Editorial: Bilingual city a step toward harmony

Annemarie Quill.

Shopping, my favourite hobby was somewhat marred when I moved here.

No longer could I slink anonymously in and out of high street stores London style. Here as soon as you walk into a store the shop assistant assaults you with the ubiquitous "How is your day going?"

Why did they want to know? Now I realise it is just a saying, trotted out probably because they are told to. Meaningless too. No one really wants to know that you're having a bad morning - the dog has the s**ts and mortgage rates have just gone up so you're cheering yourself up with a new handbag.

I would rather retailers just ignore me unless I want something but that is probably a bit London rude. A simple hello would suffice.

Or better, seeing as we are in New Zealand, a kia ora. Local radio host Pat Spellman is championing the use of the greeting kia ora to be used by CBD businesses, as part of his campaign to make Tauranga the first bilingual city in New Zealand.

Part of the campaign, the kia ora pledge, is to encourage retailers to use this to make Tauranga known as a Te Reo friendly city. Other plans include making signs in public places in English and Te Reo.

I love the idea for several reasons. Firstly for tourism and the benefits to the local economy.

One only has to look at how Rotorua and Queenstown capitalise from what makes them unique. Despite the Bay's undisputable assets, it still has a challenge to make a name for itself with tourists. This is gradually changing.

The current cruise ship season has so far brought in $45 million to the local economy and Tourism Bay of Plenty boss Rhys Arrowsmith says it is its busiest so far. In February we reported that while 55 per cent of these visitors stay in the Bay, almost half of them hop on a bus to Rotorua or Hobbiton. If we could keep them all here we could be looking at a boost of $100 million to the local economy.

Secondly, it would be a way of really branding our city - as Ngai Te Rangi chairman Charlie Tawhiao says - it would set it apart from other cities in New Zealand and could attract global attention.

Thirdly, Spellman says his plan would not cost ratepayers and would be funded by iwi.

And last, as well as the potential economic gains, there is cultural value beyond money. The power of bilingual names as a reflection of identity reinforces our unique heritage. What I like most about the plan is that it is not mere tokenism - it makes Te Reo alive in the community in a functional way. In Canadian cities like Montreal you will see Stop /Arret signs. English Canadians grow up knowing functional French without much effort.

As a child I learned the words "Patient rights and responsibilities" and the "NHS promise" in Urdu, reading leaflets in multiple languages in doctors' waiting rooms.

As our communities grow more diverse, how cool would it be for Tauranga people to be able to have a working knowledge of Te Reo - not just odd words but the planned signs actually include a sentence on how to use the word.

With so many positives, it is hard to understand why the opposition to Spellman's plan has been vociferous, with some even abusing him on the street.

Mary Brooks, while not advocating abuse called for debate, and in a letter to the Bay of Plenty Times said she finds the kia ora greeting an "irritation".

On the Bay of Plenty Times Facebook page a lively debate ensued, with those against the signs like Zayne Van-Day saying people were "sick and tired of all the Maori culture push", eliciting the response from Infinitescape Waiariki "can we not have this colonial imperial system forced upon us then please?"

The idea of bilingualism somehow being a threat is even more absurd considering New Zealand is a diverse place and getting more so all the time.

There are more ethnicities in New Zealand than there are countries in the world according to the 2013 Census. Census data records that residents of New Zealand speak almost 200 different languages. While the majority, 3.8 million spoke English, 148,000 spoke te Reo Maori and almost the same a form of Chinese.

There is now more diversity in Auckland now than in London, with 40 per cent of Auckland made up of different ethnicities and one in four identifying as Asian.

For me this is a good thing as one thing I worried about moving from London is that my children would not experience the multiculturalism I did growing up in cities. An Oxford University-led international study found people who live in multicultural communities develop tolerance. The study found if two white people with identical views went to live in different postcodes for a year, the person in the neighbourhood with more mixing between ethnic groups would likely leave more tolerant.

The size of this passive tolerance effect on people's prejudice was reported to be the same as the effect of passive smoking.

The study concluded: "Prejudice is a function not only of who you interact with, but where you live."

The author of the study, Professor Miles Hewstone, was reported to say that governments should do more to encourage social interventions that increase contact between groups, saying in the long run, this should lead to more harmonious neighbourhoods.

The researchers came to this conclusion after a nine-year project involving seven studies in England, Europe, the US and South Africa.

Seems like Pat Spellman is on to something. A bilingual city as a step to greater harmony is hard to disagree with in any language. And harmony can only happen when everyone has a voice.