Fun-Lugha - longa nami Kiswahili

Heri ya mwaka mpya wote, happy new year everyone!! My 4th year running and am still going strong-despite the reduced number of posts and the going offline for almost half a year-poleni sana kwa hilo. I’ll be back posting again at some point but in the meantime there’s plenty to be learnt with what’s already available so dig in. Have a great year and many more ahead and lets continue ‘kulonga nami…

Breaking Fast Swahili Style

Many cultures have different foods they prefer for their meals, eg. I got the shock of my life when I first started watching Asian dramas, movies etc and would see people having rice for breakfast… like really?!! It was such a foreign concept to me but of course now am very used to it. Same thing for us in Tanzania and most of East Africa I think, when it comes to breakfast a huge percentage of…

Dar Ice Cream Masters!

So am starting this new segment rightly titled maakuli na mapochopocho which simply refers to mouth watering, finger licking food & desserts and where to get them. I love my food, I think I spend more money going to nice restaurants and places selling food than buying girly things like bags and shoes-ideal woman hey?!! ;) :) I know there’s plenty of foodies out there so this is especially for us!…

LESSON #104: Je, wajua? (#14)

First of all, we are back and this time for good-yay! Onto the lesson, as you may or may not know Swahili is mainly made up of Arabic vocabulary and also in small part vocabulary borrowed from other languages mainly English (the name of the language itself is Arabic, Sahil, meaning coast). But generally Swahili tends to borrow from numerous languages and that I have managed to prove over the…

So the website’s been down this past couple of days and I was getting really antsy trying to get my host to sort me out. Well they did and just in time for our 4th anniversary too-yay! Can’t believe it’s been 4 years already like where did the time go?!! I remember sitting on my bed in my sister’s house in Glasgow and having to tell her to shush it cuz I was about to record another audio…

LESSON #103: Ipi ni ipi…#14

Neno: mto (mito) pronounced: mmmhtoh (meetoh) Maana: 1)  2)    3)   

Happy New Year 2017!

This is very very late but technically it’s still January so happy new year all!-Heri ya mwaka mpya! I have been too busy for words since December (my Christmas vacation-to Zanzibar no less- is still on hold!) But yes I do hope everyone’s had a fabulous start to the year like I have had and I wish you all only the very best for 2017. I should resume posting stuff soon but in the meantime you can…

Lesson #102 : Common Diseases in Swahili (Magonjwa)

Not a fancy, cheerful topic but somebody’s gotta do it so here goes: Magonjwa: Malaria- Malaria Cancer- Saratani (breast: saratani ya matiti, prostate: saratani ya tezi dume, cervical: saratani ya mlango wa kizazi) Fever- Homa Yellow Fever- Homa ya manjano Typhoid- Homa ya matumbo Insanity- Kichaa/Wazimu Epilepsy- Kifafa Diabetes- Kisukari (sukari-sugar) TB- Kifua kikuu Cough- Kikohozi Cholera-…

Lesson Update: Lesson #44

I added a bit more information on the Vowels lesson so you are best advised to check it out once again. Thanks to an expert in the language, Mr Daniel Brown for his input and I am hoping more people, students and experts alike provide me with their 2 cents in future.

Lesson Update: Lesson #75

Just an update on lesson #75 about understanding directions in Swahili. A certain Vola commented and asked for an accompanying podcast-I haven’t done one of those in a while! So yeahs it took a bit of time but I eventually got to it. You can listen to it here. Similarly, if you need an audio accompaniment for any other lesson simply ask and thou shalt receive. Amen to that!

Diamond’s ‘Salome’

Haven’t posted one of these in a while but the song am doing today is the current hit in TZ and indeed East Africa, called ‘Salome’, from our resident hit maker Diamond.  Am a huge fan-there I said it, the guy certainly knows how to produce those hits I’ll give him that! Now this tune-Oh dear what to say?!! If you remember this post about the ‘unsayables’ in Swahili and how we use better terms to…

Leo tujifunze lugha teule ya Kiswahili!

I came across the below list on social media titled as seen above. Basically it was challenging Swahili speakers like myself to see just how much proper Swahili we knew and used in our everyday vocabulary. I confess I only know a couple of words out of the whole list, mostly because most of the time it’s easier to just use the English equivalent especially for new-ish technology. There’s 39 names…

Haggling culture in Tanzania

First things first, I am a terrible ‘haggler’ (is that even a word?!!) I honestly don’t know how I’ve managed to keep my business afloat being so terrible at this practice, but yeahs I guess am just so darn good at what I do that it doesn’t affect me ;) Now unlike in many western countries whereby everything is labelled hence you pay what you see on the product-no more no less, here in Afrika,…

LESSON #101: Je, wajua…#12 (The Lion King)

(credit to animationsource.org & jenmasafaris.com) Note: I haven’t watched the movie as much as many people have but I do remember a lot of memorable Swahili phrases and names which are on here. Of course I stand thoroughly corrected on some of the names, I pretty much borrowed the list from the cited sources above but I trust they are right on point. Any other movies with Swahili references that…

LESSON #100: Swahili names translated (majina kwa Kiingereza)

So back in lesson#73 we did English names translated so I figured, let’s do the opposite this time.  Unfortunately all my names are English ones (actually I understand Elise is French so lets just say both my names are foreign) but I can’t wait to name my future baby with at least one Swahili name-you’d better co-operate future hubby ;) Here we go, if I left out anything just let me know via the…