Malinowski began his fieldwork in 1914, when he traveled to New Guinea to study the Mailu. His first ethnographic report on this fieldwork, "The Native of the Mailu", was written in 1915. Malinowski had trouble working with the Mailu because he could not speak their language and did not live with them, which limited his understanding of their culture. Because of this, Malinowski started new fieldwork in the Trobriand Islands in 1915. 