I knew a Greek chap many years ago who attended a local Greek School as a child where he was taught the language.

When he eventually travelled to Greece on holiday he was surprised to find the locals "talked like savages" and not in the refined styled he was taught.

As for incorporating indigenous culture, I often admire New Zealanders for incorporating various cultural crossovers. Here all we have done is use aboriginal words to name real estate, just as the USA has done with their native heritage.

I forgot to include this trivia about local dialects.
"Talk like a pirate day" has just passed but the well-known pirate accent is in fact how English is spoken in the English West Country.

The actor who was to play Long John Silver in the first movie realised the character was in fact originally a farmer from that region so he simply spoke in that way.

Hi rache and Steele,

My wife when taking to another Maori can instantly recognise who has learnt the language from childhood, and who has learnt it through school. Also many speak with an Englishfied version where some words are made to sound more English than Maori. For example the word for the colour pink is "mawhero", but some will say "pinko", The wife says the only "pinko" in the Maori language is ME, there are many other examples. You are right Steele, language is heritage. As I pointed out earlier, when my wife first started school, in a Maori school, it was a school offence to speak the native language or even to have a indigenous name. Reminds me of the novel 'Roots"..."WHAT IS YOUR NAME"...." KUNTA KINTA...."NO ITS NOT, ITS TOBY", except her teachers didn't use a whip, they smacked the legs of a frightened 5 year old with their hand or ruler. And we think other races are savages.

My wife was shocked when visiting Hawaii, and speaking to a couple of the locals (very hard to find) at the total lack of real culture, the flowered shirts and hula dancers are not the real culture. One soon discovers it was the loss of land by the Hawaiians that led to a total reliance on the white man and the destruction of local language and culture.

Good morning all.
I feel it is too late to try and introduce any of the indigenous languages as an alternative useable language.
Our large migrant intake to date and in the future will dictate the course of language more so than any other factor.
I can recall in my younger years wandering about Oz when it was none too hard to pick where or what state someone came from. Not so these days.
Oz as she is spoken today is a work in progress and has little chance of being forced into a language desired by a few be that to the good or to the detriment of our history.
Some would call that progress others would disagree.
I think the former will win the day.
Take it easy.
SD

I see a lot of vague waffle about the "value" of indigenous languages, mostly from people who have never bothered to learn a second language, let alone an indigenous one.

The base value of any language is to be able to communicate and transact with others. If the vast majority of people that one meets have no understanding of this language and there is little to no literature in the language, the value of the language to the speaker is almost zero and the only motivation for keeping the language on life support is guilt.

SM,

I'm sure you learned German so you could understand the Fuhrer's rantings and ravings. Lets cut to the chase, your real motive for this topic is not to see the loss of indigenous language, but the decline and ultimate disappearance of indigenous people.