New Zealand’s language

When I was reading this week’s articles on te reo Maori and that it should be cumpulsory at New Zealand schools, my first thought was “Wow, that’s great! They should really do that!”. But then, as I read more articles, my opinion slowly changed to something like “Maybe they should have it as an option for students who want to learn te reo Maori but it should not be compulsory”. Why did I change my mind?

Well, after having read the articles, I do have to admit that te reo Maori is a language only spoken by around 150,000 people in New Zealand and probably no other country. Therefore, if you know how to speak te reo, it will not really do you any good apart from being able to communicate with Maori.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a great idea to learn te reo if you’re interested in learning languages because te reo is part of the Maori-culture and learning the language would honor this part of New Zealand’s history. But, on the other hand, there aren’t even many Maori left who speak te reo, so it seems kind of silly to force every student in NZ to learn Maori, if Maori themselves don’t want to know / learn / speak their own language.

Therefore, I think that anyone who wants to learn te reo should have the opportunity to do so but I don’t think it’s a great idea to force every student to learn it.

The other aspect that caught my attention in this week’s articles was New Zealand’s English accent. I personally think that you have to watch only one video of a New Zealander talking to grasp that their accent is quite strong and hard to understand for a non-native speaker (and maybe even for a native speaker). I think it might have to do with their tendency to pronounce words like “pen” more like “pin” or words with an “o” in it, like “so”, more like “söü”. This last example is something that Australians do as well and I remember that when I was in Australia I found it really difficult to get used to that.

But even if New Zealanders have a very strong accent I think it is one of the things that make them unique and it is nothing to be ashamed of.