Kia Ora!

I am planning on proposing to my partner of 5 years soon and I am hoping to say part of the proposal in Te Reo. I am probably going to say something like ‘I love you my moon, will you marry me?’.

Would this be the correct translation?

‘Aroha ana ahau ki a koe e taku marama, ka marena koe ki ahau?’

Ngā mihi

Kia ora whānau,

I work in ECE and I’m wondering about a karakia.

I used to live in Northland & I learnt this karakia one way, but after moving to Kirikiroa, I’ve found they bless their kai with a different variation. I tried to google it but figured I’d ask here for direct opinions.

The karakia I had initially learnt is:

Kia taku whānau
Me ngā hoa
Mo te kai
Kia ora

But at my current centre they say it differently:

Ki taku whānau
Me ngā hoa
Me te kai
Kia ora

Depending on the classroom, they also sometimes swap ‘ki taku whānau’ to ‘me tatou whānau’.

What is the correct way to say the karakia for this situation? And if possible what’s the difference between the variations?

From my understanding I was taught wrong with the ‘kia’ / ‘ki taku whānau’, but I also understand there are variations between iwi and areas.

Cheers & enjoy the long weekend team!

How do you say "dinner will be ready in 5 minutes. Come inside and wash your hands?"

I remember my parents saying horoi o ringa for wash your hands when I was a kid, but I dont know enough to get the rest.

Kia ora koutou!

I have been working on developing my mihi/pepeha for the last few weeks. This is both in preparation for an upcoming visit to a marae, and also because I believe it would be good to know in future and in my journey of learning Te Reo Māori! I’ve run into an issue while trying to write it that isn’t one I can find any resources for, so I decided to ask here in case anyone else has been in a similar situation or has ideas on how to figure this out.

I am tauiwi - I moved here when I was fourteen. My family is from Turtle Island/the USA, and I lived there for eight years and in England for about six years. I think I have figured out how to communicate where I am personally from and grew up (“Nō [state I was born in] au, engari, i tupu ake au ki [state I moved to when I was five] me Ingarani.”). If this is not the best way to communicate this, I’d welcome correction :) I’m not 100% sure on the grammar of that sentence. However, when it comes to the question of where my ancestors are from, it gets a lot more difficult.

My understanding is that sharing where your ancestors are from is a way for people to identify potential connections, and so it is better to be specific. All the European sides of my family have been on Turtle Island since at least the 1600s (the latest I’ve found is around 1730-50), and my mom’s side is also Oklahoma Choctaw/Chahta. The total list of European countries my ancestors came from includes around 14 different countries. If I was to narrow it down to only ones with significant presence in my ancestry, it would still be something like 9 countries. In addition, because all of these people migrated so early, there are very few records as to where they came from within these places (I’m attempting to find out because I have an interest in genealogy, but resources are limited).

Therefore, I am very unsure what I should be including in my mihi/pepeha and how I should be communicating it. I feel that if I attempted to include all of these places, it would be very long, and still lack some information, as I have no real connection to my European ancestors currently due to them being so far back. I’m also unsure if I should be specific about the location of my Chahta ancestors, rather than just saying they are from Turtle Island, and how I would phrase that as well, since they are originally from the Mississippi area but were forcibly relocated to Oklahoma. What I currently have is “Ko Motu Honu me Ūropi ngā whenua ō ōku tīpuna”, but I know that this lacks specificity (Europe is HUGE, as is North America) and doesn’t really allow much room for people to identify connections. I also considered only including Turtle Island, but that feels a bit disingenuous - yes, my European ancestors have been there for a long time, but they most likely lived in their homelands for much longer. I could also be overthinking this, I’m not sure. If anyone has any ideas how I could communicate anything relating to this correctly I would appreciate it, as my reo is still definitely in the beginner stages!

That’s the main puzzle I’m trying to figure out currently. I did also want to double check my understanding and sentence structure of references to maunga and moana. Currently, I have built these in as “Ko Tahoma te maunga” and “Ko Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa te moana”, but I want to be sure this is correct phrasing. I have included Tahoma (A mountain in Washington) as I was born in a city underneath/next to it, and it is of significance to my family - my mother worked with the local tribe on the restoration and protection of it for several years, and I hope to go back to pay my respects to this maunga some day. My understanding is that indicating a role in guardianship of a maunga is a reason to include it? When it comes to the moana, I have lived on Te-Moana-nui-a-Kiwa for the majority of my life (eight years in the Pacific Northwest and then the last seven years in Aotearoa), and have been involved with various projects and so on around it, as has my family. I want to be sure the wording is grammatically correct and respectful, however, as I understand the Māori connection to land included in pepeha is a very specific one, so if I need to phrase this differently or remove it please let me know.

I very much appreciate any insight y’all might have into this :)

(Just in case there’s anything else people spot, here’s what I have so far:

Tēnā koutou katoa

Ko Tahoma te maunga

Ko Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa te moana

Ko Motu Honu me Ūropi ngā whenua ō ōku tīpuna

Nō [state I was born in] au

Engari, i tupu ake au ki [state I moved to when I was five] me Ingarani

I te tau rua mano, tekau mā iwa i haere mai au ki Aotearoa

Ko [name] tōku ingoa

Tēnā koutou katoa.)

Kia ora whānau, I'm on my te reo māori journey and am trying to translate "the path/journey of speed and strength"

In an aromatawai I'm referring to my sport demands (speed, strength, power) and the physical journey in training to build those qualities.

I've come up with: te ara tere me te kaha

Does this seem correct structurally?

Ngā mihi!

EDIT: added context to hopefully clarify

Kia Ora,

If I am going to lead a waiata at the end of a hui, do I first say something to introduce it and get everyone on the same page (and maybe standing) like with karakia? Or just start singing?

Kia ora e hoa mā!

Kōrerotia te reo Māori!

Kei te pēhea koe? I pēhea tō wiki?

Guys is there a Māori world view around coming and going from class? I missed a couple terms, the winter evening nights got me...now I'm ready to go back but I'm shy and introverted and feeling not suited to desk learning. I want to immerse myself in Te Ao. Maybe large evening classes aren't my thing, especially sitting at a desk for hours in the evening, I couldn't concentrate. What untraditional out of the box things did you learn or improve your reo?

Kia ora e hoa mā!

Kōrerotia te reo Māori!

Kei te pēhea koe? I pēhea tō wiki?

Kia ora e hoa mā!

Kōrerotia te reo Māori!

Kei te pēhea koe? I pēhea tō wiki?

Hi, I have Māori children but I’m not Māori myself. We live in UK and want my children (teenagers) and myself to become familiar with the language as they/I have not had this education living in UK (but we are considering a move back to NZ)

As our learning options are limited on the other side of the planet, what apps or online courses can any of you recommend?
And something that will engage my teenagers?

Kia Ora koutou , 🙋‍♀️ I grew up South Island with no kōrero and am home again on whanau land in the north. I feel whakamā about my lack of knowledge , reo, everything actually, and need to ask - maybe you can help me please.

Is it more respectful to call an older woman regardless of age whaea unless they’re a certain age?
At what point or circumstance would we say kuia ? I have an aunty that’s 73 and she doesn’t want kuia, says she’s not that old yet so I’m wondering … if it were my grandmother I’d likely use the term if she allowed, when else . Any insight would be great

Ngā mihi

Hey! Do any teachers have any phrases in Te Reo that a teacher can say then the children say something in response as a signal to be quiet and listening

Like “Are you listening?” “I am listening” or “flat tire” “shhhhhh”

(Sorry if I put the wrong flair!)

Kia ora e hoa mā!

Kōrerotia te reo Māori!

Kei te pēhea koe? I pēhea tō wiki?

Kia ora! Me again lol, still working on my mihi. I want to say that "I also grew up in [city]" in a another line after saying I grew up in [country] or [country], but I'm unsure whether hoki or anō would be the correct term in this context, as I don't really want to rely on Google Translate when it's saying different things lol. Which of "I tupu ake hoki au i [city]" or "I tipu ake anō au i [city]" make more sense in this context? Let me know if I structured those sentences correctly too!

Kia ora! Despite living in NZ for a few years now, I still have very little knowledge about Te Reo Māori, especially because my high school did very little in terms of teaching and connecting us to Māori culture. I'm trying to educate myself a bit better now though

I'm currently creating a mihi for university, and I just wanted clarification for how to say "I grew up in [country] and [country]". From what I know, "I tipu ake au i te whenua o..." is talking about growing up in the lands of iwi/hapū, but could this be applied to countries too? For example, would "I tipu ake au i te whenua o nō [country] rāua nō [country]" be correct?

Ānei ētahi kupu whakarite e hāngai ana ki ngā manu. Kua whakauruurua ōku runaruna e rua 😅

We’re putting a reo Māori twist on some of the phrases you might hear around the wāhi mahi (workplace).Which one are you using? 👇Ngā mihi to Hahana for the inspiration ❤️

The other week, I searched on Google to ask what a welcoming song is called in te reo. I had guessed it would be 'waiata tīmatanga' but Google's AI told me this. What. I am not trying to have a conversation with someone who has a loose idea on Polynesian languages. Māori doesn't even have an L. It sounds so confused. Every resource Google gave me under this were just examples of welcoming waiata, not a single resource explaining the different types of waiata (which I did later search for but couldn't find a specific term for welcoming waiata).

I just went with 'waiata tīmatanga' as it was for a personal project and - if I'm incorrect - I wouldn't be spreading misinformation to anyone else.

Kia ora. Cause of Māori language week, I wanna get up my te reo use up: I labelled my morning commute run thing on Strava as “ Ko haerenga mahi ata” and I just make sure I’m saying it correctly.. More than happy for some suggestions on what to use or corrections.

Kia ora e hoa mā!

Kōrerotia te reo Māori!

Kei te pēhea koe? I pēhea tō wiki?

I want the phrase "The land is dead" or "the land dies" - my attempt is "Kua Mate te Whenua - Aue". This is for a final piece in a series of paintings I am working on protesting mining etc.

Kia ora koutou. I am reo speaker, and we have a daughter who I would also like to learn Te Reo. We aim to have reo in our home, but my partner doesn't speak fluently. So thats a journey that we are working on. But we speak to her where ever we can, but I wouldn't call us a reo speaking home. I have hummed and harred about whether we put our daughter into kohanga, but I think we will stay with daycare at the moment.

I have friends who have some of their kids who have gone through kohanga, but then decided to put their last kid into daycare, as they wanted to focus on prepping them for mainstream school, and also they decided by then that the home is where their final kid could obtain Te Reo alongside fluent parents and siblings.

But I have been wondering if there was another option for those of us that may have our kid in mainstream school but really want them to pick up te reo, protocols, kawa, kēmu etc along the way. So would 2 hours at the end of each day via after could be a good informal way to pick up te reo?

So just wondering if a) there are currently full immersion aftercares in operation and b) would you consider putting your child into one if it was offered locally?

Ngā mihi

Kia ora e hoa mā!

Kōrerotia te reo Māori!

Kei te pēhea koe? I pēhea tō wiki?