Tongan Toddler: Learning Lea Faka-Tonga as a culturally blended family

Katrina Kaufusi is a two-year-old Hawaiian-born Tongan, Mexican, and Palagi mix living in Tongatapu.

Her parents Manuevaha (Tonga) and Brianna (Mexican/American) met while abroad but chose to move back to her father’s homeland in January 2023.

After settling into life in the Kingdom, mum Brianna decided to post videos online of their Lea Faka-Tonga journey creating the social media account - Tongan Toddler.

Speaking to PMN Tonga, Brianna, who has a background in education and language teaching, says she and her Tongan-speaking husband created a structural method to help pass on the language to Katrina.

“I have these resources and tools under my belt and I said, ‘well I know certain ways that we can teach her!’

“I started using those ways, documenting it, and people have been so impressed with the way Katrina is picking up the language. It has inspired them to increase their Tongan language input at home.”

Brianna says initially, recording their life was a way to stay connected with her family in the United States. Now, with a combined following of nearly 46,000 people, it has morphed into a platform for helping other parents with bilingual Tongan children.

“I target other parents who are raising Tongan kids whether that’s full Tongan or mixed Tongan, people who want more Tongan language input in their life…because I recognise that can be difficult to do with two languages.”

“Going forward I think we’ll keep posting much of the same content but I want to start posting videos on how to create that structure for your children to use more Tongan at home.”
Watch the full interview with Brianna featuring Katrina on PMN Tonga below.