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Notes 1
TOPIC 2 - MATUMIZI YA LUGHA KATIKA MIKTADHA MBALI MBALI
TOPIC 3 - UHAKIKI WA KAZI ZA FASIHI SIMULIZI
TOPIC 4 - UHIFADHI WA KAZI YA FASIHI SIMULIZI
TOPIC 5 - UTUNGAJI WA KAZI ZA KIFASIHI
TOPIC 6 - UANDISHI
TOPIC 7 - USIMULIAJI WA MATUKIO
TOPIC 8 - UFAHAMU
THE COUNTRIES which SPEAK KISWAHILI
The Swahili language is spoken in several African countries. The
major Swahili speaking countries are Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, The Democratic
Republic of Congo and the Comoros Islands. Small communities equally exist in
Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi, Rwanda, Burundi and Somalia.
It is widely debated how many people in the world speak Swahili,
but most estimates say between 100 and 150 million.
Historically, Swahili has been a lingua franca in
East Africa, or a language used as a way of communicating across different
nationalities and tribal groups who speak different languages as their mother
tongue. Swahili was a language that relatively few spoke as their first
language, but which a significant amount of people speak as a second language.
This is still the case today, despite the growing influence of English
Swahili is the national language of Tanzania, but despite this
fact, only about 10% of the population speak Swahili as their mother tongue,
whereas 90% speak it as a second language. In other Swahili-speaking countries
the difference is even bigger.
The Countries Where
Swahili Is Spoken
Roughly 10% of the Tanzanian population
of 55 million speak Swahili as their native language. This makes for around 5,5
million native speakers.
The origin of Swahili, however, was a little more to the north,
namely in Kenya, where the Swahili language
developed from a Bantu language called Pokomo.
One would assume that since Swahili had its origins in Kenya, this
country would have a large community of native Swahili speakers. This doesn’t
seem to be the case, however, and despite most of the 47 million Kenyans being
fluent in Swahili, almost no one speaks
Swahili at home.
In The Democratic Republic of Congo,
Swahili is spoken widely as a second language, but people who speak Swahili as
their native language are very few.
Uganda used to speak Swahili at a much higher degree than it does today.
One reason for the decline might be that Swahili was the language of the
military. After political changes in Uganda, Swahili has fallen out of
grace and has become a disliked language by many.
Recent initiatives by the Ugandan government has tried to push the
teaching of Swahili forward, but with little luck. It’s difficult to find
useful statistics detailing the exact number of Swahili speakers in Uganda, but
it would appear that Swahili speakers in Kenya is a small minority.
About 20% of the Rwandan population
speak Swahili as a second language.
In other countries such as Burundi, Malawi, Zambia, The
Comoros Islands, Mozambique and Somalia,
only small minorities speak Swahili.
A growing language
Kiswahili most
likely originated on East Africa’s coast. It came about as a result of
intermarriage between Bantu-speaking communities along the East African coast
and Arabs who arrived at the coast from as early as before 10th C, AD. It then
spread into the interior through trade, Christian activities such as missionary
work, and exploration activities in the East African mainland.
Today the language is
spoken widely in the larger Eastern Africa region as a lingua franca, a
language used between people who don’t speak one another’s native language.
It’s a national language in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, and an official
language of the East African Community which comprises Kenya, Uganda,
Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.
Its use is spreading to
southern, western and northern Africa. Currently, however, none of these
countries are teaching Kiswahili as a subject the way South Africa intends to;
instead, it is generally a language of trade and inter-ethnic communication.
However, it may not be long until more countries join South Africa in teaching
it in classrooms since the language is spreading fast and becoming a household
language in many of these countries in addition to its adoption as one of the
official languages of the African Union.
Kiswahili is also a
popular research subject at many South African universities. And it’s studied
outside Africa, most particularly in the US and Europe. This global interest in
the adoption of Kiswahili points at its growing international significance.
This implies that its introduction into South African schools is a good move
with multiple benefits.
HOW TO LEARN A LANGUAGE FAST – PART
2
3. Start with short, simple dialogues
Richards believes that it’s possible to become conversational in a
language in just 90 days – as
he did with Italian – by starting with reading
and listening to stories. But how can you do that when you’re so new to the
language that you barely understand a thing? Well, Richards says, “At the
beginning, you need to use material that’s really, really simple.” In the first
week or so, stick to reading the short, simple dialogues you might find in a
beginner language learning textbook, such as “I go to the grocery store” or “I
like to run and watch movies.” Although these phrases might seem too basic,
you’ll learn more than you think. “What most people don’t realize is if you are
just reading those dialogues at the beginning, they will contain the 100
or 200 most common words in the language, which are used over 50% of the time,”
explains Richards. You can start by making your own simple dialogues with these
tips to start speaking a new language fast or
use these phrase lists as
inspiration.
4. Intensity of Study Trumps Length of Study
What I mean by this is that studying a language four hours a day
for two weeks will be more beneficial for you than studying one hour a day for
two months. This is one reason why so many people take language classes in school and
never remember anything. It’s because they only study 3-4 hours per week and
often the classes are separated by multiple days. Language requires a lot of
repetition, a lot of reference experiences, and a consistent
commitment and investment. It’s better to allot
a particular period of your life, even if it’s only 1-2 weeks, and really go at
it 100%, than to half-ass it over the course of months or even years.
5. Learn through immersion
As someone who participated in a language exchange programme in university and an expat who now lives abroad, I can 100% assure you that the fastest way to learn a language is through immersion. An immersion environment basically means that you spend 24/7 using your target language over a period of time. It works even better when those around you don’t speak your native language, so you have to focus on the vocabulary you know to convey your point. While this does sound challenging, you will feel quite accomplished once you get through it. Soon enough, you’ll be thinking and even dreaming in your new target language.
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