Ka pai on te reo

Te reo made some progress last week. It has not always been possible to say that of the annual Ma¯ ori Language Week. The progress was on the airwaves. Broadcasters got involved — and not just those on Radio NZ who have injected te reo into their greetings and sign-offs for several years.

Most broadcasters entered into the spirit of the week and took pride in using a little of the language. So they should. A facility with spoken language is their profession and New Zealand broadcasters should regard it as a mark of professionalism to be able to incorporate this country’s unique language in their work.

There is probably no more effective way to revive te reo than to have it heard on mainstream radio and television, certainly more effective than education — though that is important, too.

It is a pity this year’s Ma¯ ori language Week again aroused debate over whether the language should be “compulsory” in schools. It’s a nonissue, just about all the curriculum is compulsory in primary school, where te reo should be. Young children learn languages more easily, and our primary schools already give all pupils as much Ma¯ ori culture as they can.

They are limited by a lack of teachers proficient in the language, a deficiency successive governments have done too little to fix. This Government sounds divided on the issue. It has announced an objective to “integrate” te reo into everyday learning in all primary schools by 2025 but Winston Peters resists the idea it might be “compulsory”.

No so former All Black captain Buck Shelford. The hard man credited with introducing the All Blacks to the right way to do a haka, tells us today: “If you can lean haka you can learn te reo.” He said: “If it was compulsory in the schooling system we could have a multilingual country.”

He is right. Children in many other countries learn two or three languages. In doing so, they also learn concepts and ways of thinking that broaden their minds. One day all New Zealanders will be bilingual and this week it has felt like that time has edged a bit closer.