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Swahili learning experiences | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| DavidW Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6528 days ago 318 posts - 458 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, French, Italian, Persian, Malay Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Portuguese, German, Urdu | Message 1 of 7 02 August 2008 at 8:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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To those who have studied Swahili, what has been your experience? Why did you learn it? For cultural or linguistic intrest, or for practical reasons? What has been your experience whilst travelling in East Africa? Are you glad you invested the time?
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| DavidW Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6528 days ago 318 posts - 458 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French, Italian, Persian, Malay Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Portuguese, German, Urdu | Message 2 of 7 08 June 2010 at 11:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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** Bump ** :-)
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| rlf1810 Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6342 days ago 122 posts - 173 votes Speaks: English*, German, Slovak | Message 3 of 7 09 June 2010 at 4:39am | IP Logged | ||
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I have only dabbled in the language thus far, though I intend to study it in more depth in the future. For me it is mostly out of linguistic interest and curiousity. I intend to study a language from every continent, with the possible exception of Antarctica (I haven't found any decent courses for Penguinese). A waiter at the local 'Olive Garden' is from Kenya, but he's probably the closest I'll ever get to East Africa unfortunately. Learning a bit of Swahili is not something your typical midwestern American white guy usually does, so I'm sure I'll be able to put a smile on some unsuspecting Swahili speaker's face. That's a good enough reason for me.
-Robert 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6144 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 7 12 June 2010 at 7:47am | IP Logged | ||
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I am currently actively studying Swahili. My primary motivation at the moment is for an upcoming trip to Tanzania in less than a month. I wanted to learn the language eventually anyways, but this trip has given me an excuse to start learning sooner. I am thus learning for cultural, linguistic, and practical reasons and am definitely enjoying it.
Swahili, in comparison with some other African languages, is really a blessing because of its comparative simplicity: no tones, no clicks, fewer noun classes than some other Bantu languages, very regular, easy to pronounce, etc. All of this makes the student feel very at ease with what would seem to be a rather difficult exotic language. I started learning Swahili in February of this year (but only a little bit, I had done very little until the end of May) and learned some bits of the language. It seems very easy at first, but as you start learning about more and more aspects of the language, it might start to seem like it has tricked you and that it is actually a difficult language. The truth is that it just takes some getting used to before it starts feeling easier again. I am getting to that stage now. In difficulty, I think it is harder for an English speaker than most European languages simply because of its exotic nature and having a very different vocabulary. There are, however, countless loanwords, mainly from Arabic and English. The grammar is similar yet different to European languages. While European languages generally mark agreement at the ends of words, Swahili adds prefixes to the beginning of a word root (and sometimes it will also add infixes in the middle of the root, or change the ending too). This takes some getting used to, but is a very simple concept, and actually makes the language very beautiful because of its alliteration for agreeing noun classes. I think Swahili would be considered more difficult than a Romance or Germanic language, but not as difficult as Japanese, for example. I hope I'll be able to put some of the Swahili that I've learned into use while I'm in East Africa this summer. (I'm sorry that this wasn't the most eloquent of posts, as I'm rather tired at the moment.) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6144 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 5 of 7 26 July 2010 at 4:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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I just remembered that this question existed and that I was going to return and talk about my experience in Tanzania once I got back (almost two weeks ago).
The trip was very nice and the locals were astonished that that I had even bothered to learn more than "asante" (thank you) and "jambo" (hi). They were constantly telling me how well I spoke even though I really am only at a low intermediate level, and very impressed in general. I heard it all around me and when we were out on game drives in the Serengeti it was nice to have a vague idea of what our guides were talking about on the radios (although they spoke very quickly, I could pick up words here and there and could deduce an idea of what they were talking about, so I would know if another car had spotted a cheetah before he would announce it to us). People there were very enthusiastic about using it with me and helping me improve, and I'm very glad that I decided to study Swahili. I hope this helps. :) 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Tyr Senior Member Sweden Joined 5784 days ago 316 posts - 384 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish | Message 6 of 7 27 July 2010 at 8:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm not studying Swahili but I have some friends who are.
Most of them did it because they liked Swahili rap. One of them though did it because the course was offered and it sounded different and exciting. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| johntm93 Senior Member United States Joined 5329 days ago 587 posts - 746 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 7 of 7 27 July 2010 at 9:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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