893

 If I'm honest, I must admit that it has lately become more difficult to remain enthusiastic and motivated about this project. It isn't that the project itself is failing to inspire me. Rather, it's the fact that it has become almost intolerable to live an ordinary, unvaccinated life.

892

Apropos of nothing much, I learned the other day that one difference between Māori and Cook Island Maori is that more, if not all, double vowel combinations are pronounced distinctly separate. The word 'koutou', for example, has four syllables ko-u-to-u. 

891

Pēnei on page 145 of Hare Pota.

On this page, there were five instances of this structure that struck me.

1. Pēnei i a Whirika
2. Pēnei anō i a Whirika
3. Pēnei i ō Hākiri
4. Kāore i paku pēnei i ō Hākiri
5. Pēnei i a Ahorangi Makōnara

They are all cases of comparison. 

890

 I had to scramble a little to find another audiobook version of Harry Potter as the link to the previous one had disappeared. But there is always another one. And if there isn't, I have downloaded Stephen Fry's excellent rendition on my home computer.

889

 Happy to report that my new routine is going well. There are three or four parts to it:

1. I do a page reading with the two texts side by side
2. I make a note of any sentences I feel confident about
3. I listen in English while I follow along in Maori
4. I try to repeat the above cycle later in the day (for the next page)

The third bit takes only about a couple of minutes as I let it play right through without pausing.

Here are the sentences I elected to copy from page 143:

• Kātahi ia ka huri i tana tēpu mahi hei poaka, ā, ka hurihia anō ki tana tēpu mahi.
• Ka tino hiamo rātou katoa.
• Ka hoatu ki tēnā, ki tēnā o rātou he māti.
• Ka tīmata te whai kia hurihia heo ngira.
• Mutu rawa ake te akoranga,
• Ka whakaatu ia i tana menemene ki a Heremaiani.
• (me uaua kē ka kitea)
• Ka hana te mata o Kīrera.
• Ko te tuarua he haunga rerekē ahakoa haere ai ia ki hea.
• Ka ora te ngākau of Hare.
• He tokomaha ngā tāngata i ahu mai i ngā whānau Makuware, ā, pēnei i a ia.
• He rā nui a Paraire ki a Hare rāua ko Rana.

888

 Time for a little tweak.

I'm going to institute a bit of a change to my program. I'm not entirely sure yet what I'll do, but it will be something along the lines of incorporating several strands of activity.

I want to read, listen, and write - a little of each daily.

Details to follow.

887

 On my Kindle, I have the habit these days of alternating Dutch and Māori. 

Now and then I highlight interesting words, especially those that are new to me but that I can grasp from analysis and through context.

e.g. curiositeiten (curiosities), antropoloog (anthropologist), modderpoten (muddy feet)

And in te reo: kōhimuhimu (whisper), akoranga (classroom), nekeneke haere (moving about)

886

 With help from Google translate, I wrote the following as a comment on the latest staff update: proposal on mandatory vaccines:

E noho pono ana ki o tātau mātāpono me o tātau uara uho.

(Holding true to our principles and core values.)

885

 I woke up this morning with a half-dream idea: to create some sort of spaced repetition app for Māori based on the text of Hare Pota. I'll just let that sit there and percolate . . .

884

 It takes concentration to work on a language - even more so for two languages done at once. For that reason, I like to get it in early in the day. I figure that two pages at a time is best. That usually takes me about ten minutes. If I repeat that several times during the day, I can make up the hour. Or, I could supplement that activity with another type of language-learning activity.

883

 I juggle techniques. Sometimes I double-read a la Schliemann. At other times I listen-read.

Because of that, I needed, recently, to repeat a couple of pages of text. I found that I didn't enjoy that. I dislike repeating the same bit of narrative.

And why should I?

Most of the vocabulary will naturally get repeated as you work through the chapters. And the same common grammatical patterns will re-occur. Since the contexts will be different, that will lead to a richer learner experience!

And who isn't for that?

882

 Forgot my Kindle, and I didn't want to work on the computer, so I searched online for a Harry Potter pdf to download and print off a few pages to carry on with. The sorting hat is about to do its job.

881

 I tried reading a couple of pages ahead (English before Māori). I thought about reading a paragraph ahead. But all things considered, I feel that it's best to proceed one sentence at a time (or phrase, where the sentence is long).

880

 The only thing tricky about listening to an audiobook on Youtube as I simultaneously read it on the page is that it is easy to get distracted. If only it were possible to switch off recommendations. But I guess that they operate on a business model.

879

 [Page 111] On the back of a chocolate frog card, it says:

Awepuhi Tāmaratoa, te Tumuaki o Hōwata i tēnei wā. E kīia ana te tomomaha ko ia te kirimatarau toa katoa o ēnei wā, e tino rongonui nei a Ahorangi Tāmaratoa i mīere rā i a ia te kirimatahuna, a Kiriwao, i te tau 1945, i tana tūhura hoki i ngā whakamahinga tekau mā rua i ngā toto mokoahi me tana mahi toiwhitiiho i te taha o tōna hoa pātui, o Nikora Wharamēra. He pārekareka ki a Ahorangi Tāmaratoa te taka puoro me te poi tumu-ngahuru.

I have highlighted the words that are completely new to me. The rest I have a handle on.

Google translate does not do as well. First, it 'recognizes' te reo as Albanian! Then, when you point it in the right direction, it yields:

Awepuhi Salvador, Director of Emergency at this time. The heavyweight says he's the all-time winner of the 2016-17 season, is best known as Professor Demaratoa in late 1945, when he was 18 years old, and in 1945, when he investigated the use of twelve white blood dinosaurs and his mummified his fellow chicks, of Nicolas Wharamra. It's fantastic with Professor Salvador's fall music and a tor-to-be movie.

878

 For professional development, I have recently obtained two items: a one-year subscription to Sketch Engine, and my own copy of Hare Pota me te Whatu Manapou.

The first will allow me to teach English better and learn other languages more quickly and efficiently (once I figure out all the ins and outs).

The second will spur me to continue with te reo Māori once these six months are over.  

877

 A colleague came in and saw me with a book in my hand and Youtube open on my laptop. He accused me of trying to multi-task (something I'm not really good at). 

However, the two activities were related: Listening to a fragment of text in English and near-simultaneously comprehending that same text in another language.

I wonder if there's a name for it?

876

I'm refining as I go. 

By listening to the English audiobook online, with the mouse in one hand, and the Māori text in the other, I can pause after each sentence, set of simple sentences, or phrase (if the sentence is long and convoluted as J.K. Rowling is apt to write - me too in this particular instance!).

In other words, it's going well and getting better.  

875

 I realized the other day that my version of Kindle allows me to have text read aloud to listen to. I'd forgotten the device gives me that option. So I started experimenting.

I set it to its slowest speed. And then as I listened - to the English version of Harry Potter -  I followed along with my eyes across the pages of Hare Pota (in Māori).

It worked. I kept up, although even at the slowest speed I'm only able to focus on two or three words per sentence. It was not too much of a strain, and I feel that with enough of this type of exposure, te reo would sink in.

(Though I empathized with Hagrid, feeling motion sickness as the underground Gringotts cart raced wildly along!)

874

So here I'll note the various points that I plan to put in my final report due on 20 December. It's a living document/a draft under construction.

• Do the 600 sentences again.
• Foundation 
• Not missing a day (because I made it addictive)
• Sticking to half an hour (but no longer)
• Gentle exposure to authentic understandable text so as to become familiar with vocab and grammar
• No study
• Thanks to: Schliemann, David James, Krashen
• Now to listen
• Then to speak
• Future plan

873

 Today I completed my 5th and penultimate post on Tūhono regarding my te reo journey. I revealed my plan of reading Hare Pota in its entirety by the end of my half-year (on about the 20th of December).

I'm currently on page 74 of 320 as I write.

Tomorrow, I'll start to note the points I wish to cover in my final analysis.

 

872 ai

 Today I gained a sense of the meaning and use of the particle 'ai'. It came up in several clear sentences. In those, I gathered that it words as some sort of reflective. It directs the verb back to the subject somehow.

871

 Over an hour, I can 'gloss' about 10 pages - or 3000 to 3500 words of text. I mark to where I get up to on my Kindle. Presently, I'm up to page 64. It's probably better to accumulate an hour's worth during the day rather than doing it all in one sitting.

870

 Forgot to bring along my book this morning, so I couldn't match the Māori to the English. Instead, I used my kindle to read a little German, Swedish, Dutch, and French.

Then, I remembered about the pdfs I created. I was able to print out Te Wāhanga Tuawhā: Te Kaitiaki o ngā Kī.

On with the show!

869

 I have completed reading the parallel texts, in Māori and English, of the first three chapters of the first Harry Potter book. It has taken me about the same number of days i.e. about a chapter per day. For this, the fifth month of this language-learning experiment, I have decided to try and complete the entire book.

868 ā & ka mutu

 I find it interesting that there appear to be some features of punctuation in te reo that have word equivalents. There is the conjunction 'ā', preceded and followed by a comma, that seems to link sentences as with an 'and' or a semicolon. And there is the phrase 'ka mutu' that seems to function as a way of indicating that a point has been made (a bullet point, perhaps).

867

 In a Lilliput Library, I picked up Alan Duff's autobiography: Out of the Mist and Steam. It is an interesting read (I completed 7 chapters on day 1). I do enjoy reading biographical material about what it is/was like to grow up Māori. 

866

 In the staffroom, I happened to overhear someone listening to Māori. They were using a smartphone, applying some ap, apparently. (I don't know much about them.)

But it appeared tedious, inefficient. A phrase (of greeting?) repeated over and over, to get the correct pronunciation. In the hope of locking it into place, or maybe of oiling the innards and overcoming friction.

I can't help thinking that for someone who identifies as Māori it must feel odd to have to learn te reo in that manner. 

865

 The ideal sentence is slightly unknown. That's the type of sentence that's worth collecting. But I find myself copying down even the easier sentences. I feel proud of the fact that I know them well, and want to show off!

It is not much of a problem, as after a month has rolled by I can always eliminate them.

864

 Small things make a difference. Small improvements add up. Even the paper I write on affects my language learning. I'm using a pad that has thin sheets, lacking lines on the reverse. I managed to grab a few sheets off a better pad, and my Gold-listing goes better as a result.

863

 At present, I have a healthy addiction thing going with respect to the use of narratives. These days I'm sentence mining from Hare Pota, and it makes a huge difference to work with sentences that have a meta-linkage, rather than random sentences picked higgledy-piggledy.

862

A little knowledge is sometimes a dangerous thing. A few days ago, I thought I had spotted a typo on line three of page 18 of Hare Pota me te Whatu Manapou. But a Mārori staff member put me right. It wasn't wrong.

'I rangona e au'  (I heard it) is correct. The verb 'rongo' changes a vowel for the past tense. I hadn't known that. I stand corrected.

861

 There are two reasons for eliminating sentences and other phrases from my monthly language pool. First, they may have become too easy. Second, they may have remained too difficult.

Eliminated from the October 7 page (performed on November 7) we have:

Ka akiaki te ketekete a te tūī i ā ia ki te whai atu.

tinitini wheke

huru whenuwhengu

Mā te kōpani

He kino tāna kōrero.

Ka eke ki runga i te tauranga ika.

I waho i te omaoma haere, i te tākaro haere ngā tamariki.

The top four are in one category, and the bottom three are in the other. Guess which is which.

860

 The Gold-list Goldilocks method as it stands:

Take last month's sheet. Start with the Māori side. Look at the first sentence or phrase. If its meaning is immediately obvious, mark that line with an 'x'. Do the same for the English version overleaf. Such text snippets will not be carried forth.

If much of the sentence/phrase (but not 100% of it) is able to be understood and allows you to locate the English version overleaf, then that text item is marked with a tick. It is carried forward for the following month.

If it is at all difficult to match corresponding texts, then those are also discarded. Similarly for obstinate words or grammatical points.

Today's refinement will be to place 'riper' language nearer the top of the sheet, and slow-to-ripe language nearer the bottom. Also top-up phrases.

859

 On page 18, third line, of Hare Pota, I'm sure that I've discovered a typo.

'I heard it' should surely translate to: I rongona e au. 

Not: I rangona e au.

858

 The best sentences and phrases are the ones that you puzzle over after a month, wondering what they mean, and then suddenly recognize with a force that ensures that next month you will remember. 

Unumia tō rongoa. (Swallow your medicine)

Nāna i hī ake (That he fished up)

Ki te whāngai hoki i a mātou. (And fed us as well)

857

 I'm dabbling a little with my approach to Gold-listing. Instead of going through the English sentences in order, and then going through the Māori versions one by one, I'm trying something different.

I now mark off, with a cross or a tick, those sentences that 'happen' to catch my eye. If I cannot readily find the equivalent then I will mark it with a dot.

It's a little hard to explain how I do this. You may need to join me to see.

856

 Why and when do I remove text fragments from my revolving pool of te reo Māori? That is a question which I bet has never been asked - at least not in those exact words!

But anyway . . .

Once the language becomes familiar, or rather recognizable. That's my answer. I don't intend that I should be able to replicate it. That is not my immediate goal.

855

I rate input higher than output at this stage of my te reo Māori journey. I have only spent about 120 hours on it so far. Nevertheless, I find myself preparing the odd phrase to instigate or reply to a greeting or opening gambit. In an odd way, I feel empowered when I do that.

854

 I managed to survive my second 31st of the month (when no Gold-listing is scheduled). What I did to keep busy was to sentence-mine from the first Harry Potter book translated into the Māori language.

853 Te Māori hou

 The word 'māori' crops up regularly in Hare Pota me te Whatu Manapou (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone). From the first sentence, in fact:

. . . ki te kī he tino māori noa iho nei rāua . . .

and then:

Heoi anō, e māori noa iho ana te ata-ruru-kore ki a Mita tūhiri.

He whanonga māori rānei tēnei nō te ngeru, te taute a Mita Tūhiri. 

Pai ana, māori ana te rā ki a Miha Tūhiri. 

The word 'māori' means normal. Originally, there was no need for Māori to describe themselves as such until the visibly 'abnormal' Europeans arrived in New Zealand.

Maybe the definition of the term 'māori' needs to be expanded to become more inclusive?

852

I found an interesting email in my inbox. It contained a message from Stephen Town, the Chief Executive. What was interesting about it for me was that it consisted of a parallel text: in English and Māori. That's exactly the type of resource that I find useful for my te reo work.

Kia ora koutou Last week marked the start of our engagement with you, with learners and employers, and with iwi, hapū and Māori, on our proposed Operating Model. This engagement has been a long time in the making, and it will be a key part of informing the services and functions we need, how we connect and work together, mahi tahi, for our learners and employers. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to start with this video, which gives you an overview of what we are doing and why we need your input. I see quite a few of you have already had a look – it’s great to see so many of you engaging with what’s been developed. I’ve been keeping in touch with your Chief Executives and leadership teams about the initial reactions to this mahi and welcome you all to share your thoughts with us too. It sounds like there’s lots of kōrero happening and I encourage you to capture that and share it with us. You can do that at yourvoice.tepukenga.ac.nz. Some of our Te Pūkenga leadership team are presenting to network staff as well, so please feel free to join in their sessions. There is more information on how you can register below. Sometimes it’s useful to kōrero as a team, and then capture what was said and share it. It can help to bounce ideas around, break things down or play out ‘what would happen if’ with colleagues. We’ve created some questions that could get these conversations started, but you’re welcome to share other thoughts with us too. We want to hear it all, from all of you. Ngā mihi Stephen Town Chief Executive Kia ora koutou Nō tērā wiki i tīmata ai te whakaanga ki tō mātou Tauira Whakahaere me koutou, ngā ākonga, ngā kaitukumahi, me ngā iwi, ngā hapū me ngāi Māori whānui. He roa te wā e whanake ana tēnei kaupapa i a mātou, ā, he wāhi nui tōna kia whaiwhakaaro ai tātaou ki ngā ratonga me ngā mahi e hiahiatia ana, e pēhea tātou e tūhonohono ai, mahitahi ai hoki mō ā tātou ākonga, kaitukumahi hoki. Ina kāore anō koe kia mātaki i tēnei ataata, kia kaha, me whai wā māu ki te mātakitaki, arā, kia kite i te tirohanga whānui ki tā mātou mahi, ki te take e tuku mai ō koutou whakaaro. Kua kite au he maha tonu ngā tāngata kua mātaki atu – he rawe te kite te tokomaha o koutou e aro mai ana. Rite tonu taku kōrero me ō koutou Kaiwhakahaere Matua me ngā tīma kaiārahi mō ngā whakaaro tuatahi kua puta mai mō tēnei mahi, ā, me taku kī ake, nau mai hoki ōu whakaaro. Te āhua nei he nui ngā kōrero e puta ake ana, ā, kia kaha koutou te hopu me te tuari mai ki a mātou. Ka taea ō whakaaro te tuku ki yourvoice.tepukenga.ac.nz. Tērā hoki ētahi o te tīma kaiārahi o Te Pūkenga e kōrero ana ki ngā kaimahi kōtuinga, ā, kei te wātea ēnei kōrero ki a koutou. Kei raro nei ngā kōrero mō tukanga rēhita mō aua whakaaturanga. I ētahi wā, he mea whaihua te kōrero tahi hei tīma, ā, ka hopukina ngā kōrero, kātahi ka tuari ai. He mea pai hoki te whakawhiti whakaaro me ō hoa, te wetewete i tētahi kaupapa, te whaiwhakaaro hoki ki ngā mea tērā ka puta mai. Kua hanga pātai mātou hei tīmata i ā koutou nā whakawhiti kōrero, heoi, me tuari mai ō whakaaro ki a mātou hoki. Kei te hiahia mātou kia rongo i ngā kōrero katoa, mai i a koutou katoa. Ngā mihi Stephen Town Kaiwhakahaere Mātāmua

851

 A guy whose methodology I admire is Heinrich Schliemann. He lived a hundred and fifty or a couple of hundred years ago. The man learned about 14 languages in his lifetime, using basically one technique.

He'd have two books side by side. It was the same book but in different languages, one of which he knew, and the other which he wanted to learn. He'd go through, word for word, sentence by sentence. By the time he got to the end of the book, he would mostly know the vocabulary and structure of the second language.

I'm doing that with a difference. I don't do every sentence. I just do the sentences that I can manage quickly and skip the rest. I believe that this will give quicker results.

The book that I am using for Māori is Hare Pota me te Whatu Manapou. You can probably guess its title in English. Anyway, it is not an easy book. But I am ready to tackle it a la Schliemann!

850: In defense of phrasebooks!

 Given that I use a variety of sources to mine for sentences and phrases, and that I am continually randomizing their order and substituting new ones for old, the mixture of text snippets that I swim in resembles nothing so much as an old-fashioned phrasebook.

And what's wrong with that?

Actually, it adds to the interest.

The vocabulary and the grammar remain the same. The same stuff is covered. And it keeps me alert and awake!

849

The tendency, when you come across a phrase or sentence that you recognize well, is to try and force it into your active vocabulary. However, my method relies on dropping such texts; they are already in your long-term memory. You need to make space for new expressions, not fixate on being able to recall phrases in order to speak them forth and impress.

848

Last night, I copied down all 40 sentences of the book Tuna Rāoua Ko Hiriwa. For fun, I graded my understanding of each one out of five. No sentences scored 1; I understood at least a little of everyone. Nine sentences scored 2, fifteen scored 3, eleven sentences scored 11, and I understood practically all of the remaining five sentences.

The average score is thus 3.3

Coincidentally, that is almost exactly my score (3.38) of the Te Kete Kupu set. That makes me tend to think that my assessment system is valid.

847

 My wife went to the library and came home with 8 books in Māori for me. The easiest for me, and the one I'll work from first, is Tuna Rāua Ko Hiriwa. I don't have an English version to help me, but I believe that I'll understand half of the meaning at least.

846

 In search of a good narrative, I mean to return to resources I've already looked at since I really only skimmed them.

Sir Apirana Ngata's Maori Grammar & Conversation (with vocabulary) will be the first. Of especial interest are the first three sections of part four: One New Zealand, Changes and Progress in New Zealand, and On the mythology and traditions of the Maori (sic).

845

 I find myself craving Māori narrative. I want to read stories. I'm growing tired of trawling dictionaries for example sentences. I need to get a hold of books pitched at an intermediate level - bilingual so that I can quickly match up the two languages.

I believe that following one's cravings is the right approach with respect to language learning. What you feel like doing, you are more likely to continue doing.

844

 I could perhaps be one day late, but that's because I have my monthly report to post on Tūhono. Four months more-or-less have passed since I embarked on this journey. I find myself wondering about the next level - about how far to take it. But for the next two months, I'll stick to my plan of spending just an hour per day. I'd like to establish a realistic benchmark.

843

 I find that my Māori ability varies from day to day, and I cannot tell why. Perhaps it's my energy level, or how much sleep I've had. But in any case, the type of activity I'm doing does not require any real effort. It is interesting enough (for me) to keep me occupied. I wonder, though, whether it wouls suit other people?

842

 A couple of colleagues have been using Duolingo to learn a language. Both German, as it happens. (Not their nationality, but the target.) It appears to be addictive for them, as both boast of holding a multi-day streak. 

I quite like the concept, and it would be good to design something along those lines for Māori. I would mix it up a little more and not stick to themes. I'd also get the practitioner to move up from single words as soon as possible.

841

 I won't say which observation led to my conclusion, but I realized recently that most people are timid as hell about learning another language. Not only that, but they seem to have no idea how to go about it; they have it ass-backward and imagine that by carefully drilling and enunciating a few phrases of greeting and self-introduction, the full know-how will somehow magically appear. Abso-bloody-lutely amazing!

840

 I sorted out my Kindle yesterday. On it, I have over 150 books stored. Some I deleted, but others will remain on it long-term, the reason being that I am using my Kindle as a language-learning device.

I like to get a book in both English and in a foreign language. Then, I can compare them. I pick up words, phrases, and easy sentences. 

It's best if the format of the book works well on a Kindle. PDF documents don't; they load, but they do not enlarge well.

The two books that I have in Maori: Harry Potter and Diary of a Wimpy Kid are PDF, unfortunately. Many of the other 29 languages I've looked at yield better resources online.

839

 I did the equivalent of getting dressed in the dark this morning. I headed out the door at about 6:30 with my day's sheet . . . that turned out not to be today's sheet (17th September to be updated after one month). But I used the time profitably, nevertheless (which I'll report on tomorrow).

838

 I happened to look at Te Rangatahi (Book 1) today. I was happily surprised to see that I understood everything in the first chapter. I looked at the final few pages too, and ascertained that I knew most of that content too.

So my method works at least as well as a textbook!

But oh, how tedious and boring that first chapter is, jam-packed as it is with pronouns and family relationships! Its guiding principle must be that it is necessary to drill grammar points in force so they stick. That is certainly not necessary.

Still, I'll skim through the book just to see where my gaps are. 

837

 With some regularity now, I find myself constructing sentences in Māori in my sleep. This is an interesting phenomenon, to say the least!

836

 A month ago, I tweaked my Māori practice (and it didn't hurt a bit!). I started to randomize my English and Māori versions of each Gold List sentence so that it wasn't on the same line (on the other side of the sheet).

Today, therefore, I needed to spend some extra time searching for the corresponding lines. With my sheet of 38 lines, that upped the time it took to the full hour. 

I like it. It works well. It's fun to do.

835

 Interesting thought: that Māori is the term we use locally for indigenous-linked human culture. In that sense, there would therefore exist a global form of 'Māori' culture, as there are likely commonalities across all indigenous groups. And, in an even broader context, all humans should be included. Our lifestyle may or may not reflect it, but all of us are indigenous to the planet!

Such a worldview could have very significant implications.

834

 What about output? How will the input I'm doing lead to output? I must confess that I haven't given that question much thought.

I do believe that output lies further on the progression along which I'm progressing. And I also believe that input is the prerequisite of output. Nevertheless, I'm not all that clear in my mind how the former leads to the latter. 

Learn the language first - that makes sense. I need to understand it before being able to use it. I'll be able to read it more and more easily. My reaction time will decrease. 

Then, I'll segue into listening, and again my reaction time will decrease; I'll comprehend connected sentences only after I comprehend stand-alone sentences.

Finally, I'll be able to produce sentences in response as the fraction of my attention I need to devote to understanding decreases, and my familiarity with the common words and structures increases. I won't be obliged to think through my responses. It'll be like handling a motor vehicle without paying attention to individual controls.

833

 Why would I (or any other New Zealander not obviously of non-Māori descent) wish to learn te reo Māori? I think that's an important question.

Ideally, one would want to be internally motivated. The exercise should have inherent importance. It ought to be perceived as worthwhile on its own merits.

For me, learning Māori is important in the following ways:

• As an intellectual exercise as to how best to learn a new language (that could then be applied to any language)
• As a door-opening exercise into Māori culture
• As a communication-increasing exercise
• As a way of promoting those principles that might substitute for or complement the principles upon which mainstream western culture is built

832

 Having reached the end of my main resource, Making Māori Sentences by Lyndsay Head, I think about what it will mean to go through the resources I've already looked at. 

Obviously, it will lead to revision. I will be able to 'mine' sentences that were at too high a level the first time. My familiarity with the grammar and the vocabulary will increase. And if I also blend in some listening (as I planned to do this month) then that should lead to further improvement.

831

I'm trying out Sketch Engine. They offer a 30-day free trial. The service is a concordancer. At least one Māori corpus is included. 

(A previous concordancer that I've looked at.)

830

 One thing I've discovered is that other people aren't as quick on the uptake as me. Therefore, I cannot reasonably expect them to instantly grasp the principles around what I'm doing, not to apply them themselves. Consequently, there needs to be a 'spoonfed' version. I'm going to have to make it easy for other people to try.

I may need to design an app. Put Sketch Engine to work. Maybe contact David. 

829

I wonder about the future of te reo Māori. Reading this article, I get the strong sense that the efforts currently being made are largely misdirected. I feel that they rest on assumptions that aren't necessarily true.  

828

 I feel moderately happy with my presentation yesterday. I may use a PowerPoint next time to help streamline my talk a little better next time. Also, I need to differentiate the two types of sentences I used. There could have been some confusion re the Te Kete Kupu sentences that did not have an English equivalent (that I used to assess how much I have progressed). 

I realized too how much of a leap of faith it requires for people to consider something totally new. I could see some people struggling to do that. For me, it is easy to act on conclusions that I reach as the result of my own research, but that isn't the case for everyone.

827

 Here are the notes to the presentation I plan to give today:

Zero to 100

How much receptive knowledge of Māori can one learn in one hour per day over 6 months?

Intro

Why I started - initially as part of the GDTE (Undertake a work-based project. Advance knowledge, skills, and assessment practice. Investigate and respond to an authentic and complex question. Providing evidence of critical thinking. Identify, plan, act, examine, and share.)

1) Develop a learning activity

2) Assess how well it went

My out-of-the-box didn’t fit into their boxes

They didn’t rate it highly (25%), but I did, so I continued with it.

Why Māori?

Learn from the start (which in ELC we don’t do)

New for me, a challenge to overcome resistance, relevant in NZ, offer sorely-needed assistance

Edu bit limitation gave me the shudders

Numbers of words, greetings, self-introduction, songs, pronunciation

Led nowhere that I could see. Dead end in terms of language learning.

So, maximize my own learning, which might be useful for others

 

The idea:

Develop a methodology or praxis based on my favorite researcher’s 5 to 7 hypotheses!

§  Acquisition hypothesis

§  Input hypothesis

§  Natural order hypothesis

§  Affective filter hypothesis

§  Monitor hypothesis

§  Reading hypothesis

§  Conduit hypothesis

In common, these involve a right-brain-thinking shift (show my list)

We need to use both modes, not predominantly one.

 

What I do:

My modified version of the Gold List method

            A form of SRS (spaced repetition system)

            Utilizes long-term over short-term memory

            Employs pattern recognition

            Increases familiarity with the language by bombarding the brain

How familiar are you, on a scale of 1-5, with haere mai, kia ora, tangata whenua? (Handout)

Cross out those with a 5 or 1 & 2. Ideally, work with phrases/sentences rated 3 & 4 (so we are working at 6/10 level)

                        These are Goldilocks, sticky, juicy, i-plus-1

One sheet of target level phrases in Māori and in English per day (show my sheets)

A month later, I recopy, leaving off that 20% that is in long-term memory/have become familiar - or proved too ambitious - and fill up the gaps with new phrases

List of my resources (dictionary and grammar!)

I see it as my job to put in the time; it’s my brain’s job to absorb the language. Therefore, NO STUDY! Just soothing light exposure.

 

Does it work?

(This would have been the next module of my GDTE – sigh)

Assessment of:

1)Enjoyment/motivation/engagement/addictiveness

2)Increased familiarity

I used the 600-odd Te Kete Kupu sentences (with no English translation)

From a familiarity of 1 (maybe 1.5) to 3.38

Show my Excel

I will repeat that in 3 months without learning toward the test

            (Handout)

 

826

 With the second listening to the first episode of Te Kākano, I definitely picked up a lot more of the dialogue. Not only that, but I could understand all 12 questions quite easily.

I treat the answers as extra information that I use to lever more of the meaning out of the skits, as I don't think it is practical to type in answers. (Language is not Maths, so there are multiple ways of expressing the same information with different words and sentence construction.)

I must say that I agree wholehearted with the advice:

There are benefits to be gained by being exposed to language you do not fully comprehend. Later, when you encounter explanations of vocabulary, grammar and idioms in the textbook, having already met them in context earlier will often help you understand and learn them.

825

 An hour or so's worth of searching for free online Māori listening yielded little. However, Te Whanake TV does include a short drama serial that provides as near-to-natural conversation that I could find. 

As an aside, sooo much listening consists solely of songs. Auē! 

Less and More

 Less left brain; more right brain

1. Less grammar, more pattern recognition

2. Less explanation, more getting used to

3. Less use of dictionaries, more guessing from context

4. Less memorization, more exposure

5. Less study, more ‘surfing’

6. Less homework, more entertainment

7. Less schooling, more real-life application

8. Less effort, more efficiency/effectiveness

9. Less stress, more fun

10. Less of doing exercises, more noodling

11. Less intensity/seriousness, more hobbyist

12. Less drill, more natural repetition 

13. Less pressure to perform, more patience

14. Less testing, more self-assessment

15. Less penalizing, more risk-taking

16. Less self-consciousness, more flow

17. Less translation, more immersion

18. Less artificiality, more authenticity

19. Less grading, more gradual improvement

20. Less analysis, more text-ure

21. Less ideology, more exploration

22. Less correction. more growth/evolution

23. Less output, more input

24. Less focus on form, more focus on meaning

25. Less perfection, more improvement

26. Less administration, more self-direction

27. Less curriculum, more spontaneity

28. Less structure, more variety

29. Less engagement with tasks, more engaging with narratives

30. Less separation, more integration

31. Less certainty, more ambiguity

32. Less teaching, more discovery

33. Less prescription, more freedom

34. Less reduction, more whole language

35. Less direction, more self-reliance

36. Less focus on vocabulary, more focus on meaning

37. Less work, more play

38. Less step-by stepping, more leaps of excitement

39. Less classroom, more universe

824

Should I construct a PowerPoint for my upcoming presentation? Nah, I'll just do a word document with external links.

823

Māori Resources used to date

Reference:

Making Māori Sentences – Lyndsay Head 

Te Kete Kupu dictionary/grammar

The Reed Māori Picture Dictionary

Maori Grammar & Conversation (1926) Sir Apirana Ngata 

Te Rangatahi Book 1

Māori Word Frequency List

Clinical Psychology glossary

Neri Rook

Children’s books:

Tangaroa’s gift

I te Tīmatanga

Te Rātaka a Tama Hūngoingoi (Diary of a Wimpy Kid)

Hare Pota me te Whatu Manapou

Kurī Pango

Tamatekapua + CD

Ihenga + CD

The Singing Dolphin

Hatupatu and the Birdwoman

The Legend of the Seven Whales

Cultural:

He Whiriwhiringa

Mihipeka 1

Mihipeka 2

Mihipeka 3

Growing up Māori

Ngā Kōrero a Mohi Ruatapu

Poems, Traditions & Chaunts of the Maories (1853) Sir George Grey 

YouTube:

Māori playlist

Waka Huia TV

Polyglotalot

He Whanau Tata – Keri Kaa

Automatic Language Growth

The Maori Language 

Online:

Google Translate (Māori capability since mid-2019)

Māori dictionary website

Internet Archive

Te Whāriki Online

Spotify:

Everyday Māori

Te Reo Māori podcast

Other: (platforms etc.)

20 Tongues 20 Moons Blog 

Libraries 

Tūhono 

Te reo week 

Excel 

Beamafilm 

Boy (movie)