IMBA

I was feeling a little discouraged and frustrated late this morning during language class.

My Kiswahili class is taught by 4 teachers who work for the company KIU. KIU's philosophy is to teach students both how to speak the language and to learn about the culture in Tanzania. The first week we learned a lot of new vocabulary and practical phrases/sentences, including greetings and speaking about people in the present, past and future tenses. Today we started work on the "Noun Classes". In Kiswahili there are 7 Noun Classes, each noun class is grouped according to some underlying commonality to the words in the class. Most words are Bantu in origin but there are many Arabic words as well.

Today's class was more intense - we started breaking down each sentence into word categories - Nouns, subject prefixes, demonstratives, possesives, numbers, adjectives, singular and plural, etc. Learning the subtle variations within each of the 7 noun classes involves alot of work and practice!!

Usually when I'm feeling frustrated or discouraged I spend more time studying or reading to improve, but we were told to take a break from learning Noun classes for the rest of the day. Instead we spent the afternoon singing (Imba:)

The twelve of us sat in the classroom while our teachers first sang the Tanzanian national anthem and then three other traditional Tanzanian songs, some of which are sung every day in classrooms and others at big events. We practiced singing with the teachers and then sung our own National Anthems (if willing). Finally we all stood in a circle to sing a very simple song, but one that involved everyone's participation and a little solo performance:)

Had I known singing would be involved in this job description, I might have had second thoughts, but rest assured the windows are still intact! :) And sorry I don't have any pictures of me singing :)