Because I live in NZ, am a naturalised NZ citizen and Māori are the first people of the land & the reo is beautiful and foundational. NZ aspires to honour the Treaty, hopefully promoting biculturalism as basic to NZ culture is part of that, and bilingualism is necessary for truly understanding another culture, or becoming part of both/integrating both. I've learned that through living in different countries with different languages, that you can only really 'get' or understand things in another culture if you speak that language, at least to a degree. Part of Heidigger's notion of the inarticuable 'background' of ways of being - need to absorb them & being in the language really facilitates that tacit type of knowing or understanding. Plus, it's just the right thing to do.
Comments