So I decided I wanted to be super prepared when I got to Tanzania and in my mind that includes being able to communicate with the people...a noble goal right? So I got the Rosetta Stone Swahili program and was totally excited to learn how to speak an African language. I was under the impression that the first things I would learn would be basic conversational sentences such as "Hi, my name is..." or "Where's the bathroom?" but instead, the first complete sentence I learned was "Mvulana na msichana katika mashua" which means...drum roll please..."The boy and girl are in the boat." Wow. Can you imagine me walking up to a local in the middle of the Serengeti desert and saying "Hey the boy and girl are in the boat!" I would be the laughing stock of Tanzania!! The remainder of my first attempt at learning Swahili taught me the following words:
gari= car
ndege= bird/airplane
mwanamume=man
mwanamke=woman
farasi=horse
ng'ombe=cow
nyekundu=red
njano=yellow
nyeusi= black
nyumba=house
and of course how to count to ten: mmoja, mbili, tatu, nne, tano, sita, saba, nane, tisa, kumi :)
I have yet to learn my "essential conversation sentences," but I am really enjoying Rosetta Stone and I think it will really help me be able to communicate effectively with those I am working with.
Perhaps I will borrow it while you're in Africa (:
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