Posts by stephen walker
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1. up to the end of the second world war, the vast majority of immigrants to nz were from britain and ireland. there were very tiny minorities from places such as central europe, nordic countries, the balkans and southern china.
2. the majority of maori lived in rural maori settlements.
3. nz was not diverse.
4. after the war, we got a whole lot more british immigrants and a few others (dutch, greek, pacific island, fijian indian, etc.).
5. before the mid-70s, only a tiny minority of people travelled extensively beyond australia. and even then, most still only went to london. most people until the 60s left school at 15 (or earlier) and went straight into employment or an apprenticeship. then they got married at 20 or so and had children. travelling? maybe for the well-off minority.
6. extensive travel by a large proportion of young nz-ers to places other than sydney and london only got going in the mid-to-late 80s. two decades ago. not long.
7. now, with a much more diverse base of immigrants than ever before, and greater interest in going to places apart from Aus/UK than before, young nz-ers are spread much more far and wide.
8. the attitude of a lot of nz-ers to the rest of the world is still very insular. "provincial and parochial" is one way of describing it. "extreme insecurity about one's own (dominant) culture" might be another way. -
my mother was born in 1927...maybe your mother was too. mum wasn't much of a scrabble player, but she was into genealogy in a big way. got into computers and the internet in her 70s. she's been gone a year now. we miss her a lot.
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cigars, cheese, and Class A drugs
the combination for real grownups.
and Emma, just tell Adric to stay cool and act like nothing's happening at all.
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@Steve Reeves:
if you put in the effort to learn te reo, i'm sure you would be find it interesting and useful--exploring a completely new culture.
learning another language and culture require humility. something that seems to be in short supply in some parts of aotearoa...
kia kaha -
ooh, i just finished translating the annual report of a japanese company that makes real-time polymerase chain reaction systems...as you were.
(so, has our dirty dairy industry led nz into a biotech nirvana yet? because the japanese company to which i refer started out pretty low-tech. sake brewing and spirits distilling)
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valued by the community, which isn't willing to pay a commensurate wage. hypocracy, definitely.
so what changed from the 80s onward?
(my guess is that accounting and law degrees became much more popular than plain old arts and science) -
no, teachers were valued, a while back.
my great grandfather was a teacher in native schools around the North Island from the 1880s to the early 20th century.
his efforts were valued, from what i have heard.i'm not sure that teachers are not valued now by the community. at least good teachers, anyway. i think the media and politicians tend to use them as an easy target and stereotyping is rampant in how they are portrayed in the media.
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better than that
LOL!
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gio, the use of the "RP" swear words is beyond the pale. let's keep things seemly, eh?
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ok, and Danielle! kudos!