Our approach

Reo Chat creates more opportunities for you to use te reo Māori in everyday communication. These principles guide how we build it.

01

Your reo is yours

When you write in te reo Māori, Reo Chat respects the words you choose and the way you choose to express yourself. Its role is simply to help your message travel across a language gap, while keeping your voice at the centre.

More about voice, variation and control

Te reo Māori contains different vocabulary, regional and iwi forms, registers and ways of expressing an idea. Regardless of how you choose to express yourself, your original Māori remains the source message. Translation and assistance remain separate from your own words.

What this means in Reo Chat
  • Your original Māori or English remains unchanged.
  • Translations and suggestions do not overwrite your message.
  • Māori is corrected only when you explicitly ask for correction.
  • It remains clear what you wrote and where Reo Chat bridged the gap for others.
02

It is about people talking to people

Sometimes the only thing preventing two people from communicating in Māori is that one of them does not yet understand enough of it. Reo Chat helps bridge that gap. The important thing remains the kōrero between the people themselves.

What this means in Reo Chat
  • Messages begin with something a real person wants to communicate.
  • People with different levels of reo can remain in the same conversation.
  • Each person can use the language they are comfortable using.
  • Original messages remain available rather than disappearing behind translation.
03

Context matters

Good communication is not simply replacing words in one language with words in another. The same idea may naturally be expressed differently when speaking to your best mate, your grandparent, a colleague, a kaumātua or someone you have never met.

What this means in Reo Chat
  • Reo Chat considers all conversational context you provide it.
  • It seeks additional context from you where needed in order to convey your message as faithfully as possible.
The purpose Why Reo Chat? Read why we created it The wider kaupapa Reo Chat and revitalisation How do we see our efforts fitting into the wider kaupapa

Make more room for te reo Māori in everyday communication.

Use what you have. Keep your own voice. Make Māori the reo through which you connect with more people in your life.

Create a bilingual message