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Samoan Interpreters

Professional Samoan interpreting, virtual or in person, for the settings where getting it wrong has consequences — asylum interviews, hearings, attorney meetings, medical appointments and school meetings.

Samoan is the main language of a US territory, so growing up under the US flag does not mean English

Does a Samoan speaker from American Samoa need an interpreter? Often, yes: in the 2020 census, 96.7 percent of American Samoa's household residents aged five and over spoke a language other than English at home, 90.9 percent of them Samoan, and fewer than half of those (45.4 percent) said they spoke English very well. A person born in Pago Pago and a person from independent Samoa can need the interpreter equally.

On the mainland and in Hawai'i, the 2009–2013 American Community Survey counted 64,135 people speaking Samoan at home: 21,230 in California, 12,795 in Hawai'i, 8,800 in Washington, 4,915 in Utah and 3,555 in Alaska. By metro area the largest groups were Honolulu (about 12,000), Seattle–Tacoma (7,800), Los Angeles (7,400), San Francisco–Oakland (4,600), Salt Lake City (3,500) and Anchorage (3,100). Hawai'i's courts ranked Samoan tenth by proceedings with an interpreter in fiscal 2018.

Formal t-style and everyday k-style are one language in two registers

Samoan has a formal register, tautala lelei (“good talk”, the t-style), and an everyday one, tautala leaga (the k-style), in which t is pronounced k among other changes: the church service tapuā'iga becomes kapuā'iga. Missionaries assigned the t-style to church; the language of customary ceremony is now mostly k-style, though the two increasingly mix.

For the interpreter, register is part of the message. A witness in everyday conversation will usually speak k-style, and an interpreter who answers in careful t-style sounds like a sermon, which is distance the witness feels. Neither style is a comprehension problem for a competent Samoan interpreter; the difference is a reason not to rely on a heritage speaker who is at home in only one.

A matai title can stand before the name, and names can change

A person who holds a matai (chiefly) title places it before their given name, and some hold several titles from different branches of the family. Surnames came late, with Christianity; many families adopted the father's name as a surname, but there is no fixed rule, and a name could historically be changed entirely to mark an event in the person's life.

So one person may appear in a file with a title in front of the name, without it, and with a surname that does not match a sibling's. That is the naming system, not an inconsistency. Where identity is checked against documents, have the interpreter state once on the record which element is a title and which is the name, rather than letting the question come up in every exchange.

Samoan is a limited-availability language

There are comparatively few qualified Samoan interpreters working in the United States, and the ones there are get booked. That is why Samoan carries the 25–30% limited-availability rate, and why lead time matters more here than with a common language: a week is comfortable, two days is a gamble.

We would rather tell you that before you book a hearing date than after. If your date is fixed and close, say so when you enquire and we will tell you honestly whether we can staff it rather than accepting and hoping.

The standard-availability languages are: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Mandarin, Cantonese, Arabic, Russian, Korean, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, Polish, Italian, German, Japanese, Hindi, Urdu, Persian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Tagalog, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil, Armenian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Serbian, Bosnian, Somali and Nepali. Every other language we offer carries the 25–30% limited-availability rate, except the rare languages — Mam, K’iche’, Q’anjob’al, Tzotzil, Mixtec, Fuzhounese, Hakka, Hakha Chin, Kachin, Balochi, Bambara, Soninke, Tigre, Chaldean Neo-Aramaic and Assyrian Neo-Aramaic — which carry 75%. If a language is not on the standard list it is not because we cannot do it — it is because the pool of qualified interpreters in the United States is small enough that we will not promise a date without checking.

By video, by phone or in person

Virtual interpreting runs on Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, or over the telephone. It is quicker to arrange, costs less and carries no travel charge, and it suits appointments, calls and most meetings.

In person is what venues with their own rules tend to expect, and the right choice when documents are being signed or several people are speaking at once. Tell us the platform, or the city and the venue, when you send the request.

Where interpretation is used

The settings differ in what they demand of the interpreter, which is worth saying because they are frequently priced as though they were the same work:

• Asylum and immigration interviews. USCIS asylum interviews require the applicant to bring an interpreter, and the interview can be rescheduled if the interpreter does not appear or is not competent — which makes this the setting where getting it right matters most.
• Attorney–client meetings and declarations. Preparing testimony, taking a statement, going through documents.
• Depositions and hearings. Where the record is being made and accuracy is examined afterwards.
• Medical appointments. Note that hospitals receiving federal funding generally must provide language assistance themselves, so ask before you hire.
• School meetings. IEP meetings and parent conferences — districts also have their own obligations here.
• Business meetings and signings, such as real estate closings.

Each setting has its own page — who has to provide the interpreter, what the meeting asks of one and what it costs: see interpreters by setting.

What it costs

Rates are per interpreter, per hour, and billed from the scheduled start time rather than from when everyone actually arrives.

• Virtual — $80 per hour, one-hour minimum. Zoom, Google Meet, Teams or telephone.
• In person — $110 per hour, two-hour minimum.
• Limited-availability languages — add 25–30%. Which languages those are is listed below rather than left vague.
• Rare languages — add 75%: $140 per hour virtual and $192.50 per hour in person. These are the languages with only a handful of qualified interpreters in the United States, listed below.
• Travel for in-person work — $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location.

How the travel charge works out

Travel is charged at $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location, which means you can work it out rather than wait for a quote: a 20-mile round trip is $14, a 60-mile round trip is $42, a 150-mile round trip is $105. There is no separate call-out fee on top.

We will not pretend to know in advance where the interpreter will be coming from — that depends on the language, the date and the venue. What we do is confirm the interpreter and the exact travel figure before you book, so it is never a surprise on the invoice. Virtual assignments carry no travel charge at all, which is one reason most of what we do is virtual.

How booking an interpreter works

• You send the request with the form below: the language, the setting, the format, the date and how long it should last.
• We confirm before you commit: the interpreter, the exact price and the travel figure if there is one. We reply within minutes, four business hours at most, and no payment is taken at this stage.
• You confirm, and the interpreter is booked for your date.

What we will tell you before you book

Two things, both of which occasionally cost us the booking. Whether the venue supplies its own interpreter. Immigration court provides one. Hospitals receiving federal funding generally must provide language assistance. School districts have obligations of their own. If yours does, you should not be paying us — ask them first.

And whether we can actually staff your date. For a limited-availability or rare language on short notice the honest answer is sometimes no, and we would rather say it than accept a booking we cannot fill. Interpretation is not translation: see certified translation at $24.95 per page if what you need is a document rendered in writing.

What to have ready

The more of this comes in the first message, the fewer exchanges before you have a price:

• The language, the date, the start time and how long it should run.
• Virtual or in person: the platform, or the city and the venue.
• The setting and the subject matter.
• How many people need interpreting for.
• Any credential the venue requires of the interpreter.

Request an interpreter

Tell us the date, the language and the setting and we will come back with the interpreter, the exact price and the travel figure if there is one — before you commit to anything.

Sources

The facts on this page about the language and its speakers in the United States were checked against these sources on October 28, 2026.

• U.S. Census Bureau — 2020 Census Demographic and Housing Characteristics, American Samoa (July 20, 2023)
• U.S. Census Bureau — Detailed Languages Spoken at Home, ACS 2009–2013: state and metro tables (October 2015)
• Hawai'i State Judiciary — High Demand Interpreted Languages, FY 2018 (January 2020)
• Te Papa Tongarewa (Sadat Muaiava, Victoria University of Wellington) — T-style and K-style in gagana Sāmoa (May 26, 2020)
• Cultural Atlas (Mosaica) — Samoan Culture: Naming (2022)

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