When I first heard about Fiji, I learned their official language was English. But as I read about Fiji, I learned that Fiji has many spoken languages. Fiji’s three official languages are Fijian, Hindi and English. Fiji was also a British colony like the United States. As a British colony, many Fijians learned English. While the British colonized Fiji, they had Indians come from India to Fiji to work on sugar cane farms. Sadly, many of the Indians did not have enough money to go back to India and are now called Indo-Fijians. Today, half the population of Fiji is Indo-Fijian so many Fijians speak Hindi as well.
The original language Fijian has been hard for me to learn. The Fijian language itself has over 38 different dialects. Think of a dialect as how in Philly you can hear people say water! If you leave Philadelphia, you will hear people say "WAH-ter" and in Philly, they say "WOOD-er." Depending on where someone is from in Fiji, their Fijian can sound different. They say that it’s easy to learn so I try to practice with friends and strangers. Luckily, I have a lot of time to learn Fijian while I am here!
Here is a quick lesson in Fijian for you guys!
