More reo. And irish. But more reo

I am slowly whacking my way through @TeWananga ‘s PapaReo (kete 2). In fact, I’ve finished the workbook and will shortly complete the assessment book. It’s accelerated a fair bit from kete 1, which works for me. When learning a language I need a fair bit of intensity for anything to stick. Until recently, little of Māori seemed to be sticking.

I’ve also signed up for Memrise, which seems to have the most complete online Māori curriculum. NZD 99 for a lifetime membership for unlimited language. It’s rather crusty and web 1.0, but it’s another self-regulated modality. In particular it seems to be helping with counting, colours, greetings–though it is rather precious about macrons.

Woteva.

And…am strolling through Māori Made Easy 1. I find Scotty’s voice reassuring. I find the book’s font impossible small for me to write in it (I’m using the book version: once I complete it I’ll start again with the workbook version). How much is it helping? Dunno just yet.

Numbers in other languages are the hardest for me and Māori isn’t an exception. It took years for me to begin naturalistically using–and understanding–complex numbers en français. Years ago I read some cogsci that argued our brains are wired for math using our first counting system. As a result, learning to use numbers in other languages is more or less difficult when the logic of said language’s math system diverges. For example:

Number	English	French	Irish	Māori
1	one	one	one	one
5	five	five	five	five
10	ten	ten	ten	ten
18	eighteen	ten-eight	eight tenned	ten and eight
80	eighty	four-twenty	eighty	eight tens
90	ninety	four-twenty ten	ninety	nine tens

These are (quasi) transliterations, but you get the idea. Also in Irish you use different numbers for things and people, sometimes, apparently. I’ll get back to you on that one.

onwards…