Letters: To learn a language you must use it every day

Rotorua street signs are bilingual. Photo / File

A N Christie takes "strong exception to having to wait through an unintelligible diatribe" (Letters, January 4).

They were writing about the time it took for a te reo Māori holiday message from the public library to finish before an English version was played.

Christie might find this experience easier to bear if they understood the rationale behind giving a threatened language priority or equal treatment.

In New Zealand we live in a sea of English signage and messaging. Use of te reo Māori is a welcome break for speakers and learners.

A young te reo learner calling the library for their holiday message can hear it in Māori, understand it, and finish the call. This is the learner experience people have when immersed in another language overseas.

We all know of people who have gone to other countries and achieved a good degree of fluency. This is how they do it – by everyday experience.

In this way too te reo Māori is supported as a language for all New Zealanders: part of our heritage and part of our future.

Christie may find they are less annoyed next holidays if they consider the message's contribution to the revitalisation of te reo Māori.

Congratulations to Te Aka Mauri Library on its use of te reo. Nāu te raurau, nāku te raurau, ka ora ai te reo Māori (all our contributions are important to Māori language revitalisation).

Tuehu Harris
Acting chief executive
Māori language Commission

Support for hospital

I am appalled at the sentiments against our hospital expressed in Monday's paper (Facebook comments, January 7).

This hospital, and its parking, is free, 24/7. I seriously doubt it is inferior to those free overseas, especially India.

I am an octogenarian and have lived most of my life in Rotorua, so am well experienced in this subject.

I have been rushed to ED, and always been given a warm blanket and pain relief immediately.

Naturally, I then have to wait my turn for a doctor's attention - this is called triage.

Blood or heart pain take precedence, and a multi-car collision takes all hands. Any reasonable person would understand this.

I have never ever felt undervalued. Perhaps it is because I smile and say "thank you".

How many people do you see towing their oxygen tanks and sneaking out the back for a smoke?

How many times do you see people bringing in armloads of pizza and KFC to an obese patient with kidney problems?

As a visitor I have watched nurses gently and patiently deal with grumpy, nasty patients who refuse to co-operate with treatment.

The more you do for some people the more they demand, and because the hospital care is free people do not seem to really appreciate it. Try going to a private hospital and see how you get on.

Marie Booth
Rotorua

Projects done better

At the 2017 elections the Labour Party's slogan "Let's do this" formed a helpful catch cry for the many things it intended to do in government.

In Saturday's article "Rotorua's first mayoral candidates revealed" (Local News, January 5) a spokesperson for the minority interest group, Rotorua District Residents and Ratepayers, said one of the main issues at this year's council election would be "the number of projects on the table at once".

Presumably this means RDRR thinks Rotorua is doing too much, so essentially one of the pillars of RDRR's 2019 campaign to install a power bloc in Rotorua Lakes Council would be "Let's do less".

Campaigning on doing less is an idea which if rolled out would only serve to slow down progress in Rotorua, which is exactly what we don't need.

In my opinion, we don't need fewer projects, but projects done better.

For example, cycleways - great! Giving people safe and healthier transport alternatives which reduces congestion, but the rollout of the inner city cycleway was rushed and done badly, which also gave them a bad reputation.

Speeding up new subdivisions - great! We need more affordable housing, but using a dubious law introduced by the last government which allows councils to ignore community views, and not including a set figure for affordable homes, not so great.

I could go on.

Rotorua is on the up, we should be improving the city by doing good ideas well and bringing the community forward together for the better, not doing less for the worse.

Ryan Gray
Rotorua

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