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Are there any Swahili speakers here?
I was in the Peace Corps in Tanzania waaaaay back- 1965-1969, and became fluent. I have attempted to keep some facility in Swahili over the years, but with so few to talk to, my vocabulary and inflections have suffered.
I "might" go to Kenya in 2012, and could make a pass through parts of Tanzania, and would like to be conversant.
Thafadali, kama tuna watu wowote hapa kunisaida.
I don't speak it at all, but I've read about it and just sort of...looked at it. Heh. The language fascinates me. Good luck finding some way to practice.
Jambo, rafiki.
... That's all I know.
I can sort of get the gist of spoken Kiswhaili as my parents both grew up in East Africa and would speak it around me and my brother when they wanted to discuss something privately. Until they realised that I, at least got what they were saying. But beyond that, sorry. :(
As I said, I do get a few opportunities now and then, and I just learned that a friend of mine from Tanzania is now living in Colorado! We might be able to talk now and then.
Pawpaw,
I'd really like to hear some of your stories from the Peace Corps days.
Long ago in a country far away...............
I have many stories of my four years in Tanzania, should have written a book 40 years ago, but didn't. It was 1965 through 1969, and I taught 7th form for two years, then did a school partnership project building 2 room school buildings out in the bush where the government didn't build. We built them with about $1000 in funds from partner schools in the states and self-help. We had to buy some lumber and the corrugated tin for the roof, but the bricks were generally made on site by villagers that were happy to help build a school. Most kids there wanted to be in school, at least to the end of the 7th year. Many after that didn't go on to secondary school, usually because they were needed on the shamba.
Hello friendQuote:
Jambo, rafiki.
Jambo. habari gani? Hello, "what news?"
Swahili is not difficult to learn. A language with fairly strict rules of pronunciation, grammar, and syntax that are seldom broken , unlike English with all our exceptions to rules.
I'm learning to speak it now.