Samoan Language Week in R18

By Phoenix Tuhega-Vaitupu and Lachie Faitonu

Hi our names are Phoenix Tuhega-Vaitupu and Lachlan Faitonu. For the past week, room 18 have been working on Samoan language week. We have learnt lots of new phrases like the numbers 1 - 10 and how to say Malo (hi) and Fa’afetai (thank you). Ulumoto has been helping Miss Brawley teach us who is a student in our class who speaks Samoan. 

Yesterday Miss Brawley showed us a video of how to make a Samoan snowflake Siapo (Tapa cloth) pattern. Miss Brawley showed us the steps and the class each made their own Samoan snowflake Siapo pattern as you can see in the picture with Ulumoto.

We have also done a few reading tasks about Samoa where we learnt lots of facts such as which ocean Samoa is located in, their flag, currency, parts of Samoan culture and how many islands they have.

Today Lachy and Phoenix are going to be teaching the class how to do a mili mili mili. This is a hand game where one person leads it and says a phrase. “Mili mili mili” is the start and this means to rub your hands together. Next is “Patia”which means clap once. “Lua Pati” means clap twice. The last one is three claps, three claps with cupped hands and then one single clap. You have to try and all keep in time.

We have had a great week learning about Samoa and Samoan language and we have enjoyed being leaders and helping the class learn about our culture.