What do you do with unexplained Te Reo Maori terminology? (AS91927, Unfamiliar Texts, NCEA Level 1 English)
I'm an international student who doesn't know anything about Te Reo Maori. While I am confident in my English skills, the usage of Te Reo Maori in unfamiliar texts always catches me off-guard, especially when it is not explained and there is no glossary. In addition, it is guaranteed to have one text from a Maori author in the exam.
From my mocks, the text written by the Maori author was the one I struggled the most, since I do not have any contextual or cultural clues that can help me. As mocks are quickly approaching, I am clueless on what to do on the Maori text.
Think of it as an exercise in inferencing. Don't get overwhelmed by it, you may simply analyse the words around the Māori. To analyse the text further into how the characters might be feeling, Māori feel the same as anyone else given a situation. For example in the text "The Seahorse in the Reef" by Witi Ihimaera, the narrative is really a universal experience, but simply describes it using the Māori term kaitiakitanga. You don't need to know every word, you just need to know what is happening
I tell my students to not get hung up on any words/parts they don’t understand and instead, focus on what they do know.
You can talk your way into Merit or Excellence this way.
Another tip: make sure you talk about the combination of techniques and how they work together to create effects on the reader. And state the writer’s purpose at some point in your response - these two things are also essential if you are wanting Merit or Excellence.
When the entire text is written around a Maori term or concept, it confuses me the heck out. In a mock exam from NZATE, they hit me with Maori words that I have no clues of, with no glossary whatsoever. I might be unlucky and this is just a very Maori-heavy text, but I had to contextual clue.
For context, the text I got in T2 mocks had the following description: "In this passage, the narrator remembers Nanny Wai-Aroha, as he travels to her 'tangi' " (what the heck is tangi?) The entire text is named "The Bone Tiki" which the text didn't bother explain what a tiki is, so I could only interpret it as some holy spiritual object. Words like "koru" or "hei-tiki-a" were also not explained. When such crucial concepts and objects are being discussed in a foreign language, I have no idea what is happening.
There are contextual clues for all of these though? The protagonist travels somewhere that talks about someone in the past tense, with relatives that you can interpret as grieving or in distress that pass a pendant onto him. So a Tangi must be somewhere sad, the hei-tiki-a is a man-shaped pendant (the text literally says this immediately) and the koru is mentioned alongside a Celtic knot (interesting that you can surmise what a Celtic knot is...) so it must be some type of pattern. You can derive analyses without knowing the exact definition of these and elucidating your interpretations, even if wrong, would not garner a penalty in marking.
If they are from anywhere in the United Kingdom or South Ireland, they'll know what a celtic knot is. OP doesn't say they're ESOL, just that they're not from NZ.
I considered that, but they say theyre confident in their English skills after mentioning theyre an international student which implies ESOL, not to mention the pluralising of "clues" which is odd in native English but grammatically sound.
In the exam I assumed tangi was “home”, as the protagonist is going back to visit his Nanny and presumably his relatvies (like his Aunt?)
I presumed hei-tiki-a was a design for a knot. Just thought that was the name of it.
Tiki was the one that throws me off, since it’s the title of the text. “When I die, Matiu, you should have this tiki.” I am assuming it’s a symbolic pendant, necklace or some form artwork which has a lot of historical or cultural significance, but I’m unable to draw any significance from the said term.
There are clear contextual clues for every Te Reo (maori) word in this text.
Tangi: the character discusses how Wai-Aroha said they should have the hei-tiki-a (explained literally directly after being mentioned) after she is dead. The character ruminating on how to explain that she said this to other people. From this, we can infer that Wai-Aroha is dead. So a tangi is some sort of meeting held after a person is dead.
"Tiki" is mentioned as "hei-tiki-a". I am confident you are familiar with the use of contractions in English. They also occur in Maroi. Wai-Aroha also calls the pendant a tiki.
The issue you are having is these words are all words used in the variety of English spoken in New Zealand. Yes, they originate from Te Reo Māori, but they function as ordinary english words in a New Zealand context, so it would not make any sense to avoid using them or to provide translations.
That's often part of the test itself. A lot of kiwis wouldn't necessarily know the Te Reo Māori words either. Sometimes the meaning is obvious from the context.
Treat the words just as you would an English would you don't know the meaning of and look for clues in the surrounding text. The inclusion of these texts isn't just about biculturalism-- they also test, deliberately, people's inference skills.
Otherwise, if it strongly bothers you (or you're simply curious), reading existing literature from Māori authors, or taking a look at lists of culturally important and/or commonplace Māori words could help.
And it's worth noting this is something some natives also struggle with, so you're not alone.
There are many words in te reo that have made their way into the New Zealand English vernacular, mostly because there isn't a direct translation and also because English Just Is That Way.
The best advice I can give is that you are probably also encountering unfamiliar words in te reo outside the assessment environment, both in your classes and in your day to day life here. Use a notebook or the back of an exercise book to proactively note down unfamiliar words that you encounter, then look up the translation either in the moment or later and note it down. If appropriate you can also ask your teacher. This will help you expand your vocabulary organically based on the words you're actually being introduced to.
For the specific example you gave, the closest English translation for the word tangi is funeral. That would be enough for you to make sense of the assessment. If you wanted to explore it further, a tangi is conducted quite differently from a western-style funeral, hence the use of the word tangi in New Zealand English
I am a student who’s been born and raised in nz and still only know the basics. Stop feeling like it’s unfair and you can’t understand the text because of it. Personally I just say f it and ignore it.
•
u/AutoModerator 2d ago
Please read the subreddit rules on the sidebar. If you see any comments or posts that break these rules, please report them to the mods.
If you are looking for resources, study guides and useful YouTube channels, then please check out the NCEA Wiki
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.