昼飯を食べに大学のカフェに行ったら、先日洪水で大変だったファカターニ出身のホアニを見かけたので、昼飯を食いながらホアニと話をした。ホアニはマオリ語のクラスメートで、前にも書いたように、マオリ語講座には80％以上くらいがマオリという構成で、彼もそのうちの一人ということになる*1。
マオリの文化では先祖を大切にする。山や湖や川を大切に考え、自分の属するマラエがあり、そして、自分が存在するという哲学だ。
当然のことだが、彼らは文化的にマオリで、言語的にも、もちろん私なんかよりもマオリ語の語彙や文法力があることは当然だが、文法についてはよく質問をしているところからすると、イギリス語で育てられ、マオリ語については、意識して学び直すということなのだろう。
実際、ホアニは、別のマオリ語の授業も取っているし、金曜日には他のところでマオリ語を習っている。さらに、日本なら小学生の早期英語授業*2で使いそうなマオリの単語絵本なんかを、いつも持って歩いている。
ところで、ホアニと、たまたまシーフードの話になった時に、マオリは結構ウニ*3を食べるという話になった。ウニは店で買えば高いが、海にたくさんいるようで、自分で潜って取ればタダである。
ホアニの好きな食べ方は、パンにマーガリンを塗って、その上にウニをのせて食べるのだそうだ。さしずめ、日本なら、あったかいご飯の上にウニを乗せて食べるようなものだろう。私は試したことはないが、パンに乗せても、おそらくうまいだろう。海産物を結構生で食べるようだから*4、マオリの食生活は日本人の食生活とも共通点がありそうだ。
ハミルトンで海産物を買うなら、テラパ(Te Rapa)近くのシーフードのテイクアウェイがお薦めだとホアニが教えてくれた。いつか是非とも、行ってみることにしよう。
Clumsy English Writing of Mine
“Maori Seem to Consume a Lot Of Seafood”
When I went to the university café to have lunch, I saw Hoani from Whakatāne, which was recently severely affected by flooding, so I had a chat with him during lunch. Hoani is a Māori classmate of mine, and as I mentioned before, over 80% of the students in the Māori language class are Māori, and he is one of them*1.
In Māori culture, they deeply value their ancestors. Their philosophy is that they consider mountains, lakes, and rivers important, that there is a marae to which they belong, and that Māori themselves exist.
Not surprisingly, they are culturally Māori, and linguistically, naturally, they have better skills in Māori vocabulary and grammar than I possess, but judging from the way they often ask questions about grammar in the beginner's class, I guess they were raised speaking English and are consciously relearning about the Māori language.
In fact, Hoani is also taking another Māori class and learning Māori elsewhere on Fridays as well. In addition, he always carries with him a picture book of Māori words, something akin to what might be used in an early English class*2 for elementary school students in Japan.
By the way, when Hoani and I happened to be talking about seafood, we discussed how Māori eat a lot of sea urchins*3. Sea urchins can be expensive if purchased from the store, but they appear to be abundant in the ocean, and if you dive down to get them yourself, they are free.
Hoani's favorite way to eat sea urchins is by spreading margarine on bread and put the sea urchin on it. In Japan, this would be like eating sea urchin on a bowl of freshly steamed rice. I have yet to try it, but it would probably be good on bread, too. Since they seem to eat a lot of raw seafood*4, it seems that the Māori diet has something in common with the Japanese diet.
Hoani told me that the best place to purchase seafood in Hamilton is a seafood take-away near Te Rapa. I intend to visit there someday.*5
1: The Māori language instructor told me that there were about six international students in total, including my class as well as another class.
2: I am against providing early English education without any choice for elementary school students in Japan because it would be an exiled educational policy. Elementary school students should learn Japanese properly. In my opinion, under the current political and cultural situation in Japan, providing half-heartedly compulsory teaching English to elementary school students would be a recipe for mental deterioration, slavery and is not a good thing at all.
3: The Japanese word “uni” is "sea urchin" or "sea chestnut" in English. Sea urchin is called kina in Māori. Kina is easier to pronounce for us and sounds more familiar to Japanese. Caucasians also use the word kina.
4: As described below, mussels are also eaten raw, and they are excellent.
5: I have done post-editing by myself, but these sentences have been created using machine translation apps.
*1:マオリ語の講師に聞いたところ、インターナショナルスチューデントは、私のクラスだけでなく、別のクラスもいれて、全体で6名くらいだと言っていた。
*2:選択権を与えないところでの日本の小学生の早期英語教育は亡国の教育政策であり、私は反対である。小学生は日本語をきちんとやるべきだ。中途半端に強制的に英語なんかをやらせることは英語も身につかず、日本語もきちんと身につかず、精神の荒廃、とくに日本の政治状況のもとでは奴隷根性をもたらすだけで、百害あって一理なしだと思う。
*3:日本語でいう海栗（ウニ）は、英語なら、sea urchin、または、まさに栗にちなんでsea chestnutという。マオリ語では、ウニはキナ(kina)と呼ばれる。日本人にはキナの方が言いやすいし、馴染みやすい。白人もキナというコトバを使っている。
*4:後述するように、マッスルも生で食べるが、これは絶品である。
