JAFA · @jafa
7 followers · 35 posts · Server mastodon.nz

Tamawāhine # 1: "Can you not speak like you're giving a class to 30 children? It's annoying! "
🤣

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Last updated 1 year ago

JAFA · @jafa
7 followers · 34 posts · Server mastodon.nz

Argh! A brain in the grip of man flu cannot grok negative action statements in

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Last updated 1 year ago

JAFA · @jafa
6 followers · 32 posts · Server mastodon.nz

But despite Māori Made Easy being so good, after three weeks I'm coming to grips with the bleedin' obvious: just listening once to each 15 minute minute bite won't install in my ageing brain (although my kids seem to lux it up just fine!).

Thinking I gotta revise on the weekends, and/or find another 15 minute slot in each day, and maybe re-listen to the lesson from a fortnight ago to stop it from all slipping away into the forgetful fog!

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Last updated 1 year ago

JAFA · @jafa
6 followers · 31 posts · Server mastodon.nz

Scotty and Stacey Morrison's "Māori Made Easy" audio book has a great structure: weekly 'lessons' broken into five 15 minute bites. I can play a bite over breakfast every week day, and get through a lesson a week.

The pace is pretty good too, with lots of patient repetition in Scotty's encouraging tone.

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Last updated 1 year ago

JAFA · @jafa
6 followers · 30 posts · Server mastodon.nz

New favourite word in : ngenge

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Last updated 1 year ago

JAFA · @jafa
6 followers · 28 posts · Server mastodon.nz

So Huka Falls is Sugar Falls?
(Tryna remember my vocab)

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Last updated 1 year ago

JAFA · @jafa
6 followers · 24 posts · Server mastodon.nz

So if kotahi is "only one" does that mean the NZ Transport Agency's name in , Waka Kotahi, means "Only Cars"? 🤔

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Last updated 1 year ago

JAFA · @jafa
5 followers · 22 posts · Server mastodon.nz

Huawhenua = earth fruit = vegetables, neat!

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Last updated 1 year ago

JAFA · @jafa
5 followers · 21 posts · Server mastodon.nz

Ok, well on Monday I thought week 2 of , with cardinal/ordinal numbers, "how many" questions etc. was gonna be easy.

On Friday, none of it has stuck, and tamawahine # 2 keeps correcting me! Back to the drawing board...

The advantage with an audio book is I can just do week 2 again next week - no rush, eh?

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Last updated 1 year ago

JAFA · @jafa
5 followers · 19 posts · Server mastodon.nz

Ah huh. In tangata whenua is "people of the land", but just "people" is tāngata with a long ā at the start!

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Last updated 1 year ago

JAFA · @jafa
5 followers · 18 posts · Server mastodon.nz

Stop! The numbers hurt my brain!

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Last updated 1 year ago

JAFA · @jafa
4 followers · 15 posts · Server mastodon.nz

uses decimal - i.e. there are digit names for 1 to 10, and after that it's multiples of 10 plus a digit - tekau mā tahi ... rua tekau mā iwa, etc.

Given that, historically, different cultures have landed on different counting systems - we're used to base ten and tend to think it's obviously the best, but other cultures at other times have used base 8, 12, 20, etc. without problems - is it weird that Māori landed on 10 too?

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Last updated 1 year ago

JAFA · @jafa
3 followers · 11 posts · Server mastodon.nz

I remember learning that Rangitoto meant "red sky".

But now I'm discovering it's actually "blood sky", which is frankly a lot more evocative!

is poetic!

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Last updated 1 year ago

JAFA · @jafa
3 followers · 8 posts · Server mastodon.nz

My girls aren't growing up in NZ, so it's up to me to transmit to them my (Pākehā) culture which includes the traces of Te Reo I got growing up. I taught them one of the only Māori kids' songs I could remember - "Motokā iti rawa ē" - about driving a wee car around town.

It's a fun song, and the girls have always called their little buggy they rode around on (still ride, despite being too big!) the motokā iti.

But this week, I learned that in waka might be better to use than motokā!

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Last updated 1 year ago

JAFA · @jafa
2 followers · 6 posts · Server mastodon.nz

It's the end of week 1 on the journey. Scotty Morrison's friendly tones are now a regular feature of our mornings. Lot's of pronunciation practice with long vowels and "ng". Favourite word so far is ngārara (bug) - I like the mouthfeel.

I can't get this week's proverbs/sayings to stick in my brain, will need some repetitive rote learning.

There's lots of morning routine vocab floating around our house tho: e oho, maranga, waku niko, parakuihi, kia tere!

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Last updated 1 year ago

JAFA · @jafa
1 followers · 5 posts · Server mastodon.nz

In the dead of night, tamawahine # 2 got up to go to the bathroom, and took great pleasure in telling me off for still being on my phone, whispering "kāti te raweke hangarau" in the darkness with a giggle.
My paltry is already being used against me!

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Last updated 1 year ago

JAFA · @jafa
1 followers · 4 posts · Server mastodon.nz

TIL my pronunciation of Otautahi (Christchurch) has been really really bad.

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Last updated 1 year ago

JAFA · @jafa
0 followers · 2 posts · Server mastodon.nz

I've got Scotty Morrison's Māori at Home too, product of last year's Māori Language Week good intentions.
I never used it then, but now I'm tryna pick up phrases I can use every day to keep my head in the game.
So far: Kāti te raweke hangarau - "stop fiddling with that device" (and come eat your breakfast) is getting enough traction to be recognised by daughter # 1

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Last updated 1 year ago

JAFA · @jafa
0 followers · 1 posts · Server mastodon.nz

It's embarrassing how long it's taken me to start learning . I don't live in Aotearoa so can't just go do a course, but that's no excuse in the 21st century what with the internet and all that.
After looking into some online courses I finally just bought the audio book version of Scotty Morrison's Māori Made Easy, and installing the Te Ara dictionary app on my phone.
So here we go!

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Last updated 1 year ago

Jeremy List · @jeremy_list
91 followers · 333 posts · Server hachyderm.io

Kua kite tāku wahine ki te pungawerewere, ā, kua kawe ahau i te pungawerewere ki waho.

Those of you who speak it better than me please feel free to correct my grammar.

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Last updated 1 year ago