Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori—Maori Language Week—is drawing to a close. Each year since 1975, New Zealand has observed Maori Language Week. The idea has been to advance usage of, and to celebrate, te reo Maori (the Maori language), and to get all New Zealanders to embrace it.
This week we’ve seen a LOT of Maori on television. Most of it has been non-threatening to people of European descent, but I’m not sure how much the language was actually advanced (for example, subtitles are useful).
Some New Zealanders are dead set against te reo Maori generally, and it’s dishonest to deny that. But it’s also dishonest to avoid pointing out that many of the people complaining the most loudly weren’t even born here. These people declare with false sureness that te reo Maori is “a dying language”. In fact, more and more people are becoming fluent in it. They say it’s “useless” and young people would be “better off” learning a traditional, European language. That’s simply racist (let’s not be shy about calling it what it is).
However, all is not perfect. I once took a class in Maori: I lasted one day. It was apparently a dramatically different experience than Nik, my fellow blogger (and American expat in Auckand). The course I took was politically correct, culturally focused and total immersion. That means that class members were expected to function in Maori from the beginning, even when we had no idea what was going on—that’s not how I can learn a language. We were also told to use only approved words for phrases (like for “good morning”), instead of the widely-used common phrases because the common ones were transliterated from English.
As teachers of foreign language will tell you, the greatest problem is the “sound barrier”, meaning, basically, people feeling comfortable speaking the new language out loud. I never felt comfortable speaking in that class and decided right there and then that I’d never return. If Maori want people of European descent to learn Maori, it will have to be taught in a way that they can relate to, and not necessarily the Maori way.
While I know many of the 100 Maori words every New Zealander should know, someday I would like to be more advanced. I don’t think I can ever be fluent—I’m sort of beyond being able to learn new languages—but when I study, it’ll be on my terms, suited to the way I learn. But learning it is the point, right?
2 comments:
We took a class last year at the local high school (sadly, those same classes are either going to be discontinued or more expensive thanks to National).
The class was ok - not total immersion - but the teacher didn't always correct pronunciation, which was disappointing. We learned a lot, but I've already forgotten most of it.
I hear there are even better (and free) classes, but we haven't had the time to check them out yet. I'm a little slow learning languages, but I'd really like to know Maori.
The next time I try, it'll be a self-paced thing, probably CD-based, like the cassette one I used to refresh my German. If I'm ever going to learn anything more than a couple words, I have to do what works for me.
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