Kiwi Tiktoker shares awkward te reo Māori mixup

Kiwi Tiktoker @arohak12_ has gone viral after sharing how a simple mixup with te reo Māori led to a friend making a very intimate offer, with hilarious results.

Aroha begins the video (which is now at 543.2k views) by saying that she received “the most random” txt message from a friend, clarifying that the friend is Pākehā (this will become crucial later, stick with us).

“Hey! Hope you’ve had a great day,” the friend begins. “You eat tara don’t you?”

That seems a little personal but what follows is ten times more! 

“I mean ... I haven’t eaten tara before but there’s a first time for everything right?” Aroha replies.

“Whyyyyyyy?”

“O I thought you liked eating tara,” Aroha’s friend said. “I have a tara.”

“Yes yes you do,” Aroha replied, before helpfully suggesting: “I do too.”

Not realising their mistake, Aroha’s friend pressed on. 

“Do want another one?” the friend asked. “You can eat my tara too if you like. I’m not a big fan of it, it’s a bit bland and goopy.”

Now if you're not too flash with your māori then the penny may not have dropped yet, Aroha’s friend does indeed have a tara, but she was actually trying to offer a taro instead.

One being a hearty Polynesian root, the other a word for female genitalia in te reo māori...

As all good friends do, Aroha kept stringing her friend along by asking how her friend’s husband would react to all this tara eating.

“Oh, he won’t mind at all! It was his idea I give it to you!” the friend replies.

“Chur what a generous fulla,” Aroha replies.

“He doesn’t like it says it looks & smells funky and tastes rotten!” the friend replies, digging herself ever deeper into this hilarious hole. “I told him to shut up & be grateful he even gets to eat it when so many go without.”

The pair then discuss the colouration of the ... um ... vegetable, before her friend drops a bombshell that is entirely TMI. “It could be bruised, Glen was pretty rough with it. I hope it’s still okay to eat!”

Aroha’s response, consisting entirely of emojis, then clued her friend into the fact that they may not be on the same page.

“What’s so funny!? You’ve emoji laughed in every message????”

“You know how I told you to use that Māori dictionary online?” Aroha asks. “Go on it and search tara.”

So she did, and her response was immediate.

“OMFG!!!!!!!”

“It’s a TARO isn’t it? You are NEVER going to let me live this down!”

So, there you go folks. More proof, if you still needed it, that learning te reo Māori can be useful in everyday life. Or just create some really awkward conversations around the dinner table.

Check out the full video below, we are CRYING!

This article was first published by the NZ Herald and is republished here with permission.

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