On the (slightly terrifying) off-chance that anyone is actually reading this:
I’m looking for recommendations for resources to learn about New Zealand’s history*.
Learning a language properly means connecting with the culture, which requires understanding history.
The Reo Project | Day 135
*The real history, so not the version(s) written by the winners.
If the first rule is build a vocabulary, the second rule is find some fluent mates.
This week I caught up with two amazing people who, as well as being generally encouraging, offered me a wealth of wisdom through both their knowledge and experiences of being language learners.
It’s good to have mates when you’re setting off on a journey.
The Reo Project | Day 134
I came across these sentences/phrases questions today and made some good notes. I’m keen to try out an immersion learning experience, and I think they’ll come in handy.
He aha tēnā kupu?
He aha te kupu Māori mō television?
He aha te ‘reo irirangi’?
These mean, in order:
What ‘s that word?
What’s the Māori word for television?
What is the ‘reo irirangi’?
Definitely going to keep those in my back pocket!
The Reo Project | Day 133
Today I found these words lists on the Te Kupu o te Rā webpage.
My current favourite:
Food Time - Connect kupu for food with “Homai ki te…” and you can start using Te Reo Māori at the dinner table!
Locative nouns - It turns out these are really important. A handy list to get to grips with early on.
Idiomatic phrases group 1 and Idiomatic phrases group 2 - Want to level up your naturalness? Learn the turns of phrase.
I’m thinking about making Anki flashcard decks for these lists…
The Reo Project | Day 131
The further I get into learning a language, the more I realise I’m just scratching the surface.
Getting through a 1000-word vocabulary felt awesome when I began.
Then I learnt how to construct a few sentences.
Next, I learnt how to ask about different things.
Then I started realising there’s multiple ways of constructing a single sentence. How do I know if my construction is correct?
Then I realised how many different words there are for a single simple idea, all of which adds nuance because of the cultural context and experience of the language.
I’m taking comfort in the fact that I also learnt some tools for navigating this environment:
He aha tēnā kupu? (What is that word?)
He aha tē kupu māori mō blogging? (What is the Māori word for blogging?)
Kia kaha e hoa mā.
The Reo Project | Day 129
It's a while time since Christmas. About the same time as it has been since I wrote a post.
In fact, it’s exactly the same amount of time.
If you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, I hope you've also had a good holiday.
I’ve been focusing on what’s important on this journey: Doing the daily mahi of learning Te Reo. Mostly learning kupu, but also building out grammar and new phrases.
But I’ve missed writing hear. Language learning is a long, slow grind that doesn’t often feel like progress. Being able to write something here is a nice reminder that I have learnt something!
The Reo Project | Day 128
I’ve spent far too much time over the last couple of weeks switching over to fonts that properly support the use of macrons. One piece of software which, among other things, distributes emails to contact lists, simply doesn’t publish macrons at all.
Along the way i’ve learnt about Google Fonts. Useful tool, but just because the word (like rātou) appears nicely there desn’t mean it’ll show up nicely in your website or document.
I have two questions:
I’d love to know if web developers and designers in New Zealand consider whether the typeface they’re selecting for a client can handle macrons .
Surely it isn’t to difficult to include a few lines in a typeface as a default?
I‘d love to hear from anyone with expertise in this area.
The Reo Project | Day 104
I’m struggling to get this to stick in my brain. There’s so many variations on personal pronouns in Te Reo Māori!
So I made an infographic infographic which you can download too. Making it helped me, maybe reading it will help you too.
Te Reo Project | Day 103
At 20 new words a day, you can learn this Anki deck of common Te Reo words inside two months.
Although if your experience is anything like mine, at the end of the two months you’ll:
Know 200 without thinking.
Be confident with another 200.
Be able to recall another 200, given a little thinking time.
Be hit-and-miss with another 200.
Struggle completely with the last 200.
While I’ve only recently moved into more language/grammar/phrase learning now, I think shifting at the ten-month mark would also have helped with my vocabulary. Using words in some king of context is better than flashcards!
The Reo Project | Day 93
There’s no such thing as writer’s block.
You can tell because writing is just expressing our ideas using words. Talking is also just expressing our ideas using words and no one’s ever complained about getting talker’s block.
So why do we hear about writer’s block?
It’s really just procrastination.
This week I encountered what I am going to call Learners Block.
learner’s block
[ lur-nerz blok ]
noun
1. a temporary condition in which a student finds it impossible to proceed with a course of study they had previously committed to
2. an excuse to stop learning because of boredom, fear or any other thing spurring the procrastination monkey into action.
I came across passive forms of verbs a few days ago while using the Tipu app the learn grammar. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying this app, but realised yesterday since hitting passive verbs I haven’t gone back to the app.
I didn’t do anything about it. I had learners block.
By which I mean, I procrastinated.
I google searched passive verbs.
I researched different ways of using Anki to learn how to conjugate verbs.
I tried to figure out the pattern for making verbs passive in Te Reo.
I discovered a whole lot of Te Reo resources I’d never found before!
But I didn’t learn any grammar, and I didn’t learn any passive verbs,
Now the solution to writer’s block is pretty simple: Small, daily doses of writing. The solution to learner’s block is the same.
Small, daily doses of learning.
My solution: I decided to learn the first three passive verbs that showed up on Tipu today.
Here they are:
puritia - passive form of pupuri: to hold
omakia - passive form of oma: to run
kitea - passive form of kite: to see, perceive
The Reo Project | Day 89
I linked to it yesterday, but this webpage has a handy short overview of the letters in the Māori alphabet.
Technically, there are 15 letters.
Vowels (5): a, e, i, o, u.
Consonants (8): h, k, m, n, p, r, t, w.
Diagraphs (2): ng, wh
Seems simple…
Setting aside any discussion about dialects, it doesn’t take long to realise that there are more than 15 sounds/letters to learn.
There’s the five macron-used vowels: ā, ē, ī, ō, ū.
And the two sounds for ‘t’ depending on the vowel that follows.
SO maybe it’s just me, but I reckon there’s more like 21 letters in the Māori alphabet.
Or at least, there’s (at least) 21 sounds in Te Reo Māori.
The Reo Project | Day 87
Firstly, I’m not talking about macaroons. Or macarons for that matter.
I’m talking about macrons. The flat “hats” that you see about vowels from time to time.
They also show up as capitals.
For a language with only fifteen different letters, having being able to double the number of vowels makes a big difference.
Here’s a good guide on how to literally use them
And if you’re new to this, here’s a webpage with audio samples for you to compare the normal vowels with the macron-used versions.
Ngā mihi nui.
Te Reo Project | Day 86
I’m really enjoying the Tipu app for learning Te Reo Māori grammar.
But today I hit passive verbs. And oh man, everything ground to a halt.
How do you remember the passive form of each verb when there are difference endings, and some words are the same entirely!
This puts a whole new spin on learning vocabulary.
First things first, I’m going to change my Anki* deck so that I can enter the passive form of the verbs with the normal form of the verbs as I learn them. One of the great things about digital flashcards: You can have more than two sides!
And I have no idea what comes second.
The Reo Project | Day 85
*If you haven’t heard of Anki, jump back to November 29th 2019.
I figured out a while ago that it takes me around six attempts to establish a new habit or change before it sticks.
So when it comes to writing a daily blog, this is attempt number two. Or possibly three, as I definitely failed at least once mid-blog on my initial attempt.
Blogging is a way of building my self-discipline daily-routine muscles.
So is language learning.
Cramming doesn’t work for learning vocabulary. A little bit each day works much better (and I can tell you, it really does work!).
What I’ve found is that when I enjoy the process of learning, not just the knowledge gained by my learning, I’m more consistent, enjoy myself more. As a by-product, I think I also learn more too!
The Reo Project | Day 84
I’ve been slogging away learning grammar on Anki, slowing learning phrases and contexts by reading Te Kākano, but really struggling to feel I was making any headway on grammar without a kiaako (teacher).
And then, I discovered Tipu.
It’s gamified grammar learning on your cellphone.
I’m hooked.
Tipu is a grammar-learning app created by Plink Software, a Nelson-based software development company.
Here’s what they have to say about themselves:
Plink Software specialises in kaupapa Māori software.
Founded by husband and wife Jeremy and Melissa Banks, Plink strives to connect Māori to their language and their whakapapa.
All I can say is:
It’s awesome.
Of course, I actually have more to say than that. Here’s a little list of things I might say, if you asked me:
If you aren’t particularly motivated to learn Te Reo or don’t know where to start, I’d suggest starting with this app. It’s simple, self-paced and you’ll progress even if all you do is switch out five minutes of social media for using the app each day.
If you’re doing self-paced Te Reo learning where you’re picking up one word at a time as you go, download this app. You’ll get the benefit of learning simple grammatical structures to make sense of (and make sentences of) the words you’re picking up.
If you’re a hard-core Te Reo learning machine, download this app so you can find out how simple it is and then tell your mates.
If you’re in the education sector check out the app then look into Tipu for schools.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, I think there’s some goodness in this app for everyone, even if it’s just to turn an addiction to instant gratification and mobile screens into something productive.
To make it easy, here’s the link for Android and iOs users.
The Reo Project | Day 82
It’s one of the key questions: “What is the best Te Reo textbook to get?”
In searching for recommendations, I’ve come across two that consistently get mentioned.
They also happen to be the most expensive.
The first is Te Kākano, book 1 in the Te Whanake series of textbooks. You can get the textbook bundled with a study guide, but they don’t seem to be for sale at the moment. Perhaps there’s a refresh coming?
The second book is He Whakamārama.
I’m personally using Te Kākano, but that’s because the course I’m hoping to do uses it as a reference for the lower-level courses (which I’m trying to skip).
They both suffer from being pretty old and having some outdated modes of accessing audio files etc, but they’re excellent resources for language learning! My brief skim through what’s available would suggest they’re worth the money.
Of course, check your local library catalogue first.
The Reo Project | Day 80
I’ve started off by trying to build my vocabulary, rather than jumping straight in to phrases and conversations.
Here’s my approach so far.
Find a list of the most common words in Māori. I’ll save you the google search, the best list I could find is this one.
Freak out about the logistics of building a 1000-word flashcard deck.
Discover Anki and download their (free) Android app (sorry iPhone users, you have to pay for this one!).
Find the pre-made Anki deck for the 1000-word list linked above.
Celebrate!
Start.
I expect I’ll share more about my evolving use of Anki, for example how I’m now extending the default 1000-word “deck” by adding in more kupu as I discover them. If you’d like to download my current version of the deck, I’ll leave a link to this file on dropbox for a while.
*Updated 18 March 2020 - There’s a link to the latest version of my Anki deck on today’s post.
The Reo Project | Day 78
I feel I need to mention something here: I actually started my journey of learning Te Reo Māori a couple of months ago.
Formal study is something I’ve been thinking about for a while and exploring this year, so early in September I booked a course counselling session at the local polytechnic.
Shortly afterwards I started using flashcards to build my vocabulary. More on that later.
But for the record, this is day 77.
We’ll keep track at the bottom.
The Reo Project | Day 77
Other than one year of high school French classes, I’ve never learnt a language before.
My goal is to do full immersion classes in 2020. We’ll see how we go…
While learning Te Reo Māori is partly about learning the language, my approach is also influence by a few other things I’d like to learn along the way. Some of these that I’m expecting to write about are:
How to speak Te Reo Māori (obviously).
How to learn a language.
Te Ao Māori/Māori culture.
What it’s like to not understand what’s going on around me.
How to fail and keep going.
What happens to my brain when I speak a different language.
It’s going to be a wild ride…