Category: Uncategorized

  • The limits of my Tongan language

    The goal for my blog in 2014 is to make learning the Tongan language easy, fun and shareable for you all in this digital age. Like climbing a coconut tree the view is better from the top but we can only share as much as we know. The limits of my language (ie my understanding of the…

  • End of year presentation: speak Tongan at home

      Reciting the words to Tolifisi at the Tongan Language School (Sydney) presentation day 2013   The school year has ended with our presentation day last saturday. It was a heartwarming day here in Sydney with the words of our guest speaker still resonating with me. The guest speaker Albert Vella who is the President of the NSW Federation of Community…

  • Tongan greetings from Randwick Park

    Great to see more classes getting interactive with the Tongan language and posting them online. Practice your pronunciation and follow along with the kids from Randwick Park School from New Zealand. Note the intonation right at the end when they are asking a question fefe hake? ʻAlu ki fē?

  • Vavai ‘a ‘Amelika: a failing of America

    I’m currently travelling in America and the general comments I have been getting from the old folks have been the same everywhere I go. They are happy to hear my children understand and speak in Tongan They are happy to hear a mother speak in Tongan to their children Their comments include “Vaivai ‘a ‘Amelika”…

  • Bilingualism Across the U.S.

    Another reason to learn Tongan. Another reason to motivate children to learn Tongan and be bilingual. It makes YOU and THEM SMARTER!

  • My Tongan Charts: Share 2 Win!

    I am very excited to announce our first SHARE2WIN giveaway of “My Tongan Charts”. As a thank-you to all the people I have connected with, learnt from and fellow students of the Tongan language here are 5 packs available for you all to win. Starting Monday, 1 pack will be given away daily. This competition…

  • The importance of speaking in Tongan

    http://youtu.be/kMojfdrwSmk?t=2m50s Mahuʻinga ʻo e lea faka-Tonga. This is an interview of Lady Fielakepa on the importance of speaking in Tongan. Her story would resonate with many Tongan families as it does with me. She points to the old belief of her parents that education was important and in order to achieve it one had to…

  • Happy International Tongan language day

    I heard on the radio this morning that it was International mother language day. A day that has been celebrated by the UNESCO since 1999. This yearʻs theme is “access to books and digital media in local languages”.  How fitting it is, as the whole premise of this blog is to celebrate and promote the…

  • Welcome to Letʼs Learn Tongan

    Mālō e tau lava, Greetings and WELCOME to “Letʼs Learn Tongan” blog. My name is Hema and I am a mother and a teacher to my four children. I believe passing on one’s culture is important. I believe that one’s language is the carrier of that culture. Therefore I feel it my duty to teach the Tongan language to…