Maz

Anyone tried it / done it? I'm a bit of a linguist myself, being fluent (not quite bilingual anymore ) in French and having an excellent grasp of German. I can read Dutch and make good guesses at written Spanish.

If we move to NZ (and having just seen on it's Wikipedia page that it ranks number 1 in the world with regards to political freedom and civil liberties, and living somewhere where these 2 are being swiftly eroded!), I think I'd really like to learn Maori.

Anyone else?

Gill and Rob

I am studying at the moment in NZ and as my lecturer says to us 'Don't believe everything you read on Wikidpedia'. Civil liberties continue to be eroded in NZ, but not nearly as fast as UK. Come to Rotorua and there are plenty of free courses to learn Maori. Not sure how free the courses are in other areas.

Rob

newkiwi

start by learning the national anthem in maori

Maz

Heh... come to the US! You'll find out what that's really like. Big Brother is alive and well, and banning books from libraries left, right and centre, tracking where you go, where you bank, what you spend your money on... The authorities can break into your house without a warrant, not charge you, and hold you indefinitely with no charge against you... such a paradise .... oh I could go on, but I won't.

But that's great about the free courses to learn Maori! I'll drink to that.

Maz

Damn that would be cool! Thanks! Which one though? "God Defend New Zealand" or "God Save The Queen"?

Joshlin

I'm sure newkiwi means God defend NZ. I downloaded it from the net and stuck it on a cd in the car. Both our son( nearly 5 ) and daughter( 2 and a bit ) sing along in maori and then english. It didn't do me any harm either.
Their haka is pretty amusing also!!!

Lee

Maz

That's pretty damn cool, Lee.

I looooooooove the Haka!

Boopy

[ I think I'd really like to learn Maori.

Anyone else? [/QUOTE]

I live in Porirua and have just learnt what it means in Maori.
Pori = harbour
Rua = two

The college here does a free course to learn the Maori culture, I've been told it's really good fun.

Gill and Rob

I live in Porirua and have just learnt what it means in Maori.
Pori = harbour
Rua = two

The college here does a free course to learn the Maori culture, I've been told it's really good fun.[/QUOTE]

From what I understand Rotorua is:-

Roto = lake
Rua = two

I believe Rotorua has it's name because Lake Rotorua is the 2nd largest lake in NZ after Lake Taupo.

When double checking it found this interesting site on Maori words http://www.maori.info/maori_language.htm

Rob

SarahB

This seems a good site.... you get to hear some guy saying the words correctly.

http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/tereo-100words

On this page it says how Aotearoa means Long White Cloud and not The Land Of as most people seem to think....

http://www.maorilanguage.info/mao_defns.html

bookemjano

This is a good one - http://library.christchurch.org.nz/Maori/TeReoKete/
It's got some links in it as well to hear the pronunciation.

Maz

Cool, thanks for all the links everyone! I'll have some fun checking those out tonight.

Kerry & Dirk

Learn the national anthem, haka and counting from 1-10, chuck in a few maori place names and there you have it folks back home will be amazed how quick you have picked up the language.

Watch maori TV to get a grasp on the language and see how many english words are thrown in.

Jack The Lad

I just tried to say a couple of words and felt a right Ure

AnnieNell

Haere Mai

I'm planning to learn Maori too when we arrive, however I'm c**p at languages so I'll probably struggle. I think there are only 15 letters in the Maori alphabet though, so that's got to help .
I also want to learn how to use the poi without looking a complete a**e, I have got a pair of long poi, which I swing around but end up in knots
Annie