April 12, 2017
Smart phone helps language acquisition
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Using a smart phone can now be another path to learning te reo Maori, thanks to a new phone that came on the New Zealand market today.
Huawei worked with language experts from AUT University on a $2 million project to create a Maori operating system for its P10 phone, including a 30,000 word vocabulary for predictive texting.
Broadcaster and language advocate Scotty Morrison says that means you no longer need to fight your phone to send a text in Maori.
Because most users are now familiar with the basic functions of a smartphone, if they set it to the Maori option they should still be able to navigate the phone, even if they are not language experts.
"The icons tell you what the words mean. It's easy to use, you don't have to be a fluent speaker to use the Maori language but I think if you did start using it and you weren't a fluent speaker, it is going to help your language development," Mr Morrison says.
Huawei intends to invest up to $400m in New Zealand over the next five years, including working with local partners to build a New Zealand cloud data centre, opening innovation labs in Christchurch and Wellington this year, and extending its Future University student programme to 100 ICT students.
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