Ko te kainga te mauri o te reo
The home offers the vital essence of language
– Sir Tīmoti Kāretu
If you’re wanting to learn te reo Māori or brush up on your skills, it’s hard to go past this excellent book. Scotty Morrison (author of The Raupō Phrase book of Modern Māori and Māori Made Easy) and his wife Stacey Morrison have written a book designed for daily use in the home – for ‘busy whānau who want to express themselves in Māori today’.
The couple are well qualified to co-write the book. For the last 10 years they have brought up their bilingual children with Māori as the sole language for their parenting. They’ve also researched, tutored, lectured, and given media interviews on the subject.
Māori At Home is designed for daily use, and its accessible and fun style will suit all ages. Whether you’re practising hākinakina (sport), getting ready for kura (school), celebrating a huritau (birthday), preparing a rārangi kai (shopping list) or relaxing at the tātahi (beach), the well laid out book gives you the words and phrases, as well as the confidence, to enjoy conversing in te reo Māori. Family participation is encouraged through a range of activities including baking from the te reo Maori recipe for Keke Kāroti, drawing up a Housie board and reading out the numbers in te reo maori, and playing I Spy using newly learnt kupu hou (new words).
The book provides repeated examples of common sentence structures tying into the topic of each chapter. Due to the natural repetition of domestic activities in our daily lives, these structures and commonly used phrases get plenty of opportunity to be used – and reused! Repetition is the way we embed knowledge and these well chosen phrases encourage us to speak Māori without having to learn a whole lot of grammar first. Newly learnt words can then be inserted into these sentence structures, providing a logical and fun springboard for growth.
Māori At Home is an excellent and accessible teaching device for anyone wanting to enrich their lives by learning te reo Māori.
REVIEWER: Lorraine Steele
Penguin Random House NZ
Raupo imprint
RRP $35.00