My te reo Māori journey: Guyon Espiner
1. Do you have more than one language in your country? Do you have any really special or 'endangered' languages?
2. Why might a European (Pākeha) New Zealander decide to learn Te Reo Māori?
Read part 1.
When I started learning te reo Māori (the Māori language) ___1______ this year I had one main fear: humiliation. I expected that Pākeha might praise my efforts but I worried Māori speakers might be critical of my _____2______ attempts.
The reality has been the opposite. I have had _____3_______ encouragement from Māori. I’ve had huge support from my kaiako and tauira at the wānanga, from language advocates Scotty and Stacey Morrison and from RNZ work colleagues Mihingarangi Forbes and Shannon Haunui-Thompson.
Armed with my tenuous grasp on the language I began to ______4______ my radio presenting as co-host of RNZ’s Morning Report. We’ve always done basic greetings in Māori on the show but I wanted to do more and began to extend the greetings and include basic information in Māori – such as the days, dates and temperatures for the main centres.
That was when comes the ____5____ came, or perhaps it was a white lash. I have two screens up while presenting Morning Report – one with the scripts and the programme run down and the other to watch the ____6_____ coming in from texts, email and social media. I get a thrill speaking te reo live on radio. I love the sound of it coming back at me through the headphones and out into the world, mixed up with the very real fear that I might drop this new treasure I’m ____7_____ but can’t fully control.
1. What was Guy's fear when he started using te reo Māori?
2. What is Guy's job?
3. What do you think is meant by "white lash" here?
1. What was Guy's fear when he started using te reo Māori?
2. What is Guy's job?
3. What do you think is meant by "white lash" here?
Part 2
Another listener from Rotorua said he had “no interest _____9_____ in learning the Maori words for the days of the week or anything else”. He said RNZ was adding more Māori language “to annoy the hell out of its listeners” and concluded I was ______10__________. “As for Guyon Espiner’s 7am greetings, well that is just pompous exhibitionism.”
Another listener – I recognise the phone number and often these people give full names – got in touch every day to tell me I was speaking _____11_____, and sounded like a monkey. It’s not something I want to think too hard about.
The emails take a little longer but they come in too – from people agonising about the _____12_______ of the country. When you get an onslaught like that your first reaction isn’t ____13_____. I know that there can be more than 250,000 people listening – so getting maybe a dozen messages a day is nothing right? ___14___ tells me to ignore them but it doesn’t stop the feelings of humiliation.
But then the encouragement comes in, often from Māori speakers but more broadly too. Sometimes the real language champions – who have actually been doing the hard yards ______15_______ for years – come out in support, often on Twitter, and the warmth and confidence flows back.
1. Match the green highlighted words with the meanings below:
A. sudden assault
B. showing off
C. misusing
D. doing the unpleasant and difficult work
C. misusing
D. doing the unpleasant and difficult work
Part 3.
This pattern continued for a few weeks and then a funny thing happened. The barrage of texts and emails stopped. Oh a few still come in – more recently from Pākeha saying they are learning and want me to slow down so they can pick up the days and the dates. They’re genuine messages sent _____16_______.
This pattern continued for a few weeks and then a funny thing happened. The barrage of texts and emails stopped. Oh a few still come in – more recently from Pākeha saying they are learning and want me to slow down so they can pick up the days and the dates. They’re genuine messages sent _____16_______.
The moaners might not like it any more than they did but mostly they’ve stopped ____17_____ their complaints. In a small way a new normal has been established. On Morning Report, a ‘mainstream’ news programme, you are going to hear greetings, temperatures, phrases, sentences, questions and place names – in Māori.
I decided to push it a little more. Kei hea te pūtea? I said to Auckland Mayor Phil Goff, asking where the money was coming from for a transport project. Pātai tuatahi ki a koe, I said to National leader Bill English, signalling my first question. E rua, e rua, I nudged Marama Fox, on whether National and Labour were just the same.
I waited for the _____18______ from the audience but nothing came. Great. They must be ready for more.
1. What happened over time as Guy used Māori daily?
2. What does Guy say he has established?
Language focus:
Discuss:
2. What does Guy say he has established?
Language focus:
Try to put the extracted phrases into the gaps:
pushing the boundaries pushback nothing but impact ‘Maorification’ weave it into in earnest floundering backlash feedback in good faith whatsoever voicing clutching the worst offender gibberish rational Logic
Discuss:
1. Why do you think some people resent another language being woven into a national news programme?
2. What impression do you get of Guyon from this article?
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