Originally Posted by
mistaTea
Yes they are also fighting a losing battle on the language front.
A good mate of mine who lives in Ireland couldn’t hold a conversation in Gaelic to save his life. Knows a number of words and sayings etc, but not fluent.
Same for most Irish. The language has no utility in everyday life for most since English has taken over.
Same for te reo. And Ireland is a great example…in that case the majority of the population or ‘native Irish’ and even then, the government cannot get the majority to become fluent in their native language.
In NZ, Maori are a minority (a significant minority, but still a minority). The current policies to try to get the non-Maori majority to speak te reo is futile.
And don’t even get me started on the unfair criticisms of people who prefer to use the Anglo pronunciation of Maori origin words.