Please don't be alarmed if I say "I go" "you come" when I come back to Vancouver. It has been quite an experience trying to communicate in broken English. We are learning few words here and there but it would have definitely been helpful to have learned Kinyarawanda and/or French. I have only lived in two countries (Nepal and Canada) and knew the languages fluently so I did not have any language barriers previously. Being in Rwanda has made me realize how important it is to learn the primary language of the country you are living in in order to fully understand the history, culture and really connect with the people.
Learning some phrases and words has definitely been very useful especially when you're bargaining for moto prices because as soon as you say "nimeshi", they smile and sometimes decrease the price. More importantly, knowing some phrases and words has not only helped break the ice but also to let the people here know that I appreciate their culture and language. I feel that when you make that effort to speak or learn their language, the Rwandans appreciate the effort and usually smile or laugh (when we pronounce it wrong) to acknowledge it.
Learning more Kinyarawanda would have helped for field work as well since it would have been easier to communicate with the mothers and inquire more about what they said in the surveys. (Sometimes, not knowing the language works to our advantage when people ask for money or "amafaranga" because we just shrug our shoulders and say "sorry, we no undestand"). Usually we communicate with the local university students in English and then they talk to the mothers if we have any questions or comments. However,this experience has been very enriching so far since we are able to communicate with the local university students.
 |
| I was trying to find cilantro at the market but didn't see any. I had to call my friend who spoke Kinyarawanda to talk with the market vendors. This is only half of the picture because while this was happening, I was also getting a whole crowd of people at the market around me. |
It's very funny and interesting because the way we speak in English has changed quite a bit in order to make sure the people we speak English with understand. If we speak in the tone we speak in Vancouver, people no understand us ;) Here is how we've altered the way we speak so people understand us.
1) Use simple words.
2) Drop all the prepositions ( is, are, etc). So if you want to say, "we will meet you at 5", you would say, "we meet you at 5" or "I go" (I am going). Speaking this way makes the language way more simple and I feel like people understand you so much better for some reason.
3) Change the accent and tone.
4) Speak S-L-O-W-L-Y!
5) We've not only been exposed to speaking with Rwandese but we have some Brazilian friends and we are picking up quite a bit of "proper English" as well -very problem (yes that is one we've picked up). [some others: mucho problem? you want? You take? Sure? You understand?]
It's pretty funny because even when I speak with my colleagues, I'm still talking like that. Please be patient with me when I come back. This language barrier has been a very interesting, fun and at times, a frustrating experience. I have not only been speaking in English, but I've been speaking some French, Kinyarawanda and Spanish (yay! 3 years of learning Spanish in high school has finally come into use.)
