US kid goes viral on TikTok after her Māori pronounciation of one of the worlds longest place names!

TikTok user @lenaknows12 or Maddy - encouraged her young daughter Lena to attempt to pronounce 'Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu' - the name of a hill near the township of Pōrangahau, Hawkes Bay.

Maddy captions the clip with "This one was fun to learn, but shiiiit I had to teach myself before I taught her and it wasn't easy for me but she picked it up QUICK!" 

Once Lena is shown the word she definitely seems stumped for a second before quickly disclaiming "Okay first, I'm not saying a curse word," we're assuming she's referring to 'whaka'. 

Then she launches into the word with a pronunciation that has us blown away - especially considering her age and the fact she's from America not Aotearoa! Not a single stumble, check it out below and then definitely head over and chuck them a follow!

This TikTok has quickly gone viral, currently sitting at over 524k views! And the comments of course are FLOODED with viewers from Aotearoa and of Māori heritage praising Lena for her attempt at taking on (and absolutely nailing) te reo.

Maddy and Lena have a loyal following on TikTok, with Maddy frequently filming videos of her daughter guessing which countries different flags belong to and learning various words, in an ongoing series called, "Think you can stump Lena?"

What a genius!

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