Vosa Vakaviti w/ Stu - Week One

Wednesday 20th May, 2020 at 7.30pm (FJT) we had our first session 'Wakanavu Vosa Vaka Viti' with Stuart Johnson (@learntospeakfijian) and below is a brief summary of week one with accompanying video.

We had people join in from Hawkes Bay, Raglan, Wellington, Fiji, Dubai, Netherlands, Newcastle and Sydney. We will also be doing a fortnightly casual talanoa catch up Rita via Zoom who is a fluent Fijian speaker based in Canada who has offered to assist, for those that have difficulty making the Wednesday evening classes with Stu. It will be an opportunity to ask questions on things you are unsure of in regards to the previous two recorded zoom classes and will be on Saturday's bi-weekly starting 30th May, 12pm (FJT) and the link to access the session is here. Note, if this follow up session time changes we will let you know in advance.

What we covered:

Pronouns

• Oiau - me/I
• O iko - you
• Okoya - him/her

• Keirau - the two of us (exclusive of the listener)
• Keitou - the three - ten of us (exclusive of the listener)
• Keimami - the ten+ of us (exclusive of the listener)

• Kedaru - the two of us (inclusive of the listener)
• Kedatou - the three - ten of us (inclusive of the listener)
• Keda - the ten+ of us (inclusive of the listener) think nation/entire school

• Kemudrau - the two of you
• Kemudou - the three - ten of you
• Kemuni - you ten+ and also an respectful way to address an individual

• O rau - they (the two of them)
• O ratou - they (the three - ten of them)
• O ira - they (large groups 10+) 

Progressive Pronouns

• Noqu - my/mine
• Nomu - your
• Nona - his/her's

• Neirau - ours (two people excluding the listener)
• Neitou - ours (three - ten excluding the listener)
• Neimami - ours (ten+ excluding the listener)

• Nodaru - ours (the two of us including the listener)
• Nodatou - ours (the three - ten of us including the listener)
• Noda - ours (the ten+ of us/large group including the listener) 

• Nomudrau - your two (you speaking about two peoples belongings)
• Nomudou - your three - ten (speaking about property of three - ten people e.g. Nomudou Vale)
• Nomuni - your ten+ and also a polite way to say someone about their belongings e.g. ievei na nomuni vale?)

• Norau - theirs (two people)
• Nodratou - theirs (three - ten people)
• Nodra - theirs (large groups 10+) 

Basic sentences with commonly used verbs

Tense markers

• A - past tense
• E - currently / present (but describes more of a permanent state)
• Sa - currently (roughly now-ish)
• Se - currently (but more specific as in happening right then and there at that exact point in time)
• Na - future tense

A few other foundational Fijian words

Q&A 

What's needed:

• Hardbound journal to record notes
• Phone or Laptop to sign in to zoom or for watching lessons later

Resources: 

• @itakueichallenge instagram page - not this has currently been disabled by instagram and we are working through getting it reinstated, however in the meantime we have started another account @vosavakaviti.
• Stuart Johnsons website (www.learntospeakfijian.com) and youtube video on the Fijian Alphabet. 
• Quizlet.com - download the app or signup through their webpage and search 'learntospeakfijian' to get access to Stu's classes which is a great way to learn in your spare time with various teaching/testing options
• Fijian Bible (https://www.wordproject.org/bibles/fj)
• Fijian Dictionary - we have a pdf version you can access via these links (English to Fijian / Fijian to English)
• Revision session with Rita - see slides (here)

Lastly, Stuart Johnson has given up his time to tutor us and anyone else who is wanting to learn Fijian. These zoom classes takes him away from his family time as well as the time he spends on developing the classes on Quizlet. If you can afford to contribute FJ$20 per session, you can get in touch with him via his website or instagram for payment details which can be made through venmo. 

Vinaka vaka levu!