Te Reo: Learning the Native Language

Kia ora, my lovely readers!

Along with English and New Zealand Sign Language, Maori is an official language of New Zealand. This year, Maori Language Week was celebrated September 10 – 16, with the theme “Kia Kaha te Reo Maori” meaning “Let’s Make the Maori Language Strong.”

But weeks before that, I had decided that while I’m living here, I’d like to learn the language.

Yes, almost everything is in English, but the language helps immerse you in the Maori culture, so I’m working on it.

Surprisingly, I already knew some Maori before I moved here, and not just what I learned from Josh.

Disney did a pretty good job of using Maori in Moana (pronounced "Mo-on-uh"). Even the title is Maori. Moana means sea… which is funny to anyone who watches the movie because the title character gets in trouble for always dreaming of going to the sea, but her parents literally named her “sea.” (Why are you surprised that she rebelled, people?!)

Also in Moana, I learned that “heihei” (pronounced "hey-hey") means hen, just like Moana calls her stowaway pet. (It’s also Josh’s favorite character in the movie.)


This is a typical welcome mat in New Zealand.
Photo not mine

A typical greeting you’ll hear here, which I started this post with,  is “Kia ora” (pronounced "key-or-uh," but said quickly). It means hello, cheers, good luck, and best wishes. You’ll hear it at the beginning of every news program, too, regardless of if it is Maori Language Week.

Speaking of the news, I love that during Maori Language Week, all the anchors on 1News spoke in both Maori and English. And even when Dan the Weatherman stumbled and stuttered his way through some parts, he kept at it because it’s important to bring this native language to the forefront.

Shortly after I arrived in New Zealand, the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, had a baby. It was a big deal here. And the name they gave the baby reflected the emotion they felt: love. Her name was Neve Te Aroha.

Te Aroha (pronounced "Tay Uh-row-ha") is a town on the North Island. But Aroha means love. Jacinda Ardern said, "It was our way of reflecting the amount of love she received, before she arrived." Ardern went on to say, "I'm not placing any great expectations on this little baby except happiness and love." So with that baby, I learned a new word (and some geography).

One word I should have figured out earlier was the Maori name for New Zealand, "Aotearoa." (It's pronounced "Ow-tee-uh-row-uh.")

One I did learn from Josh was hongi (pronounced "hong-ee"). It's a traditional Maori greeting where you move your head toward the person, touch your noses and then foreheads. It sounds complicated, but it's simple.

Since I didn't know much more, I bought a book to help me learn: First Words in Maori. In studying this book, which is very obviously geared toward children, I've realized how similar some of these words are to the English language.

Kupu, an app sponsored by Spark, helps Kiwis and
others learn the Maori language.
Photo from Facebook

Working through my book, I saw that:

• coffee cups is "kapu"
• cows are "kau" (which sounds just like cow)
• watch is "wati"
• apple is "aporo"
• banana is "panana"
• pear is "pea"
• pipe is "paipa"
• carrots is "karoti"
• pen is "pene"
• chalk is "tioka"
• towels is "taora"
• purple is "poroporo"
• letter is "reta"

In reading those words, you might not see how similar they are, but hearing the Maori accent makes it very obvious.

Something that I just recently learned is that in Maori, "wh" makes a "f" sound. With that learned, more words sounded similar to English. An example would be calf, which is "kawhe." They sound almost the same.

Then some words are exactly the same as English:

• tomato is "tomato"
• shovel is "hoe"



Photo from Facebook

Our mobile provider Spark, in celebration of Maori Language Week, just came out with an app that helps people learn the Maori language. (Unfortunately, I can't download the app because it's not available in my American Google Play store.) Kupu is an app that uses your camera and labels the photo with the Maori word. It also offers an audio option to hear how the word is pronounced
Just think how cool it would be if this app was available all over the world. (If it does exist in America, I don't know about it.) Americans could have the ability to learn Native American tribal languages. I think that's awesome and creates a cultural appreciation that doesn't exist the way it should.

I love that this country embraces its history and culture with a celebratory week that reminds people where it all began. And I also think it's great that some phrases, like "Kia ora," are used all the time... at least, when it's appropriate.

Now I just need to learn how to say goodbye...