Globalization is taking place in every facet of people’s lives. Thomas Friedman used an interesting metaphor in the title of his book The World is Flat to describe the world as a playground where competitors share equal opportunities regardless of their historical and geographical background (Friedman). The same principle can be applied to world language, geography cedes to be the barrier for the exchange between various nations as English has became a global language. Wherever one travels around the world, there is always a substantial chance for that person to communicate with minimum English. At the same time, one may notice that English in different nations has its own characteristics that could not be found in any other countries. English in New Zealand is a distinctive example of how English language in different nations has been introduced and shaped. We can observe the development of English in New Zealand through the examination of how English was introduced and became the dominant language as a result of the weakening of Maori culture, the authorization of the Treaty of Waitangi and the encouragement of English education; and how New Zealand English formed its distinctive features in respect to the mixture of early settlers, the interaction between European immigrants and the indigenous Maoris and the communication among young New Zealanders; and the current status of English under the background of Maori renaissance. Maori was the prevailing language in New Zealand spoken by the initial residents who came from Polynesian approximately 800 years ago. However, Maori failed to remain its ascendant status mainly due to the decline in population and the change of religion. Along with Captain Cook’s voyages in 1769, English... ... middle of paper ... ...g And Learning An Indigenous Language Through Its Narratives: Māori In Aotearoa/New Zealand." Junctures: The Journal For Thematic Dialogue 6 (2006): 107-116. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Dec. 2013. Nayar, Shoba. "The Treaty Of Waitangi: Framing Immigrants' Occupational Practices In Aotearoa New Zealand." Journal Of Occupational Science 20.4 (2013): 382-395. Humanities International Index. Web. 8 Dec. 2013. Roberts, Paul. “ Speech Communities.” ENG 118: The Politics of Language. Ed. Holly Davis. Smith: Northampton, 2013.Print. Schneider, Edgar W. English Around The World: An Introduction. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print. Sinclair, Keith. "The Maoris In New Zealand History." History Today 30.7 (1980): 39. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Dec. 2013. Stubble, Maria and Janet Holmes. “ Talking Maori or Pakeha in English”. Bell&Kuiper Eds. 249-279
In the chronological, descriptive ethnography Nest in the Wind, Martha Ward described her experience on the rainy, Micronesian island of Pohnpei using both the concepts of anthropological research and personal, underlying realities of participant observation to convey a genuine depiction of the people of Pohnpei. Ward’s objective in writing Nest in the Wind was to document the concrete, specific events of Pohnpeian everyday life and traditions through decades of change. While informing the reader of the rich beliefs, practices, and legends circulated among the people of Pohnpei, the ethnography also documents the effects of the change itself: the island’s adaptation to the age of globalization and the survival of pre-colonial culture.
The Hawaiian culture is known throughout the western world for their extravagant luaus, beautiful islands, and a language that comes nowhere near being pronounceable to anyone but a Hawaiian. Whenever someone wants to “get away” their first thought is to sit on the beach in Hawai’i with a Mai tai in their hand and watch the sun go down. Haunani-Kay Trask is a native Hawaiian educated on the mainland because it was believed to provide a better education. She questioned the stories of her heritage she heard as a child when she began learning of her ancestors in books at school. Confused by which story was correct, she returned to Hawai’i and discovered that the books of the mainland schools had been all wrong and her heritage was correctly told through the language and teachings of her own people. With her use of pathos and connotative language, Trask does a fine job of defending her argument that the western world destroyed her vibrant Hawaiian culture.
Bollig, L. (1927). The Inhabitants of The Truk Islands: Religion, Live and a Short Grammar of A Micronesian People. Munster i W.: Aschendorff.
Aboriginal Australians speak a variety of languages and language variants that differ in how much or little they resemble Standard Australian English. When European settlers first came to Australia, approximately 250 Indigenous languages were spoken (McKay, 297). Due to the repressive language assimilation policies that ensued, this number has been cut in half (McKay, 297). About 100 of the languages that still exist are in advanced stages of endangerment with a small number of speakers among o...
Another difficulty cultures deal with is language and the way people speak. In some cases, people struggle to belong by making changes in the way they speak the English language just to be assimilated. They attempt to use words and letters, as well as body language that fit in the norm; all in an attempt to denounce their original intonation and style of pronunciation. One ...
Australian indigenous culture is the world’s oldest surviving culture, dating back sixty-thousand years. Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders have been represented in a myriad of ways through various channels such as poetry, articles, and images, in both fiction and non-fiction. Over the years, they have been portrayed as inferior, oppressed, isolated, principled and admirable. Three such texts that portray them in these ways are poems Circles and Squares and Grade One Primary by Ali Cobby Eckermann, James Packer slams booing; joins three cheers for footballer and the accompanying visual text and Heywire article Family is the most important thing to an islander by Richard Barba. Even though the texts are different as ….. is/are …., while
All the different stages of theories relate to Maori perspectives. Maori’s human development perspective is ‘coming from the dark into light’. As a child is born he is in the darkness. As babies grow older and through the three stages of human development it comes into light. This is my side of argument of the Maori perspective.
Colbung, K., ‘On being an Aboriginal: a personal statement’, Aborigines of the West: edited by
The history of New Zealand begins between 800 A.D. and 1300 A.D., when the Māori people arrived from Polynesia to the mountainous island they called “Aotearoa.” The people “lived in tribal groups” fairly peacefully (Wilson). However, life began to change for the Māori people when they first came into contact with a European in 1642, when Dutch explorer Abel Tasman “discovered” the island. In 1769, “[James] Cook successfully circumnavigated and mapped the country” (History). These explorations marked the beginning of Europeanization for the young country of New Zealand. Whalers and traders soon arrived, and missionaries arrived in 1814. When the Māori met with Europeans, events followed a similar path to the colonization of America and the decimation of the native populations-- “contribution of guns…, along with European diseases, led to a steep decline in the [population of] Māori people.” (History). Consequentially, “their chieftains entered into a compact with Britain, the Treaty of Waitangi, in which they ceded sovereignty to Queen Victoria while retaining territorial rights,” in...
According to Jackson (1988), the persistent myth that no real law existed in New Zealand prior to 1840, is a racist and colonising myth used to justify the imposition of ongoing application of law from Britain. Pre-European Maori society regulated behaviour and punished wrongdoings through the sanction of muru. Jackson defines muru as, “a legalised system of plundering as penalty for offences, which in a rough way resembled (the Pakeha) law by which a man is obliged to pay damages” (p.40). Due to the law brought and imposed by settlers, it rendered Maori’s values, ways of thinking, and living. This essay aims to discuss the Maori social and cultural values expressed in the sanction muru. Furthermore, how the British opposition to the use of
...dge to those who do not know. This movement is not dissimilar to the flow of culture and customs from one generation to the next and has the potential to be replaced or lost. As Europeans enforced the propriety of Pākehā culture during colonial time, the loss of Māori culture occurred to a detrimental point, this mindset is still prevalent in present day society and New Zealand education. Our origins and the society that educational institutions serve has resulted in schools being inextricably and undeniably locked in the reproduction of Pākehā culture to the point in which the importance of Māori culture has been impaired. Steps are being taken to ensure that this is not a mentality that continues to frequent our state schools, with the long-term aspiration for a New Zealand education system that is not divided in its history, events and predominantly – its culture.
In closing, the Ta tatau short story by Emma Kruse Va’ai can be a great source of history for the Samoan people. As illustrated in the above scope, the author profoundly and comprehensively
The Te Tiriti o Waitangi was a contract that Maori people believe to be an acknowledgement of their existence and their prior occupation to the land, give respect to their language, culture and belief and “it established the regime not for uni-culturalism, but for bi-culturalism” (Sorrenson, 2004 p. 162). This essay discusses the historical events, attitudes and beliefs regarding Te reo Maori, its relationship to the Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the significance of bicultural practice in early childhood education.
The Treaty of Waitangi is a very important document to New Zealand. It is an agreement that was drawn up by representatives of the British Crown and Maori Hapu and Iwi. It was first signed at the Bay of Islands on February 6th, 1840. There has been a lot of debate over the years about the translation of words between the English and Te Reo Maori versions of the text and the differences in the word meaning over the who languages. In this assignment I am going to cover the rights and responsibilities that the treaty contains and an explanation of the differences in wordings and I am also going to contextualise my understanding of the differences of wording against the Maori Worldview and the Declaration of Independence.