Waganda na Kingoso ....
"Ugandans know English"
"Tanzanians know Swa."
"Kenyans?"
It does not take much to appreciate the Kiswahili spitting abilities of Tanzanians. They need only open the mouth for 3 minutes and you are scuttling away to look for a kamusi...
As for the Ugandans, I always thought their fame for knowing English was always generous. I mean, we Kenyans can hold our own, right? Until I met a certain Mugabi, a Ugandan holding the title of "Membership Consultant" at my gym ...
The dude was firing SAT words @ me like crazy. Was this a proud Ugandan trying to assert his linguistic superiority over an unsuspecting Kenyan? I am watching him really closely. Should my suspicions be confirmed, I have a perfect riposte ... I'll just wave the 100 kenyan bob i still retain in my wallet for sentimental value and ask him "My brother, do you know this money could make you rich in Uganda?"
And on that note, are we Kenyans famed for anything, linguistically speaking? Ama we are the in-between of Ug. and Tz. ??
posted by jm at 6:20 PM
10 Comments:
let me start by saying that us kenyans are unique in more than one way. we are not the in-between of Ug. and Tz. kenya has two national languages, english and kiswahili. to add to that we have our mother toungues and so we are all atleast bilingual if not more. tanzanians cannot converse in their ethinic languages.
still majority of kenyans can read and write in good english. so when we check the average i think i will patriotically say that kenyans are in a class of their own. top class!
ditto bomseh!
besides, I have found that it is sometimes difficult to tell a Kenyan and a Ugandan apart esp if neither one of them has a vernacular accent.
i think we need to revisit the swa and TZ thing - it may sound good to you but alot of what TZ speak is in fact alot of their slang and not necessarily kiswahilli kisanifu - the fact that a TZ'ian is speaking it doesnt necessarily mean its correct.
I'm not too sure, but Kenyans are known for our english and lack of a very distinct accent...well, most times. The way you can tell it's a west african most times just by speech, most people cannot tell its a kenyan only from them speaking and as bomseh says, official language english, national language swahili and 42/3...(not quite sure which) national languages!!! that has got to be something special right?!!!!
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most of kenyans speak in their mother tounges and its mostly urbanites who speak either engo or sheng
language debate continues,all the same, the purpose of language, any language (including sheng') is communication. so long as the other person understands what ur saying, it is alright. for instance, my mom was raised in shags and speaks kyuk and very limited swa. at home she vybes in kyuk (coz she is comfortable that way)while we respond in swa or english and it seems normal to us coz tumezoea but people find it odd. but at the end of the day we communicate perfectly.
My personal experience in Kenya was xtremely dynamic. In high school, I spoke swa. with my buddies ALL the time, with the teachers -ENGLISH all the time. Whenever I went back 2 shags for the holidays, it was always Kikuyu amongst our family members, but then some of our friends would visit and we'd automatically switch to English.
I tend to concur with Bomseh, the purpose of language is communication, and whatever you are comfortable with is influenced by a lot of factors ... and as long as there is a rappport, I think one should be comfortable speaking nething, regardless of the setting ...
yes indeed it is. the noun is mung'ethio (it really sounds horrible) and kung'ethia is the verb ... and is more palatable ... lol
@ waridi - Hebu checki that man, ameng'ethia.
hebu doesn't have an equivalent in english that's y it is used often. other words in this category include (but not limited to), "ati", "kumbe", "yaani".
kung'ethia simplifies the activity of the man. it has also been shenglized to 'kung'esia'.
kenyan gal has more vybes on this.
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