Learning te reo Māori continues to be a fun and enjoyable hobby, and although my progress has slowed over the past few months, I’m still very happy with it. It’s is a bit of a longer blog post this time, mostly because it spans four months rather than one or two. I hope I covered everything useful to document what I’ve been up to, so it can be helpful for others who are learning te reo, or any language for that matter.

Vocab Study

I use the flashcard app Anki to study vocabulary. Each day, my review session takes between 7 - 13 minutes to complete.

Previously I aimed to add 10 new kupu to my Anki flashcard rotation per day. On average, for me nine would stick and one would not, becoming a “leech” and being suspended from study - a normal part of the process as some words are too similar, have unclear definitions or are just hard to recall.

However, over the last three months I have added 520 cards, an average of only six cards per day. This means that instead of reaching my goal of 3000 kupu known after 2025, I only have about 2800 (with 393 suspended). For the new year, I will try to reach an average of eight cards per day, a middleground between my failed goal and current rate. My Q1/end-of-March goal will be 3350 words.

These new words have come from manually mining from books, which is an unfortunate time sink. To reduce the time required, I’ve been making word-only cards when it makes sense to. The other half has been from various word lists, lute and audio cards taken from shows I’ve been watching.

The main thing is to ensure that I always have a few days worth of new cards already created so when life gets busy, that doesn’t end up limiting the new words I try to learn.

Grammar Study

I completed the Everyday Māori podcast in October. It’s been a very useful resource and most of my knowledge of grammar comes from it. I highly recommend you take notes, primarily by saving example sentences containing grammar they cover, for future reference.

I also recently revised through the latter half of the first Māori Made Easy book, which I admit I should’ve done sooner. It goes into great depth on sentence structure, word order and particles, which I do get muddled up sometimes. However, I’m not convinced if I should buy the next book in the series, so for now I will just use the free online grammar guides or ask in the te reo Māori Discord when I find something I need clarifying. I’ll reconsider buying another grammar book at the end of March.

Speaking Practise

I’ve started doing speaking practise by reading my Anki cards aloud as I test them, which also keeps me more focused in reviews.

I’ve also been using the (free!) app Rongo. There are about thirty taumata, targeting all the sounds in te reo Māori with common phrases. It makes you repeat each phrase until your pronunciation is correct or good enough, and you get an overall rating out of five for how well you did that level. So far, I’ve completed up to Taumata 18 at 4/5 or 5/5.

Reading (books)

I am an avid reader, so naturally my favourite activity in language learning is reading.

My reading speed in te reo Māori is 3-4 minutes per page, depending on how many new words there are. Most pages include 3-10 new kupu, about half of which I will save to Anki and try learn.

I still read using Lute, but not in any way that could be called frequent. I prefer paper novels.

I do want to make it clear that this is not easy, but it is completely doable with the solid base of grammar and common kupu that I’ve learned. Many sentences require conscious effort to focus on and clarify the meaning, while in contrast I now “get” the meaning of many simpler sentences. Throughout the entire reading session, my brain gets tons of practise recognising kupu, sentences, and patterns, which is why it’s an effective language learning activity - that is also incredibly fun!

Matapēhi (Macbeth)

• Read from 1st October until 7th November.
• Descriptions and Shakespearean metaphors were the hardest parts.
• The English translation across the page was a useful reference.
• Overall, I followed the plot and enjoyed reading it.

Hare Pota me te Whatu Manapou

• Read the first half throughout November and early December.
• I found the story quite boring so I read it inconsistently.
• Again, descriptive paragraphs use more complex reo than dialogue.
• Overall, I enjoyed the te reo much more than the actual story, so paused reading it.

Te Kaieke Tohorā (The Whale Rider)

• Started reading it last week.
• I was almost scared off by the prologue, which used a lot of poetic descriptive kupu.
• Luckily the actual story is at a good level.
• I’m excited to keep reading it: at least 10 minutes each night before my English reading.

Listening Immersion

I don’t watch TV shows very often (in any language), but when I do, I enjoy Te Kauwaka: Te Mōrehu Kaitā-Hau and Te Karere. The new(ish) bilingual dramas are also quite good.

Te Kauwaka is good, funny, and does require focus to understand. I sometimes need to repeat sections of conversations, usually when they talk fast and I don’t catch what they say. I’m only just about to finish the first season (of 2) because I watch only 2 or 3 episodes each week.

I watched Te Karere frequently for a few weeks, but I mostly stopped watching it because I don’t really enjoy news shows or the amount of political content. It was comprehensible, and my ability to understand the interviews depended on the speaking ability of those being interviewed. Some (native or fluent) speakers were a challenge, while many others were at my level.

I’ve spent 13 hours watching in te reo in the last 3 months, which averages out to an hour a week. It is unlikely that the weekly average going forward will increase by much, as I’m more likely to spend extra time on reading, grammar or speaking practise.

Going Forward

To conclude, here are my goals for Q1 2026:

• Vocab: Reach 3350 kupu flashcards in Anki, excluding leeches.
• Reading: Finish Te Kaieke Tohorā and either the rest of Hare Pota or another pukapuka.
• Listening: Finish Te Kauwaka season 2 (~7hrs) and at least a total of 12 hours of listening immersion time.
• Speaking: Complete every taumata on the Rongo app at a score of 4/5 or 5/5. Complete the first fifteen at 5/5.
• Grammar: Note any sentences I come across that use grammar I don’t understand, and look them up or ask for help about them. I won’t be buying any new study material (yet).
• Time: Reach 350 total hours spent learning te reo Māori.

I will write the next blog post sometime around the end of March to see if I reached these goals or how much I surpassed them by. Provided I remain consistent and life doesn’t throw anything extra at me, they will be achievable.