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Te Reo coffee cards - Source: ONE News -
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A team at Massey University in Wellington has come up with an idea to encourage coffee lovers to celebrate Maori Language Week.
The team created cards to hand out during the week to teach customers how to ask for coffee in Te Reo.
Lana Simmons-Donaldson from Massey University said the idea to celebrate Maori Language Week through Wellington's coffee culture has worked.
"We've got a really strong coffee culture here, so we thought we'd give it a go and see if it went off. And it seems to have done that," she said.
But Simmons-Donaldson admitted the concept involved some creative thinking.
"My favourite is cappuccino (kaputino), which was already in the dictionary. But a lot of them weren't. So we had to coin them for the first time," she said.
Bilingual advertising
Meanwhile, for the first time supermarkets across the country are taking a bilingual approach to advertising and marketing.
More than 150 supermarkets in New Zealand are taking part.
There are Maori translations for grocery items in-store and Maori words and phrases are being used in catalogues.
University hangi
Otago University is also offering a taste of Te Reo, celebrating Maori Language Week by adding hangi to the menu and holding a Maori fashion show on campus.
Maori Centre manager Earl Matahiki said food is being celebrated as their language to mark the week.
"The theme this year is te mahi kai, the language is food, and I guess if we have to say what is the international language of the world, it's actually food," he said.
