Swahili Update

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 East Africa uses it now) and perhaps it will be something I can spend some time on. Living in Canada I need to work on my French, since it is pretty bad. I also want to keep up the Korean I had learned since I was starting to become very comfortable with it. When I tried working on three languages at one time it proved very difficult. I might just take them one at a time. We’ll see where life takes me and how much free time (i.e. will I get a job?) in the near future.

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!