A Welsh man is being dubbed 'the man' for completing his citizenship ceremony fully in te reo Māori.
The clip, posted to TikTok by his wife Katie, has amassed over 100k views since it was posted last month and a whole bunch of comments supporting one of Aotearoa’s newest citizens.
“My partner did his citizenship ceremony in Te Reo!” Katie wrote in the caption. “I feel like he did excellent.”
“Being Welsh, he is hesitant to swear allegiance to a king. So he decided since we have to do it, let’s do it in the true language of New Zealand. His first language is also a minority language under the crown (cymraeg),” she added.
As mentioned before, comments are absolutely loving what the Welsh bloke did to officially stamp himself as a Kiwi.
“THE MAN!!!” wrote one person. “I’m of Māori descent and this makes me want to follow in your partner’s footsteps, to have the privilege to be an NZ citizen.”
“Congratulations on becoming a citizen and also for being an amazing human and embracing our country and culture,” another said. “Proud to have you!”
“Welcome to the whānau, grab a tea towel,” a third joked.
“What a boss,” a fourth added. “Leading the way for many more.”
“This takes real bravery to get up in front of others and speak a language that isn’t your native tongue,” one more wrote. “Bro, you da man!!”
Good on the bloke for getting involved with the culture, and shout out to all the Kiwis spreading the love in the comments. Way to welcome him to the country!
If he’s interested in learning more of the language all he needs to do is grab the latest edition of the Oxford Dictionary.
Last week they officially added 36 te reo Māori words (as well as ‘chur’) to the book.
