Te Ao Maori: Maori world

Tēnā tātou katoa,

Ko te kaupapa o tēnei, he kōrero e pā ana ki te reo Māori i roto i ngā kura. I te tuatahi, ka titiro ki te Ao Māori, ā, i ōku nei whakaaro o ngā mea akonga hei whakatika i te reo i te wā ka whakaako.

The topic which I would like to critically assess, is the subject of the Māori language in schools. First and foremost, I would like to take a look at Māori world view or Te Ao Māori and my ideas about teaching and learning a language properly.

In my experience as a second language learner, I believe that in order to have a greater knowledge or to become a competent 'language expert', one must have knowledge of not only how to speak that language but also, have a greater understanding of such things as; that culture and heritage, world view, perspectives, beliefs and history in order to think in that language. Many people have mentioned to me, that their child is fluent in a particular language, however, to my knowledge, there are different levels of proficiency in a language. For me, one who has knowledge of a language but has to think through their first language in order to produce their thoughts in the second language, is a not full speaker or a fluent speaker of that language. For me, there are different levels of proficiency that needs to be recognised.

So for me, in order to truly know a language to the best of their ability, one must learn to think in that language. That means they should be learning all those things that make up that culture or at least some of it if they are going to learn properly.

In te reo Māori for example, one who is learning for the first time, must learn their whakapapa or genealogies and be able to recite the whakapapa in order to learn the language and to have a greater knowledge of tikanga or the culture and ways of doing things in that culture. Te Ao Māori may encompass such things as tikanga or customs and ways of doing, whakapapa or the ability to recite ones genealogy or elements that make up the home such as boundaries and land marks, kawa or rules and regulations, tapu and noa or sacred and unsacred elements in the world.