Tēnā koutou,

A memory I hold involving my journey with te reo Māori is when I was year 8. We got newsletters from the school asking if Māori students would like to leave the mainstream section of the school and move into full immersion te reo Māori learning. I was so eager for this, I took it home and showed my mum asking her to sign it. I was confused when she refused. I pleaded with her and asked her why. She said that she wouldn't be able to help me with my homework. "You don't even help me with my English homework!" was my heated response but when mum said no she was hard to convince otherwise so I let it go. I am still trying to learn my language. I am coming to the end of a level 1/2 course with Te Wananga o Aotearoa and I am well aware that I have such a long way to go. My dream is to take a year off to do full time/ full immersion learning but that will have to wait until I can afford it. Until then I will make do with night classes and community groups like kapahaka and korowai classes.