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French vs Swahili usefulness in Africa? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6666 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes  Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 17 of 33 14 July 2007 at 10:23am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
OK, I see. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Karakorum Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6570 days ago 201 posts - 232 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written)* Studies: French, German | Message 18 of 33 14 July 2007 at 10:44am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
Well, as a North African (note the African part) I am in a way offended, but in a strange way I understand what you mean. But there are a few missing factors to your analysis. If you for a second assume that all Muslim or Arab countries are the same, then you are in for a surprise. They have as much diversity and richness as South of the Sahara has. Arabic and Islam in Egypt, Lybia, and Tunisia are as native and as diverse nowadays as Hindi is in Northern India, English in England, and Armenian and Christianity in Armenia. And as people have already stated, the cultures South of the Sahara are extremely diverse. Mali is closer to Algeria than Gabon to Swaziland. Ethiopia is closer culturally to Yemen (a non-Christian, non-African country) than it is to Mozambique. In any case, I understand why you may you have a right to be interested in whatever you want to be interested in, and to not care about whatever you don't care about, just don't call over 150,000,000 their culture, religion, and language non-native even though the people have been there for thousands of years and the culture has been synthesizing for 1500. As to your original question, my experience in Africa is that outside some West African and some North African countries, English will get you more for your buck than French. This is certainly the case in most of Southern Africa (well I've just been to Zimbabwe and SA). It will also be the best bet for Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Kenya (by extension I guess most of East Africa). Egypt, Lybia, and Sudan are also doable with English. In general bring up a map of colonial Africa, wherever you see pink (British colonial color) you can get away just using English, wherever you see blue, you may need French. So I guess the answer to your original question is, since English largely coincides with Swahili and you already know English, then French is probably more useful. Good luck. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6895 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 19 of 33 14 July 2007 at 3:43pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
Where it originated, many many centuries ago, is totally irrelevant to the original question of which language is more useful for travelling in Africa today.
It is African since its historical and cultural traditions have been present, and evolved there, not just today, but over several generations. On the other hand, since it seems generally accepted that the human race originated in Africa, we could claim that all cultures in the world have their roots there in a way. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Zorndyke Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6959 days ago 374 posts - 382 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Czech | Message 20 of 33 14 July 2007 at 4:32pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
I have already explained for what reason I brought up this matter.
English and French have also been present over several generations in some parts of Africa. So I guess they're African languages now...!? Edited by Zorndyke on 14 July 2007 at 4:39pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| reineke Senior Member United States https://learnalangua Joined 6448 days ago 851 posts - 1008 votes Studies: German | Message 21 of 33 14 July 2007 at 5:12pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
That's a bad comparison and argument when claiming that these countries are not African or "really" African. Pinpoiting dangerous areas in the French speaking world in favor of a comparatively small area where Swahili is dominant is a weak argument. Why not also mention some safe, interesting French-speaking countries? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6551 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 22 of 33 14 July 2007 at 9:17pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Another thing to keep in mind is nearly half of all Swahili speakers are Moslems. So there's a lot of cultural overlap.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Karakorum Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6570 days ago 201 posts - 232 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written)* Studies: French, German | Message 23 of 33 14 July 2007 at 11:07pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
Yup, the comparison is invalid. Arabic in North Africa is rather like Turkish in Asia Minor or Romance languages in Western Europe. As to French speaking countries, my father visited Senegal a few years ago. He says it's a great country, beautiful people, and an interesting culture. As far as safety, during the same year he'd also been to Nairobi, Harare, Durban, Capetown, and Johannesburg. Dakar was safer than any of them. I guess the Ivory Coast is also OK if you stay more or less around Abidjan, I haven't heard anything terrible about Ghana, and Cameroon has been stable for as long as I remember. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Zorndyke Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6959 days ago 374 posts - 382 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Czech | Message 24 of 33 15 July 2007 at 3:54am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
Why?
I have aready explained why I don't think that this small area is so unimportant. I think those few Swahili speaking countries are better than 10 of the French speaking countries in Africa. And I have mentioned safe French speaking countries.
Yeah, on the paper is says they're Muslims.
Wikipedia says the non-Arabic languages in North Africa are all minority languages there. Have you other information?
A friend of mine also was in Senegal. He was shot. I don't even want to talk about the Ivory Coast. I suppose your father looks like an African or Arab? Edited by Zorndyke on 15 July 2007 at 4:54am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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