WORD Christchurch's 2021 festival has been postponed until later in the year due to Covid-19 restrictions. Dates and times mentioned in this post are no longer current.
I’m really excited to be able to attend a session of Kura Reo – Māori Language Class during WORD Christchurch Festival 2021. I have a love-hate relationship with language learning (or perhaps more accurately love-terror) in which my delight in all the linguistic and etymological geekiness wars with my sheer terror at being asked to pronounce anything out loud. (There was a reason I studied Latin at university – I didn’t have to converse in it!)
During level four lockdown last year I made a bit of a project of working my way though a chunk of the excellent lessons on Māori Television’s Toku Reo, and I really enjoyed it. However I fear my diligence waned as post-lockdown life reasserted itself and an awful lot of what I learned has probably dribbled out of my ears again. So these classes, with an interesting focus on kīwaha and whakataukī – the sayings and idioms of Ngāi Tahu – and friendly "all levels welcome" approach reignite my keenness to improve my (very) beginner levels of reo.
There are four classes in the series, daily at 4pm to 5pm in Spark Place, Tūranga, from Thursday 26 to Sunday 29 August. You can attend any or all of them – all you need is a pencil and notebook. Taught by passionate reo teachers Karuna Thurlow (Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe, Kāi Tahu, Te Aitanga a Mate, Te Whānau a Apanui) and Darren Solomon (Kāi Tahu: Kāti Huirapa, Kāi Te Rakiamoa, Kāti Hinematua), the sessions promise to be interesting, enjoyable, and not at all scary. 🙂
And don't forget our libraries have a fantastic range of resources for learning te reo Māori, from phrasebooks and workbooks to online resources - all great ways to start your language adventure.
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