Compulsory te reo

Joel Maxwell (Waikato Times opinion pages, October 1) seems to have gone through a transmutation of consciousness that has brought about great change in how he delivers his opinion pieces in regard to Mahuru Ma¯ ori.

His latest effort is less of a rant, delivering a "brown eye" to all Pa¯ keha¯ , as it is an introspective piece making him look like an artist searching for epiphany for himself, and thus to be effective in implanting a desire to understand the first language and culture of his ethnic being.

I for one like his new look. I blog poetry on Allpoetry and often converse with poets who blog in both English and the languages of their own ethnicity.

One such person made a comment on one of my poems in Hindi, also offering an English translation.

Feeling demeaned by my own lack of linguistic ability, I replied to her in my very imperfect te reo, fearing that at the very least I would muddle my subjects and predicates.

The Hindu lady poet replied that she did not know that language. I had told her it was the language of the NZ Ma¯ ori people. She googled my te reo, and to my surprise, the translation was almost exactly what I had intended - to greet the lady, to acknowledge her name and tell her mine, and to invite her to see my list of poems.

Google slipped in "beautiful" before "lady", which I was not aware I had written, but I guess that is Google for you.

The point is that whatever te reo I have picked up has been because of the art of it, the achievement of it, not because some want to turn back time and make it compulsory.

Dennis Pennefather, Te Awamutu