How Not To Study Our Language 7 Common Mistakes.

7 Common Mistakes To Avoid When Picking Up Cook Islands Maori

When learning Cook Islands maori, its normal to try and do too much…too soon.

Resist the temptation to do put yourself into overwhelm.

Especially if you are starting out.

We are most likely to continue with something if we associate pleasure to it.

Not pain.

The thing is, if we can help you by identifying common mistakes,

then you can avoid them as much as you possible.

Dont you Agree?

Awareness of a problem is 50% solved.

The other 50% is doing it right, for you.

Everyone is different, rolls in their own unique way.

So the name of the game is to always be looking

…for what works for you.

When we are aware of these potential boo-boos, we can be more productive with our time and make the process of learning much more easier. And funable (one of my own words, haha).

Lets dive in.

1. Do not…try to remember tons of words in one hit.

Just imagine trying to remember the english dictionary!

Not only is it needless but it is also virtually impossible to do.

The same goes with reo Kuki.

Even native speakers dont use all the words in the Cook Islands dictionary, so it doesnt make sense for us to even try.

To get a decent amount of speaking ability under your belt (B2 intermediate level), the average person only needs 2000-3000 words in their words-basket. This will enable you to have fluid conversations without having to be advanced enough to be a paid translator or interpreter.

If you break that down, thats 4 lots (4 semesters) of 500 ( or 6 lots of 300) over a 2 year period. Achievable chunks, wouldnt you say?

Are you prepared to spend the next 2-3 years

picking up conversational words

which allow you to feel proud of yourself

and elevate your standing & status amongst family & friends?

Its a no-brainer.

The best way to do this is to focus on the most frequently used words in the reo.

And use them in context.

This context thing means learn them using real sentences.

And use them in a wide range of contexts.

In the Cook Islands Language Blueprint, we hammer away at verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs and the words that “join”sentences. Lots of mixing and lots of practise will set you up for strong and confident korero/conversations.

Thats where having a guided program, that is scientifically proven, will help you do this. The road-map is already set-out. No need to learn randomly. In fact, sometimes, “less is best”.

We are all wired like that.

Baby-steps.

2. Do not try to memorize all the grammar rules.

At some point in your learning, you will need to get your “ducks in a row.” Word order.

But that need not be your focus when starting out.

Word order is already built-in… as you learn to speak.

Its natural.

Think about when you learnt english.

Naturally built-in.

The thing is, if your new to learning the reo,

you dont want anything to get in the way,

or inhibit you from letting the juices flow, ie letting words come out.

The goal is always to learn strong and robust language

that allows you to express yourself, without hesitation.

You do this by lots of listening and speaking practise. Key activities.

The only way to do this is to keep it short,

plough in lots of repetition,

come at it from different angles,

around the same minimal words.

This is basic baby-speaking 101.

Less is best.

The key is…repeat, repeat, repeat.

Dont expect to learn if you dont get the repetition going.

Natural way to remember and

recall

information.

The last thing you want is hurdles and barriers in the way because someone said youve got to learn all these rules.Thats not how we learnt english as kids. We just spoke freely , sounding how everyone else sounded,right up until 6-7 years old. Thats what we want to emulate in the reo. Free-willy.

The best way to learn grammar is to pick it up naturally…like you did with english, when you were a kid, before you went to school. Pick it up through natural conversation and listening to how others say things. Very soon, you will be saying things in the same way, the same order. Thats your grammar, order of words, sorted au naturalle!

Capiche! (ogay).

And yes…i just repeated myself.

To prove the point

“Repetition is the Mother of ALL learning”

Its how we remember things.

In Cook Islands Blueprint, we have what we call “pop-up”grammar. This is when we might explain a point of word order to show students the what and why when its needed, however, we do this in less than 20 seconds tops, hence the label “pop-up”. Once a student has completed Novice 1 and Novice 2 levels, grammar is then introduced more formally as the student is now able to talk with a bit more confidence, maybe with a vocabulary of around 1000 words.

You cant grow grow from an empty cup!

Right?

Words + speak practise + feedback = cup getting filled.

Forget the grammar.

Pick it up naturally.

How???

By following the next thing…

3. Do not try to pick our reo up without heaps and heaps of LISTENING.

Heres a common mistake that alot of people make.

They pay alot of attention to vocabs and grammar.(coz thats what the system does)

And Flag the LISTENING.

This leads to cause & effect stuff happening.

No listen…leads to no speak.

No speaking… leads to

Literally…cant speak our reo.

Might be able to read it…

But speaking?

Nah.

So do yourself a huuuge favor.

Please remember.

The end Goal

The reason your doing this

The big transformation to happen in your life

… is to Autara maori, kauta maori, araara maori

Speak Maori

And to speak it…you must Listen everyday

like you did

when you picked up your first lingo

from your mum & dad. Sibling. Neighbors. Rellies…

Then repeat back

Copy

or Mimick.

Same thing.

No different.

When you listen, you are picking up

….pronunciation

….intonation

….accent

and all those other good-things which make you sound

Cook Islandie.

Its a natural thing, a natural process

To Listen

And Copy

…And this copying

…Modalling in the psychology world

will help you bigtime

If pronunciation is one of your hang-ups.

You were designed

by the man above

to roll this one over

with absolute ease.

You Can.

So make sure you get lots of listening activities going on everyday…

Set it up in advance

On your smartphone

Use our App

Listen to songs, listen to audio books, listen to Cook Islands tv shows, Cook Islands radio, your language parent, the oldies

at a family occasion….anywhere and any chance you get to Listen,

then LISTEN.

It will accelerate your acquisition/pickup of the reo.

You kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

#1…you will pickup the sounds, intonations and the different meanings of words that natives are saying, (especially the ones spelt the same but pronounced differently) and

#2…your pronunciation and intonations will also develop and get to the stage where native-speakers will understand you. This is KEY…they must understand your pronunciation for them to respond back. If not, its back to english for them…and that is not good for you!

When they stop answering you back in english…\

and keep speaking to you in the reo…

you will have made the grade!

They understand what you said in maori.

Its real-world mark-off that

Your pronunciation is bang-on.

4. Do not Read Material…that is Inappropriate and Way above your level.

Five bucks say im right:

Past language teachers may have given you a task to read a book, make a list of the words you dont know, learn the buggers, and then come to class prepared to discuss them. I remember this gig when studying french at Otahuhu college. Yuck. Bad memories basket.

I got those 5 bucks, didnt I?

These exercises are pretty useless.

Heres why.

Firstly, its pretty hard to have fun reading something if you dont get the plot and dont understand the words.What a drag…Comprehensive input means being able to come to grips with 9o% of the material. This shizz was 90% “wtf??”

Secondly, books may contain archaic words which are not used in the language anymore. The Kuki bible has alot of that going on.Old King James version. Alguds.

Pretty hard to learn words that no-one uses today, not even the Kuki

preachers! The year 1860 vs 2024…Hello.

All languages evolve.

They are a “growing organism”.

Paki-up!

Thirdly, it can be discouraging when you are so keen to get your teeth

into something, but you don't understand it. This usually means its not

an appropriate level for you. Like 2 ships…passing in the night.

The problem is you line yourself up to inadvertently, make it harder for

your brain. Let me explain.

Reading is a fast way for your brain to acquire words and meanings.

Why?

Simple. When you read, the words stay still….and are in front of you.

Your brain can slow down and process things.

But if you have a native speaking at you (at 100 miles an hour, as Cook

Islands maori is sort of like NZ maori, but at the speed of light) then its

pretty difficult to process things unless the guy physically acts out the

game of charades, or winds the speed down from speed-dial 10 right

down to speed 1…and then he sounds like he’s drunk.

Bottomline: you can leverage the act of READING to post things up to

your brain, let things process, to come back to it in time…so that you

learn it long and deep. When your brain “wants to”.

…So…Like i said, When you read a word, it sits in front of you for

however long you wish.

But when you hear a word by someone speaking to you, its here one

moment, gone the next.

Say that again?

….See what i mean?

So what to do?

If your at beginner level, start with childrens books. “Graded readers” in

the english world. See our app for these Cook Islands readers, levels 1 to

5.

For the intermediate levels, we also have reading material suitable for

secondary school level, form 3 to 6, or year 9 to year 11. The material

we had for our own secondary level children. No fuss, no worry.

“Ask..and it will be given unto you”.

After that, its Cook Islands News and any other forms of written articles

that one can access online. Cook Islands churches have some.

Unfortunately, there are few authors in the history of the Cook Islands

who have dedicated themselves to writing books, novels and/or classic

literature in the Cook Islands maori language. Taira Rere published

language learning books back in the 60s/70s but no other author, fiction

or non fiction, comes to mind. Maybe an opportunity for any writers to

publish books in the reo.

For our goal of being a B2 Intermediate speaker, we have more than

enough resources available to read.

As they say “leaders..are readers”.

5. Do not spend all your time studying from textbooks.

Going “by the book”is one of the biggest mistakes you can make while

learning Cook Islands maori.

Textbooks can help give you all the building blocks…but it aint going to

help you “speak”from the mouth.

You may have heard people who talk like this…its all scripted, strait up

and down but cant go out of the things they just learnt off by heart.

The thing is, language in the real world, on the streets, in the hood, is not

what you find in textbooks.

We’re talking about slangs, jokes, dialect differences, pop culture

references, and many other colorful language phrases that you cant learn

from a standard textbook.

To really understand native speakers, you must learn to pick up their

casual language. Just as you have in english.( Wassup) Which means

listening in on “street language” and picking up those sayings.

The Aitutaki people have their own casual language which is quite neat

to hear when they are in full flight. As do the Mangaians. They

sing-talk! Dig the melodies…

The point im making is

Textbooks are ok.

But dont make them the only resource or instrument that you learn from.

You can pickup Cook Islands maori by comprehensive input.

Listening and speaking face to face with another is by far the fastest way

to fluency, bar none. Total immersion with no english at all.

Mind you, if your short of a speaking partner and you cant lock yourself

away for 2-3 months

theres heaps of other different ways.

Internet oki.

6. Treating Your Time With The Reo as a “Task”.

Some of us get “hoha” and treat the language as a task…a job to be

completed.

…another thing on our list of things to do..

…another add to the “bucket list.”

Heres the problem with that.

1. Its pretty difficult to mark off “done” when it comes to achieving

fluency. So you might never be able to “check it off”. Sorii…

2. You dont know a language just because you score “A’s” or 100%

in a test. Conversational speaking is our goal here. B2

Intermediate.

3. Everyones motivation differs. So you need to dig deep to stick to a

consistent habit that moves you from newb to intermediate to

advanced..depending on how far you want to go.

Heres the thing.

Speaking our reo isnt about tests. Thats a western concept.

Fluency only comes AFTER youve put your language skills into action,

spoken with native speakers for hours…

listened to native speakers…

and followed their directions.

You will also need to learn our culture to a certain extent or you will find

a large gap between you…and native speakers…while communicating.

Both of yous might be glancing at each other with the pre-dominating

underground thoughts being

“WTF?”

..hehe

So how to fix?

Dont miss the opportunities to join culture groups and learn the culture,

always be finding opportunities to chat with native speakers and friends,

watch movies and tv programs if at all possible (Cook Islands TV,

Youtube), join a Cook Islands church, join Cook Islands sports teams,

travel to the Cooks and mix-it-up with our people,

go to where our Cook Islands communities are ( Auckland, Tokoroa,

Sydney etc) and get involved with Cook Islands locals.

In this way, if you make the language enjoyable and something that

makes you look forward to studying it…it will be so much easier for you

to master, and at the same time, extend your relationships and bring

more meaning to your life

and your family.

It wont be seen as

a Task.

It will be seen as

a Fun !

7. Dont rely on Cook Islands Language schools or courses.

This one is the “invisible” trap.

Relying on a school or a course to learn the language.

This reliance comes in 2 forms:

1.Relying on the course to give you all the materials and exposure you

need to pick up the language.

2. Holding the course or teacher responsible for your successes or

failures.

When you learn our language, its good to have a teacher or coach to help

and support you. The thing is, they cant do everything for you. They can

guide you and make the pathway easier and convenient for you. But they

can't inject language straight into your brain. Its your responsibility

to manage your learning. To “do the injections”.

If you feel like the books or materials aren't effective or sufficient on

their own, find other materials or resources to accompany your

coursework.

Likewise, if the coursework doesn't resonate with your preferred

learning style, go to google, type in “learn how to learn” and find out

how you learn best. Do this on your own time.

If you learn best through music or visual diagrams etc, but simply dont

get enough of this in your class, then take care of yourself in your

downtime. Its really on you to see how your wired and how to get the

best out of your brain. You probably have a good idea anyhow. Go with

your flow ma bro.

The key is to become ravenous and eat up as much reo as you can

handle.

Read and listen to our reo everyday.

Join an online community where you can meet like-minded souls and

practise speaking conversations everyday.

Seek out Cook Islands articles from old newspapers online or archived at

libraries.

Check out blogs and youtube videos.

Keep on top of whats happening in your local Cook Islands community

and communities abroad.

The idea is to immerse yourself in the language, in some way or another,

on a daily basis. 5minutes here, 2 mins there, it all adds up.

Whatever you do, always remember.

Take responsibility for your skills development,

listening>speaking>reading and writing.

The teacher/coach/coursework can only get you so far.

Its you whos learning the language.

So its you

…who will succeed.

Tukia.

ps. Heres a summary.

1. Do not try and learn tons of words in one hit. Be smart.

2. Dont fess over grammar.

3. Learn to Listen, listen and listen.

4. Dont read stuff above your level.

5. Dont rely on textbooks only.

6. Dont treat your time with the language as a “task”. Have fun.

7. Dont rely on a course or teacher “only”. Its on you.

Let me know in the comments whats your biggest takeaway.

Thanks for your time….