HOW EASY OR DIFFICULT IS IT TO GET STARTED ON LEARNING SAMOAN?

If you were brought up in New Zealand and learned Maori at school, it's not hard to make a start on learning the Samoan Language, because both the Maori Language and the Samoan Language are Polynesian Languages, and many of the words in both languages are therefore helpfully similar, if one takes into account spelling differences between the two languages.

The Samoan Language generally uses a simple letter "g" to indicate a sound similar to that of the "ng" in the English word "working", whereas the Maori Language uses "ng" for that type of sound. Thus the Maori word corresponding to the English word name is "ingoa", and the Samoan word for "name" is "igoa".

Furthermore, although the Samoan Language and the Maori Language are not mutually intelligible, there are plenty of words in Samoan which are actually the same as the equivalent Maori Language words. Thus, the Maori for "drink" is "inu", and the Samoan for "drink" is also "inu". The Maori word for "thing" is "mea"; and "mea" is also the Samoan word for "thing". "Ono" is the Samoan for the numeral "six", and "ono" is also the Maori for "six" ...

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"Tu" is both Maori and Samoan for "stand"; and "po" is both Maori
and Samoan for "night".

In addition to plenty of identical words such as those mentioned above, there are many cognate Polynesian words in the two languages which are very similar apart from slight sound shifts. Except in words which have come into Samoan from other languages, Samoan generally uses a letter "L" where cognate words in Maori would use the letter "R". Thus, the Maori word for path is "ara" and the Samoan word for path is "ala". But it does not take long to get used to differences such as that ...

Samoan (like most other Polynesian Languages) has borrowed many words from English. And despite the slight sound shifts which sometimes occur in such loan words, those loan words definitely make it easier for anybody with a knowledge of English to begin learning Samoan.

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Thus, the Samoan word "tipoti", meaning "teapot" is not very hard
for any English-speaker to learn; and "Kirisimasi" - the Samoan 
word for "Christmas" is equally easy to remember.
As regards the structure of the Samoan Language, although this is certainly quite different from that of English, it is also certainly far less complicated than that of Indo-European languages such as Greek or Russian; and unlike Greek or Russian, the Samoan Language uses the same script as English... which definitely helps, if you're an English-speaker.

Additionally, Samoan spelling is very much more logical and phonetic than English spelling, and that does makes life a lot easier if you are just starting to learn the Samoan Language ...

One of the easiest Computer CDs with which to make a start on learning Samoan is:-

The Sunlit Pathway to the Samoan Language.

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For Details of The Sunlit Pathway to the Samoan Language.

CLICK HERE for the Full List of Samoan Language Tuition CDs available via this Website.

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