Email to Principal: Register and Persuasion
The Samoan Club at a large Auckland secondary school wants to hold a 90-minute Fiafia Night in the school hall in Term 3, Week 6. The club secretary, Ana, must email the principal, Mr. Walker, in Samoan (with an English translation attached). The draft begins: 'Hey Mr Walker, can we use the hall? It'll be mean. We'll make money for our trip. Pls reply.' The teacher says the email must use formal Samoan, show fa'aaloalo, make the request clear, mention the date and time, and acknowledge health-and-safety rules. Ana has 300 words maximum and needs a reply within five school days. She worries that formal Samoan will make her request sound weak.
1. Identify three problems with Ana's draft and explain how each would affect a principal who does not speak Samoan but reads the English translation.
Read the worked answer
- ‘Hey Mr Walker’ and ‘Pls’ are too casual for a principal. In translation they read as a student chatting to a peer, not a club secretary making a formal request.
- ‘It’ll be mean’ is slang and vague; a principal needs a clear purpose, date, time, and audience.
- ‘We’ll make money for our trip’ raises questions about fundraising approval and use of the hall; without detail it can sound like a commercial booking rather than a school event.
- The draft also omits health-and-safety and supervision, which the principal must consider before approving a 90-minute evening event. The overall problem is not that Ana is rude; it is that her register gives the principal no evidence that the club can manage the event responsibly.
2. Rewrite the opening and the request in formal Samoan (3-4 sentences), including the date, time, and a safety acknowledgement.
Read the worked answer
‘Tālofa lava lau susuga Mr Walker, O a’u o Ana, o le failautusi o le Kalapu Sāmoa. Ou te fa’aaloalo atu e talosaga mo le fa’aogaina o le fale tele mo le Po Fiafia i le Aso Faraile, Vaiaso 6, Term 3, mai le 6:00 i le 7:30 afiafi. Matou te mautinoa o le a matou usita’ia tulafono uma o le saogalemu ma le fale. Fa’amolemole, fa’ailoa mai pe mafai ona fa’atagaina lenei talosaga.’
Reasoning: ‘lau susuga’ addresses the principal respectfully; ‘Ou te fa’aaloalo atu e talosaga’ frames the request as a respectful proposal, not a demand. The date, week, term and times give the principal enough to decide. The safety sentence answers an unspoken concern before it becomes an objection.
3. Ana thinks formal Samoan sounds weak. Explain how Samoan formality actually strengthens a request, using one phrase from your rewrite.
Read the worked answer
Formal Samoan does not weaken the request; it changes the relationship from casual demand to recognised proposal. ‘Ou te fa’aaloalo atu e talosaga’ makes the request explicit but places it within fa’aaloalo: Ana is not pretending to have authority she lacks. In English, ‘can we use the hall?’ can sound like a test of the principal’s willingness; the Samoan phrasing gives the principal room to consider and respond. The apparent indirectness is actually a strength because it protects both parties’ va (relationship). A principal who receives a clear, respectful, detailed request is more likely to approve it than one who receives ‘Hey ... Pls reply.’