KiSwahili and More

Hujambo. Jina langu ni Robert. Ninatoka America, jimbo la Virginia. Mimi ni mwanafunzi. Ninakaa Nairobi. Ninafanya kazi kwa CWS.

My name is Robert. I come from America, the state of Virginia. I am a student. I live in Nairobi. I work at CWS.

I've heard that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert in something, about 300 hours to become fluent.

Our orientation here included 30 hours of formal Kiswahili instruction, enough for me to greet people, say a few simple autobiographical sentences, and hopefully do some minimal negotiation in the markets. I hope to put more time into learning this language, but I'll have to be self motivated--being a mzungu, most people in Nairobi will speak English to me. Even in the markets, negotiating in Kiswahili is not so much necessary as a tactic to get a better price.

The YAVs in Tanzania are having a different experience—most schools in Kenya are English medium, but most schools in Tanzania are KiSwahili medium—thus Tanzanians speak more, and subsequently better Kiswahili.  Tanzanians are also somewhat more formal—for example, in Kenya, to order chicken, one would say ‘Nipe Kuku’ (Give me chicken).  In Tanzania, that would be considered quite rude—one would instead say something to the effect of Please, may I have some chicken.  In many cases, one can simply use the more formal or polite option everywhere, however we have been told that if you use the more formal option in Kenya, people will think that you don’t intend to pay.

The combination of having the Tanzania YAVs in Nairobi over Christmas, visiting a few markets, and my parents coming, has drawn my attention to how will I’ve done at maintaining my Kiswahili.  I haven’t done as well as I had hoped, but, honestly, I’m finding that I’ve held onto more of it than I expected.  On a day to day basis, I don’t have much cause to use more than the salamas, or greetings—saying hello and good morning to the ascaris (security guards) at the apartment gate and at the gate into the office compound, perhaps a quick greeting to some of the people I pass on my commute.  In many areas of Kenya, one is still expected to greet each and every person you see, however, in Nairobi, as in every big city, people keep a bit more to themselves, and are likely to only greet people they know, though there is often some unspoken acknowledgement of others—often a sort of smile and head nod, though that might just be me.  When I am out in the field for work, however, people are much more engaging, and often we will stop the car to speak to someone walking along the road.

This level of engagement also held true in the more touristy areas which I visited with my parents, though my attempts at speaking Kiswahili were met with mixed reactions.  In some areas, particularly in Zanzibar (in Tanzania), people would just ignore my efforts and continue as if I had spoken English.  Some people, however, got excited that I spoke/understood some, and would mix in a little Kiswahili with their English. Others would simply switch completely into Kiswahili, and we’d both laugh once they realized that they had completely lost me.

Now, since I know many of you are really just here for the pictures, here are a few from the past month.