I met with our new friends, refugees from the Congo, last weekend. That would have been the 15th of October. There are some pretty important things that I’ve learned from this experience. I brought my wife and two of my children, my youngest and my oldest. They are 14 and 6. My son, who is 14, connected with her son and they shared some conversations through Google Translator, which is fine, but doesn’t really cut actually knowing the language. From this experience, my son decided to start learning Swahili using the Duo Lingo app. This is so wonderful, my son is stepping out of his comfort zone and is learning a new language. I have Rosetta Stone, paid for the lifetime subscription and yet there is no Swahili language in it, so that’s a bummer. However, I did start using the Duo Lingo app as well, and I’ve been learning some basic phrases, such as “Wewe ni Mmarekani”, which is “You are American”, and some other simple words such as “lake” means “her” and “no” means “si”. It’s a really interesting language and seems to be pretty easy so far.. so far.
With all the learning of the language, there are still some barriers. I use the WhatsApp app to communicate as well as ChatGPT and Google Translator, and yet I still misunderstand some of the things that are said. Today, a message was sent to me that I didn’t fully understand as I translated it into English, “Ndio nisahii utajuwatu sisiniwazima”, which translated to “Yes, I will let you know that I am not turning you off”. In the context of our conversation, I’m not sure what this means.
Something that I find a bit scary though, is when translating if I am translating correctly and it doesn’t come off as offensive. It’s scary to think that I may say something stupid without knowing it. I hope that never happens.
I’m hoping that the next time we meet, we can sit down and I can learn from her while she can learn from me, I think that’s going to really break that boundary and help us to connect more as well. I hate when I can’t respond to a message because I don’t know what to say, so the goal is to learn quickly so that I can understand before I offend.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, my journey is going to be long and I haven’t documented on here in a while and I’m hoping that I can keep up with the documenting more often as I experience more throughout my career.