The accent's off migrants

Kiwi English is a different linguistic beast and many new arrivals struggle to understand it.

- Judi Altinkaya

Moving countries is challenging and life is no picnic for migrants to New Zealand. Kiwis pride ourselves on being welcoming, yet few of us have hosted a migrant family to dinner. And we don't seem to realise how hard our accents are to understand when we speak to migrants. Rather than their English not being good enough, our Kiwi English is one of the least spoken varieties in the world, so migrants have few opportunities to practise it before they arrive. Communication is key to making the most of migrants in our society.