helinuk

Just to add a bit of NZ news to todays forum:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...314553,00.html

has anyone met or seen this venerable lady since arriving in NZ?

SarahB

Nope but I saw it on tonights news. I was impressed with how well the newscaster said her name... it looks pretty hard to pronounce. I wonder who will take over from her.

helinuk

The article says probably one of her sons.
Those Maori names are impossible!
I was only saying to hubby last night that some of the place names in NZ are going to be a real challenge to me to pronounce. I just know I'll make a right fool of myself!

Helen

SarahB

We couldnt even say the names round Auckland when we got here..... the people we stayed with told us how to say some of the names. Thats why we live in Beachlands!

poppets

my pronouncation is really bad, every christmas my mum & dad used to make me read the trivial pursuits cards out , so they could have a laugh at my pronouncation

Biddy

I must confess after nearly a year of being here, the first time I'd heard of the Maori Queen was posthumously!

SarahB

Same here

IainW

If you have a local Wananga, they run free Te Reo Maori courses. Interesting and fun. The pronouncation is straightforward once you have it explained. Sort of....

pangor

pronunciation . . . yes. Was on holiday the other week, so went in to my youngest's primary school with Nicola - she goes in once a week to help with writing etc.

Anyway the class all started their story writing and I wandered about helping.
Of course they asked how to spell things and I would spell the words out, but whenever I said "a" they would write "e "and if I said "e" they wrote "a "

probably set them all back a few years !

peter