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There were two occasions today when the connection between language and culture was driven home to me—with Maori and with Japanese.

In the classroom, watching a YouTube clip of Japanese being interviewed about whether they recognized various kanji or not, I could tell from their answers that a lot of language is interpolated. Spoken Japanese is a form of telegramese.

And then in Otago Museum, taking a group for a Maori workshop, for perhaps the first time I became entranced by the story-telling embedded in the carving (as originally there wasn’t a written language).

So these two things struck.