More Setswana

MORE SETSWANA

            At the risk of boring readers, I need to speak again about Setswana.  I write this on a Saturday, after three and a half hours of Setswana class.  We have Setswana class most days as part of our training.  It is conducted in small groups with a Batswana teacher.  We have no real text book and much of the work is oral.

            We are tested in Setswana three times.  We must achieve a certain level of proficiency in order to be sworn in as volunteers.  We achieved that minimum level in our first exam a couple of weeks ago.  But we are expected to be able to converse in Setswana, and so we need to improve our skills.  We are now getting into the grammar. Setswana has multiple noun classes (don’t ask).  It also has many two or three letter helping words that perform different and seemingly redundant functions, depending upon the context.  Adjectives in Setswana sometimes change, depending upon the underlying noun.  And then there are the verbs, which thankfully have fewer tenses and moods than in English.

            Actually the grammar is not the hard part.  The hard part is remembering the vocabulary.  Experts are right: it is more difficult to learn a new language as we get older.  The short term memory is not so good, and it is hard to stuff so much data into our calcifying brains. 

This morning we practiced for our second exam, which comes up next Wednesday.  It, like the other exams, consists of a one on one interview with an instructor. We are either asked orally in Setswana to answer a series of questions (novice) or to explain something (intermediate) or to conduct a conversation on various topics (advanced).  The instructor then grades the interview.  There is nothing written.  The whole object is to gauge our oral facility with Setswana.

Because it is the only topic in our training that is formally graded, many of our fellow trainees get stressed about the class work and the exams.  Some come with an advantage: a semester of study in South Africa (where some of the languages are the same as, or similar to, Setswana); a bilingual speaker of another language plus English; or just plain young and smart recent college graduates.  In some homes, the families can speak to the trainee only in Setswana.  We have the “disadvantage” of being able to communicate with each other in English while at home, which creates less of a necessity to learn.  We try to make up for it by studying and memorizing.

The exam on Wednesday "counts".  We have another chance with our final Setswana exam which takes place on November 9^th.  Now back to studying…  “Le” can be “with” or “and” or an adjective marker in the sixth noun class.  “Kopa” can be “to request” or a “bucket”.  “Buka” means “book” (okay, that’s easy).  “Ga ke na matata” means “I have no problems” (Hakuna matata in Swahili for you “Lion King” fans). 

            UPDATE...  There has been a delay in my ability to upload this to the blog.  In the interim, we had our second exam last Wednesday.  Both of us passed at levels well higher than what is required for swearing in!  While a couple of the older folks in our group struggle to keep up with the young ones, we’re proving that we old folks can still learn a language.  Stephanie says that it is good for keeping the brain cells flexible as well: making all sorts of new neural connections.