Celebrate Maori language all year

I think the major New Zealand TV channels did a good job of incorporating te reo M ori words into their broadcasts for M ori language week, especially TVNZ 1’s Breakfast (weekday mornings). But why doesn’t this happen more often? We should acknowledge a special week to embrace the language, culture and values and put an emphasis on our cultural history. But in this day and age it should be the norm, not seven days out of 365. I think that the children are benefiting from the on-line ap Hei-Hei and the language is strongly being encouraged to be taught more in schools. That’s great for the kids, but the older grown-ups should be included too.

CF Jones (Christchurch)

Congratulations on a week of M ori language on TV ... Our family thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to speak, listen and interact as much as we could in te reo M ori. Having immigrated from the UK, we are currently enjoying night classes in M ori language and culture and our oldest of three children has just started school at our local kohanga reo. So to have a whole week of hearing te reo spoken on more than one TV channel, when and where possible, has just been great. We have practised as much as we can and were pleasantly surprised how far we have come along with learning this unique and exquisite language. So come on, Kiwis. Don’t be shy or embarrassed to korero M ori whenever possible as it is quite a privilege and a lot of fun learning a new language. Here’s to bringing more te reo M ori language and culture on to our TV screens.