MIKE HOSKING NAILS IT....TE REO LACK OF RELEVANCE
Jan 22, 2018 7:10:56 GMT 12
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Post by Kiwi Frontline on Jan 22, 2018 7:10:56 GMT 12
THE TROUBLE WITH TE REO MAORI IS A LACK OF RELEVANCE
Is a language in trouble a story if it's been in trouble pretty much as long as I can remember, which would be most of my life, which is about 50 years.
In other words Maori has been spoken by a tiny and diminishing number of people - and for some, not many, that is a worry.
Hence the call to do something about it.
It's on life support, as one academic put it on Friday, and he is right. There is no doubt it's a language in trouble. But Bill English is right too - even if he chose his words slightly
clumsily in this increasingly PC world.
IT IS NOT A GOVERNMENT'S JOB TO GO ROUND SAVING LANGUAGES.
Why not? Because you have to ask yourself why it's in trouble. And the answer is simple: People don't want to bother with it.
Its not like they don't have the choice. It's not like they haven't had the choice forever.
Maori - like all languages - can be freely learned in a variety of ways. We just don't want to - AND THAT'S OUR RIGHT......
www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11979446
Is a language in trouble a story if it's been in trouble pretty much as long as I can remember, which would be most of my life, which is about 50 years.
In other words Maori has been spoken by a tiny and diminishing number of people - and for some, not many, that is a worry.
Hence the call to do something about it.
It's on life support, as one academic put it on Friday, and he is right. There is no doubt it's a language in trouble. But Bill English is right too - even if he chose his words slightly
clumsily in this increasingly PC world.
IT IS NOT A GOVERNMENT'S JOB TO GO ROUND SAVING LANGUAGES.
Why not? Because you have to ask yourself why it's in trouble. And the answer is simple: People don't want to bother with it.
Its not like they don't have the choice. It's not like they haven't had the choice forever.
Maori - like all languages - can be freely learned in a variety of ways. We just don't want to - AND THAT'S OUR RIGHT......
www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11979446
