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.