Habari za asubuhi! Ninasema Kiswahili.

Good morning. I speak Swahili. Well, not really that well, but that's what the title says. Since my first foray into learning Swahili I have certainly suffered some setbacks. It's not easy learning a language that you can't really practice. Being in Korea, I was trying to learn Korean. Swahili turned out to be a challenge to learn at the same time. Now that I'm at home, I have been working much harder and I have become more comfortable with my efforts (though we'll see what happens when I actually touch down in a country where people speak it fluently).

Since I last wrote about learning Swahili, I have changed my methods dramatically. I had originally tried using a book. Though I have had some success learning Korean with books, I found the particular book I was using not as helpful as it could have been. It was very text-based and I often didn't have the time to actually study things. That way of learning language was more like how I learned French in school. It would have been much better with a teacher.

Since then I have tried two very similar but different methods. I have been using Rosetta Stone and that has been somewhat helpful. It is a very simple concept, but has been helping me learn some words and phrases. Basically the program shows you four pictures and one word/sentence. You have to match them. There are 40 pictures (10 sets) per lesson and about 10-12 lessons per unit and about 8-10 units per level (of which I have one). The bonus is that there are no translations so you learn to associate the pictures with the words. I could go into a long discussion about how this is both good and bad, but I won't. I'll just say that I have been somewhat successful with Rosetta Stone, despite my suspicions that it might not be teaching me Swahili the way people actually talk (only time will tell). I should also note, the goal of Rosetta Stone is to teach the language, not conversation (so the words and phrases are basic).

The second method I have been using is called byki (Before You Know It) and can be downloaded for free. Basically it is electronic flashcards (with English on one side). It goes through them for you from both sides. You also have to type the answers for each side. It keeps track of all the flashcard sets you've done and then has you refresh them every now and then. I've been doing this for about 2 weeks and I feel it's helped me learn a lot of vocabulary. It is a bit limited for Swahili in that there are only about 20-25 sets available for free, though it has 70+ languages and some of those languages have hundreds of free sets. You can also purchase a better version, but right now, I'm sticking to the free one.

Another website that has been a little useful has been this site, but it's also mainly text based and is not very creative with it's teaching methods.

Overall, I've been working hard and I believe I've set down a good foundation so that when I do arrive, learning will be much easier. I will continue to work a little each day for the next 12 days (can't believe it's that soon!) and hopefully I will be ready to go.

Tutaonana! See you later!