Language Trainers Blog

This week is Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, or Māori Language Week, in New Zealand (and around the world, I guess!).  It’s a time to celebrate this beautiful indigenous language, be proud if you speak it, and learn a few phrases if you don’t.  This year’s theme is ‘te mahi kai’, which is a concept close to my own heart.  It means not only to partake in a meal, but also covers all the things associated with putting the meal together, including gathering food (and, traditionally, hunting), preparation, and cooking.

Some people don’t think that learning te reo Māori (the Māori language) will get you very far, but one family in Tokoroa firmly believes otherwise.  Chris McKenzie was told that if he wanted to continue to date his (now) wife, he would have to learn how to speak Māori.  Not to be deterred, he quit his job and began learning the language.  So began a lifelong passion for both learning and teaching te reo Māori, both to official students and to his close and extended family.  He and his wife are also raising their children solely in Māori, which was controversial enough that friends stopped coming to visit their home.  The couple stand by their decision, though, and believe it is their children’s birthright, not something they should have to pay to learn in adulthood.  As a child of Chinese parents who didn’t raise me in the language, I wholeheartedly support the McKenzie’s decision.

Read the full article here.

Image: TELPortfolio.

I recently found The Brink of Something Else, the personal blog of Aussie traveller Camden Luxford, who is currently living in Cusco, Peru.  Among other things, she’s transcribed a series of interviews with expatriates around the world, from Japan to Morocco to Kosovo.  The blog is a fascinating read for anyone who’s interested in picking up and moving away (or if you’re already on the road).

Having already gotten a pretty good grasp on Spanish, Camden decided to attempt the second official language of Peru, Quechua.  Variants of the language are spoken throughout the Andean regions of South America.  I’d imagine it would be pretty difficult to find Quechua classes outside of South America, but this post tells us that it’s not so easy to find them there, either, even when a majority of the indigenous people speak it.  Sure, you could pay the overblown tourist prices, but most people who have been proper expats are very loathe to do this.  Check out the post to see how many avenues she’s tried so far.

She’s also written a great post on Matador about language learning plateaus and how to move on past them.   This post is specifically about Spanish, but all the hints are worthwhile for all language learners, at pretty much every level.  Apparently Camden’s plateaus happen a lot higher than mine (she flattened out while being able to conduct business meetings in her second language, while I’m happy if I can direct a taxi to my apartment), but she’s still very humble about her achievements.

I’m going to subscribe to the blog mostly for travel reasons, but here’s hoping she writes some more about language learning, too.

Image: quinet.

I was writing a note to a colleague today and got a little red squiggly under the word chili (as in the spicy fruit of the capsicum family), which has always been one of those words I’m not 100% sure of.  I knew you could spell it chili, chilli, or chile, but I wasn’t entirely sure about the definite rules.  So, I thought I’d do a little digging (online, of course).

So which is correct?  It turns out that: they all are.  It just depends where you are using the word.

In North America, both chili and chile are used, the latter being used just to talk about the vegetable (or fruit, actually), and the former used to mean the fruit, the powder, and also a couple of dishes (chili con carne being the most popular).  They are also called chili/chile peppers.  Chile is the common spelling in Mexico (not to be confused with Chile the country).  The bigger, unspicy variety (that Kiwis and Aussies usually call capsicum) are often referred to as bell peppers, sweet peppers, or green/red/yellow peppers (obviously depending on the colour).

In the UK, chilli is the preferred spelling, and chilli pepper is quite common.  Bell peppers are called green/red/yellow peppers as well.

In New Zealand and Australia, we tend to use chilli/chilli pepper, and green/red/yellow capsicum.  Most people mean the green variety if capsicum is used on its own.

There are arguments for and against a few of these terms (e.g. chili by itself can be confused with chili con carne, but pepper is not an appropriate word to use for the Capsicum family), but as long as you’re sure your audience knows what you’re talking about, feel free to use any of these terms.  To help clarify matters, you could always use a more specific name (e.g. jalapeño or bird’s eye).

Which terms do you use?

Even though almost all Maori speakers have a fluent (if not very good) level of English, some researchers have proposed that there are still a lot of communication problems between Maori and Pakeha (non-Maori New Zealanders, but predominantly used to describe New Zealanders of European descent) when speaking English.  Most of the problems seem to arise from differences in non-verbal communication, such as eyebrow movement, hand gestures, and posture.

Even though miscommunication between Maori and Pakeha has a long history (dating back to before the (in)famous Treaty of Waitangi signing), the research proposal has been controversial in itself.  Some people support the idea of lessening misunderstandings, but some, including ex-MP John Tamihere, think the study is unnecessary and a ‘bloody waste of money’.

I think that the research could provide some valuable sociological insights into some differences between these two enmeshed cultures, but I’m really not sure how it will be used to improve interactions in the future.  Will people go to ‘how to understand your fellow kiwis’ seminars?

Do you think the research should be carried out?

Full story via NZ Herald, link via Language Museum, image via SMH.