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[6WC] Swahili Log

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Luna Moonsilver
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Germany
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77 posts - 99 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Korean

 
 Message 1 of 16
01 May 2011 at 9:24pm | IP Logged 
Hi all! :D This is my first ever log on the HTLAL forums, written for the 6 week
challenge that started today. I'm studying Swahili for it -- it's proving to be very
interesting, if a bit more difficult than I'm used to.

I'll start with a little bit about my language background:

I currently study German and Mandarin at University, though I've only really got two
weeks left and then it's just exams. (And I get to go into work more, yay! ¬¬) Because
it's my first year at Uni, I had to take 40 credits worth of electives, so I've studied
Spanish and Italian this year too. My levels for these vary: from best to worst it
goes: German, Spanish, Mandarin, Italian. I've dropped Italian for good (I didn't enjoy
it) and whilst I'm not studying Spanish actively, I'm going to try and keep on top of
it because it'll be useful, I think. Plus, I love reading Harry Potter in Spanish ;D.

Swahili, therefore, is a completely new experience. I'm using the Living Language
textbook and started today at midnight, getting just over half an hour done before I
decided to sleep. Things are far harder to stick, I'm finding (I keep thinking all the
vowels are in different places) but it's so interesting I don't even care :).

I'll try a little Swahili now:

Hamjambo! Jina langu ni Luna. Mimi ninasoma Kiswahili. Nyinyi mnasoma nini?

Kwaheri :)

Edited by Luna Moonsilver on 01 May 2011 at 9:43pm

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Luna Moonsilver
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77 posts - 99 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Korean

 
 Message 2 of 16
08 May 2011 at 11:17pm | IP Logged 
Wow, it's been a week - and I've only done three and a half hours' work on Swahili.
It's strange, when I'm actually counting the time I'm doing, I see how much of it I
waste just messing around with different things.

Either way, I've covered the first two lessons in the Living Language textbook, which
means I know how to use some verbs in the present tense and negate them (in theory).
The book told me a bit about the M-Wa noun class, too - though I've skimmed through
lesson three and it goes into more detail. Noun classes seem quite complicated.

I do like that it told me there is no conjugation of 'to be' - ni. That is always such
a complicated thing in romance languages especially, so I'm happy with it as it is. I'm
betting it'll turn around and bite me later though ;D

I'm going to spend some time looking for some native resources too. Everyone seems to
be using the L-R technique, but I don't know where there is anything I can use to do
that. Might just have to soldier on with the textbook and move onto BBC Swahili news
when I run out of things to read.

Tutaonana! :D
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getreallanguage
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Argentina
youtube.com/getreall
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240 posts - 371 votes 
Speaks: Spanish*, English
Studies: Italian, Dutch

 
 Message 3 of 16
08 May 2011 at 11:42pm | IP Logged 
If what I've heard about Swahili is correct, noun class concordance might in the future make you pine for good old Indo-European gender concordance. ¡Buena suerte! Veel succes!

Edited by getreallanguage on 08 May 2011 at 11:43pm

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ellasevia
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2011
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 6133 days ago

2150 posts - 3229 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian
Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian

 
 Message 4 of 16
09 May 2011 at 12:43am | IP Logged 
Hujambo! Unapenda kusoma Kiswahili? Ninafikiri kwamba ni lugha nzuri na ya ajabu sana, na ninafuraha kukuona kuisoma! Nchi zake ni nzuri sana pia na watu wanaoishi hapo ni wa kirafiki sana.

^^ My attempt at remembering how to write in Swahili. I used to be at a fairly strong intermediate level but unfortunately I've let it get rather rusty in the past several months due to neglect and am currently taking a break from it so that I can return to it later in the year refreshed.

In any case, it was one of my absolute favorite languages to study and the beauty of the countries and cultures related to it only make it even better. By the way, the Spoken World Swahili book by Living Language is fantastic and was by far my favorite resource. Oh, and don't let what getreallanguage said about the noun classes scare you! They might seem intimidating at first but they really aren't all that complicated and you'll feel so smart once you master them all. :)

Bahati njema!
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Luna Moonsilver
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Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Korean

 
 Message 5 of 16
18 May 2011 at 12:29am | IP Logged 
@getreallanguage Haha, you're right, they are a bit more difficult than I was
expecting! I think the main problem at the moment is that I keep expecting the end of
the word to change, when in most cases it's the beginning/middle... It's definitely
interesting though :)

@ellasevia Hujambo! Ninafikiri Kiswahili ni cha kuvutia lakini ni kigumu sana pia.
Unaandika Kiswahili nzuri sana :)

My Swahili isn't that great (obviously) so sorry for any mistakes! :D It is really
interesting and I'm sure I'll grasp the noun classes eventually - it's just the amount
of time I need that worries me; cases took me FOREVER ;D. Either way, it'll be worth
it. I'm sick of mainly doing European languages - I love them, but the chance to do
something new is always fun.

Asante! ^^

Edited by Luna Moonsilver on 18 May 2011 at 12:31am

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Luna Moonsilver
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Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Korean

 
 Message 6 of 16
23 May 2011 at 12:41am | IP Logged 
Well, it's come to the end of week three. I did just about three and a half hours this
week; not a lot compared to some people, but it still feels like quite a bit of work.
:)

I started using the Assimil course: Le Swahili sans Peine, which is great, apart from
it being in French, which I don't speak. It's not too problematic at the moment though;
I'm only on lesson four so even the French is basic enough for me to mostly understand.
If I don't know it - for example, the notes that accompany each lesson - I run the
French through google translate so I get the gist of things. It's more important I get
the Swahili anyway.

I'm going to keep up with this for the next week, doing either at least one Assimil
lesson per day, or thirty minutes of work out of the textbook. Gradually building up
time should work better than trying to do two hours a day straight off, I think. :)

How's everyone else doing on the challenge? Or, in general? :D
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strikingstar
Bilingual Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5164 days ago

292 posts - 444 votes 
Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Cantonese, Swahili
Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 7 of 16
23 May 2011 at 11:46am | IP Logged 
Hujambo Luna. Ninatumaini utafurahia kujifunza Kiswahili. Ninakukubali kwamba Kiswahili
ni lugha ya kuvutia kabisa. Nilianza kusoma Kiswahili miaka miwili na nusu iliyopita na
ingawa mimi siwezi kujiita mtaalamu, labda ninaweza kusaidia kujibu maswali yoyote yako.
Alau, inaonekana kwamba umekuwa ukiendelea sana. Hongera!! Kiswahili ni rahisi eh?

Jaja, estoy aprediendo espanol tambien. Pero yo lo he estado descuidando recientemente.
Yo no he acabado leyendo ni siquiera el libro "Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal' aunque
yo empece leerlo hace muchos meses.

最后,如果你对华文有什么疑问也不妨问我, 我可能还帮得上忙。哈哈。
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Luna Moonsilver
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Joined 5069 days ago

77 posts - 99 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Korean

 
 Message 8 of 16
28 May 2011 at 1:08am | IP Logged 
strikingstar -- Hujambo. Ndio, Kiswahili ni rahisi lakini ngeli ni ngeni na ngumu. Ni
kuvutia sana! Siwezi kuchora Kiswahili sana bado.

Por espanol, yo tambien. Hice mi examen hace dos meses y no hice mas trabajo desde
entonces. Leo 'Harry Potter y La Camara Secreta' a veces, pero leo muy lentamente :(.

谢谢你!我的汉语不太好,但是七月我去北京 ,我学习汉语那儿。我好兴奋阿!
我喜欢这:哈哈 << 很有意思。:D




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