Language: The Great Communicator

For 24 years and 4 months of my life, I have never given the Swahili language a moment of consideration. Now, it is essentially the most important tool in my daily life.

From May 26th until July 20th, I was put through Peace Corps' rigorous language program. It was like Rosetta Stone on steroids, human growth hormone, and whatever Lance Armstrong was taking, all at the same time. The student-teacher ratio was 3 to 1 for me, for at least 4 hours a day. Granted, Kiswahili is not the most tricky language, but after just 2 months of training I have: 1. bargained for items in the market, 2. Introduced myself in front of countless different churches, meetings, and officials 3. Performed a swahili worship song in front of a small church congregation. I studied Spanish on and off for 6 years or so growing up, yet I can safely say that my swahili has officially overtaken my Spanish as my second best language.

All that being said, I am realizing that language is the most important tool in establishing a meaningful connection with another person. I take it for granted, but when I find someone who knows just a little bit of English, it is like eating dessert for breakfast. When I get the chance to speak with some fellow Peace Corps Volunteers and I can speed up my speech to normal and say words like “Amazing” and “Splendid” and “Circumvent” and they would all be understood, it is amazing. It truly baffles me how “Prince Erik” fell in love with Aerial, since I think it would be impossible for me to fall in love with someone I could not adequately express myself to.

I have basically mastered the Kiswahili greetings, and many of the locals (especially the older grandmothers and grandpas) are amazed that the white guy knows Kiswahili. Also, though everyone knows and speaks Kiswahili, there are two main tribes in my area: Taita and Duruma. I am also getting those specific greetings down for each of the languages. If I manage to greet a Duruma grandmother in her tribal tongue, she becomes so excited it seems like she wets her pants.

Though English is wide-spoken throughout the world, there is something I can sincerely relate with to the Duruma grandmothers. It is rare to see another white person around, and usually they all come from the UK, but occasionally I find an American. That familiar American accent, whether it be the harsh New Yorker, the southern drawl, or my very own west coast accent, makes me happier than anyone could possibly imagine.

So far my language barriers have been (are probably going to be) the hardest challenge for me. Already there are people here that are willing to learn about business organization matters, yet I would need a translator to properly get my point across. Sometimes I feel like I am making leaps and bounds improvement in the language when I can joke with children or say a semi-witty response in return to the common “Mzungu! How are you??” that I hear on a daily basis, and sometimes I feel like I am a completely dysfunctional person. But I have two years to work the kinks out, and then when I get back to America, I have the rest of my life to continue using kiswahili on a daily basis...

Some fun facts:
1. Ku-jenga means “To Build”, and “Jenga” is probably the origin of the name for the board game.
2. In Swahili, there are “Noun Classes.” All people and animals belong to a certain (and respected) noun class called the M-WA class. But words like “Youth” and “Disabled”, though referring to people are not in the M-WA class to demonstrate inferior status.
3. If you repeat a verb, it means that specific action continues. Example: Ku-kata means “To cut”. Ku-kata-kata means “To cut repeatedly”.