Language!

Swahili and English are the official languages in Kenya, however each area also speaks their local dialect or 'mother tongue' here in Kamukuywa it is Kibukusu. So for many of the people (including my students) English is their third language. Considering the Kenyan national curriculum is in English this can cause lots of difficulty for learning!

I have been trying to pick up a bit of Swahili while I am here- early on in my trip I greeted the entire group of boarders (almost 200 students) at night time bible study by starting my talk with 'habari za asubuhi' I had thought this was 'good evening' but the uproar of laughter that followed didn't bode well...as it turns out it actually means 'good morning' it took a good few minutes to quieten everybody down! Once over the initial embarrassment I too found this hilarious and joked about it with the kids for a few days after.

I decided to make a pact with my year 9 class that they teach me a new word of their choice every lesson, my efforts at pronunciation cause them to explode in laughter. The other day I proudly said to them all what I thought was 'I don't speak much Swahili' but the resultant hilarity made me turn to the class prefect and ask what was wrong... Apparently I had just said 'I don't speak Swahili lakes!'
My novice struggles at Swahili have really showed me first-hand how difficult language is. I have a great deal of respect for all those multilinguals out there!

Walking down the streets many people call out 'how are you!' (pronounced howar) the appropriate answer to this is 'fine' and every child will call it out multiple times until you answer. Often this may be the only English they know and if you try to extend into a conversation it goes nowhere. Even when asking the same question back to the children they struggle to respond, I then try in Swahili which will sometimes get a response but more likely I'll need to say it in Kibukusu to get an answer. 'Fine' seems to be the appropriate response to just about any greeting  'good morning' ' how's it going', even 'hello' are all responded to with 'fine!'

In the street  it is a common occurrence for randoms to get excited at seeing a muzungu and run up and before I have a chance to really register their presence they loudly declare to me 'I am fine!!!'  I still find this hilarious and can't help but think ' I am SO glad to hear that!'

Funny Englishisms are everywhere, especially on menus- the local hotel has a lovely list of beaverages, and in a nearby town there is a lovely selection of 'bittings' including 'chicken naggats'.

Another one of my favourites I found when I was reading through an English teachers guide from the library and came across some helpful tips on how to deal with commonly 'missplet' words!