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I've become more efficient with my Gold List sentence collection activity. I find that now it only takes me between 30 and 40 minutes. Since this half-year project involves seeing how far I can get doing an hour per day of right-brain play, I'll start supplementing what I do.

Imagine a wing (of a bird or a plane). When air rushes across it, that produces lift. That's my analogy for language acquisition. You expose yourself to a stream of language that you have a means of understanding, and then acquisition will automatically occur.

In that vein (vane? vain?) I spent 20 minutes this morning reading the third chapter of He Whiriwhiringa: selected readings in Maori. I could complete six pages rapidly and enjoyably. I notice that there are at least three copies of this book in the Bill Robertson Library.

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After work, I spent time in the Bill Robertson Library with two books side by side. Just like Heinrich Schliemann used to do. 

‘Riding the Waves’ is by Gavin Bishop. It comes in both Maori and English. It contains 4 Maori myths, and the illustrations are great.

So that’s a great resource for learning Maori. I discover that I partly know some vocabulary, and already I’m gaining a sense of word order. 

True, the stories are a little dark, the sentences are often long, and there’s an oratorical style. But at least I’ve lost the ‘attitude’ I used to have.