long. I recognise that I have had 13 years of English classes (as opposed to my one or two Samoan classes) so I have a lot of catching up to do. I am confident I can run a simple Samoan class for kids - to read books and sing songs and have vocab lists and follow-on lessons for parents to work with their kids on this blog. And I think a lot of other parents could do this too. We intend to revolve the teaching among parents who feel comfortable enough to take the classes. Come along tomorrow at 2.30pm for our Vateatea lesson by the Stardome Planetarium. Look out for me and Gina on a large blue mat.
No comments:
Post a Comment