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[julian_w]

... this week.

www.korero.maori.nz

Kia ora everybody. - Kia ora tatau.

[Yaya]

What's the time, Mr. Wolf, WHAT'S THE TIME?

[kiwiduncan]

[SHANE02]

Chinese is the go mate

[julian_w]

ShaneKoreRua korerotia:

[Ethan Allen Hawley]

Schoolkids give lessons in speaking Maori correctly

By PAUL EASTON - The Dominion Post | Monday, 21 July 2008

Half of Wellington's schools with a Maori name
are regularly pronounced incorrectly
- even by staff - prompting a group of Maori youths to act.

To mark Maori Language Week, which starts today,
they have written to 60 schools
offering a CD of tips on correct pronunciation.

Neihana Brabender, 16, hoped the $10 CDs would spread correct pronunciation
through schools, to pupils and into the wider community.
The project is being run by the Tawa community group Mana Tiaki.

Spokeswoman Angela Wallace said it offered "gentle encouragement"
for school staff and pupils to say their school's name correctly.
Ms Wallace said that after meeting production and courier costs
the project would break even.

A phone survey found about half of Wellington schools with a Maori name
used the correct pronunciation when answering calls from the public.
There were three levels of pronunciation
- good,
schools that tried but needed help,
and those that made no effort.

Tawa College principal Murray Lucas supported the aims of the scheme.
"Tawa is not probably one of the harder ones,
neither is Mana for example,
but I do think it's a good idea.
Correct pronunciation is important and should be encouraged."

Other schools that will be offered CDs include Rangikura,
Maungaraki and Paraparaumu.

Maori Language Week began in 1975.
It provides a chance for people to celebrate te reo Maori
and encourages the use of more Maori phrases in everyday life.

Maori Language Week officially began this morning
with a launch at the Wellington Railway Station.
Commuters were given free kai
and plenty of friendly smiles to start the working week.

The theme this year is Maori language in the home.

[Ethan Allen Hawley]

The Reo and the Resolution | Jul 24, 2008 09:50

Public Address: Hard News The Weblog of Russell Brown

The Maori Language Week episode of Media7 is online now. Our panel is Paora Maxwell, the recently-appointed general manager of Maori programming at TVNZ; Maori Television's general manager of sales marketing and communications Sonya Haggie; and former Mai FM programme director Manu Taylor.

Maori broadcast media's role in supporting the language was underlined by a 2006 Te Puni Kokiri survey, in which about half of respondents reported learning te reo via Maori TV and radio -- more than said they learned via formal education or conversation with friends and family.

Maori broadcast media have other roles too, of course: and although I'd take issue with parts of the Treaty Resource Centre's analysis of the reporting of Maori issues in the mainstream and specialist media, I was interested by one finding: on average, "sources" got to speak for one and a half times as long on Maori Television's Te Kaea news programme as on mainstream news, and three times as long on TVNZ's Te Karere. In an age of soundbites, I thought that was quite a significant difference.

I also think the respective channels' current affairs shows, Native Affairs and Marae, are particularly good.

Maori Television itself has become the sixth most-watched TV channel, behind Prime and C4 and ahead of The Box on Sky, with its most popular programme by far being the good-humoured weekly sports show Code.

But what Maori audiences watch most is another matter. The top two programmes watched by all Maori 5+ in the seven-day ratings we obtained for our show were episodes of Shortland Street. Shortie itself got into the spirit of the week with an effective, even moving story which had Scottie -- the uptight, culturally alienated Maori -- surprising everyone with a mihi at his traditional Indian wedding to Shanti. Last night's Shortland Street was subtitled (with open captions) Maori, as will be Saturday's Country Calendar.

Anyway, the programme isn't a confrontational one, and it wasn't intended to be one, but I really enjoyed the discussion. It was also my first experience of reading Maori off an autocue; something I occasionally find challenging in my first language, but that was fun too.

You can see it on TVNZ ondemand, as Windows Media clips, in a podcast and via our YouTube channel.

(A technical problem delayed the uploads this morning, but ondemand is there and the others are coming any moment)

[dirty_scraps83]

Mean, Maori, mean!

[Ethan Allen Hawley]

Taking te reo into a new domain
The Dominion Post | Tuesday, 22 July 2008

Henrietta Maxwell, who taught at the first kohanga reo,
kept up the teaching habit with an impromptu lesson
on a Wellington street yesterday.

The quick class, to American Anjelica Singer, helped spread awareness
of te reo Maori at the start of Maori Language Week.
Ms Singer, from Portland in Oregon, came here three months ago.
She has already picked up some Maori phrases,
but appreciated the chance to learn more.
"I know kia ora, and what a hongi is."

Mrs Maxwell said public acceptance of te reo had come a long way
from when she was growing up.
Back then anyone caught speaking Maori got a detention or the strap.
"But te reo is surviving now."

She taught at the first kohanga reo, Kokiri Pukeatua,
which began in Wainuiomata in 1982.

As part of Maori Language Week, a new online Maori dictionary
was launched at Parliament last night.

Seven years in the making, the i-papakupu is mono-lingual,
and aimed at proficient Maori speakers.

"This takes te reo to a new domain.
Anyone will be able to access it anywhere in the world,"
said Maori Language Commission chief executive Huhana Irks.

See the dictionary online at korero.maori.nz/forspeakers/patakakupu.

TONGUE TWISTERS

With each Te Wiki o te reo Maori story,
we will publish some Maori words or phrases with an English translation,
to encourage using more te reo at home.

That's cool: Kei te pai.

You should go to sleep: Me moe koe.

Have you got a sore stomach? Kei te ngau to puku?

[Ethan Allen Hawley]

Google launches Maori version

The New Zealand Herald
9:55AM Thursday July 24, 2008

A Maori language version of the Google homepage and search interface
has been launched, coinciding with Te Wiki o te Reo Maori.

Potaua Biasiny-Tule has worked on the demanding project
translating nearly 9000 words into Maori.

"The Google in Maori project has been a labour of love
and reflects the passion we have to providing digital platforms
for Maori communities," he said.

"We also wanted to encourage Maori to consider work within the IT sector,
especially rangatahi (young people)"

"Our goal was to bring together a committed team of language practitioners
and leading Maori IT specialists to create a Maori language tool
that could be used freely and that would be relevant to the digital world."

The group volunteered for the project,
as part of the Google in Your Language initiative.

The call for Maori translators to work on the project began in 2001
when Craig Neville Manning, Google's Head of Engineering in New York,
began coordinating with Dr. Te Taka Keegan.

By 2006 over 68 per cent of the translations had been completed,
and the New Zealand Maori internet Society put out the call
for more volunteers.

In June 2007, Potaua and Nikolasa Biasiny-Tule begin facilitating
the translations and contacted Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Maori
seeking their assistance.
Wiha Te Raki Hawea Stevens then began work translating the full list of messages,
and in April 2008 Dr Te Taka Keegan and Wareko Te Angina
began the final work of verifying the translations
and checking them for consistency.

"The translation of the Google homepage into Maori
represents the culmination of a tremendous effort
on the part of the Maori language volunteers,
and has provided a wonderful new way for Maori speakers the world over
to connect with information and the global community online,"
said Google spokesman Ashley Gorringe.

[glimmer]

Some of my students have asked me about New Zealand and Maori culture, so I was looking for some online ESL handouts to give them. Didn't have much luck but stumbled across an embarrassingly inaccurate British ESL article which informs students that (among other things) "the Maoris came to New Zealand ('He Aoteroa') from Japan ten thousand years ago" [sic].

I've posted a few comments on this article in the "Material Writing" forum. I'm sure more could be added.

If anyone can point me to some sensible online resources I'd be much obliged.

[julian_w]

I can't point you towards any handouts right now, I'd just say google is your friend, and it'll find you scores of websites from government departments and school resources from Aotearoa - N.Z. if you look enough.

I'd also add that for a good basic overview wikipedia seems to do a fair job, but still seems a bit sterile and devoid of essential illuminating details that help bring the history a bit more to life, especially for kids, if that's who you're teaching.

For example, it contains the important paragraph about the land wars of the 1860s:

"In the 1860s, disputes over questionable land purchases and the attempts of Māori in the Waikato to establish what some saw as a rival to the British system of royalty led to the New Zealand land wars. ... After most of the active fighting had ceased, a passive resistance movement developed at the settlement of Parihaka in Taranaki, but Crown troops dispersed its participants in 1881."

This movement of passive resistance could be an excellent focus for study at any level of school, and a good intro. to the topic could be asking students for preknowledge of other leaders of passive resistence movements, and then doing a time line to place them all in chonological context. For example it's often interesting to note the village named 'Parihaka' (see wikipedia.org page) was founded by the two peace prophets there two years before Ghandi was even born.

Just keep doing the wikipedia double-safety check and teaching by example to ensure students check all wiki's links. And be sure to keep pointing out that there is not one 'Maori' people, but many different 'iwi', 'hapu' and 'whanau' (... pronounced 'farno'!) who all respond and react differently to events throughout history.
j.w.

PS good on you for having an interest and following through on it.
People often go on about NZ being beautiful, for the sake of the mountains, trees and beaches there, but since I was in my mid-twenties I realised the most beautiful thing was being able to live alongside and experience aspects of such a variety of beautiful cultures, particularly including the local iwi.