A one week
intensive Swahili Course will kick start your project and help you to
enhance your Africa experience! (It will also
increase your enjoyment of The Lion King - Makuna matata! [No
worries!]
JAMBO!You'll
hear that all day long in Kenya, so Hello!
and Karibu (welcome) to Kenya, the 'Cradle of Humanity'.
Before commencing your project in
Kenya,
you will find
it very useful to learn a little of the local language.
We have set up a One-Week Intensive Swahili Course, which will run for the week
prior to commencing your Project.
After the
course, when you try your new-found language skills, you'll find that your
Kenyan colleagues will be very keen to give you a helping hand. Every
new word is seen as a small triumph! Learning a
little Swahili will enrich your time here immeasurably, as you find out things
about the culture and the way of life that someone without language skills
simply would not have access to.
The cost of the 1-Week Swahili Course is £245 and includes your food (excl.
lunch) and accommodation. (If you're not doing another
project with us, you can still do this course - Price: £475)
Swahili (also called Kiswahili) is a Bantu
language the most widely spoken language of sub-Saharan Africa. Swahili is
the mother tongue of the Swahili people (or Waswahili) who inhabit several
large stretches of the Indian Ocean coastlines from southern Somalia as far
south as Mozambique's border region with Tanzania.
It is spoken by tens of millions in two
countries, Kenya and Tanzania, where it is an official language. The
neighboring nation of Uganda made Swahili a required subject in primary
schools in 1992 and declared it an official language in 2005. Swahili or
closely related other languages are also used by
relatively small numbers of speakers in Burundi, Rwanda, Mozambique, and the
Democratic Republic of the Congo.
THE LION KING!
One of the most famous phrases in Swahili is "hakuna matata" from Disney's
"The Lion King" and "Timon and Pumbaa" cartoon series. It means "no problem"
or "no worries" (literally: "there are no problems"). This phrase is often
used by East Africans as an appeal to Western tourists. Disney's characters
Simba and Rafiki also owe their names to Swahili, meaning 'lion' and
'friend' respectively. Nala means "gift."
Also Pumbaa means "careless" and Shenzi (one
of the hyenas) means "barbarous". The African American holiday of Kwanzaa
derives its name from two Swahili words kwanza which means "first" or
"beginning." and zaa which means "bear fruit". Safari (meaning "journey") is
another Swahili word that has spread worldwide.
In Disney's 1994 movie, a meerkat and a
warthog named Timon and Pumbaa, respectively, teach a lion cub named Simba
that he should forget his troubled past and concentrate only on the present.
In reference to the two characters, the phrase had the added implication of
a complete lack of ambition. Timon and Pumbaa used the song "Hakuna Matata,"
with music by Elton John and lyrics by Tim Rice, to teach Simba. It was
nominated for Best Song at the 1995 Academy Awards, and was later ranked the
99th (out of 100) best song in movie history by the American Film Institute.
The production team that they picked up the term "Hakuna Matata" from a tour
guide while on safari in Tanzania.
The "Hakuna Matata" song can be heard briefly
in the 1995 Pixar film Toy Story, in which it was played on Andy's car while
Molly sees Woody and Buzz Lightyear through one of the sideview mirrors.
The name 'Kiswahili' comes from the plural of
the Arabic word sahel ساحل: sawahil سواحل meaning "boundary" or "coast"
(used as an adjective to mean "coastal dwellers" or, by adding 'ki-'
["language"] to mean "coastal language").
Swahili time
runs from dawn to dusk, rather than midnight to midday. 7am and 7pm are
therefore both one o'clock while midnight and midday are six o'clock. Words
such as asubuhi 'morning', jioni 'evening' and usiku
'night' can be used to demarcate periods of the day, for example:
saa moja asubuhi
('hour one morning') 7:00 a.m.
saa tisa usiku ('hour
nine night') 3:00 a.m.
saa mbili usiku ('hour
two evening') 8:00 p.m.
More specific time demarcations include
adhuhuri 'early afternoon', alasiri 'late afternoon', usiku wa
manane 'late night/past midnight', 'sunrise' macheo and sunset
machweo.
Volunteers standing on the Equator!
To apply to do this course while on
your placement, please click here
ABOUT THE COURSE
These courses are meant for
volunteers who are already doing a Travellers placement, but can be done
by anyone, whether or not you’re on one of our placement.
The course will take place immediately prior to your placement, and is a
one week intensive course. The course will be held at the Airways Travel
institute which was established in 1995. The Institute is recognised by
the Ministry of Science and Technology. It’s also an IATA and a City and
Guilds Centre.
The course will be given by a local teacher - and all the teachers have
either degrees or diplomas. The course itself will be about 5 or 6 hours
a day.
All lessons will be set at your level of expertise and will also take
into account what type of voluntary placement you will be doing. So you
may either be on your own or, if other volunteers are doing the same
placement as you and wanting to learn Swahili tailored to their
placement, we will put you altogether.
If you prefer to get individual attention, or you're the only volunteer
on a particular course, we can arrange private one-to-one lessons
at your accommodation.
The lessons will include:
Basic Swahili
Salutations
Sentence construction
Question asking and answering
Commonly used vocabulary
Written and spoken Swahili
Basic tenses, adverbs, adjectives and phrases
Swahili culture and norms
They'll use visual aids like videos, PowerPoint
presentations and also some locals will visit so you can practice the
language and have chats with them.
COURSE LENGTH: The one week intensive course runs throughout the year except public
holidays.
LEVELS OF STUDY: Classes are available at various levels from beginners to advanced, so
no matter what your level of Swahili is, there will be a class to suit
you. We can offer beginner, elementary, intermediate or advanced
classes.
COURSE MATERIALS: You may be required to purchase some text books for the course. These
will be available for you to buy once you are out there.
COURSE CREDITS AND QUALIFICATIONS: At the end of the course, you may have to sit an exam and on completion
of the course and exam, if you pass, you will receive a Certificate
issued by the Institute stating that you have completed the course, to
what level, and the duration in hours of the course you have completed.
ACCOMMODATION: Your accommodation will vary, depending on which part of town you're
placed in, and which project you've signed on for.
My family were fantastic and went
beyond their duties to make me welcome.
Njeri [Travellers' Mombasa
Organiser] was always helpful
should I need anything." Caroline Chadwick, on her placement in
Mombasa
PRICES
To see the Prices of this project and all
our other projects in Kenya, please
click here
Prices
include
Food & accommodation while on your project,
2 T-shirts, if required
for your project
All support and backup
during your programme
Meeting you at the
nearest airport, where appropriate, but exclude international travel.
.
+44 01903 502595
