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I have seen this term used a lot in many different ways.
「さあ、忘れましょうその未来が」 saa, wasuremashou sono mirai ga — in this sense, I assume it means "come". But I have also seen it used as 「でもさあ」 demo saa — which I would assume means "well you know" or some other expression.
Would like to get some more clarification on this word. I know it is informal to use. But the actual meaning and when it is appropriate to use it would help.
We are actually talking about two different words here.
When used in phrases such as 「さあ、[忘]{わす}れましょう」 and「さあ、[行]{い}きましょう」, 「さあ」 is an exclamation/interjection expressing the speaker's intention to invite or press the other person to perform an action. It has a meaning close to that of "okay", "now" and "c'mon".
When 「さあ」 is used in phrases such as 「でもさあ」,「あのさあ」 and 「それでさあ」, it is just a filler meaning nothing. Grammatically, it is a particle. It is used like "um", "like", "ah", etc. in English. Strictly speaking, the dictionary word is just 「さ」 and 「さあ」 is only its variant pronunciation.
For a filler, each native speaker has his "usual" one that he uses repeatedly, which means that not everyone uses 「さ」 or 「さあ」 actively. Other choices include 「ね」, 「ねえ」, 「よ」, 「よう」, etc.
filler. doesn't mean anything.
If you want to learn when it is appropriate to use it, you just have to copy natives, and learn all the places where it tends to be used.
