māori vs Māori - The benefits of going outside the language resources

There’s a difference between māori and Māori, and it just clicked for me.

I’ve just started reading Te Hāhi Mihinare: The Māori Anglican Church by Hirini Kaa. As I read, I’ve taken to scribbling notes in margins wherever something stands out to me, or makes sense to me, or makes no sense. I’m right at the beginning, and Kaa is riffing on Mātauranga Māori (note the capital there).

Circumstantially, I was also listening to my favourite podcast Tāringa (taringapodcast.com) where the hosts went on a little tangent about kupu Māori which have very different meanings. Once of the kupu looked at was māori/Māori.

Here’s what I took away from it.

  • Māori (capital M) refers to a people group. In the way that Te Reo works, this could be a noun, verb or modifier.

  • māori (lower-case m) is a modifier that has meanings include normal, indigenous and freely. It’s always a modifier, except for when it is referring to a person who is indigenous.

Now I knew this, but I didn’t really know it, until I read Kaa’s paragraph on Mātauranga Māori. Which is when it struck me, because he refers to mātauranga Māori as distinct from, but related to mātauranga-ā-iwi.

I’m not going to attempt to define those terms (you should read the book, it’s great so far) but simply reflect on this.

  1. Engaging with material outside pure language learning resources is really awesome for language learning (and way more fun most of the time!).

  2. It isn’t until I have to apply a concept outside the context in which I learnt it that things really start to get tested, and also start to stick.

So. Go buy a book, watch a TV show (maybe even a kids show, or a crunchy little documentary), or listen to a podcast.

Sometimes it's good to fly solo (right?)

I’m committed. This Wednesday (ā tēnei Rāapa) I’m heading down to the local games bar/cafe to kōrero Māori.

I’ve invited a few mates. Hopefully they come too…

Or perhaps not. I’ve learnt that in environments and situations where I’m a little bit wary, afraid or unsure, the best thing to do is fly solo. Without the safety net of people I know, I’m forced to open up and engage with others.

Of course, then environment matters. Picking somewhere where people are actually there to connect, to chat, to meet others, helps a lot.

Or not.

We’ll see.

Discovering a whole new world

One of the things that happens when you start learning Te Reo, is that you discover there is a whole world of amazing people, places and spaces to connect into.

I’d heard rumours of a games and chat night (Kēmu and kōrero) happening around the city, and today I tracked it down to a Facebook page called Reo Māori Mai. Then, I jumped onto google and found the reomaorimai.co.nz website which, among other things, has products designed by an outfit called Aho Creative.

I managed to restrain myself from dropping $100 on wall decals, prints, and cushions and instead messaged a classmate from last year about the next games night.

Also, I did note that both Reo Māori Mai and Aho Creative seem to be initiatives of young wāhine māori…. Kia kaha!

Year 2 - Some Reflections

What a year 2020 was.

Before we move on, here’s a few reflections from The Reo Project

Full-immersion language learning is awesome.

It isn’t for the faint-hearted which, in my opinion, means it’s potentially for everyone. Preparation is key, and most of the preparation is mental. The biggest barrier to developing your Reo is whakamā, the feeling of embarrassment or discomfort, especially around speaking.

Tūwhitia te hopo, mairangitia te angitu

Doing non-language learning is super helpful for part-time language students.

Part-time Te Reo Māori students are usually pretty busy and meet for a couple of hours one night per week. By switching my watching, listening and reading to material by Māori and about Māori meant that I grew my understanding of the context of Te Reo. And spending time listening to people speak Māori is genuinely helping your language learning, so this isn’t even cheating!

As a starter for 10, you should:

Watch: Māori Television in general, and Waka Huia specifically. Short, beautiful documentaries in Te Reo (subtitled) with many native speakers.

Listen: I can’t say enough good things about Tāringa Podcast. Start at the beginning and hang on.

Read: Too many books to mention them all but if you’re stuck, start with The Parihaka Woman.

Everyone has something to teach and something to learn

I was part of a course which emphasised the tuakana /teina approach to learning. That is, tuakana (elder, or more advanced students) were expected to support the learning of teina (younger, or less advanced students). The primary environment for this was the weekend wānanga reo (language workshops). These two-night noho (residential) had students of all levels mixing, working, teaching and learning from each other and provided the richest learning opportunities of the whole year.

Talk. Talk. Talk.

Firstly: To learn Māori, speak Māori as often as you can. Read aloud. Ask questions. Make Te Reo the first thing and the last thing you say in a meeting. Make it the first thing you say in the morning.

Secondly: Speak Te Reo outside your classroom. Be part of the revitalisation. Normalise the use, the learning and the sound of Te Reo in your community.

Thirdly: Pass on what you have learnt. Both your knowledge of kupu and grammar, but also your story. Inspire, encourage and affirm other people on their own Reo journey.

Catching up on NZ History

I missed out. I didn’t learn New Zealand history at school.

This is partly because, while I enjoyed learning about history and other similar topics, I hated writing essays.

But it’s also because it wasn’t in the curriculum.

And so I don’t know the stories of my own country.

I’m a beginner in history. Here’s my current reading list, based largely on what caught my eye at the library, and also this list of books.

  • The Parihaka Woman - Witi Ihamaera (Not exactly a history book, but it provided an easy entry for me into the genre!)

  • Hīkoi: Forty Years of Māori Protest - Aroha Harris (Most of the recommended history books are massive, so I started with a shorter book with lots of pictures and interesting stories)

  • Te Whiti o Rongomai and the Resistance of Parihaka - Danny Keenan

  • Ka Whawhai Tonu Mātou: Struggle Without End - by Ranginui Walker

As a bonus, I discovered the website nzonscreen.com and watched this short documentary on Ngā Tamatoa. There is so much stuff on the website, but I suspect the Collection on Waitangi might a good place to start.

The Reo Project | Day 248

Community and consistency

If consistency is king in learning, I’ve definitely been playing more like a pawn for the last month or so.

Apologies for the mixed metaphors. Here’s a simple version, and mini confession.

  1. I haven’t been doing my daily flashcards.

  2. I’ve been behind on my mahi kāinga (homework).

  3. I haven’t been reading any related books.

  4. I haven’t been writing on here (obviously).

I’ve been carried through by my classmates, my kaiako and the people around me who I look up to. And my kids: I have been using more Reo with them, and they’re picking it up!

The community you have around you is critical for your Reo journey.

  • Find some people you can look up to, that you can aspire to follow. Not because of their competency, but because of their journey.

  • Find some mates who are in it with you. Who know what you mean when you say “He uaua rawa!” It’s really difficult!

  • And find someone you can teach.

Community AND consistency. Because it’s a shared journey AND you have to do the mahi at the end of the day.

The Reo Project | Day 246

Māorifying my reading in 2020

Part of my focus this year on Te Reo Māori has been to “māorify” my wider life (note: “māorify” is a term I’ve stolen from my kaiako).

I chose the things that I already do, that I enjoy doing, and that I can actually change.

If you’re into Venn diagrams, this picture might make sense to you.

If that wasn’t any help, here’s an example

Reading

I love reading. It’s one of my favourite things to do, and I’ve developed an approach over the years that suits me. Which is this:

  • I read no more than three books at a time.

  • One of the books is a novel, or some form of creative writing, or story. Usually, this is a Science Fiction novel but I’m looking to broaden my reading...

  • One of the books is a learning book. Something non-fiction that I’m having to actively engage my brain in. In the past, this would have been a book like Doughnut Economics or one of the BWB Texts.

  • And the final book can be anything I want. It’s usually something that helps me learn about people. Usually pop psychology and frequently something by Seth Godin.

Reading is something that I like to do, that I have a system for already, and that I is entirely in my control (i.e. what I read doesn’t rely on anyone else, or affect anyone else).

So I māorified it.

This year, at least two of my books this year have to be related to this Reo Project. So far, this has meant that I have chosen to read:

  • The Parihaka Woman instead of Ender’s Game.

  • New Zealand History (including one on forty years of Māori protest) instead of business strategy books.

  • Te Reo Māori teaching books like Hemi Kelly’s A Māori Phrase a Day and my favourite, Te Kākano.

If you’re thinking about doing this yourself but aren’t sure where to start, here’s some suggestions

  1. Start with stories. They’re more engaging to read and introduce you to lots of the background cultural context. They might be true stories, like biographies, or Parihaka Woman, or you could just start with picture books telling the Māori “Myths and Legends”

  2. Illustrated history books are awesome! They’re also shorter than they look because of all the pictures.

  3. If your Reo is up to it, try Te Reo Māori graphic novels.

  4. Read some history.

And finally, if you’re looking for a reading list, you could try this Spinoff article from 2016 listing the top 50 books by Māori authors.

The Reo Project } Day 247

Ahakoa he iti...

Ahakoa he iti, he pounamu

Although it is small, it is precious (pounamu).

This has to be one of the whakataukī I hear and see most frequently.

The Reo Project | Day 237

One thought, one song

One Thought: Our greatest gift to others can be the things that cost us the least, and perhaps don’t even realise are valuable. When someone says thanks, pay attention. And when someone asks for help, say thanks.

One Song: This song makes for excellent listening on any given day, but especially on a cold evening during a lockdown.

The Reo Project | Day 216

Kātahi anō + ka ...

Kātahi anō au ka ako “kātahi anō + ka .. “

I just learnt the “kātahi anō + ka “ sentence structure.

I just learnt the" “kātahi anō + ka” sentence structure for the first time.

I finally learnt the “kātahi anō + ka” sentence structure.

And now, so have you.

The Reo Project | Day 214

Thank goodness for good mates

Tomorrow, a handful of excellent human beings are going to join me in this blogging experiment.

This is a shout out to Reuben, Marcus and Teaghan.

It’s also a shout out to three other fine people, Greg, Beth and Erin. These three folks are a big part of why I started, finished, and then restarted a blogging experiment. They’re also a suprisingly, and probably unknowingly large part of why I’m learning Te Reo.

It turns out, if you meet regularly with a bunch of mates, are honest about what you’d like to change about the world, and take each other seriously enough to want those changes to happen, you start doing things.

This blog is one of them. My Reo journey is another.

Also. Shout out to my wife. She doesn’t blog, but she’s still awesome.

The Reo Project | Day 212

Learning is an infinite game

Simon Sinek talks a lot about infinite and finite games. Like this video, these videos, and at length in this video, for example.

A finite game is one where there is a winner.

Like football.

In an infinite game is a game where the objective is to keep playing.

Like marriage.

One of Simon’s key points is that you need to know which game you’re playing because the strategy is completely different for each type of game.

If this piques your interest, I can recommend watching the videos.

And if not, I’ll leave you with this.

If you know you aren’t going to “win” at learning, why are you playing?

The Reo Project | Day 219

How to learn a language, or "Successfully failing"

We don’t learn anything if we’re comfortable. If there’s no stretch between where we are and where we could be, there’s no tension to move.

I think of our brains like a rock tied to a rubber band. Most of the time, the rock just sits there with a loose rubber band just hanging around. But when we want to learn, to change, to move the rock from where it is to somewhere else, we have to stretch the rubber band enough that the rock shifts.

Failure is a really good way to apply tension. There’s a pattern of development you might have heard of that goes like this:

First we are unconsciously incompetent.

Then, we become consciously incompetent.

With a bit of practice, we become consciously competent.

And one day, we are unconsciously incompetent.

Continuing to have a go on the basis that failure is successful learning accelerates this process.

We only know we've failed when we get feedback. When we find out we’ve failed, we know we’re incompetent. Great work! We’re at step 2!

Because we keep trying, we get better. We try and get it right more of the time. And eventually, we’ll be getting feedback on our failure in other areas. We’re consciously competent!

Of course, at this point, we’re not actively working on some other area of our language we just realised we’re incompetent it. And so our conscious competence becomes unconscious.

So, fail successfully, fail courageously, fail to learn!

The Reo Project | Day 218

He rā hou tēnei - It's a new day

If I’m honest, the last week has been a bit of a slog. When you’re in lockdown because of a global pandemic, it’s challenging to stay motivated to do the difficult work of learning a new language.

And, I guess every learning journey reaches plateaus. And troughs too.

Engari, he rā hou tēnei - But today is a new day.

In case you are in a similar space, or you think you might at some point, here’s what I think helped, and might help you too:

  1. I learnt something new. I finally opened up Hemi Kelly’s book “A Māori Phrase a Day” and learnt something new! He rā hou tēnei.

  2. I took a break from the daily digital flashcards. I took two days off, even though that’s breaking one of the cardinal rules of habits. But I took a break. I did it knowing that I would still need to put the extra work in to catch up on my backlog of cards, but I did check out for two days.

  3. I got back into the routine and I realised two important things. Firstly, I’m making progress! One great thing about spaced repetition is that I can see that I’m retaining things I learnt ages ago, and I can focus on the new things I’m learning. And secondly, I remembered I enjoy learning Te Reo Māori.

This last point is probably the most significant:

I remembered I really enjoy learning Te Reo Māori.

All the other things that I did, really just contributed to me remembering why I’m doing this, and that I enjoy it.

Experiencing that small spark of excitement from learning something new helps.

Taking a break and getting some distance helps.

Choosing to come back to the work helps.

Looking back and seeing progress helps

The Reo Project | Day 217

Te Reo Strategies for Video Meetings

My Te Reo Māori classes start back up today. Online of course.

I’m still not sure how we’re going to do the weekend wānanga, but anyway…

I realised I probably need some rautaki/strategies for doing video conferencing etiquette in Te Reo Māori.

Here’s what I’ve come up with.

Disclaimer: These might not be correct.

He kupu o te hui ataata

hopuoro - microphone

pū whakaahua - camera

ataata - video

ipurangi - internet

hāngū - to be mute

He rerenga mo te hui ataata

He ipurangi kino tāku - I have bad internet

Kōrero mai anō? - Can you say that to me again?

He hopuoro hāngū tāu - Your microphone is muted

Whakangūhia tāu hopuoro - Mute your microphone

The Reo Project | Day 216

All Right "Getting Through Together" lockdown resources

I’m a fan of the folks over at All Right?

They do some great work in community Wellbeing promotion and make heaps of free stuff.

My favourite thing they make is their Downtime Dice. They ain’t free, but you get more than you paid for.

One of the reasons I like their work is they have Te Reo Māori everywhere, and even make Te Ao Māori specific resources like portraits of people talking about how Te Reo Māori supports their wellbeing.

They recently released a few lockdown-specific digital resources called “Whāia e tātou te pai tawhiti / Getting through together”

He aroha mau roa

Aroha from afar

Tinana tawhiti, whakaaro tata

Distance not distant

He hono tāngata e kore e motu

Isolation not isolated

I’d encourage you to share these.

Download the files and post them on social media.

Practice the principles.

Or learn the phrases and say them yourself.

The Reo Project | Day 214

Study at home by transcribing lyrics

My first assignment this year was to transcribe a dictation of a story.

It was hard, but also really incredible learning and quite fun!

Certainly, the most enjoyable assessment I can remember having to do.

I’ve been wondering how I could do something similar at home.

I think I cracked it today.

I’ve started listening to more Te Reo Māori music (mostly this Spotify playlist) but I don’t know any of the songs.

So I thought I could try and transcribe the lyrics!

I might start with “Ohia” by Rei.

The Reo Project | Day 213

Some kupu for Easter weekend

Here are a few kupu for Easter which I gathered from The Māori Dictionary.

He kupu nō Te Aranga

Te Aranga - Easter (Mostly associated with Easter Sunday)

tiakarete - Chocolate

hēki - egg

rā whakatā - Weekend

okioki - To rest

tākaro - To play

whare karakia - church

rīpeka - cross

mataora - Life

Kei te pai te rā whakatā roa!

The Reo Project | Day 212