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
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3 comments:
Kia Ora,
Great reading about ur journey into 'Te Reo', not enough of it I reckon! I meet people everyday who has no clue about who they are, where they come from? To lose your culture you lose a whole lot more, so cussie keep da mahi up!
Churz...
I so know what you mean about taking the language out of the classroom! Not sure of your iwi but I'm Ngai Tahu and I know they have regular te reo weekends ranging from beginner to total immersion.
I've only been to weekends up north as Ngai Tahu o Tamaki Makaurau so I'm not sure how often they have them down south (or who they are open to) but Ngai Tahu have an awesome set up in general - well worth a look especially being in the deep south!
Ngai Tahu
I'm Ngai Tahu too. I have loked into a couple of the things they do but have always had other commitments on!
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