Posts Tagged ‘pronunciation’
Language Lessons II
Our gardener sought me out today–and before I go any further, yes, I feel strange and a little queasy saying “our gardener”–because he wanted to be paid just a few days early. I said, Nta kibazo, which is “No problem” in Kinyarwanda and one of my three best phrases. But then I wanted to wish [...]
That is, literally, not what I meant
I was having a meal with a Rwandan friend earlier today, and in the process learned that “Dufugurua” means both “We am eating a meal” (as in, meeting to eat and enjoy each other’s company, I believe is the implication, not just “We’re putting food in our mouths”) and “We are open” (as in a [...]
Language Lessons I
I have been taking Kinyarwanda lessons for almost three weeks now. Thank God I studied Swahili for a year; I can remember almost none of it, but all the hard work I invested in laying a neural network to make sense of noun classes and negatives is serving me well in Rwanda, where the language [...]
I am a freelance journalist and multimedia producer who covers human rights, Africa and foreign affairs. [