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Summoner wrote:I'll say no... just to represent the inbred "deliverance" rednecks.
Too right. Inbred rednecks have a language too. It's time it was recognised!
As an adult I have struggled to learn a modest amount of Te Reo and I have little confidence in my pronunciation. I really envy the generation who have learned it in school. I love the sound of it and I think it's a very sensible language. There are not too many consonants and the short and long vowel sound rules make a lot more sense than the ones we have for English. I think it would be great if we were all bilingual but I don't think the learning should be compulsory.
I agree with psalter that the learning should be implicit. I have a couple of students in my adult literacy class who are fluent Maori speakers. For Maori Language Week I got them to do some teaching and we talked about transliterations (apple/aporo) and the way that languages change over time. Comparisons are useful for making sense of language.
I have also recently learned some NZ sign language. Our tutor is deaf from birth and he's able to effectively teach a room full of hearing students. A deaf student in a class at high school could educate fellow students and their teacher by demonstrating signs that go with the learning. Te Reo could be incorporated in a similar way as it already is in primary education.
I believe that if Maori language were made a compulsory subject it may become as repugnant to students as Latin once was ( although in retrospect I wish I'd learned that too).
