The Language Challenge

Tomorrow morning, Mama Kambenga will come to my house at 9am to assist me with the ongoing challenge of learning Swahili. Mama Kambenga is an excellent language helper. Tomorrow, she will be testing me on 12 different words we can use in Swahili to say "which". One short word in English. Twelve words in Swahili- and there are even more ways to say "which" if I delve even deeper into the intricacies of Swahili! However, my tired brain can't bear the thought of even more work, so I will be content to try and master 12 of the "which" words!
Trying to better my Swahili whilst spending most of my time at home in an English-speaking environment is a constant challenge. I frequently make very silly mistakes. One of my most memorable mistakes was when I muddled up "dhambi" (sin, or fault) and "damu" (blood). Instead of asking Jane to clean up the blood in the fridge which had leaked from a bag of beef, I asked her to clean up the sin in my fridge!! No wonder poor Jane looked at me strangely and seemed very confused!

Since I often end up feeling very daft, often embarrass myself and often amuse my Tanzanian friends with my Swahili errors, I find that I get really cheered up when I see silly errors made by other people in English. I know it should make me sympathetic, but it is oh-so-reassuring when I come across language errors in English, made by non-English people!! It helps me enormously to be reminded that we can all make mistakes- and (unintentionally) cheer other people up in the process! Recently, I have come across a couple of labels on local products that have brought a big smile to my face:

• for cashew nuts...

• for "exotic" scented soap:

Well, I must dash now. Just enough time to go and swot up on those "which" words before I head to bed...