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Dr Gillian Skryme Gives Lectures to the Undergraduate Course Students
25/10/2019 — Dr Gillian Skryme from Massey University offered her two lectures to the New Zealand History and Culture students at Peking University. In her Linguistic Landscape lecture she explained how language pertains to New Zealand’s history and current make-up. In her other lecture she spoke on New Zealand English as an antipodean variety, especially in concern with the quirks of New Zealand informal speech.
Dr Gillian Skryme visited Peking University and gave two lectures to the New Zealand History and Culture Course students on the 9th and on the 16th of October respectively on Linguistic Landscapes: An overview of language use in New Zealand; and on New Zealand English: an antipodean variety. The former lecture focused on the interaction between indigenous and colonial languages, as well as official and other languages spoken in New Zealand. The connection between language and historical colonisation is shown to reflect in New Zealand’s current situation as a more monolingual nation, despite current immigration patterns. The students talked on how many official languages they believed New Zealand had — it may have been surprising to learn that there are only two official languages: Maori and New Zealand Sign Language, while English is considered the defacto language. Students also discussed when they believed certain languages were used in certain contexts in New Zealand.
Dr Gillian Skryme discussing the kiwi origins of certain slang words The latter lecture discussed the various quirks of New Zealand English, especially in comparison to other English accents that the students may have had more exposure to. Topics covered included pronunciation, vocabulary, and informal speech. The students were given the opportunity to watch a popular New Zealand advertisement that campaigned against drunk driving; they were also given an opportunity to discuss the various slang words within the advertisement and the Maori English accent. Professor Skryme also talked on the shift away from using the European version of place names towards using the original Maori name, illustrating the revitalisation of the Maori language. Dr Skryme’s lectures were well received by the students During her stay, Dr Skryme also visited Baoding, Hebei Province where she was invited by her former student to give a public lecture to promote cultural understanding of New Zealand to help raise the profile of New Zealand. |
