New Zealand is the seventh country* I’ve lived in for more than six months and the first where I haven’t spoken it’s native language. After 17 years of living here it was time to change that.
I am driven by wanting to belong- most humans are. For me though it seems amplified by the experience of starting school at the age of four in Miami, Florida and not speaking a word of English. The year was 1977 and we had only recently moved from Colombia to Miami with my dad’s job.
If you know me you know I love to make friends and this language barrier was both confusing and frustrating. There was so much I was missing out on! Thankfully young minds learn quickly and within the year I was up with the play and fully understood what was happening around me.
Fast forward to 1995 and moving to Thailand as a Peace Corps volunteer. Being posted to a village school to teach English not far from the Laos border (Nakhon Panom), learning Thai and the regional dialect of Isaan was imperative if I wanted to eat more than just fermented fish sauce and bamboo curry (and that’s no joke).
In 2004 when I arrived in New Zealand I was a mum to a busy one-year old boy and soon his little sister would be appearing on the scene. Newborns, toddlers and learning macrons just didn’t fit together although I did pick up a few colours and commands while doing parent help at kindy… Haere mai, tamariki!
Now it’s 2021 and what a time to get stuck in! I’m now fully in charge of my own diary, there is a te reo Māori reneissance happening and it’s coinciding with my kids (now teens) being more independent. It’s hard to go anywhere in New Zealand and not hear the beautiful words and phrases of te reo integrated into the nightly news, organisational values and in day-to-day kōrero.
I’ve chosen to learn te reo Māori because I want to learn more about the essence of Aotearoa – the country I have chosen to call my home for the last 17 years and, I hope, many more to come.
Kia kaha te reo Māori!
*The other six if you’re interested are Colombia, the United States, Spain, Thailand, Singapore and Australia.