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Download AudioAbout 100 people have sat this year’s exam for the Toi Reo Māori translators and interpreters certificate.
Ngahiwi Apanui, the chief executive of the Maori Language Commission Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, says there’s a shortage of translators.
The pass rate for the exam is usually about 70 to 80 per cent, but only a few people go on to become translators.
He says many people are dismayed by the difficulty of the test, mistaking it for a test of reo competency rather than translating skills.
A lot of the responsibility for that lies with us because of the way we have structured things that, so we will be dealing with that over the next year or so, and this is probably the last time we run the assessment for Toi Reo Māori in its current form,” Mr Apanui says.
He’s like to see reo translators branch out into other languages like Mandarin.
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