This week on Zim Zips, Kameron is sharing about the languages spoken in Zimbabwe.
While many people here speak English, the two of us are learning to speak Shona (the most widely spoken tribal language in Zimbabwe). Learning Shona is both difficult and easy to learn. It is easy to learn because each vowel has one sound and it pronounced the same throughout the whole language, while in English, the "a" has many different sounds in simple words like "cat," "what," and "ate." It is difficult because there are many many noun classes & in English we have one. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, think of Spanish, which has 2 noun classes: male & female.) Each noun class has a different way to put words together. Right now it is all confusing and WAY over our heads, but maybe in a year we will be speaking fluently!
A few of my study materials.
While most of the time we are learning Shona by speaking with friendly people on the street, and twice a week we meet with language helpers to go more in depth, we also watch a DVDs series about Shona grammar and sentence structure and verb tenses.
We also draw fun pictures to help us learn our Vocab.
We usually study with a little help from some delicious treats!
Please be praying for us as we learn the Shona language. While we could get by with speaking only English, we know that relationships will reach deeper levels if we can speak with our friends and patients in their native language. It is an important and fruitful way to point people to Christ.
Have you ever learned another language? What tips do you have for us?
-----
This is the first post in a series called Zim Zips. Each week, Kameron will host a new video highlighting a unique aspect of Zimbabwe or Shona culture. To see more Zim Zips, click here. To subscribe to our YouTube page & stay up-to-date on all of our videos, click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment