Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Swahili

Watching some Animal Planet last night, I was suddenly reminded of a bunch of Swahili words which I picked up from our safari trip in Tanzania last year. It has been more than a year now, and I hardly ever use those phrases since we got back from the trip. I mean, seriously, when will I ever need to be speaking Swahili in this country?

Strange as it may sound though, some of those Swahili phrases really stuck to me.I reckon, the language is so cool- sounding that unlike Thai, is a much easier language to pick up. I still have some of the phrases on hand, and get this: I can remember them without much effort! Here are some of those cool sounding phrases:

  • Habariah Asubuhi: Good Morning
  • Kwaheri:  Goodbye
  • Lala salama: Sleep well
  • Jumbo:  Hello
  • Habaria koh:  How are you (and to that you reply: Salama nzuri - Good)
  • Moto:  Fire
  • Maji:  Water
  • Safi: Clean
  • Safi maji:  clean water
  • [Safi also means fine or cool]
  • Karibu:  Welcome
  • Mzungu:  European (as in white guy, or farang or ang moh)
  • Mambo**:  what's up (and to that you reply: Poa - Cool)
  • [I remember that these exchanges of Mambo--> Poa is only being used by the younger generations, and the older generations were quite embarrassed to use it since it will not be "cool" for them]
  • Chakula:  Food
  • Mbaya: Bad
  • Badaeyit:  later
  • Kima: Monkey
  • Mbega: Colubus Monkey
  • Asante: Thank you
  • Sana: very much
  • Asante sana: Thank you very much
  • Chungu: Pot
  • Pole - pole: Slowly, slowly
  • Hakuna wasiwasi:  No problem 
  • Twende: Let's go
Last but not least, one of my favourite words and one that everyone knows: Hakuna matata (No worries)

If only Thai is this cool-sounding and as easy...

2 comments:

Silver Bullet said...

Sure, your husband can ask you many times to do something with that piece of paper, but animal planet gets you moving... :p.

The Sleeping Dragon said...

in Animal Planet we trust! :p