“ Just to add to my commentaries on the temporal-spatial, formal-substantial and functional movement of the human intellect from vale (ignorance) to 'ilo (knowledge) to poto (skills). as duly theorised in the Tongan practice of ako (education) that such 'ilo (knowledge) and poto (skills) are historically composed or constituted in fonua (culture) as a spectacle and dialectically communicated or transmitted in tala / lea (language) as a vehicle, both of which are inseparable entities in reality, as in nature, mind and society.
While it is immensely important to stress that "knowledge and skills save lives," it is also strictly significant to highlight the very fact that such 'ilo (knowledge) and poto (skills) also mean 'ilo (knowledge) of and poto (skill) in both fonua (culture) and tala / lea (language) as devices for their composition or constitution and communication or transmission in ta (time) and va (space).
Whereas such 'traditional,' 'indigenous' Tongan-based 'ilo and poto are largely imprinted in the human memories of people and orally / verbally communicated in ta and va, 'scientific,' Western-led knowledge and skills are strictly printed / written in books in libraries and textually transmitted over time and space.
Mind you both the spoken and the written are merely two types of language, where one is spoken by the mouth and the other written by the hands, made up of both sound and written symbols respectively, which function as means of human communication, thereby pointing to language as a "symbolic pointer" to things out there in reality, as in nature, mind and society. ”