‘He aha tēnei?’ is a drag-and-drop game where matching of letters & pictures teaches pronunciation of every day words such as whare (house) and uenuku (rainbow). The game also aims to bring back historic words which have been lost in time as Te Reo Māori and English have grown together. For example, ‘panana’ is the common translation for banana in Te Reo, whereas ‘maika’ is the correct word. There is a focus on using specific words over generics as well: for example ‘karoro’ instead ‘manu’ (bird) to describe a seagull.
Pāpapa believes in nurturing the special language bond between kids and their caregivers, honouring the breadth, depth and beauty of Te Reo Māori vocabulary. ‘He aha tēnei?’ is app available on both Apple and Android, and there are 3 more apps in development:
- ‘Ōku Kākahu’ – A game that teaches clothing
- ‘He Haerenga’ – A game about going on a trip
- ‘Kei hea a ihoro’ – an eye-spy game
