It took living on the other side of the world to trigger his desire to learn the language originating from his home country.<\/p>\n
He recalls: \u201cI was sitting on a beach with a couple of South African mates. We were talking in English but when they were talking to each other, they would switch to Afrikaans, and I remember thinking how people from different countries living overseas bring their language with them and how cool it was that those two dudes spoke to each other in Afrikaans. I thought, \u2018Why can\u2019t I do that?\u2019 because I felt like we should be able to.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was already bilingual with French, which he\u2019d taken throughout high school before embarking on a Bachelor of Arts studies at Waikato University.<\/p>\n
This included an introduction to linguistics, where he revisited his French, leading him to journey to France during the third year to enhance his studies.<\/p>\n
However, what was intended to be a brief stint became eight years after the birth of his son San, and Braden continued to live in France with two years in London.<\/p>\n
His father\u2019s terminal illness brought him home, where he finally completed the last two university papers, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree with a double major in linguistics and French.<\/p>\n
However, the beach-based epiphany was the catalyst for his te reo journey, and a further two-year Master of Arts degree ensued with a focus on language revitalisation, while also attending Te W\u0101nanga o Aotearoa for four years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe trouble was, I spent so much time studying, I thought, \u2018Why am I doing it if I can\u2019t pass the knowledge on?\u201d recalls Braden, 43.<\/p>\n
Nia and Carson are in full-immersion M\u0101ori classes.<\/p>\n
He completed an additional year, obtaining a Graduate Diploma in Teaching, and soon got a job as a French teacher at a large Waikato school.<\/p>\n
Learning his native country\u2019s language differed hugely from learning French.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was s*** at learning French at high school and I\u2019m a French teacher.<\/p>\n
I tell my students that. I was terrible and, even when I went to university, I was terrible … I had all the bones of the language, I just hadn\u2019t managed to put them into place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen when I got to France, within about two months, I got to a level of fluency very quickly because you have all those things up there in your brain, you just haven\u2019t really put them all together.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen when I came back and was learning M\u0101ori, it was very different. It\u2019s got a very different grammatical structure. You say the verb first, followed by the subject, then the object \u2013 it\u2019s called a VSO structure, whereas English and French are SVO.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example: \u2018I go to the shop\u2019 is \u2018Kei te haere au ki te toa\u2019. \u2018Kei te\u2019 (is the tense marker so tells you I\u2019m talking about now) \u2018haere\u2019 (go) \u2018au\u2019 (I) \u2018ki te toa\u2019 (to the shop). In French, it\u2019s \u2018Je vais au magasin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Braden at Puriri Bay, Northland, where they spend every Christmas camping.<\/p>\n
However, apart from korero with several other teachers on staff and with his kids, Braden says, in reality, there are limited opportunities he can speak his te reo day-to-day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the fight people have where they are trying to maintain a staunch use of te reo. The biggest challenge for them is they\u2019re trying to do that but everything around them is in English. So, it\u2019s hard because you\u2019re being beaten down by the English world around you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which is why he is playing a part in the revitalisation, not only himself, but through the next generation by raising his children to be bilingual. <\/p>\n
While San, now 20, still lives in France, with English his second language, Braden and his Australian partner Lisa\u2019s subsequent children, Carson, 10, and Nia, 6, have been immersed in te reo from birth, both attending the bilingual daycare at the M\u0101ori tertiary institution Braden attended.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was going back to my experience and how it was a shame that I didn\u2019t have that language. Why wouldn\u2019t I do that for them when the opportunity was there?\u201d<\/p>\n
From there, they were enrolled in a mainstream school but in the rumaki (full immersion) section where they are among few P\u0101keh\u0101 and te reo is the only language used in the classroom.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get a lot of comments asking how they are going to learn English, but English is their first language,\u201d Braden explains. \u201cCarson reads chapter books in English every day at home and has an advanced reading age in English.\u201d<\/p>\n
He adds that research has shown kids in M\u0101ori immersion education reach a certain level of brain development maturity in their mid-teens, enabling them to naturally transfer from one language to another. \u201cI notice now, if I ask them a math equation in English, they will be working it out in M\u0101ori.\u201d<\/p>\n
While outside their school environment English dominates, Braden intentionally integrates te reo where possible, supported by Lisa, whom he met flatting in London. Although Lisa grew up in Melbourne, she was raised speaking Hungarian, so coming from a bilingual background she also saw the importance.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe doesn\u2019t speak it but would probably have a higher understanding of M\u0101ori than most non-M\u0101ori in New Zealand just through exposure,\u201d Braden says.<\/p>\n
When Carson was younger and Braden\u2019s studies were around language normalisation, whereby it becomes more evident in society, he played an active role.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a really good structure in place where our routine was, if we left the house, I would only speak to him in M\u0101ori. I felt that exposing more people to the language in everyday situations was a proactive way of helping the cause.\u201d<\/p>\n
The kids are well-travelled and culturally adept.<\/p>\n
Nowadays, it\u2019s a more relaxed mix of whichever language comes naturally.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll be speaking to the kids in te reo in the supermarket and people will be doing double-takes because obviously we\u2019re a very P\u0101keh\u0101 family. You notice people pause to make sure they heard right,\u201d tells Braden, adding that they then often approach with positive feedback.<\/p>\n