te wiki o te reo Maori

Tena koe e hoa,

Kei te pehea koe? Ko te wiki o te reo Maori i tenei wiki. Ka haere au ki te whare wananga o Otago ki te ako i te reo Maori.

Hey there, if you hadn't caught up on the news, its Maori Language Week in NZ this week and theres some great events happening around the country. Check out your local council website for more details. This years theme is sport, which is cool. I just wish it had been 2 months ago when my korero (speech) for uni assessment had been ....it was all about sport!
I'm learning the language and the hardest part for me is taking it outside the classroom and practising it. That's one of the tragedies contained within the story of Aotearoa, NZ.... the almost extinction of the language. Maori has been clawing its way back though and is now getting stronger and stronger all the time. One of my classmates is also taking Chinese, and during the christmas break went to China to be emmersed in the language and culture for about 6 weeks. We were lamenting the fact that there is no country where you can go and be emmersed in Maori, so we have to work extra hard to make sure the language not only survives, but prospers. Without language we have no voice....when a culture is an oral culture the language becomes even more critical. There are heaps of great resources out there for people wanting to learn te reo and free classess all over the place. I'll leave you with a couple of phrases I've found very helpful....

Engari mo tena = I don't think so.

Kaua e korero pena = don't talk like that.

Arohamai = I'm sorry

Have a great week, korero Maori whenever you can, even if its just a 'kia ora' (hello).

ka kite ano,

Na Shar

waiata

I'm taking Maor108 Waiata-te timatanga (an introduction to Maori waiata) this semester at uni. I've just come home from our second practical class where we are learning the songs which we will perform in a concert in September. I'm loving the paper. I love the singing, the actions and the stories behind the songs. The performance of these waiata is not jst standing up and singin the tune. Its about giving everything of yourself into the songs, feeling them and expressing that emotion in your voice, your face and body. Its a challenge for me but I'm loving it....will keep you posted on my progress.

mondays

Well its Monday again....and the start of the new semester at uni. I'm really quite excited by the new papers Im doing this semester. I have a Maori performing arts paper which includes a concert at the end of semester, and an introduction to the treaty of waitangi. I'm a little less excited about my language paper, but that's probably due to the fact I'm really struggling with it...It will be a miracle if I pass (which is a really weird place to be in as I dont usually find myself in that sort of position). Its a good place for me in that I cant just cruise and need to apply myself. The struggle I have with the language paper is that I can't practise what I learn and because I learn by doing....it becomes so much harder. Anyway, I'm going into this monday with a positive outlook and a commitment to myself to pull finger and make it through. I dont want to miss out on the pass by a silly 1 or 2 %.
It's also got me thinking about the time and effort I put into my understanding of scripture and biblical things. There is no grade or essay to submit...is that less of a motivation then? At times, it would seem my life is geared around the things I MUST do, rather than what is of greatest benefit to me.
So I head into this new week with a commitment to learning, studying and making application in all areas of my life....roll on next monday :)

noise vs silence

Over the last couple of days I've been thinking about the place that noise and silence both have in my life. I must confess that one is given far more attention than the other. I've always considered noise my kind of silence. Some need silence to concentrate, I need noise...or so I thought. I watched the Nooma dvd 'noise' and it's got me thinking some more. I know the verse well where God wasnt in the earthquake or the wind but in the whisper (or as some scholars would suggest, the silence) but have struggled to make application for myself because of the need for noise.....so I'm going to go on a bit of a journey over the next wee while to explore the silence and see what or who I can find in it.

the contents of a month

It would seem that me and blogging are getting off to a rocky start. Many times over the last month I've been somewhere and thought..."i should write about this in my blog" only to be nowhere near a computer at the time, and no time to blog when I am. This last month has been full of drama, challenge, stress, relaxation and so much more thrown in for good measure. My flatmate was involved in a car crash which saw her end up in Greymouth hospital and needing 2 operations, I made an unscheduled trip to the west coast to be with her, hung out in the hospital for 2 days (one of my least favourite places to be alongside the dentist) and made a rather scary but spectacular trip over Arthurs pass in the snow to get back to Christchurch in time to celebrate my Nana's 80th birthday.All of this taking place the day after I sat my exam for university.
I got my marks back this week and was totally stoked with my results. Its funny the goals you set yourself. I had never ever planned on going to University as I didnt really understand how it worked or if I would even have the brains to do it. So in my first year I thought it'd be cool to try for one A+ in my career as a part time uni student. After 3 years of trying and missing out by 1%,0.6% and 0.4% in past papers, I finally got my a+ with a 95% pass on one of my 300 level papers. So one would think after having finally achieved this long awaited goal, I'd be satisfied right? I am, and yet it has also shown me that its not about getting the grade on the piece of paper cos as we all know C's get degrees....its about the learning process and the change that takes place through that process that really counts. That's the lesson I'm trying to learn.
If I can continue to be open to learning, both academically based and that based on everyday life, then I will see change, in myself and in the world around me....hmmmm.