Kōrero Māori Mai

As you all probably know, I love languages. I find them fascinating on many levels, and continue to delight in the intricacies of the English language and to find my work to maintain my fluency in French satisfying and enjoyable. My main focus at the moment, however, is Māori. I have been studying it, with varying levels of intensity, for about four and a half years, but have struggled to find opportunities to speak it often enough and with fluent enough speakers to get over the hump and start actually speaking it as a language. I could memorize endless phrases and use them in the right context, but that's not the same thing as using language as a real means to communicate my thoughts and experiences to others. As you will know, that is a large part of why I took this new job, as it provides, at long last, a place where I can speak Māori for a significant percentage of the day, every day. I have only been there for about two months, but I am already astounded and thankful at the progress I've made. I was hoping that much of the knowledge I've tried to cram into my head over the years was rattling around in there somewhere waiting for some organization, and I think that must be the case. Now that my brain is more capable of switching into "Māori mode," I'm able to say and understand lots of things that I wouldn't have been able to a few months ago. Of course, my speech is still riddled with grammatical errors and uncomfortably long pauses where I rifle through my memory for the right word, but the point is I'm speaking the language. Whenever I want to say something I've never said before and can put it all together as I go, I feel amazing! And when the other people understand and act on it as if it wasn't a monumental task (which it was for me) but rather an ordinary conversation, that's when I really feel like I can now say, "I speak Māori." Slowly, with errors, but I'm doing it.

The stronger I feel in my ability to speak Māori, the stronger my desire to advocate for it as a national language. I think this is partially because I now feel that I can back myself better in my statements of advocacy, and partially because I'm experiencing the striking difference between knowing some memorized phrases and speaking a language. And I want the latter for the Māori language, here in its own country.

Anyway, I am very excited about the new shirt I got as part of my desire for advocacy. It says, "Kōrero Māori mai" which means "Speak to me in Māori." I find it a simple and powerful message, communicating that if Māori is one of our national languages, we should hear it spoken all over the place, and should be able to strike up a conversation in Māori in all kinds of contexts. I actually met someone at a party the other day and mentioned that I was learning Māori, and he responded in Māori and then we had a delightful conversation, all in Māori. It was incredible, and I want it to happen more and more! Now, I will still be a bit scared when I wear it that a truly fluent person will expect more of me than I can manage, but I will muddle through and celebrate Māori language to the best of my ability and definitely learn something new in the the process.

One of my friends at the Māori Speakers' group I go to on Saturdays gave me this button from the same company, so I've decided to wear it on my other clothes to keep the message going. I've also ordered a bunch to pass out to anyone who wants one, because I think it's a great initiative, and the proceeds go to a local Māori community, so that's lovely as well.

If you're interested in purchasing clothes or buttons, you can go to the website by clicking here.

I am not taking any formal Māori language classes at the moment, as I thought that speaking it at work every day would be exhausting enough. I think that was the right choice for the initial period, and probably for a little while longer still, but soon I'll want to supplement the immersion experience with structured lessons, especially on grammar, as I definitely need some help with that. I'm writing a lot of my documentation about children's learning in Māori and getting it proofread by my colleagues, so that's helping a lot, and I'm studying with some amazing workbooks at home, but I still need more. I'm not sure exactly where/what that will be, but it's going to be great!