Watching the item on the All Blacks leaving for Japan had me feeling somewhat envious and not for the reason you’re probably thinking. It was for the fact that they were going to be fortunate enough to miss a week of token Maori language speak.
I have no objection to anyone learning the language should they wish to. That is their choice and part of living in a democracy. The same applies to teaching Maori in schools. There is no reason why it cannot be a subject as part of the curriculum for those who wish to learn it. However, it should be an option and not made compulsory. Forcing students to learn the language reeks of, dare I say it, native supremacy and as such has no place in a democratic society.
No doubt a specious argument could be made by a certain section of the populace that students are forced to learn English. That argument is easily negated. Without English you won’t get very far in this world. Maori, for that matter, won’t get you very far either. The fact that Maori is a dying language, like so many other problems confronting Maori, is theirs to fix. They have been given, courtesy of the taxpayer, two television channels and a plethora of radio stations. These are the conduits by which to promote and teach their language. A marketing campaign could be embarked upon to advise people of the opportunity to learn the language, and those who were interested could take up the offer.
Making it compulsory in schools is not the answer as obviously the majority of students will not continue to use it. There is no point. The retention of the language rests primarily with the Maori community and educators working within it. To suggest making it compulsory in schools will save it is patently ridiculous. To have it invading our hearing passages for a week in the form of token spoken gestures courtesy of the mainstream media is equally ridiculous.
In fact it’s damned annoying.
