When I came here I had big plans of being semi-fluent in Swahili or at least to be able to hold a decent conversation. I didn’t (and still don’t) think it was a stretch to say I could have been as good in Swahili as I was in Korean (Korean being a much harder language with more and greater differences from English). Due to several factors, that has not been the case.
With the loss of my computer, I lost both byki and Rosetta Stone so I no longer had a virtual way of learning. Those two methods were both extremely helpful in teaching me vocabulary and I was able to use the new words in everyday discussion. Without that though, I didn’t get the words with which to practice the language. I borrowed a book from the YCI office, but that was very dry and moved quickly and was all over the place.
Time was also not easy to find to practice the Swahili I did know. Often we were busy during the day (or not in the mood to study) and then at night it got to be bedtime very quickly – since dinner is so late here.
That being said, I feel like I have picked up a bit and I have been able to ask simple questions of the children living in my homestay. I am confident with numbers and have a bit of a grasp when it comes to directions. I’ve been able to figure out what some people are saying – though, as Godfrey pointed out the other day, I only needed to understand one word to know what they were talking about.
Swahili is a language which seems to be spreading (Makho told me many people want it to be used in other countries nearby since pretty much all of
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