1News' Dan the weatherman's AWESOME Te Reo attempt

Publish Date
Tuesday, 11 September 2018, 5:02PM

1News' weatherman Dan Corbett is being praised for his awesome attempt at te reo Māori on last night's news

Celebrating Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, Dan incorporated the language into his weather segment during the news bulletin.

Presenting his opening sentences in te reo, Dan then switched back to English after stumbling over a few words.

Considering Daniel only moved to New Zealand from England in 2011, his efforts are pretty impressive and have been well received by Kiwis with people on social media commending him for his efforts.

“Huge congrats to Dan the Weatherman for his te reo! Ka pai to you” wrote one person on Twitter.

“Great te reo on @1News, and ka pai to Dan the weatherman for giving it a go,” wrote another.

“Weatherman Dan is the MAN,” shared another. “Huge respect for him for persisting through a mind blank on live telly when giving te reo a go.”

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What makes it all so impressive is that Dan doesn't actually use Autocue, like most other presenters. He adlibs his whole segments and adapts them to the duration they have left on each night.

In a statement given to The New Zealand Herald today, Dan said the support he’s received has been amazing.

“Unfortunately last night it was a ‘brain freeze’ moment. I do not script my weather, it is all adlib,” he said.

“I have been taking te reo classes over the winter and this year I thought I would really give it a go during Māori language week. I wrote out the weather forecast in Māori and had one of the Te Karere presenters check it through.

“Having done so many weather broadcasts over the years I don’t normally think twice about what I say, it comes naturally from knowing the daily weather maps. I was in the Te Reo part of my weather forecast and that is where my brain froze up!

“I will definitely be giving it another go tonight and for the rest of Māori language week, but I might put some of the Māori words in the autocue just to help me along!”

Ka pai to mahi Dan, we love your work and are looking forward to hearing more korero this week!

So much respect!!

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission.

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